Governor Newsom, make things right. Let Central Coast form its own stay-at-home region

Allowing three Central Coast counties — San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura — to form their own COVID-19 lockdown region is an elegant solution to a problem that never should have existed in the first place.

Forcing San Luis Obispo County into the giant Southern California region, which includes major metro areas like Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego, was a huge mistake.

If Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t want a full-scale rebellion on his hands, he’ll let the three smaller counties to break away.

Given its distance from SoCal, San Luis Obispo County in particular should not be penalized by a regional system that keys COVID-19 stay-home orders to capacity in hospital intensive care units.

Even though SLO County’s ICU availability is not considered low, the lack of ICU beds in SoCal proper means our county falls under the same stay-at-home order as other areas that have been much harder hit.

Restaurants are now limited to take-out and delivery; wineries and breweries are closed; beauty salons and barber shops are shuttered; retail stores are open, but are limited to 20% capacity. As a result, an already battered economy is in even worse shape.

A state of anarchy?

Some communities already are refusing to enforce the order.

The Solvang City Council, for example, voted Monday night to not “actively enforce” county or state shutdown orders.

In San Luis Obispo County, Sheriff Ian Parkinson is taking much the same approach.

“Deputies will not be making traffic/pedestrian stops to determine the comings and goings of citizens during this time,” Parkinson said in a statement released Tuesday. “We will not be responding to calls for service based solely on non-compliance with the new order.”

And SLO County District Attorney Dan Dow said his office would not consider criminally prosecuting businesses that defy shutdown orders until cities had exhausted all other options, which include assessing fines.

“There is no sense in labeling a business owner or a business as a criminal for choosing to keep their business open in a manner that adequately protects their customers — who, by the way, are not being forced to enter their business,” Dow wrote.

‘We keep getting turned down’

Be forewarned: This is a bit of a long-shot.

Local politicians are skeptical about Newsom’s willingness to amend his original order.

“We keep asking permission for this stuff and we keep getting turned down,” Supervisor Lynn Compton said Tuesday, when the board voted unanimously to join in petitioning the governor to allow the new region.

There is a ray of hope, though. In response to public outcry, the governor loosened restrictions Wednesday to allow playgrounds to reopen in regions that are locked down on account of low ICU capacity. That shows some flexibility.

We aren’t asking the governor to throw out the entire regional plan. Of course everything possible must be done to preserve intensive care beds in hospitals that are rapidly running out of space as COVID-19 surges, and if that means locking down more areas, so be it.

But the plan should have been implemented to better reflect conditions across the state. There is no apparent reason to deprive residents of the ability to visit a hair salon or dine outdoors at a restaurant on account of a lack of ICU capacity in hospitals hundreds of miles away.

And as hard as the new shutdown order is on the general public, it’s much worse on businesses and their employees.

“Businesses are being impacted beyond belief downtown,” San Luis Obispo business owner Kannyn January told the county Board of Supervisors at Tuesday. “There’s not going to be very many people left downtown if we don’t do something about this.”

Threats for noncompliance

Newsom has threatened to withhold state funds from counties that don’t comply with regional shutdown orders.

If he follows through, he’ll incite even more anger, when he needs cooperation from all Californians.

No matter where we live, we can’t let down our guard against this deadly pandemic.

While San Luis Obispo County is much better off than many other counties — nearly 50% of its local ICU beds were open as of Tuesday — it doesn’t mean we’re in good shape overall.

In fact, local officials are saying we’re in the “deep purple” tier.

The county added 106 new cases on Wednesday and at least three coronavirus-related deaths. According to projections, we’ll surpass 8,000 total coronavirus cases by the end of December.

Our ICU capacity doesn’t give us license to play down the very real threat posed by this virus or to slack off on proven preventive measures, such as wearing masks, avoiding crowds and staying home when we’re ill.

Our goal should be to avoid catching the virus in the first place, so we can stay out of the ICU and reserve those beds for people with other serious medical conditions.

That doesn’t mean we have to hunker down in our homes, 24/7. That’s both unrealistic and unsustainable.

It means we need common-sense regulations for our area — not for Los Angeles.

We strongly urge the governor to allow the tri-counties to break away from Southern California and form a Central Coast region.

This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 7:41 AM.