Open Letter to Mayor Cathy Murillo:

COVID cases began their fearsome rise in Santa Barbara 14 days after Memorial Day weekend began — 14 days after State Street reopened for business and throngs of southlanders came here to celebrate.

Fast forward to July 1: Los Angeles is racked with infection, and we’re holding out a big fat invitation to everyone to come to sunny Santa Barbara this weekend. The bars will be closed, but the beaches will be open!

You told the council that we are keeping the beaches open because the county is keeping its beaches open. Why not lead the way toward a more sensible solution and declare Santa Barbara’s beaches closed, thus setting an example for the county? Why put the entire city at even greater risk than we already face as a result of our last ill-fated holiday weekend?

Business leaders fear the city can’t “survive” a continued shutdown. Well, without a shutdown, a lot of citizens won’t survive. Is it too much to ask to put them — us — first?

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