This Week on the Central Coast
Chick-Fil-A, more tourists, and more testing
Lately, most of the local news has been dominated by the same stories. Aloha Coffee was ordered to close down after still not complying with the county health code regarding masks. I didn’t cover any full reports about this because it is one of the main news stories of the week and can easily be found. I was very happy to find a story about something other than COVID: Chick-Fil-A and Fosters Freeze. As always, thanks for reading!
Salinas is getting a Chick-Fil-A and a second Fosters Freeze.
Chick-Fil-A will be located at the Northridge Mall. It will be the first location in Monterey County; the next closest is in San Jose. The second Fosters Freeze will be opened at North Main and East Boronda Road. The two restaurants were planned to open last summer, but were delayed. Currently, The Salinas Community Development Department says they “may open” in 2021.
Carmel shrugs off restrictions banning non-essential travel.
Concerns have grown with some local residents about the amount of non-essential travelers staying in hotels in the area. When questioned about it, Carmel-by-the-Sea Mayor Dave Potter excused it by saying “there’s not a whole lot going on with the hotels”, implying there are not many visitors compared to normal times. He also explained: "What's essential is a little bit open to interpretation if you ask me". Mayor Potter continued by saying that the city runs on the revenue created from tourism and the pandemic has made it difficult - just like the rest of the county. The article points out that “Potter gets a first-hand look at the hotel industry in Carmel, as his wife Janine Chicourrat is the Managing Director for the Portola Hotel.”
I’ve noticed this particular issue first-hand. I work in Carmel and have met several people over the past couple of weeks who were visiting from other states, such as Texas, Florida, Washington, and New York. I’ve even met some from Argentina and India. Most are staying in hotels around Carmel and Monterey, such as the Portola Hotel, the Highlands Inn, and the Briarwood Inn. Current county restrictions suggest, whether coming from out of the state or country, or simply from another California county, that all travelers self-quarantine for at least 14 days after arriving. This is pretty frustrating considering our positivity rating is rising dramatically each week.
Seaside plans to open another testing location.
Seaside recently received some funding and have determined the best way to use it would be to open a new testing location. Currently, only one location is available in Seaside, at Seaside High School. Any leftover funding will be used for food distribution.
If you need to find a testing site, please consider using my list of testing locations in our area [here].
This past week, our COVID positivity nearly reached 56% with 46 more deaths! Remember to shelter in place and wear a mask when you must go out. These numbers are getting insane.
For more information on Monterey County’s COVID-19 numbers, check out this Reddit user’s graphs on Imgur. They update every week and cover a variety of statistics, including case counts by city. Here is the original Reddit post, which gives greater detail of their sources, including the state of California and CHOMP.