latimes--2020-05-06--Beachgoers rejoice as Orange County's coastline reopens under deal with Newsom

Beachgoers in Orange County rejoiced after state and local officials agreed this week on plans to reopen some areas of the coast days after Gov .
Gavin Newsom shuttered all beaches in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus .
Dana Point , Huntington Beach , and Seal Beach submitted plans to Sacramento allowing the public to access the coastline for active recreation only .
The plans , approved early this week , include a range of measures to avoid overcrowding and allow safe physical distancing , according to the California Natural Resources Agency .
On Wednesday , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Orange County to get approval from the state to reopen beaches .
The city ’ s coastline has reopened for activities including walking , running , bicycle riding , swimming , surfing and other ocean activities .
“ The City is very pleased to reopen our beaches for the physical and mental well-being of our residents , ” Mayor Will O ’ Neill said in a prepared statement .
“ While the active recreation model was not the preferred choice by the City Council after discussions with our public safety personnel , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manage the beaches effectively under the approved plan.
” In Huntington Beach , Eric Sundquist , 45 , had come from Redondo Beach to surf Tuesday .
He ’ d been surfing there before the restrictions were loosened but said he hadn ’ t faced any opposition , although he was aware of surfers being ushered out of the “ I just kind of travel the coastline to surf , but I love Huntington , ” Sundquist said .
“ It ’ s miles of great surf .
It ’ s Surf City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the situation .
Luckily , they ’ ve been the only people that have treated it with some common sense , to be quite honest with you.
” Under Huntington Beach ’ s plan , people are now permitted to use the beach from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. with the stipulation that they remain active .
Sunbathing is not allowed .
Parking meters along Pacific Coast Highway and the beach ’ s bike path are available for use , but the pier and the city ’ s beach parking lot will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delighted to be reopening our beaches for active recreation , which will allow our community to once again enjoy the recreational and mental health benefits from spending time in the Pacific Ocean , ” Huntington Beach Mayor Lyn Semeta said in a statement .
“ The new active recreation rules that we ’ re instituting will allow for continued beach access in a manner that emphasizes the need to practice safe social distancing.
” Seal Beach ’ s coastline will be open — beginning Monday — for limited hours Monday through Thursday with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the sand .
Officials in Dana Point say their beaches are open for walking , running and recreational uses such as swimming and surfing .
No gatherings will be permitted , but the public can still access the city ’ s tide pools .
Visitors are permitted to use Laguna Beach ’ s sandy stretches for active purposes from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays .
Under San Clemente ’ s plan , the city is now allowing active use of the beach but is keeping restrooms and parking lots closed .
Huntington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could be further opened in the coming days and weeks , depending on Newsom ’ s reopening orders .
The governor has said that Phase 2 of reopening California could begin Friday , with some retail , manufacturing and logistics businesses .
“ As he makes those changes , ” McCoy said , “ we ’ ll be following up as well.
” George Roudanez , 78 , of Corona del Mar was out for a walk with his wife , Linda , in Huntington Beach on Tuesday .
The couple has enjoyed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stay-at-home order of late , playing tennis at Racquet Club of Irvine this week .
He believes people should have options to go outside and be active , as long as they remain vigilant about social distancing .
“ I think the big problem when you close too many things , there ’ s the law of unintended consequences , ” Roudanez said .
“ When you close too many things , you ’ re making people congregate in those areas where they can congregate , and that ’ s not a good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have open , the better it is , as long as people remain vigilant and they observe their [ spacing ] and they stay apart .
”

Weekend beach crowds, such as those in Huntington Beach, spurred alarm among some officials. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A man in a protective mask walks his dog past a closed park near the pier in Newport Beach on Tuesday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A surfer catches a wave while joining some of the thousands of beachgoers over the weekend in Newport Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
An aerial view shows visitors enjoying the sun and sand near the pier in Newport Beach on Tuesday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
An aerial view of Huntington Beach after Gov. Newsom announced the “hard close” of all Orange County state and local beaches. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Emergency room nurse Rebecca McFarlane, of Covina, relaxes on her one day off from treating COVID-19 patients, on an open stretch of sand far away from other beach-goers on the last day of open beaches in Huntington Beach. “As a nurse, I have to wear all the PPE and on my one day off, I just want to relax on the beach,” McFarlane said. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Surfers ride the waves on the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier Friday, May 1, 2020. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Orange County beaches closed on Thursday despite opposition from local leaders. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Steve Christopher, right, reads a book in the shade of the pier as a beach-goer does flips across the beach on the last day of open beaches in Huntington Beach. “I think it’s what needs to be done,” Christopher said. “I saw it last week and it was packed.” (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Huntington Beach lifeguards patrol with a boat to try to get surfers to stop defying Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “hard close” order. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Saturday’s beach closure did not keep surfers out of the water in Newport Beach. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Surfers and others ventured to the beach in Newport Beach on Saturday despite the governor’s closure order. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
A motorcycle officer watches the bike path near the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday. California Gov. Gavin Newson ordered a hard closure of Orange County beaches this weekend. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
A couple walks along the sand while others venture into the surf in Newport Beach even though Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Orange County beaches closed. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Under the watchful eyes of police officers, protesters against beach closures walk along Newport Beach even though a beach closure went into effect Saturday. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
People walk on the sand in Newport Beach despite the beach closure that went into effect Saturday. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Protesters against beach closures walk in Newport Beach even though a beach closure went into effect Saturday. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Huntington Beach resident Kyle Richardson, 35, holds a sign telling California Gov. Gavin Newson to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen beaches, parks and the California economy, during a protest near the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
Newport Beach lifeguards and police clear the beach during a closure that went into effect Saturday. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
A surfer climbs over a barrier meant to keep visitors off the beach in Newport Beach on Saturday morning. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Bill Beukers and his wife, Teresa, claim their constitutional rights as they speak to Newport Beach police officers. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
An aerial view of the Newport Beach pier, where a few surfers and beach-goers enjoy a nice day at the beach despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hard closure, which is still in place in Newport Beach. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Bicyclists and pass the closed Boardwalk Sports store on the boardwalk in Newport Beach, on Monday. The business is only renting bicycles but is hoping to fully open after Gov. Newsom’s announcement that some businesses will be able to reopen. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
An aerial view of a few surfers and beach-goers enjoying a nice day at the beach despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hard closure, which is still in place in Newport Beach on Monday. (Allen J. Schaben/Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
An aerial view of a few surfers and beach-goers enjoying a nice day at the beach despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hard closure, which is still in place in Newport Beach. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
An aerial view of beach-goers playing volleyball on a nice day at the beach despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hard closure, which is still in place in Newport Beach. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
People stroll along Laguna’s Main Beach after it reopened its beaches for active use only. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Cathie Lawler with her dogs, Milo and Charlie, said “Absolutely fabulous. So good to see the beach” as she walked along Laguna Beach after it reopened for active use only. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Mathew Hanna jumps on a skim board at Laguna’s Main Beach on Tuesday morning as city reopened its beaches for active use only. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
People stroll along Laguna’s Main Beach after it reopened its beaches for active use only. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Beachgoers in Orange County rejoiced after state and local officials agreed this week on plans to reopen some areas of the coast days after Gov. Gavin Newsom shuttered all beaches in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Dana Point, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, San Clemente and Seal Beach submitted plans to Sacramento allowing the public to access the coastline for active recreation only. The plans, approved early this week, include a range of measures to avoid overcrowding and allow safe physical distancing, according to the California Natural Resources Agency.
On Wednesday, Newport Beach became the last coastal city in Orange County to get approval from the state to reopen beaches. The city’s coastline has reopened for activities including walking, running, bicycle riding, swimming, surfing and other ocean activities.
“The City is very pleased to reopen our beaches for the physical and mental well-being of our residents,” Mayor Will O’Neill said in a prepared statement. “While the active recreation model was not the preferred choice by the City Council after discussions with our public safety personnel, we are confident that city staff will manage the beaches effectively under the approved plan.”
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In Huntington Beach, Eric Sundquist, 45, had come from Redondo Beach to surf Tuesday. He’d been surfing there before the restrictions were loosened but said he hadn’t faced any opposition, although he was aware of surfers being ushered out of the water over the weekend.
“I just kind of travel the coastline to surf, but I love Huntington,” Sundquist said. “It’s miles of great surf. It’s Surf City USA, so I come here regardless of the situation. Luckily, they’ve been the only people that have treated it with some common sense, to be quite honest with you.”
Under Huntington Beach’s plan, people are now permitted to use the beach from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. with the stipulation that they remain active. Sunbathing is not allowed. Parking meters along Pacific Coast Highway and the beach’s bike path are available for use, but the pier and the city’s beach parking lot will remain closed.
“We’re delighted to be reopening our beaches for active recreation, which will allow our community to once again enjoy the recreational and mental health benefits from spending time in the Pacific Ocean,” Huntington Beach Mayor Lyn Semeta said in a statement. “The new active recreation rules that we’re instituting will allow for continued beach access in a manner that emphasizes the need to practice safe social distancing.”
Seal Beach’s coastline will be open — beginning Monday — for limited hours Monday through Thursday with the requirement that visitors remain active while on the sand.
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Officials in Dana Point say their beaches are open for walking, running and recreational uses such as swimming and surfing. No gatherings will be permitted, but the public can still access the city’s tide pools.
Visitors are permitted to use Laguna Beach’s sandy stretches for active purposes from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays.
Under San Clemente’s plan, the city is now allowing active use of the beach but is keeping restrooms and parking lots closed.
Huntington Beach spokesman Eric McCoy said the beaches could be further opened in the coming days and weeks, depending on Newsom’s reopening orders. The governor has said that Phase 2 of reopening California could begin Friday, with some retail, manufacturing and logistics businesses.
“As he makes those changes,” McCoy said, “we’ll be following up as well.”
George Roudanez, 78, of Corona del Mar was out for a walk with his wife, Linda, in Huntington Beach on Tuesday. The couple has enjoyed some of the relaxed restrictions of the stay-at-home order of late, playing tennis at Racquet Club of Irvine this week.
He believes people should have options to go outside and be active, as long as they remain vigilant about social distancing.
“I think the big problem when you close too many things, there’s the law of unintended consequences,” Roudanez said. “When you close too many things, you’re making people congregate in those areas where they can congregate, and that’s not a good idea. The more things that you have open, the better it is, as long as people remain vigilant and they observe their [spacing] and they stay apart.”


