234 CA Eateries, Bars Broke Coronavirus Rules In 8 Months

CALIFORNIA — Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to drop the hammer on closing California when the first coronavirus cases hit West Coast shores last year, and restaurants and bars were among the first businesses forced to close.

But not all were eager to comply, and many simply struggled to follow the zigzagging rules over the last year. As a result, some 234 eateries, breweries, wineries and bars were either given a citation or notified for violating coronavirus restrictions in the state, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.

The department published data from July 3, 2020, to Feb. 26 detailing hundreds of instances in which bars allowed patrons inside without masks or physical distancing, operated while they were mandated to close or failed to ask employees to wear face coverings.

Some cities had more violations than others.

Sixteen bars and restaurants in Carlsbad violated coronavirus rules in January. And these are just citations that were given out by the state: Individual counties have their own counts.

In Los Angeles — which was considered the state's coronavirus epicenter — hundreds if not thousands of citations were handed out to businesses that failed to comply with county and state health orders.

Here's a list of restaurants and bars that violated coronavirus rules between July 3, 2020, and Feb. 26, according to the California Department of Health.

The idea of shuttering businesses to mitigate the ever-spreading coronavirus became politicized over the last year. Some counties and law enforcement agencies differed on how far they were willing to crack down, and some county health departments were more lenient than others in slapping businesses with fines.

During the height of California's winter surge, Riverside County took an "educational" approach to enforce orders that came down from the state, according to Brooke Federico, a spokesperson for Riverside County, in December.

"The county's enforcement position has always been to educate first," Federico said. "When a business has continued to operate outside of the current state orders, there have been times when the county has taken civil court action. Civil court actions include issuing cease and desist orders or seeking a temporary restraining order from the court."

A few law enforcement agencies flat out refused to enforce the many variations of Newsom's stay-at-home orders. In a YouTube video posted last year, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco decried Newsom's threat to withhold funding from counties that didn't enforce the order.

"The dictatorial attitude toward California residents while dining in luxury, traveling, keeping his business open and sending his kids to in-person private schools is very telling about his attitude toward California residents, his feelings about the virus, and it is extremely hypocritical," Bianco said.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes was also hesitant to enforce coronavirus orders. "To put [the] onus on law enforcement to enforce these orders against law-abiding citizens who are already struggling through difficult circumstances while at the same time criticizing law enforcement and taking away tools to do our jobs is both contradictory and disingenuous," Barnes said.

In contrast, Contra Costa County took one of the toughest approaches to enforcing state health orders and county mandates.

"Most folks are concerned, and many of these businesses really do want to comply with the health orders," Scott Alonso, spokesman for the county district attorney's office, told Patch last year. "But some are not following social distancing, and they're not enforcing that masks be worn in their businesses."

Now that coronavirus cases in the Golden State have dramatically declined, with more than 82 percent of Californians living under the orange tier, more restaurants were able to reopen than ever.

Some businesses have been able to resume operations, but others that violated rules during the state's winter height are still paying the price.

Restauration in Long Beach ignited a fury of controversy by staying open during the state's winter surge. It closed its doors permanently Monday, the Long Beach Post reported.

Owner Dana Tanner was saddled with thousands of dollars worth of fines and fees, as well as 20 misdemeanor charges, and faced possible eviction after she kept her eatery open after the city revoked her health permit, the Post reported.

"I don’t want to be looking over the shoulder for the rest of my life fighting for my business in Long Beach, so I just made the hard decision to close," Tanner told the Post.

Coronavirus data in California as of Wednesday

• California has 3,606,882 confirmed cases to date.

• There were 2,487 newly recorded confirmed cases.

• The seven-day positivity rate is 1.7 percent.

• There have been 56,837,538 tests conducted in California.

• There have been 59,372 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.