June 15, is the official reopening day for the state of California, but after 15 months of lockdown how much will things really change?
After 15 months of closures, layoffs, worker burnout and over 63,000 deaths in the state of California, the mask mandate has been lifted as of June 15, 2021.
But will things ever really go back to normal? It might take a little bit of time for some people to adjust. Today I walked down Atlantic Avenue in Bixby Knolls to get a feel for how the reopening is going in our community.
The pandemic hit all businesses pretty hard, (minus online shopping behemoths like Amazon) but one of the hardest hit was tattoo shops.
“I feel like everything that happened was a war on the arts—on music, art, and culture,” said Gerardo Christ, manager of Bixby Knolls Tattoo. “How is it possible that Walmart, the mall, and ‘Home-Cheapo’…. but yet museums were closed, schools were closed, anything with live music, anything that had to do with culture, unity, and community was closed but Walmart and Home Depot stayed open.”
While I walked down Atlantic there were a few things I noticed.
One of the first things was that the streets were still relatively empty and, of the few people I did see, most were still wearing masks. Every employee at the restaurants I walked past was also still masked up and, while indoor dining is allowed again at nearly full capacity, more of the outdoor seating was occupied.
Many businesses still had their doors closed, but nearly every store had a sign on the door saying something about the new COVID-19 rules that went into effect this morning. In addition to the mask rules, many businesses had signs advertising that they were hiring.
As the city, state and world move past the coronavirus pandemic how will it shift our culture? What will we keep from this and what will we hope to never have to experience again?