latimes--2020-05-06--Drive-throughs and drive-ins were fading. Coronavirus made them a lifeline

To venture out in Southern California during the COVID-19 pandemic is to encounter a landscape dressed in an unfamiliar coat .
Freeways bear unimaginably light traffic .
Playgrounds are wrapped in caution tape .
The simple act of picking up a loaf of bread at the supermarket is now a dystopic obstacle course of Plexiglas shields , social distancing markers and masked shoppers circling one another like repellent magnets .
Public space is not a place in which to gather , but something to be surmounted instead .
However , in Los Angeles , a city where public space can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are bubbles of normalcy .
And some of that normalcy can be found at the drive-through .
On a recent Friday morning , most of the businesses along Olympic Boulevard in East L.A. remained shuttered due to the governor ’ s safer-at-home order .
But the drive-through at McDonald ’ s at Eastern Avenue had a line more than half a dozen cars deep .
The following Saturday , a trip to the In-N-Out on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood revealed a drive-through line that not only went down the block but that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may have reduced drive times , but not the wait for a Double-Double ( which seems to have doubled ) .
And on an especially sleepy Sunday , there was a steady stream of customers at the Donut Hole in La Puente , the historic , shop where you drive through a pair of architectural doughnuts to pick up crullers and hot coffee .
Before the coronavirus crisis , the drive-through had been fast losing status , often deployed as a symbol of obesity and the worst of car-dependent urban design .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to outright bans .
The drive-in , meanwhile , is nearly extinct , with just a few still operating in Southern California .
But during the pandemic , drive-throughs have become a weird sort of societal glue .
And the drive-in has been reconsidered .
Cities that have shut down bars , dine-in restaurants and indoor movie theaters have allowed drive-throughs and some drive-ins to continue to operate .
Their architectural standoffish-ness , in which vendor and client interact largely via speaker and remain in their own environments during an entire transaction , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human exchange .
They are the socially distant design we ’ ve been living with all along .
And right now , says Adam Chandler , author of the 2019 book “ Drive-Thru Dreams : A Journey Through the Heart of America ’ s Fast-Food Kingdom , ” they represent “ a sense of normalcy.
” “ Going through the Jack In The Box drive-through and getting the tacos or going to In-N-Out and getting a burger animal-style — that ’ s the most normal thing you can do in America , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to do that at a time in which everything else has changed , it ’ s incredibly meaningful.
” Businesses that once would have never dreamed of serving customers in their cars — be it labs testing for the presence of the virus or fine dining establishments plying high-grade sushi and heirloom beans — are now taking a cue from curbside service long offered by Langer ’ s Deli and improvising drive-in and drive-through models .
Earlier this month , I pulled up to a side street in downtown L.A. 's Fashion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , popped open my trunk and waited for a masked worker from Rossoblu to deposit a lasagna and a bottle of Barbera in my trunk .
In less than two minutes , I was gone .
But many of these latter situations still evoke the surreal , disorienting nature of the pandemic .
It ’ s been the workaday drive-throughs — the ones in which you shout at a menu board and pray that you ’ ll receive something resembling your order at the other end — that have provided a respite from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of banal ordinariness that feel especially meaningful at a time in which ordinariness has been completely upended .
They are also meaningful to small businesses ( not all drive-throughs are operated by chains ) that are surviving thanks to their drive-through .
G.E .
Chano ’ s in Lincoln Heights , which sells tacos , burritos and burgers , has been owned and operated by the Escamilla family since 2007 .
( They are the purveyors of my favorite machaca con huevo burrito in L.A. ) Chano ’ s is an old-timey shack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ afterthought : a menu board with questionable acoustics stands at one end of a bright , mural-clad parking lot ; a delivery window that ’ s been carved out from the kitchen stands at the other .
“ The drive-through is maintaining us at the moment , ” says owner Guadalupe Escamilla .
“ Thank God we are doing OK. ” It also gives a bit of solace to the regulars .
In the current climate , hitting the drive-through at Chano ’ s feels like visiting an old friend .
Drive-throughs feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Southern California design landscape for three quarters of a century ( a whole century , if you count drive-ins , in which a server brings your order to your parked car ) .
Chandler says “ it ’ s under extreme debate ” where exactly the first drive-through restaurant emerged .
Two restaurants from the 1940s generally vie for the title : Red ’ s Giant Hamburg , a roadside diner in Springfield , Mo.
, that catered to motorists on Route 66 , and a Los Angeles-area branch of Kirby ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been doing drive-in dining for more than two decades in Texas , where it originated , before going full drive-through in SoCal .
Whether or not the drive-through was born in Southern California , it was here that it rose to ubiquity — along with car culture and the freeway system .
And it is here that the drive-through has been polished and refined .
“ Two of the biggest innovators were Jack In The Box and In-N-Out , ” says Chandler .
“ Jack In The Box had this speaker board @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In-N-Out had the first two-way speaker , which is the experience we have now.
” Denny Warnick , vice president of operations at In-N-Out ( established in Baldwin Park in 1948 ) , says that the early restaurants offered walk-up service but that much of the business revolved around the drive-through .
“ We did not open our first location with a dining room until 1979.
” Fast food technology has now advanced to the point where many restaurants feature menu boards powered by artificial intelligence and screens that confirm your order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the business , says Chandler : “ About 70 % of sales at most fast food restaurants usually come through the drive-through.
” Over time , the drive-through has been adopted by other businesses too : banks , pharmacies , dry cleaners , dairies and florists .
States like California and Colorado now boast drive-through cannabis dispensaries .
Others have long had drive-through liquor stores .
In Compton , you can find a funeral parlor with drive-through casket viewings .
The drive-in has been just as important .
In “ Reyner Banham @ @ @ @ @ @ @ film that accompanied the architecture critic ’ s 1971 book , “ Los Angeles : The Architecture of the Four Ecologies , ” Banham hung out at Tiny Naylor ’ s , a branch of the popular drive-in on Sunset Boulevard .
With him were artist Ed Ruscha and art director Mike Salisbury of West magazine .
Together , they sat in a giant Ford convertible eating pineapple sundaes and BLT sandwiches and talking about the architectural monuments that represent L.A. “ Any kind of edifice that has to do with the car @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , one of California ’ s more unusual drive-ins materialized in Garden Grove : architect Richard Neutra ’ s “ walk-in-drive-in ” church , designed for televangelist Robert H. Schuller , founder of the Crystal Cathedral .
Neutra ’ s innovative building ( which you can catch glimpses of in this video ) allowed parishioners to listen to Schuller ’ s sermons without leaving their cars .
It was a prescient idea : Since the pandemic began , churches around the country have improvised their own drive-in services .
Whether the Roman Catholic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Schuller ’ s complex , will resuscitate the Neutra building for the purpose of drive-in Masses when Southern California emerges from lockdown remains to be seen .
( The diocese did not return a request for comment on this story . )
But the Rev .
Robert A. Schuller , son of the Crystal Cathedral founder , has revived the drive-in ministry that his father pioneered , preaching every Sunday to worshipers in the parking lot of a Santa Ana office complex .
What is certain is that the drive-in concept is making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ short-term .
IFC Films isn ’ t waiting for movie theaters to reopen to premiere its horror flick “ The Wretched.
” The picture will premiere at select drive-ins ( and on streaming services ) instead .
In Denmark , pop singer Mads Langer , unable to stage a concert at a traditional music venue , held one at a drive-in instead .
Likewise , one of Denmark ’ s soccer teams plans on turning live sporting events into drive-in entertainment by placing large monitors in the stadium ’ s parking lot , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the safety of their cars .
Yuval Sharon , of the experimental opera company the Industry , staged his 2015 opera “ Hopscotch ” in a fleet of moving cars , placing viewer and singer in close proximity .
That would be unthinkable now .
But he says the pandemic does have him thinking a lot about the possibility of parking lots .
“ There are some beautiful parking lots in L.A. , ” he says .
“ And I do think the car , in a way , is an amazing tool @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the city .
And it could be a tool to help us try to navigate our re-engagement with live performing arts.
” If he were to do an opera in a parking lot , it wouldn ’ t be the first : In 2008 , Long Beach Opera staged “ The Diary of Anne Frank ” in parking garages .
While this journey through the past may be appealing , it ’ s important not to overlook the other , darker phenomena associated with this aspect of our car-centric culture .
Fast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remunerated workers who now find themselves attempting to stitch together a living while trying to avoid contagion .
Social distancing regulations reveal that our urban design could be more generous with people , in the form of wider sidewalks for pedestrians and narrower streets for cars .
And , of course , there are the environmental consequences of all the driving .
One of the positive effects of the quarantines have been that cities around the globe now have cleaner air , including Los Angeles .
Over the last several decades , some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and urban planners to subject drive-throughs to increased regulation .
San Luis Obispo outlawed them in the early 1980s .
In 2019 , Minneapolis became the largest city in the United States to ban the construction of new ones .
Last summer , Long Beach passed a six-month moratorium on new drive-through construction ; in the fall , the city followed up with a new set of guidelines on how and where drive-throughs should and could be built .
“ They are not a great use of land , ” says Christopher Koontz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Long Beach Department of Development Services .
“ On a 5,000-square-foot piece of land , you are getting 800 to 900 square feet of building and the rest is taken up by parking and drive aisle .
That ’ s fine in some locations , but we are also facing a housing shortage , and can this be a spot where there is another type of construction ?
” Plus , they can be a site of accidents .
A 2016 story on the urbanism website Citylab , headlined “ The Case Against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ points that spill out onto busy thoroughfares can represent a locus for collisions between cars and more vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists .
“ If you have a distracted driver or they don ’ t have a clear line of sight , it has the potential to be deadly , ” Koontz says .
“ Designed incorrectly , drive-through restaurants can be a hot spot.
” Long Beach now recommends placing drive-throughs at freeway-adjacent sites or within larger commercial shopping centers where they can use pre-existing driveways .
In addition , site planning guidelines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business adjacent to a sidewalk for easy pedestrian access .
The point isn ’ t to eliminate them completely , says Koontz .
“ What we are focused on is how can we design them better ?
” As a result of the pandemic , Southern California is rife with improvised drive-ins and drive-throughs .
( As I write this , a drive-by birthday salute for an 8-year-old that lives on my block is honking through . )
And these may shape urban design for years to come .
“ We may see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pick-up , where someone brings things to you , ” says Koontz .
“ I think we ’ ll see some of that remain even when the virus recedes.
” In the middle of April , I did something I hadn ’ t done since high school : I went to a drive-in movie theater .
Specifically , the Mission Tiki in Montclair , where I caught a sunset showing of “ Birds of Prey.
” ( The DC Comics franchise is the perfect vehicle for channeling middle-age lady rage . )
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demands that customers park at a distance of 10 feet and watch films from inside their cars .
The drive-in had been scheduled to shut down at the end of this summer , since the 27-acre site was recently acquired by a company that intended to redevelop it as a tech-focused industrial park .
( Though the economic crater created by the pandemic could extend the theater ’ s lease on life . )
For now , the Mission Tiki is open for socially distant business .
And I for one couldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sky turned the color of a James Turrell installation , a couple dozen vehicles pulled in to watch Harley Quinn and her lady posse face off against some of Gotham ’ s most entitled bad boys .
It was a communal act for the age of coronavirus — that very strange time in which we climb into our cars to be among other people .

