

The Sweet Water, one of many queer bars along the Broadway Corridor in Long Beach. Photo by Brian Addison. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and Health and Human Services Director Kelly Colopy said today that they’re meeting with local bar owners to find ways they can reopen safely even while bars are normally mandated to stay closed under the state’s tiered coronavirus monitoring system. One possible way around this, however, is for bars to partner with approved restaurants to serve meals—essentially transforming them into dining establishments, which are currently open with outside seating and limited capacity. “We are working with bars to see if there’s a way that some of them can be viewed as restaurants,” Garcia said during a press conference Wednesday. “We know that some bars that have kitchens have reopened, but if we can get some ability to have bars operate like restaurants and have a food component, that could be allowed by the state.” The workaround to reopen bars is necessary because, as Garcia stressed, choosing which industries to close is a decision made by the state. Under California’s four-color tiered system, Long Beach still sits in the purple tier, which is used for counties […]
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