Like many small business owners across the state, Ivan Flowers knows the pain of keeping his restaurant, Brass Tap in Roseville, alive during a pandemic. “There are a lot of restaurants that had to fold. They don’t have a voice; they can’t survive the pandemic,” Flowers said. Flowers joins around 20 Placer County business operators joining together this week to file a lawsuit against the state of California. The group, known as the Placer County Restaurant & Bar Coalition, is calling Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandated public health restrictions on small restaurants unconstitutional.”We have restaurants that have done our best to adhere to every guideline, every mandate that governor has put out, and they have found themselves in a position they close one more time, they close for good,” said Matthew Oliver, owner of House of Oliver in Roseville.KCRA 3 reached out to the California Department of Public Health multiple times over the last several months, asking for data showing restaurants as transmission sites for COVID-19. They have yet to provide that information to us.”At some point, if we are going to say we care about lives, I care about the lives of my 50 employees,” Oliver said. But researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday shows evidence finding that COVID-19 case and death rates sped up in areas allowing in-person dining or not requiring masks. “You have decreases in cases and deaths when you wear masks, and you have increases in cases and deaths when you have in-person restaurant dining,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.Meanwhile, the fight to outlast a deadly pandemic remains the painful reality local business owners must face.”It’s a struggle, trying to provide not only for your employees but yourself, paying your rent, covering your payroll,” Flowers said.
Like many small business owners across the state, Ivan Flowers knows the pain of keeping his restaurant, Brass Tap in Roseville, alive during a pandemic.
“There are a lot of restaurants that had to fold. They don’t have a voice; they can’t survive the pandemic,” Flowers said.
Flowers joins around 20 Placer County business operators joining together this week to file a lawsuit against the state of California. The group, known as the Placer County Restaurant & Bar Coalition, is calling Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandated public health restrictions on small restaurants unconstitutional.
“We have restaurants that have done our best to adhere to every guideline, every mandate that governor has put out, and they have found themselves in a position [where if] they close one more time, they close for good,” said Matthew Oliver, owner of House of Oliver in Roseville.
KCRA 3 reached out to the California Department of Public Health multiple times over the last several months, asking for data showing restaurants…
Read More: Some Placer County restaurants sue state over COVID-19 restrictions