To venture out in Southern California during the COVID-19 pandemic is to encounter a landscape dressed in an unfamiliar coat. Freeways bear unimaginably light traffic. Playgrounds are wrapped in caution tape. The simple act of picking up a loaf of bread at the supermarket is now a dystopic obstacle course of Plexiglas shields, social distancing markers and masked shoppers circling one another like repellent magnets.
Public space is not a place in which to gather, but something to be surmounted instead.
However, in Los Angeles, a city where public space can often be an elusive proposition, there are bubbles of normalcy. And some of that normalcy can be found at the drive-through.
On a recent Friday morning, most of the businesses along Olympic Boulevard in East L.A. remained shuttered due to the governor’s safer-at-home order. But the drive-through at McDonald’s at Eastern Avenue had a line more than half a dozen cars deep.
The following Saturday, a trip to the In-N-Out on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood revealed a drive-through line that not only went down the block but that also wrapped around it. The pandemic may have reduced drive times, but not the wait for a Double-Double (which seems to have doubled).
The drive-through at In-N-Out Burger in Hollywood on April 29. The location has a normally busy drive-through, but with the loss of in-store dining, traffic has increased, according to employees. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
And on an especially sleepy Sunday, there was a steady stream of customers at the Donut Hole in La Puente, the historic shop where you drive through a pair of architectural doughnuts to pick up crullers and hot coffee.
The historic Donut Hole in La Puente on Thursday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Doughnut time at the historic Donut Hole in La Puente, where you drive through for chocolate chip bars, s’mores, cronuts and classic glazed. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Before the coronavirus crisis, the drive-through had been fast losing status, often deployed as a symbol of obesity and the worst of car-dependent urban design. In many cities, it had been subject to outright bans. The drive-in, meanwhile, is nearly extinct, with just a few still operating in Southern California.
But during the pandemic, drive-throughs have become a weird sort of societal glue. And the drive-in has been reconsidered. Cities that have shut down bars, dine-in restaurants and indoor movie theaters have allowed drive-throughs and some drive-ins to continue to operate.
Their architectural standoffish-ness, in which vendor and client interact largely via speaker and remain in their own environments during an entire transaction, is designed to prioritize efficiency and minimize human exchange. They are the socially distant design we’ve been living with all along.
Stephanie Becerra takes an order at G.E. Chano’s. Owned and operated by the Escamilla family since 2007, Chano’s serves tacos, burritos and burgers in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
And right now, says Adam Chandler, author of the 2019 book “Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom,” they represent “a sense of normalcy.”
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“Going through the Jack In The Box drive-through and getting the tacos or going to In-N-Out and getting a burger animal-style — that’s the most normal thing you can do in America,” he adds. “So to be able to do that at a time in which everything else has changed, it’s incredibly meaningful.”
It’s also incredibly practical.
Riverside County medical personnel administer a coronavirus test to a driver at a drive-though testing facility at Diamond Stadium in March in Lake Elsinore. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Businesses that once would have never dreamed of serving customers in their cars — be it labs testing for the presence of the virus or fine dining establishments plying high-grade sushi and heirloom beans — are now taking a cue from curbside service long offered by Langer’s Deli and improvising drive-in and drive-through models. Earlier this month, I pulled up to a side street in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District, where I dialed a number, popped open my trunk and waited for a masked worker from Rossoblu to deposit a lasagna and a bottle of Barbera in my trunk. In less than two minutes, I was gone.
Joseph Hwang, manager of the Korean cafe Spoon by H, hands drinks to a waiting customer. Many dine-in establishments have offered informal drive-in service during the pandemic. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
But many of these latter situations still evoke the surreal, disorienting nature of the pandemic.
It’s been the workaday drive-throughs — the ones in which you shout at a menu board and pray that you’ll receive something resembling your order at the other end — that have provided a respite from the grind of the pandemic, moments of banal ordinariness that feel especially meaningful at a time in which ordinariness has been completely upended.
They are also meaningful to small businesses (not all drive-throughs are operated by chains) that are surviving thanks to their drive-through.
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G.E. Chano’s in Lincoln Heights, which sells tacos, burritos and burgers, has been owned and operated by the Escamilla family since 2007. (They are the purveyors of my favorite machaca con huevo burrito in L.A.)
Chano’s is an old-timey shack with a drive-through that looks like an afterthought: a menu board with questionable acoustics stands at one end of a bright, mural-clad parking lot; a delivery window that’s been carved out from the kitchen stands at the other.
“The drive-through is maintaining us at the moment,” says owner Guadalupe Escamilla. “Thank God we are doing OK.”
It also gives a bit of solace to the regulars. In the current climate, hitting the drive-through at Chano’s feels like visiting an old friend.
Seen from the drive-through menu board at G.E. Chano’s in Lincoln Heights, a mural by Los Angeles artist Man One. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Drive-throughs feel familiar because they are, part of the Southern California design landscape for three quarters of a century (a whole century, if you count drive-ins, in which a server brings your order to your parked car).
Chandler says “it’s under extreme debate” where exactly the first drive-through restaurant emerged. Two restaurants from the 1940s generally vie for the title: Red’s Giant Hamburg, a roadside diner in Springfield, Mo., that catered to motorists on Route 66, and a Los Angeles-area branch of Kirby’s Pig Stand, a chain that had been doing drive-in dining for more than two decades in Texas, where it originated, before going full drive-through in SoCal.
Whether or not the drive-through was born in Southern California, it was here that it rose to ubiquity — along with car culture and the freeway system. And it is here that the drive-through has been polished and refined.
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“Two of the biggest innovators were Jack In The Box and In-N-Out,” says Chandler. “Jack In The Box had this speaker board menu with a microphone attached to it. In-N-Out had the first two-way speaker, which is the experience we have now.”
Denny Warnick, vice president of operations at In-N-Out (established in Baldwin Park in 1948), says that the early restaurants offered walk-up service but that much of the business revolved around the drive-through. “We did not open our first location with a dining room until 1979.”
Fast food technology has now advanced to the point where many restaurants feature menu boards powered by artificial intelligence and screens that confirm your order. It’s a critical part of the business, says Chandler: “About 70% of sales at most fast food restaurants usually come through the drive-through.”
Over time, the drive-through has been adopted by other businesses too: banks, pharmacies, dry cleaners, dairies and florists. States like California and Colorado now boast drive-through cannabis dispensaries. Others have long had drive-through liquor stores. In Compton, you can find a funeral parlor with drive-through casket viewings.
James Lewis pays respects to former Compton City Councilwoman Bernice Woods during a drive-through viewing at Adams Mortuary in Compton on March 25, 2011. (Christina House / For The Times)
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The drive-in has been just as important.
In “Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles,” the documentary film that accompanied the architecture critic’s 1971 book, “Los Angeles: The Architecture of the Four Ecologies,” Banham hung out at Tiny Naylor’s, a branch of the popular drive-in on Sunset Boulevard.
