In Little Italy, there’s never been any more food on the sidewalk. In Balboa Park, museum lovers sign up for runners. At Coronado hotels in Mission Valley, tourists show up.
San Diego County, where the desert meets the sea and the United States meets Mexico, is now in the middle of a new type of Venn diagram: for many weeks it has had hotel occupancy rates on the West Coast and some of the lowest COVID rates. . -19 infection and mortality rates in Southern California.
These figures are welcome for local staff and visitors. The concern, of course, is that unsuspecting tourists, or locals, can put everything at risk.
“It’s a balance,” said Marco Li Mandri, manager of Little Italy Assn. , who helped restaurateurs climb tables on sidewalks.
As local and tourism officials navigate between sufficient promotion and too much, visitors will have to make their own decisions.
With fewer restrictions in San Diego than much of the rest of Southern California, is it time to eat in a dining room than in any other courtyard?What if it was an aviation museum, with rooms large enough to house a dozen planes?
The risk-conscious San Diego Tourism Authority fills its videos with masked travelers and urges visitors to take on a “promise of traveler protection,” including dressing in a mask, washing their hands, separating six feet, and paying contactlessly.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom eased restrictions on August 28, San Diego, the only county in Southern California legal to open up its restaurants, museums, theaters, and places of worship at a capacity of 25%. (Eleven days later, Orange County won permission to do the same. )
As of September 9, San Diego County reported 123. 6 new COVID cases consisting of 100,000 citizens in the last 14 days, the figure for Orange County 106, for L. A. County, 152. 4 cases.
But there are many dangers left. With the new semester of hybrid learning for a few weeks at San Diego State University, county fitness officials have reported 400 cases of COVID-19 among students. In response, the university closed the maximum courses in person on September 2 for at least a month.
Meanwhile, the state continues to discourage tourism, urging Californians to “avoid long distances to vacation or excitement as much as possible. “
Here are some week-long scenes in the city:
In Little Italy, north of the city centre, about 30 restaurants were allowed to climb tables on the sidewalk and in car parking lots, a resolution that increases pedestrian power on India Street, their main road.
These piles of new seats do not compensate for the loss of profits in recent months (especially in urban centres that rely on conferences and core activities), but even on Tuesday nights, pedestrian traffic is intense and the environment is light.
Saxophonist Jason Brown solo on Earth’s “Reasons” Wind
“It’s healing, ” said Brown, the crowd in the air.
But on the corner of India and Fir streets, I counted 74 other people who were dressed correctly in their mask, 61 in the mask moved or absent.
One of the most demanding situations for restaurateurs, Li Mandri said, is “the people to which it is a violation of their freedom to wear a mask. “We say, “Go somewhere else. “”
The maximum positive side, Mandri added, is for commercial homeowners to rehire many fired in the spring. And now, “we’re working in tents. Tents and radiators. “
On the waterfront in downtown, no major cruiser has stopped since early spring, but the USS Midway Museum, a recycled aircraft carrier with more than a dozen old aircraft on its deck, is open. Museum, whose 10 ships come with the Star of India, built in 1863 and described as “the oldest active sailboat in the world”.
Lighting artifacts flash on the Star’s platform after dark. A short walk away is Portside Pier, a three-level dining complex that opened on July 28 in a remarkable new construction on Harbor Drive. The operation includes The Brigantine (seafood), Miguel’s Cocina (Mexican) and Ketch, a grill whose skeletal dome design resembles a doodle made through Buckminster Fuller after 4 or five Crowns. Consider melted tuna, which includes bacon and avocado.
Most of Balboa Park’s cultural establishments were closed for much of the summer (the San Diego Zoo opened June 20). Now that is changing, and museum visitors are among the runners and young families in the park’s gardens and alleys.
The Park’s San Diego Air and Space Museum, which will temporarily relocate because it has never laid off staff, reopened on August 31. Even if it’s separated from trains, the museum’s miniature world is breathtaking.
The lush Japanese Friendship Garden and the art studios of the Spanish village of the park are open, and the restaurants of Prado and Panama 66 serve lunch daily; for other organizations, however, reopening will take longer.
The Park’s Natural History Museum and Fleet Science Center will be closed until the end of the year, while the Timken Museum of Art will be closed until March. The old globe, the Museum of Photographic Arts and several others are also closed.
For the month ending August 15, Smith Travel Research Inc. found that San Diego hotels were 50-53% full.
That year would be a terrible number, but in 2020 they made San Diego the busiest hotel market on the West Coast, only beating Los Angeles and San Francisco (average room rate in San Diego: $132, before taxes and fees).
At hotel del Coronado, the most emblematic accommodation in the county, the rooms were booked for the maximum weekend of hard work despite pandemic measures and a renovation that closed parts of the property.
The reception is now outdoors on the grassy courtyard, and the sun deck and sheerwater beachfront restaurants are busy. Next year, the hotel will open a renovated lobby, a spa and an advertising area.
In Mission Valley, the Legacy International Center, a hotel assignment by evangelist Morris Cerullo, opened this year, and Town and Country Resort entered a new era.
The Town and Country, born in 1953 (when Mission Valley basically consisted of dairy farms), reopened in late June after a $70 million renovation celebrating its mid-century atmosphere.
The hotel can simply be a forged circle of family destinations with its giant pool, water slide and costs starting at $129, but it’s not yet there. During my stay from August 31 to September 2, the structure and landscaping were underway, blocking visitors’ corridors and filling the site (before 8 a. m. ) with the sound of shovels, saws, backhoeers and other heavy machinery.
In Mission Bay, SeaWorld San Diego reopened on August 28 with limited hours, Friday through Sunday, and an attempt to position itself as a zoo that as a theme park.
The marine park, called SeaWorld Zoo Days: Bayside BBQ and Brews, has opened a 40-acre area with animal presentations and exhibits, as well as a barbecue, fish tacos and beer from local breweries. Arcade games are open.
In La Jolla, hikers and tourists paddle in kayaks for rent near the sea lions accommodation. UcSD’s Birch Aquarium will reopen on September 15. On the busy ocean terrace at George’s at the Cove, the tables are now separated through glass panels. On the ground floor of the cocktail bar and Level2 restaurant, host Vivienne Gotz said we “booked at least two weeks in advance each weekend. “
Even the original little troglodyte tent on La Jolla’s coastal side road has figured out a way to open up its self-guided tours of the sea caves. In August, access to the century-old sandstone tunnel below the tent is limited to a handful of consumers every part-hour, by reservation, however, Cave Store now makes an appointment on Tuesday.
Later along the coast in Carlsbad, Legoland remains closed. But the Legoland Hotel is open (“some of our lowest costs ever seen”), and visitors can visit Miniland USA Park. In addition, the adjacent Sea Life Aquarium opened on September 4.