Sonoma ‘held hostage’ by county cases, say business owners

Frustrated by pandemic health safety orders keeping certain businesses closed, tightly restricted or operating at lower capacity, some Sonoma Valley business owners are hoping lawmakers will revise the way it identifies areas of highest risk to something like a regional district instead of by county.

“Why can’t we break it down into different sectors,” questioned Saul Gropman, owner of Café La Haye in Sonoma.

Gropman reviewed Sonoma County’s coronavirus cases website and noticed that broken down by ZIP code the percentage of cases by ratio told a very different story than the county’s overall ratio that puts it in the purple tier according to state guidelines.

Located just off the Sonoma Plaza, Gropman’s restaurant still wouldn’t be eligible to move into a less restricted tier status because of the city’s infection ratio. However, businesses located in Glen Ellen and Kenwood, for example, would be eligible.

For example, on Monday, Oct. 19 the Santa Rosa ZIP code 95407 has 13 percent of active cases in the county compared to Glen Ellen (95442) and Kenwood (95452) which have one and zero percent, respectively, of active cases. The City of Sonoma and its 95476 ZIP code has 11 percent of the county’s total active cases on the same date.

Looking at other Sonoma County cities, such as Healdsburg at 4 percent, Petaluma and Windsor, each with 5 percent total active cases, the concept could be a game changer for businesses in those areas.

Kenwood has been hit particularly hard with multiple power outages forced by PG&E’s PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff) in 2019 and again this year, evacuations from the 2017 fires and this year’s Glass fire, plus the pandemic closures and restrictions.

Sean Lautz, assistant manager at Paradise Ridge Winery tasting room in Kenwood, said being able to move into the red tier – which would allow indoor tastings at a reduced number of total occupancy – would be a huge help to business.

In a five-day period following the lifting of the Glass fire evacuation, the tasting room had a total of two customers. The site has a large outdoor covered patio area, but recent high-temperature days make outdoor seating unpalatable for some.

“If we could move past (the purple tier), we have air conditioning,” and could seat people inside, he said.

Pedro Rodriguez, owner and winemaker of Fathia Wines, said he closed the tasting room in the Kenwood plaza for about three months at the beginning of the pandemic. His business space is small, with a 25-seat capacity, and has no true, dedicated outdoor patio space. Rodriguez is making do with a couple of tables and chairs on the sidewalk, and can block off a section of a parking space to make room for more seats. The landlord was helpful and allowed him to remove some bushes to make room, he said.

He lives in Napa and said he would go to the tasting room every so often to water the plants and check on things. One plant was about dead, but being an optimist, he kept watering it.

“That little plant is giving me hope,” he said pointing to a green shoot about eight inches tall. “It’s springing new life.”

He, too, is hopeful the state will be open to the idea of color-coding clusters rather than lumping them together by county. Rodriguez makes 300 cases of wine a year, a comparatively tiny production, and needs all the help he can get. He said he’s like the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” and is willing to do whatever it takes to stay in business.

“I don’t plan on going anywhere,” Rodriguez said.

To move to the less restrictive red tier, counties must get their case rate under 7 new daily cases per 100,000 and a test positivity of 8 percent or less. If this formula were applied to a region or a district of sorts, Sonoma Valley businesses could reopen according to the red tier rules.

“It doesn’t make sense why we can’t pull Sonoma Valley out of this,” said Sondra Bernstein, owner of The Girl & The Fig in Sonoma and Fig Café and Wine Bar in Glen Ellen as well as other food businesses.

The Girl & The Fig is operating with outdoor seating, but due to the purple tier status of Sonoma County the restaurant is unable to seat people inside.

Neighboring Napa County is in the red tier and reported on Tuesday that if its metrics continue to show improvement it may move into the even less restrictive orange tier.

Sonoma, the city, is physically closer to Napa than it is to Santa Rosa, and Gropman said he can “drive 10 minutes to the Boon Fly Café in Napa and eat indoors.” But customers cannot eat inside at restaurants in Glen Ellen or Kenwood because the coronavirus numbers in Santa Rosa, at least a 30 minute drive away, are keeping Sonoma County in the purple tier.

Adam Kovacs, who owns Sonoma Fit with his wife, is livid that the rules prevent him from opening his gym. He owns fitness centers in Petaluma and Novato, and because they are in different counties one is open the other is not. Novato, located in Marin County, is in the red tier and allows gyms to operate in a limited capacity.

Members of his Petaluma gym are driving “two exits south” to his Novato location, and then driving back into Sonoma County.

People travel in and out of counties, said the business owners, and that means people can transport the virus from one to the other making the boundaries of each county insignificant in the overall scheme.

The tiers and corresponding color codes -- "purple" (widespread), "red" (substantial), "orange" (moderate) or "yellow" (minimal) -- are part of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy for reducing COVID-19. Counties are assigned a tier based on its rate of cases and positivity of coronavirus. Counties can enter a less restrictive tier system based on their rates, and at a minimum must remain in a tier for at least three weeks before moving forward, and then be at the next tier level for two consecutive weeks before moving forward.

Kovacs has been talking to county leaders, specifically county supervisors David Rabbitt (District 2) and Susan Gorin (District 1) – Kovacs said Rabbitt hasn’t responded to his communications for months, but Gorin has been empathetic – and is “frustrated” with the lack of movement.

Gorin emphasized that the tier system is determined by the state, not the county, and the county’s hands are tied. “The government will not open (the county) until we get serious about” reducing our numbers, she said.

Dr. Sundari Mase said on Wednesday that the county is taking steps to address the social equity factor of coronavirus cases, specifically in the Latinx community. The county is responding in a “multi-pronged” manner that includes “ramped up testing,” outreach and education, with a goal of bringing down the overall numbers, she said.

A spokesperson from the California Department of Public Health said the Blueprint “and its Equity Focus is a science and data-based approach for tightening and loosening restrictions on our economy. We are always happy to talk to stakeholders about what future iterations to the Blueprint might look like, but with flu season right around the corner, we are taking a slow and stringent approach to protect the health of all Californians.”

That leaves the county stuck with higher numbers in some ZIP codes with no option to adjust accordingly, because the county is beholden to state guidelines.

The numbers “paint a very clear picture,” Kovacs said. “There’s one larger ZIP code causing issues, therefore the whole county” suffers. “We are ultimately being held hostage. If you take this one problem area out of the equation we would be in orange.”

Contact Anne at anne.ernst@sonomanews.com.