With him were artist Ed Ruscha and art director Mike Salisbury of West magazine. Together, they sat in a giant Ford convertible eating pineapple sundaes and BLT sandwiches and talking about the architectural monuments that represent L.A. “Any kind of edifice that has to do with the car,” says Ruscha.
In 1961, one of California’s more unusual drive-ins materialized in Garden Grove: architect Richard Neutra’s “walk-in-drive-in” church, designed for televangelist Robert H. Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral. Neutra’s innovative building (which you can catch glimpses of in this video) allowed parishioners to listen to Schuller’s sermons without leaving their cars.
In June 1957, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller held his Garden Grove Community Church service at the Orange Drive-In. The church had no permanent building and rented the drive-in each Sunday. (Los Angeles Times )
It was a prescient idea: Since the pandemic began, churches around the country have improvised their own drive-in services.
Kathy VanDomelen, right, and her fiance, Scott Klaassen, of Santa Ana, gather with other worshipers in a Santa Ana parking lot for an Easter service led by the Rev. Robert A. Schuller on April 12. Schuller is reviving the drive-in ministry, a practice that launched his father. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Whether the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which now owns Schuller’s complex, will resuscitate the Neutra building for the purpose of drive-in Masses when Southern California emerges from lockdown remains to be seen. (The diocese did not return a request for comment on this story.) But the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, son of the Crystal Cathedral founder, has revived the drive-in ministry that his father pioneered, preaching every Sunday to worshipers in the parking lot of a Santa Ana office complex.
At the Rev. Robert H. Schuller’s drive-in church in Garden Grove, designed by Richard Neutra, parishioners could view the service from cars on a giant video screen. (Gail Fisher / Los Angeles Times)
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What is certain is that the drive-in concept is making a comeback — at least for the short-term.
IFC Films isn’t waiting for movie theaters to reopen to premiere its horror flick “The Wretched.” The picture will premiere at select drive-ins (and on streaming services) instead.
In Denmark, pop singer Mads Langer, unable to stage a concert at a traditional music venue, held one at a drive-in instead. Likewise, one of Denmark’s soccer teams plans on turning live sporting events into drive-in entertainment by placing large monitors in the stadium’s parking lot, where fans can watch the game from the safety of their cars.
Danish singer and songwriter Mads Langer performed at a sold-out drive-in concert at Tangkrogen in Aarhus, Denmark, on April 24. (Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images)
Yuval Sharon, of the experimental opera company the Industry, staged his 2015 opera “Hopscotch” in a fleet of moving cars, placing viewer and singer in close proximity. That would be unthinkable now. But he says the pandemic does have him thinking a lot about the possibility of parking lots.
“There are some beautiful parking lots in L.A.,” he says. “And I do think the car, in a way, is an amazing tool — one that has conditioned our view of the city. And it could be a tool to help us try to navigate our re-engagement with live performing arts.”
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If he were to do an opera in a parking lot, it wouldn’t be the first: In 2008, Long Beach Opera staged “The Diary of Anne Frank” in parking garages.
Music Is the future of live music a drive-in concert? A city in Denmark held a drive-in concert, with a musician playing onstage outdoors and concertgoers listening in their cars. Could this happen in California?
While this journey through the past may be appealing, it’s important not to overlook the other, darker phenomena associated with this aspect of our car-centric culture.
Fast food drive-throughs are often powered by poorly remunerated workers who now find themselves attempting to stitch together a living while trying to avoid contagion. Social distancing regulations reveal that our urban design could be more generous with people, in the form of wider sidewalks for pedestrians and narrower streets for cars. And, of course, there are the environmental consequences of all the driving. One of the positive effects of the quarantines have been that cities around the globe now have cleaner air, including Los Angeles.
On a recent weekday evening, the drive-through at an In-N-Out restaurant in Alhambra had a line that was almost two dozen cars deep. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
Over the last several decades, some of these issues have led health advocates and urban planners to subject drive-throughs to increased regulation. San Luis Obispo outlawed them in the early 1980s. In 2019, Minneapolis became the largest city in the United States to ban the construction of new ones. Last summer, Long Beach passed a six-month moratorium on new drive-through construction; in the fall, the city followed up with a new set of guidelines on how and where drive-throughs should and could be built.
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“They are not a great use of land,” says Christopher Koontz, a planning bureau manager at the Long Beach Department of Development Services. “On a 5,000-square-foot piece of land, you are getting 800 to 900 square feet of building and the rest is taken up by parking and drive aisle. That’s fine in some locations, but we are also facing a housing shortage, and can this be a spot where there is another type of construction?”
Plus, they can be a site of accidents. A 2016 story on the urbanism website Citylab, headlined “The Case Against Drive-Throughs,” examined how their access points that spill out onto busy thoroughfares can represent a locus for collisions between cars and more vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists.
“If you have a distracted driver or they don’t have a clear line of sight, it has the potential to be deadly,” Koontz says. “Designed incorrectly, drive-through restaurants can be a hot spot.”
Long Beach now recommends placing drive-throughs at freeway-adjacent sites or within larger commercial shopping centers where they can use pre-existing driveways. In addition, site planning guidelines recommend placing the building portion of the business adjacent to a sidewalk for easy pedestrian access.
The point isn’t to eliminate them completely, says Koontz. “What we are focused on is how can we design them better?”
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As a result of the pandemic, Southern California is rife with improvised drive-ins and drive-throughs. (As I write this, a drive-by birthday salute for an 8-year-old that lives on my block is honking through.) And these may shape urban design for years to come.
The tiki theme pervades throughout the central building housing the restrooms, snack bar and projectors at the Mission Tiki Drive-in Theatre in Montclair. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
“We may see more of this going to store for pick-up, where someone brings things to you,” says Koontz. “I think we’ll see some of that remain even when the virus recedes.”
In the middle of April, I did something I hadn’t done since high school: I went to a drive-in movie theater. Specifically, the Mission Tiki in Montclair, where I caught a sunset showing of “Birds of Prey.” (The DC Comics franchise is the perfect vehicle for channeling middle-age lady rage.)
The theater is still operational, though it demands that customers park at a distance of 10 feet and watch films from inside their cars.
A scene from “Trolls World Tour,” at the Mission Tiki Drive-in Theatre, in Montclair, CA. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
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The drive-in had been scheduled to shut down at the end of this summer, since the 27-acre site was recently acquired by a company that intended to redevelop it as a tech-focused industrial park. (Though the economic crater created by the pandemic could extend the theater’s lease on life.)
For now, the Mission Tiki is open for socially distant business. And I for one couldn’t be more grateful.
As the sky turned the color of a James Turrell installation, a couple dozen vehicles pulled in to watch Harley Quinn and her lady posse face off against some of Gotham’s most entitled bad boys.
It was a communal act for the age of coronavirus — that very strange time in which we climb into our cars to be among other people.


