City's Own Outdoor Dining Ban Up For Discussion, Manhattan Beach

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Tonight's discussion of the new outdoor dining ban in Manhattan Beach should make for a spirited City Council meeting. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. Mayor Suzanne Hadley has told the Daily Breeze, that she wants to hear the reasoning behind the decision from fellow City Council members Steve Napolitano and Richard Montgomery, who made the closure decision last Saturday and implemented it late Sunday night.

Said Hadley to the Breeze, “There appears to be a majority in favor of this, but I think the public and our businesses should weigh in. I’d like to hear from my colleagues what their reasoning was behind the change; we don’t have data specifically linking COVID cases with outdoor dining, so I’m reluctant to punish our smaller businesses for something that isn’t their fault.”

Napolitano and Montgomery were able to make the decision to shutter the public outdoor dining "parklets" the city was allowing because they are the two council members appointed to serve on the Long Term Business Solutions Ad Hoc committee. That committee was given authority to come up with solutions to the initial Los Angeles County outdoor dining ban effective the night before Thanksgiving as well to reverse course without having to consult the full five-member city council.

And the committee did just that, offering a workaround solution that initially probably did not violate the county's health order. The workaround was to turn the outdoor dining areas where the restaurants had been waiting on and serving diners into public "parklets" where customers could sit and eat their to-go food orders. Severs and restaurant staff would no longer work in those areas and diners would be responsible for their own social distancing, clean up, utensils as needed, etc. By the first weekend in December restaurants were poised to fulfill to-go orders and enjoy a hopefully increased amount of traffic and sales due to the available outdoor seating.

However, the numbers for the coronavirus in Manhattan Beach continued to escalate in unseen quantity and timeframes, mirroring much of what LA County was facing but on a much smaller scale. Montgomery and Napolitano put an end to the "parklets".

Of the decision, Montgomery told Manhattan Beach Patch today, "Our first obligation as a council member is 'public safety'. We have suffered five deaths to date due to COVID. We believe our actions were necessary immediately and absolutely the right action to take. My wife works at a hospital where they had to convert a pediatric floor to adults due to the lack of available beds."

As for Hadley's statement that she is reluctant to punish smaller businesses in the city, he said, "No, we are not 'punishing any businesses'. We read the data where our COVID cases skyrocketed from 421 to 835 cases in four weeks.

"We also had complaints with pictures of alcohol being on the decks in clear violation of the rules! And people congregating on the desks without masks or eating. These continued displays of poor judgment along with the skyrocketing number of COVID cases made our decision for us."

Napolitano was unavailable for comment due to a heavy work schedule for the day.

Tonight's discussion will be interesting as business owners and community members weigh in on the dire straits of the existence and spread of the deadly coronavirus and the demise of locally-owned, independent businesses that comprise the special tapestry Manhattan Beach is.

At the time the public outdoor dining "parklets" were introduced, Mike Simms, whose Simms Restaurants operates several Manhattan Beach restaurants, said of the city's workaround, "It’s doubled our take-out sales. It has kept 75 of our 450 people employed. The restaurant community collectively owes our city a big thank you."

For Mike Zislis, who had decided to temporarily close Rock'N Fish and The Strand House, two of his establishments in Downtown Manhattan Beach, reopened them after the "parklets" opened. Jenna Ritter, director of marketing for Zislis' Manhattan Beach restaurants, told Manhattan Beach Patch yesterday, "All of our restaurants will remain open for take-out and delivery with the same hours including $60 family meals." she said they may also introduce Dinners for 2 and other meal package options at all of its restaurants.

For The Hangar Inn in East Manhattan Beach, which had set up outdoor dining on its parking lot and hadn't been able to continue with that once the county ban took effect in late November, not having an outdoor dining area has not been a good thing. Just today, co-owner Dean Moss told Manhattan Beach Patch that once the restaurant has sold through its current food supply, they will close for at least January and maybe longer depending on what happens.

Community members can provide ecomment on any items on the council agenda for tonight's meeting by going to this webpage. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. and is virtual. Details for watching the meeting are on this city webpage.

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