(March 12, 2020, 4:05 p.m.) -- Hours after Governor Newsom's Executive Order (linked on LBREPORT.com's front page earlier today as breaking), the City of Long Beach announced the cancellation of multiple events, including but not limited to the Grand Prix, the City's largest annual event.
A City of LB release said LB Health Officer, Dr. Anissa Davis "signed a declaration that prohibits all large-scale events in the city. This declaration is effective immediately and will remain in effect through April 30, 2020, unless further action is taken by the Health Officer to lessen or expand the order. This order applies to all social, spiritual, recreational and business activities including, but not limited to: community, civic, public, leisure, faith-based and sporting events; parades; concerts; festivals; conventions; fundraisers and similar activities." Canceled/postponed events include but are not limited to those listed below. Other canceled events will be listed at www.longbeach.gov/covid19 as they are reported to the City." [Scroll down for further.] |
The City release stated: "The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has taken place for the last 45 years. It is the city’s most popular event and is attended by approximately 180,000 people annually. The City looks forward to working with Grand Prix Association of Long Beach as well as other promoters to find solutions for holding their events at a later date as the situation warrants.".
Today's (March 12) Executive Order by the Governor -- an order, not a "guidance" or "recommendation" -- left city officials with little choice. Roughly paraphrased (see exact text for precision), the Governor's Executive Order orders: 1. All residents are to heed orders of state/local public health officials re COVID-19 including "social distancing" measures. [Those include the Guidances for large events/mass gatherings, schools and universities, issued by the CA Dept. of Public Health on March 7 and reported in detail by LBREPORT.com hours after they were issued.]
As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, on March 10, Long Beach city management told LB's City Council that based on then-current conditions, the City hasn't recommended canceling upcoming events in Long Beach..but left room to change this.. None of LB's policy-setting City Councilmembers present (Uranga and Austin were absent) questioned or publicly disagreed with this.. LB Health & Human Services Director Kelly Colopy told the Council: "Many places are canceling events outside of the guidelines. At this time, we're not recommending cancellations but this may change as the situation evolves." She added: "So the situation is ever changing...As things escalate, if they escalate, recommendations for closures, cancellations, different HR policies, things like that may change. What we're reporting today is the status today, and we will be in constant communication with you and with our community as our teams prepare for the situations as they arise." In response to a question from 2nd district Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce about those planning forthcoming big events, Acting City Manager Tom Modica responded: ...We are looking at events. We look at them first from a safety perspective, so is it safe to do it, so in a lot of those we don't like at the financial perspective, we say is it a safety thing. So we are going to have some decisions coming up about certain events that are planned. Of course the event promoters at any time can decide what they want to do with their event. But the City at some point may need to make decisions whether we're going to do allow those events to continue or not. Again, as of today we are not at that point given what we know, but those are questions that we'll be working with our City Attorney and Economic Development if there's anything we can do.
Wrapping up management's March 10 presentation, Acting City Manager Modica said: "At our current phase, we are not saying that all major events need to be canceled. That might change in the future. We are seeing certain ones change, but that will be all situational dependent" and added: "There are tough questions being posed and the team is asking those tough questions so that we can confront those issues and plan for them. We are scenario planning for multiple potential eventualities."
Today's (March 12) Executive Order by the Governor -- an order, not a guidance or recommendation -- left the City with little choice.
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