latimes--2020-05-06--Latinos test positive for coronavirus at overwhelming levels in San Francisco survey

During a four-day period , a team of community workers and volunteers with San Francisco ’ s Latino Task Force and infectious disease specialists at UC San Francisco tested 4,160 residents and workers for the novel coronavirus in a census tract of the city ’ s Mission District .
They found that 2.1 % of those tested were positive ; yet it was the details of the group ’ s demographics that were more revealing .
While Latinos made up 44 % of those tested , they accounted for more than 99 % of the positive COVID-19 cases .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earned less than $ 50,000 per year .
That group accounted for nearly 90 % of the positive cases .
More than half of those tested who tested positive — 53 % — had no symptoms of the illness .
The study — conducted between April 25 and 28 — provided information about sheltering in place : For those who must leave their homes to work ( roughly 57 % of those tested ) , they accounted for 90 % of the positive cases among workers .
Staying home , the researchers said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The study results are already leading to policy changes in the city .
Hillary Ronan , district supervisor for the region , said she was proposing legislation that would address the findings , including providing hotel rooms or safe places for people who test positive , replacing wages for those who may have lost work because of a positive finding — irrespective of immigration status — and food and other essentials for those who can not leave home to access those items .
This is an example of an “ academic study that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community ” to provide testing in substantial numbers , that is leading directly to policy proposals and changes , she said .
There is growing evidence that black and Latino residents are being hardest hit by the coronavirus .
Black and Latino Californians ages 18 to 64 are dying more frequently of COVID-19 than their white and Asian counterparts , relative to their share of the population , a Times analysis of state health department data conducted in late April found .
Newly released figures on the toll of the coronavirus show profound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survival that fall along racial and ethnic lines .
In this case , the data also belie the conventional wisdom that old age is the primary risk factor for death .
When accounting for each group ’ s percentage of the population , blacks and Latinos under 65 had a higher share of fatalities than even older blacks and Latinos .
The trend is particularly noticeable among those age 18 to 49 , The Times ’ analysis found .
released by health officials in California and Los Angeles County last month suggested Latinos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infection or death from the virus .
that those findings were likely skewed by the fact that Latinos — California ’ s largest ethnic group — are typically younger than other demographics .
Experts predicted that higher rates would emerge once more complete data came out .
The first neighborhood-level glimpse of the COVID-19 death toll in Los Angeles County showed the poorer areas are seeing an outsize number of fatalities .
Some of the highest death rates are in low-income neighborhoods of Central Los Angeles , a Times analysis of county health @ @ @ @ @ @

During a four-day period, a team of community workers and volunteers with San Francisco’s Latino Task Force and infectious disease specialists at UC San Francisco tested 4,160 residents and workers for the novel coronavirus in a census tract of the city’s Mission District.
They found that 2.1% of those tested were positive; yet it was the details of the group’s demographics that were more revealing.
While Latinos made up 44% of those tested, they accounted for more than 99% of the positive COVID-19 cases. In addition, 40% of those tested earned less than $50,000 per year. That group accounted for nearly 90% of the positive cases.
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More than half of those tested who tested positive — 53% — had no symptoms of the illness.
The study — conducted between April 25 and 28 — provided information about sheltering in place: For those who must leave their homes to work (roughly 57% of those tested), they accounted for 90% of the positive cases among workers. Staying home, the researchers said, seemed to make a difference.
The study results are already leading to policy changes in the city.
Hillary Ronan, district supervisor for the region, said she was proposing legislation that would address the findings, including providing hotel rooms or safe places for people who test positive, replacing wages for those who may have lost work because of a positive finding — irrespective of immigration status — and food and other essentials for those who cannot leave home to access those items.
This is an example of an “academic study that led to a close collaboration with a community” to provide testing in substantial numbers, that is leading directly to policy proposals and changes, she said.
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There is growing evidence that black and Latino residents are being hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Black and Latino Californians ages 18 to 64 are dying more frequently of COVID-19 than their white and Asian counterparts, relative to their share of the population, a Times analysis of state health department data conducted in late April found.
Newly released figures on the toll of the coronavirus show profound disparities in people’s odds of survival that fall along racial and ethnic lines. In this case, the data also belie the conventional wisdom that old age is the primary risk factor for death.
When accounting for each group’s percentage of the population, blacks and Latinos under 65 had a higher share of fatalities than even older blacks and Latinos. The trend is particularly noticeable among those age 18 to 49, The Times’ analysis found.
California Coronavirus is retreating in Bay Area, advancing in Los Angeles The San Francisco Bay Area has seen consecutive weekly declines in the number of new coronavirus cases. Southern California has seen the pace increase.
Preliminary racial data released by health officials in California and Los Angeles County last month suggested Latinos were not facing any higher rate of infection or death from the virus. But experts warned that those findings were likely skewed by the fact that Latinos — California’s largest ethnic group — are typically younger than other demographics. Experts predicted that higher rates would emerge once more complete data came out.
The first neighborhood-level glimpse of the COVID-19 death toll in Los Angeles County showed the poorer areas are seeing an outsize number of fatalities.
Some of the highest death rates are in low-income neighborhoods of Central Los Angeles, a Times analysis of county health department data released Tuesday shows.


latimes--2020-05-06--Students accused of sexual misconduct get stronger protections under new federal rules

Students accused of sexual misconduct will get stronger due process protections under sweeping federal rules announced Wednesday by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — changes critics warn will weaken the fight against campus sexual assaults .
The long-awaited rules make key changes to former guidelines from the Obama administration , including a tighter definition of sexual misconduct , reduced responsibility of colleges to investigate complaints and the right for advisors on all sides to cross-examine those involved .
DeVos has said the revisions are aimed at restoring fairness and rebalancing the rights of the accuser and accused in the contentious arena @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prohibits sex discrimination in education by schools that receive federal funding .
“ Today we release a final rule that recognizes we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning our core values of fairness , presumption of innocence and due process , ” DeVos said during a news briefing .
She said the Obama-era rules amounted to a “ failed approach ” that resulted in “ kangaroo courts ” against accused students .
When the Obama administration cracked down on college sexual assault with tougher rules , more investigations and heavier sanctions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , hundreds of alleged offenders across the nation fought back with lawsuits saying their due process rights were violated in a rush to unfair judgments .
In California , some of those lawsuits have succeeded in forcing public and private campuses to strengthen due process rights for accused students .
In one case last year , a state appellate court ruled that “ fundamental fairness ” required that accused students have a right to a hearing and to cross-examine their accusers .
As a result , the University of California , California State @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other campuses have made changes to their Title IX processes .
UC President Janet Napolitano said the “ misguided ” new rules sought to reverse hard-fought gains against college sexual misconduct but would not deter the UC system from continuing the fight against it .
“ UC opposes these ill-conceived changes and , in spite of them , will continue our hard-won momentum through education , prevention , and processes that are fair and compassionate to all parties , ” Napolitano said in a statement .
Mark Hathaway , a Los Angeles attorney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students , said he has continued to file lawsuits against California campuses alleging they have not fully complied with court directives for meaningful cross-examination and other due process protections .
He said the new federal regulations would provide more specific instructions and additional pressure on campuses to conduct equitable Title IX proceedings .
“ It ’ s been a long time coming for these protections to become federal regulations , ” Hathaway said .
“ Colleges and universities will have to take a road that will be fair.
” Others , however , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ onslaught of lawsuits .
Title IX experts and advocates for survivors of sexual assault warned that the prospect of an adversarial proceeding similar to a criminal trial , complete with cross-examination , would significantly deter the filing of complaints .
“ This will likely cause a very dramatic chilling effect on the willingness of people to come forward and report sexual violence and discrimination , ” said Brett Sokolow , president of the Assn .
of Title IX Administrators .
DeVos issued the final rules despite pleas by hundreds of education and advocacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to wait until the COVID-19 pandemic eased .
The Department of Education unveiled its draft proposal in 2018 and received more than 124,000 comments about it as of last year .
Ted Mitchell , president of the American Council on Education , said the federal directive to implement the rules by Aug. 14 was “ as cruel as it is counterproductive , ” since colleges and universities reeling under the pandemic don ’ t have the bandwidth to undertake the massive and complex effort needed to change existing policies and launch campus-wide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ represents the worst in regulatory overreach , ” he said in a statement .
DeVos , however , defended the timing , saying , “ Civil rights really can ’ t wait.
” The National Women ’ s Law Center was one of many organizations vowing to challenge the rules in court .
“ We won ’ t let DeVos succeed in requiring schools to be complicit in harassment , turning Title IX from a law that protects all students into a law that protects abusers and harassers , ” Fatima Goss Graves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said in a statement .
The final rules would for the first time require colleges and universities to allow cross-examination during mandatory live hearings in misconduct cases .
Parties would not question each other directly , and a hearing officer must determine if questions are relevant .
Both sides would have equal opportunity to present witnesses and access evidence .
And the person making the ultimate finding could not be the same person who investigated the complaint , addressing widespread criticism that Title IX coordinators often act as prosecutor , judge and jury @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campuses to change their current cross-examinations , which allow only indirect questioning by a hearing officer in order to minimize trauma to either side .
Suzanne Taylor , systemwide Title IX coordinator , said the federal changes will require campuses to allow direct questioning by a student ’ s advisor — who could be an attorney .
She also said the tighter definition of sexual harassment will bar Title IX investigations of behavior that UC policies now prohibit .
The new rules define sexual harassment as conduct so severe , pervasive and “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a person equal access to the school ’ s educational program or activity .
Obama-era guidelines required that the unwelcome sexual conduct be severe or pervasive , rather than both .
Taylor said a one-time instance of students forcing others to sexually touch them , for instance , would no longer be prohibited under Title IX rules .
But campuses can still sanction such behavior as violations of student conduct codes .
UC officials welcomed , however , the first-time inclusion of dating violence , stalking and domestic violence in the definition of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allow campuses to raise the bar for substantiating allegations by using the higher standard of “ clear and convincing evidence.
” They may still use , however , the lower standard of “ preponderance of the evidence , ” which was recommended by the Obama administration and is widely used by campuses , including the UC and Cal State systems .

