Manhattan Beach Local Wants Public Dining 'Parkettes' Shut Down

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — EDITOR'S NOTE: This letter to the editor reflect the views of its author. Feel free to send your letter to the editor to Liz.Spear@Patch.com for consideration.

Based on the dire situation, not just at a county level, but right here at our local hospitals, I’m extremely concerned about the outdoor dining areas continuing to remain open against county guidelines. The new health order from LADPH dated 12/19 states that outdoor seating areas, which MB now refers to as "parkettes", have been officially added as prohibited. Despite not only Manhattan Beach’s numbers rapidly increasing, our own hospitals are beyond capacity, and we aren’t helping with this.

I drove through town recently and thought to myself, I wonder what a physician, nurse, respiratory therapist, or any healthcare worker would think as they drive through our town after working a long, exhausting and heartbreaking shift, during the pandemic as it stands today. Our very own local Torrance hospitals are currently a war zone, pleading with us to do our part and buckle up as much as possible right now.

The amount of people on Simmzy’s deck, without masks, and not even eating at tables, but rather standing around socializing and drinking made me feel so sad for our healthcare and hospital workers. I imagine it feels like a huge punch in the gut, to lose lives during your shift, yet drive through town seeing this. These are not groups of families sitting 6 feet apart eating, as the posted signs state, which isn’t permitted right now anyway. In addition, alcohol is not permitted in these areas, yet there’s plenty of that being enjoyed on the decks, which then leads to long visits without masks, as we all know.

As I looped up 9th Street, I then discovered a large group behind 900 Club, not even eating, but just closely gathered sitting on picnic benches watching a sports game on a hanging TV. Everyone was close together without masks, because they were all busy drinking. My safe assumption, given most were middle aged men, they weren’t from the same household.

I love our downtown restaurants and businesses. I have supported them before Covid and especially so during Covid. Before this current surge and ICU shortage, I was in support of outdoor dining remaining open at the previous 50% capacity. I have donated to the downtown restaurant funds, fed our hospital heroes, donated to the recent toy drive and done all I can for my restaurant friends.

It’s now time for MB to meet our restaurant owners and healthcare system in the middle, and with take-out permitted, fortunately we can do that until our hospitals have come up for air again. We need to be part of the solution, not adding to the illness and deaths, as well as working our doctors and nurses to the core, while blatantly disregarding guidelines. Please do the right (and now legal) thing and close down these misused "parkettes". They are nothing like a “bench on the strand or green belt”. We must stop comparing these dining decks to that. Patrons can support our restaurants by getting take-out until this critical surge slows down.

As an ICU doctor friend just said, doctors and nurses are no longer the frontlines.....WE ARE. They can’t keep up with this demand, and if we don’t do our part and change things now, there’s not much left that they can do. MB has helped “Feed our Healthcare Heroes”, but they need our cooperation far more than lunch right now. We can do better, Manhattan Beach, let’s please do our part for not only them, but all of us.

A Concerned Manhattan Beach Resident