Students accused of sexual misconduct will get stronger due process protections under sweeping federal rules announced Wednesday by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — changes critics warn will weaken the fight against campus sexual assaults.
The long-awaited rules make key changes to former guidelines from the Obama administration, including a tighter definition of sexual misconduct, reduced responsibility of colleges to investigate complaints and the right for advisors on all sides to cross-examine those involved.
DeVos has said the revisions are aimed at restoring fairness and rebalancing the rights of the accuser and accused in the contentious arena of campus sexual assault. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education by schools that receive federal funding.
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“Today we release a final rule that recognizes we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning our core values of fairness, presumption of innocence and due process,” DeVos said during a news briefing. She said the Obama-era rules amounted to a “failed approach” that resulted in “kangaroo courts” against accused students.
When the Obama administration cracked down on college sexual assault with tougher rules, more investigations and heavier sanctions against colleges deemed lax on the issue, hundreds of alleged offenders across the nation fought back with lawsuits saying their due process rights were violated in a rush to unfair judgments.
In California, some of those lawsuits have succeeded in forcing public and private campuses to strengthen due process rights for accused students. In one case last year, a state appellate court ruled that “fundamental fairness” required that accused students have a right to a hearing and to cross-examine their accusers. As a result, the University of California, California State University, USC, Occidental College and other campuses have made changes to their Title IX processes.
UC President Janet Napolitano said the “misguided” new rules sought to reverse hard-fought gains against college sexual misconduct but would not deter the UC system from continuing the fight against it.
“UC opposes these ill-conceived changes and, in spite of them, will continue our hard-won momentum through education, prevention, and processes that are fair and compassionate to all parties,” Napolitano said in a statement.
Mark Hathaway, a Los Angeles attorney who has represented more than 200 accused students, said he has continued to file lawsuits against California campuses alleging they have not fully complied with court directives for meaningful cross-examination and other due process protections. He said the new federal regulations would provide more specific instructions and additional pressure on campuses to conduct equitable Title IX proceedings.
Advertisement
“It’s been a long time coming for these protections to become federal regulations,” Hathaway said. “Colleges and universities will have to take a road that will be fair.”
Others, however, sharply criticized the rules and predicted an onslaught of lawsuits. Title IX experts and advocates for survivors of sexual assault warned that the prospect of an adversarial proceeding similar to a criminal trial, complete with cross-examination, would significantly deter the filing of complaints.
“This will likely cause a very dramatic chilling effect on the willingness of people to come forward and report sexual violence and discrimination,” said Brett Sokolow, president of the Assn. of Title IX Administrators.
DeVos issued the final rules despite pleas by hundreds of education and advocacy organizations, along with state attorneys general, to wait until the COVID-19 pandemic eased. The Department of Education unveiled its draft proposal in 2018 and received more than 124,000 comments about it as of last year.
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, said the federal directive to implement the rules by Aug. 14 was “as cruel as it is counterproductive,” since colleges and universities reeling under the pandemic don’t have the bandwidth to undertake the massive and complex effort needed to change existing policies and launch campus-wide trainings.
“This package of mandates represents the worst in regulatory overreach,” he said in a statement.
DeVos, however, defended the timing, saying, “Civil rights really can’t wait.”
The National Women’s Law Center was one of many organizations vowing to challenge the rules in court.
“We won’t let DeVos succeed in requiring schools to be complicit in harassment, turning Title IX from a law that protects all students into a law that protects abusers and harassers,” Fatima Goss Graves, president of the law center, said in a statement.
The final rules would for the first time require colleges and universities to allow cross-examination during mandatory live hearings in misconduct cases. Parties would not question each other directly, and a hearing officer must determine if questions are relevant.
Both sides would have equal opportunity to present witnesses and access evidence. And the person making the ultimate finding could not be the same person who investigated the complaint, addressing widespread criticism that Title IX coordinators often act as prosecutor, judge and jury.
The new rules will require UC campuses to change their current cross-examinations, which allow only indirect questioning by a hearing officer in order to minimize trauma to either side. Suzanne Taylor, systemwide Title IX coordinator, said the federal changes will require campuses to allow direct questioning by a student’s advisor — who could be an attorney.
She also said the tighter definition of sexual harassment will bar Title IX investigations of behavior that UC policies now prohibit. The new rules define sexual harassment as conduct so severe, pervasive and “objectively offensive” that it effectively denies a person equal access to the school’s educational program or activity.
Obama-era guidelines required that the unwelcome sexual conduct be severe or pervasive, rather than both. Taylor said a one-time instance of students forcing others to sexually touch them, for instance, would no longer be prohibited under Title IX rules. But campuses can still sanction such behavior as violations of student conduct codes.
UC officials welcomed, however, the first-time inclusion of dating violence, stalking and domestic violence in the definition of sexual harassment.
The new rules also allow campuses to raise the bar for substantiating allegations by using the higher standard of “clear and convincing evidence.” They may still use, however, the lower standard of “preponderance of the evidence,” which was recommended by the Obama administration and is widely used by campuses, including the UC and Cal State systems.


latimes--2020-05-06--Reopening L.A. will be slow as coronavirus cases and deaths keep mounting

Some California businesses are expected to be able to reopen beginning Friday in the first major lifting of the state ’ s stay-at-home ban , which has been in effect for nearly two months .
But the extent of this shift is going to depend on regional conditions , and it still remains unclear how quickly Los Angeles County will see significant changes .
Officials in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area — where the coronavirus has hit the state the hardest — have urged caution in reopening .
They say lifting stay-at-home orders too early could cause more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the long run .
On Tuesday , Garcetti said he supported working on reopening “ low-risk spaces , ” such as trails , in the next few days and weeks .
Garcetti did say wholesale flower distributors were allowed to reopen , under certain circumstances , because they ’ re exempt from the state ’ s COVID-19 orders as agricultural businesses .
Flower markets are being monitored , and they could be shut down if they do not follow the city ’ s social-distancing guidelines .
Sunday is Mother ’ s Day , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ busiest times of the year for florists .
Garcetti said Monday would need to take different steps to emerge from the pandemic-induced shutdown and that city and county officials were still trying to determine the safest course .
“ Our timing on opening may vary from other parts of the state , ” he said .
“ I will reopen our city with careful consideration , guided by public health professionals.
” The mayor said he did not expect city businesses to be able to offer curbside delivery on Friday in step with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Safer at Home order is in effect until May 15 and Garcetti said that he hoped steps restricting commerce could begin to be rolled back by then .
Los Angeles County has been hit harder than other region in California , and that has heightened the concerns about reopening too early .
Los Angeles County officials confirmed 58 new COVID-19 deaths Tuesday , bringing the number of coronavirus-related fatalities in the county to 1,313 .
Of those who have died , 647 were living in institutional settings — the majority of which were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1,638 cases — a high number largely caused by a backlog in data reporting .
So far , there have been 27,815 confirmed coronavirus infections in the county .
“ We do know as we reopen , more people will be out and about , and we ’ ll see more cases , ” said Los Angeles County Public Health director Barbara Ferrer .
“ Nothing has really changed about the virus since March .
The virus didn ’ t get less deadly .
The virus didn ’ t get less infectious .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ferrer said L.A. County officials would be publicly sharing recovery plans this week , noting that “ wherever it ’ s possible to safely reopen , we ’ ll be doing so as quickly as possible.
” Ferrer noted that although social distancing practices had helped slow the spread of COVID-19 , the virus remains easily transmissible .
Still there have been some hopeful signs .
, home to 55 % of California ’ s COVID-19 deaths despite having only one-quarter of the state ’ s population , saw its reported weekly death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 315 deaths in each of the past two weeks .
L.A. County saw a 2 % decline in confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations last week compared to the previous week .
Los Angeles schools will start fall classes on Aug. 18 , but no decision has been made on whether campuses will reopen by that date , Supt .
Austin Beutner said Monday .
Education officials in L.A. and across California are wrestling with how and when to bring the state ’ s 6.1 million students back to campuses that have been shuttered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adjust to the difficulties of distance learning and move to strengthen online summer school offerings .
In his remarks Monday , Beutner noted that it ’ s difficult to set a timetable for reopening campuses .
“ The timing remains uncertain because the science is still uncertain , ” Beutner said .
“ At a minimum , a comprehensive system of testing and contact tracing will need to be in place and the implications of the testing widely understood before schools can reopen.
” The district is in discussions with state and local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of UCLA experts in infectious diseases , virology , epidemiology and testing to guide them on reopening scenarios .
Such guidance is “ critical , ” he said , “ because it will be the science , and only the science , which can provide a foundation for the safe return of our school community.
” Newsom on Tuesday tried to set expectations , stressing that social-distancing practices would remain in place as more people would be put at risk when restrictions were lifted .
“ We have to maintain the core construct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said at a news conference .
Times staff writers Howard Blume , Taryn Luna and Hannah Fry and City News Service contributed to this report .

Colleen Shalby, Alene Tchekmedyian, Rong-Gong Lin II

The streets are quiet May 5 in Little Tokyo. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said different cities would need to take different steps to emerge from the shutdown.
Some California businesses are expected to be able to reopen beginning Friday in the first major lifting of the state’s stay-at-home ban, which has been in effect for nearly two months.
But the extent of this shift is going to depend on regional conditions, and it still remains unclear how quickly Los Angeles County will see significant changes.
Officials in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area — where the coronavirus has hit the state the hardest — have urged caution in reopening. They say lifting stay-at-home orders too early could cause more outbreaks and hurt the economy further in the long run.
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1 / 83 Socially distanced bikers and walkers, against a backdrop of the Queen Mary, make their way along pedestrian and beach bike path on the first day that Long Beach reopened the path on Monday May 11, 2020. The city of Long Beach eased a few of its public health restrictions, allowing under certain guidelines the reopening of pedestrian and beach bike paths, tennis centers and courts. Beach bathrooms are also reopening, but the parking lots and beaches still remain closed. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 2 / 83 Traffic remains light on the southbound 110 Freeway headed toward downtown Los Angeles on April 28. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 83 Dominique Barrett, center, known as “King Vader” to his 2.4 million TikTok followers, prepares to shoot a video on April 30 in Glendora. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 83 Cody Purcell of Redondo Beach rides a wave, glowing from the bioluminescence, in Hermosa Beach, CA, after midnight Friday morning, May 8. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times) 5 / 83 Friends play spikeball, a game perfect for social distancing on an open but restricted San Buenaventura State Beach. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 83 The majority of golfers are wearing masks while hitting balls on the driving range at Van Buren Executive Golf Course in Riverside. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 83 Beaches including Harbor Cove Beach were open but beachgoers were not supposed to be sitting on the sand. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 83 Tango instructor Yelizaveta Nersesova leads a Zoom tango event from her Los Angeles home April 27 that brought together hundreds of dancers from around the world. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 83 Grocery store workers, joined by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 770 representatives and community members, hold a rally in support of strict social distancing on May 1 at a Ralphs store in Hollywood where 19 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 83 Mostly masked commuters keep their distance from one another on a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles on April 29. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 83 Gregory Kuhl, 69, heads home after a shopping trip in Hollywood on April 28. Big cracks in the street, cars parked in driveways blocking sidewalks and uneven pavement levels make navigating his route difficult. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 83 Tenants and their supporters from across Los Angeles gather at city hall to call on L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, the L.A. City Council and California Gov. Gavin Newsom to cancel rent and mortgage payments during the COVID-19 crisis. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 83 Aerial view of over 100 vehicles lined up at the West Valley COVID-19 testing center at Warner Center in Woodland Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 83 Senior Mason Wise, left, helps his sister, Mackenzie, a sophomore, clean out her PE locker at El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills. School officials were allowing no more than five students at a time on campus to take home their belongings. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 83 Shuttered storefront businesses in the garment district of Los Angeles. California’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed since the statewide coronavirus shutdown took effect. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 83 Healthcare workers celebrate as Claudia Martinez is discharged from the ICU after she recovered from COVID-19 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 83 Carson residents Kaeli Burks, 3, left, and her cousin Bailey Watson, 5, look out the window of their car after their mothers helped them with self-testing at a new drive-up testing site for COVID-19 in Carson. Free COVID-19 testing is available to all city residents thanks to a partnership between the city and US Health Fairs. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 83 Norm and Tracy Kahn enjoy eating dinner outside on a small cafe table sitting in blue chairs on their side yard during the coronavirus pandemic on April 27 in Riverside. “During this pandemic, eating outside offers us an opportunity to change surrounding and appreciate the calmness of being outdoors among trees, scents from nature and the sounds of birds,” she said. Also adding, “Mixing up where we eat puts variety into our days and takes away the sameness of feeling trapped at home.” (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 83 Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center nurses carry supplies outside the hospital. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 83 Tom Sean Foley pauses on a walk with his kids, Cathelen Claire, “C.C.,” 3, and Timothy Joseph, 4, to take a photo in front of the “Love Wall,” mural by artist Curtis Kulig, outside of Smashbox Studios in Culver City. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 83 Protesters stand along Mission Blvd. in Pacific Beach during A Day of Liberty rally on April 26. The protesters were against the government shutdown due to the coronavirus. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) 22 / 83 People make orders at a food truck along Shoreline Avenue in Long Beach. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 83 Medical staff, wearing protective gear, work inside a COVID-19 isolation area inside the emergency department at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, where patients with the virus are being treated. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 83 Neighbors practice social distancing while enjoying the nice weather near The Strand in Hermosa Beach. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 83 Counter-protesters attend a protest to call on state and local officials to reopen the economy in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 83 A group of protesters cheer on cars during a vehicle caravan protest to call on state and local officials to reopen the economy in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 83 Cedar Mountain Post Acute Rehabilitation staff member Navi Cavaltera waters a flower pot put up by the community to show their support for the nursing staff of the facility in Yucaipa. Eighteen of 20 coronavirus-related deaths in Yucaipa were residents of the skilled nursing facility. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 83 A pedestrian wearing a protective mask passes a mural on a store on Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 83 Jonte Florence, a freestyle dancer, does a handstand on a mostly empty Hollywood Walk of Fame. Florence said he normally performs for hundreds of tourists along the busy street. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 83 The Tyrannosaurus rex overlooking the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue wears a protective mask while practicing social distancing. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 83 Businesses are shuttered and pedestrians are few and far between on Hollywood Boulevard. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 83 Daniel Rogerson wears a vintage military gas mask while riding a bike along the beach path in Santa Monica, which is closed to enforce social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 83 A face mask seller in colorful dress appears to be part of a mural behind a bus stop on Soto Street in Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 83 Life around Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and Soto Street has slowed down as California officials extended stay-at-home orders into May and residents entered Easter weekend with unprecedented limits on their movements. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 83 UC Irvine Medical Center health care workers return their gratitude as about 25 Orange County first responder vehicles participate in a drive-by parade of gratitude as they battle COVID-19 at the hospital. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 83 Billy Budd, 55, of Hollywood, walks along Hollywood Boulevard with a protective face covering. Budd is a scenic artist for movies and television who is currently out of work due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 83 Stuart Reyes and his sister, Stephanie, sell masks for $5 each on the 3000 block of West Century Boulevard in Inglewood. Stuart Reyes said he is selling masks to support his mother. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 83 A jogger runs on a closed trail past dozens of pieces of caution tape, torn off by hikers and mountain bikers at El Escorpion Canyon Park in West Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 83 Alex Herron and nurse Mercy Pineda at a blood drive sponsored by USC athletics and the American Red Cross at USC’s Galen Center. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 83 Los Angeles City Hall displays blue lights to show support for healthcare workers and first responders. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 83 After being indoors for several days because of rainy weather and coronavirus stay-at-home orders, Olivia Jacobs, 4, and her mom, Cia Jacobs, enjoy a warm and sunny afternoon making chalk drawings on the sidewalk in front of their home in West Hills. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 83 An Oceanview Plaza security guard sports a whimsical mask while on patrol. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 83 Jacob De Wilde, left, and Lesli Lytle load a car with food during a food distribution organized to mark Good Friday. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 83 As a late season storm continues to make its way across the Southland, a young basketball player dribbles along an alley through an Elysian Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 83 People are silhouetted in a window of an apartment building in Hollywood, where a stay-at-home order remains in effect to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 83 The Wilshire Grand Center display blue lights and a heart to show support for healthcare workers and first responders. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 83 Women wear masks as they stroll along Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Wearing masks while outdoors is mandatory in the city of Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 83 Patients are removed from Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center after 39 tested positive for the coronavirus and nursing staff was not showing up to work. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 83 A specimen is turned in at the new mobile testing site for people with symptoms of the coronavirus at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 83 Hippie Kitchen in Los Angeles hands out food, water and toiletries to homeless people and residents of skid row. Additionally, masks were offered to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 83 Nurses pose for a fun photo during a break in drive-through public testing for the coronavirus at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 52 / 83 A woman shows a notice from her doctor that allows her to obtain a test for coronavirus at a new drive-up testing site in a parking lot at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 53 / 83 A person who wishes to remain anonymous strikes from her car to support McDonald’s employees who are demanding the company cover healthcare costs of any worker or immediate family member who gets sick from COVID-19 in Los Angeles. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) 54 / 83 Cassidy Roosen, with Beach Cities Health District, holds up a sign that says, “We’re All in This Together,” while waiting to direct cars at a drive-through, appointment-only coronavirus testing location at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 55 / 83 Juliann Hartman, center, and her husband, Butch, wave signs they created to cheer up people on Calabasas Road in Calabasas during the pandemic. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 56 / 83 Grace Carter, 15, of Riverside, practices a dance routine at home after dance classes and school were canceled. She has to use the Zoom app on her iPhone to practice with her dance group. “It’s hard,” she said. “My bedroom is a smaller space. I miss all my friends at the studio.” (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 57 / 83 A man works from his home in Long Beach. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 58 / 83 A San Bernardino County healthcare worker takes a sample at a coronavirus drive-through testing site at the county fairgrounds in Victorville. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 59 / 83 A Metro general service employee disinfects a bench in Boyle Heights. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 60 / 83 A runner jogs past the Pottery Barn in Pasadena. Some businesses in the area have boarded up their stores. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 61 / 83 Raquel Lezama and daughter Monica Ramos collect meals for their family at Manual Arts High School. Lezama was laid off from her $17.76-an-hour job at a Beverly Hills hotel. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 62 / 83 The Iron City Tavern in San Pedro tries an incentive to lure takeout customers. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 63 / 83 Healthcare workers gather outside UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center to call for further action from the federal government in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 64 / 83 Kristen Edgerle, of Victorville, collects information from a blood donor before drawing blood at The Richard Nixon Presidential Library blood drive during the coronavirus pandemic in Yorba Linda. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) 65 / 83 Shauna Jin, of Los Angeles, with her dog, Bodhi, practices social distancing with John Kiss, of Los Angeles, at the entrance of Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 66 / 83 A lending library had some additional useful items, including a roll of toilet paper and cans of beans and corn, in a Hermosa Beach neighborhood. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 67 / 83 Protesters drive by the Getty House, the home of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, in Hancock Park. Tenant advocates are demanding a total moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus crisis. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 68 / 83 Venice residents Emily Berry and Gavin Kelley take a break at Venice Beach. Berry, a cocktail waitress at Enterprise Fish Co., lost her job due to the coronavirus outbreak. Kelley, a manager at a performing arts school with a focus on music, said that he still has a job and that classes at the school will resume online this coming Monday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 69 / 83 The JW Marriott at L.A. Live is sharing a message of hope with red lights in 34 windows, creating a 19-story display on the hotel’s north side. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 70 / 83 Juan Diaz Jr., a lifelong Dodgers fan, prays that the season will start by May in front of Dodger Stadium on what would have been opening day. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 71 / 83 Hayley, CEO and founder of Love My Neighbor Foundation, right, dances with Crystal Armster, 51, while she and her colleagues continue to feed the homeless on skid row amid the pandemic. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 72 / 83 A masked passenger on a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 73 / 83 Dede Oneal waits for a coronavirus test at the Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 74 / 83 A man in a mask passes a closed restaurant along Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 75 / 83 Artist Corie Mattie paints a mural on the side of a pop-up store as a man takes a picture in West Hollywood. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 76 / 83 Medical assistant Zoila Villalta works with Rosie Boston, 32, of Glendale, who is donating blood for her first time at L.A. Care Health Plan downtown. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 77 / 83 A couple wait for a bus outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 78 / 83 With all Los Angeles schools closed until further notice, LAUSD buses sit idle in Gardena. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 79 / 83 A lone traveler makes his way to catch a flight in Tom Bradley International Terminal. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 80 / 83 Denise Young looks on as her daughter, Allison, 9, a fourth-grader at EARThS (Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth Sciences) Magnet School in Newbury Park, receives a Chromebook. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 81 / 83 Hollywood Boulevard is devoid of the usual crowds. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 82 / 83 Michael Ray, 11, plays before a movie at the Paramount Drive-In. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 83 / 83 Isabella Leader, 15, counts how many flags have been left for World War II veteran Lt. Col. Sam Sachs who was celebrating his 105th birthday at the Mom & Dad’s House, an assisted living facility, in Lakewood. Lt. Col. Sachs appealed to the public for birthday cards after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of a big celebration and wound up receiving thousands, including a letter and photo from President Trump. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
On Tuesday, Garcetti said he supported working on reopening “low-risk spaces,” such as trails, in the next few days and weeks.
Garcetti did say wholesale flower distributors were allowed to reopen, under certain circumstances, because they’re exempt from the state’s COVID-19 orders as agricultural businesses.
Flower markets are being monitored, and they could be shut down if they do not follow the city’s social-distancing guidelines. Sunday is Mother’s Day, which is regarded as one of the busiest times of the year for florists.
Garcetti said Monday that different cities would need to take different steps to emerge from the pandemic-induced shutdown and that city and county officials were still trying to determine the safest course.
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“Our timing on opening may vary from other parts of the state,” he said. “I will reopen our city with careful consideration, guided by public health professionals.”
The mayor said he did not expect city businesses to be able to offer curbside delivery on Friday in step with Newsom’s outline. L.A.’s Safer at Home order is in effect until May 15 and Garcetti said that he hoped steps restricting commerce could begin to be rolled back by then.
Los Angeles County has been hit harder than other region in California, and that has heightened the concerns about reopening too early.
Los Angeles County officials confirmed 58 new COVID-19 deaths Tuesday, bringing the number of coronavirus-related fatalities in the county to 1,313. Of those who have died, 647 were living in institutional settings — the majority of which were nursing facilities.
Officials reported an additional 1,638 cases — a high number largely caused by a backlog in data reporting. So far, there have been 27,815 confirmed coronavirus infections in the county.
“We do know as we reopen, more people will be out and about, and we’ll see more cases,” said Los Angeles County Public Health director Barbara Ferrer. “Nothing has really changed about the virus since March. The virus didn’t get less deadly. The virus didn’t get less infectious. The virus is still out there.”
California Will reopening California bring more coronavirus cases, deaths? Two weeks ago, California reported its highest one-week toll — 542 fatalities among people infected with the coronavirus. Last week, the weekly death toll dropped 9% to 495.
Ferrer said L.A. County officials would be publicly sharing recovery plans this week, noting that “wherever it’s possible to safely reopen, we’ll be doing so as quickly as possible.”
Ferrer noted that although social distancing practices had helped slow the spread of COVID-19, the virus remains easily transmissible.
Still there have been some hopeful signs.
Los Angeles County , home to 55% of California’s COVID-19 deaths despite having only one-quarter of the state’s population, saw its reported weekly death toll flatten for the first time: 315 deaths in each of the past two weeks.
L.A. County saw a 2% decline in confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations last week compared to the previous week.
Los Angeles schools will start fall classes on Aug. 18, but no decision has been made on whether campuses will reopen by that date, Supt. Austin Beutner said Monday.
Education officials in L.A. and across California are wrestling with how and when to bring the state’s 6.1 million students back to campuses that have been shuttered since mid-March — as they continue to adjust to the difficulties of distance learning and move to strengthen online summer school offerings.
In his remarks Monday, Beutner noted that it’s difficult to set a timetable for reopening campuses.
“The timing remains uncertain because the science is still uncertain,” Beutner said. “At a minimum, a comprehensive system of testing and contact tracing will need to be in place and the implications of the testing widely understood before schools can reopen.”
The district is in discussions with state and local health authorities and working with a team of UCLA experts in infectious diseases, virology, epidemiology and testing to guide them on reopening scenarios.
Such guidance is “critical,” he said, “because it will be the science, and only the science, which can provide a foundation for the safe return of our school community.”
California UC could reopen just one-third of its dorm rooms this fall The University of California could reopen just one-third to one-half of its dorm rooms this fall to keep safe distances among students amid the coronavirus outbreak. It’s unclear which students would get to return to campus or where other students would live.
Newsom on Tuesday tried to set expectations, stressing that social-distancing practices would remain in place as more people would be put at risk when restrictions were lifted.
“We have to maintain the core construct of our stay-at-home orders,” he said at a news conference.
Times staff writers Howard Blume, Taryn Luna and Hannah Fry and City News Service contributed to this report.