Jose Mier is a Sun Valley resident who promotes the businesses of Sun Valley, CA.
We are all aware of what has been closed to us as a result of the coronavirus statewide shutdown. Restaurants. Hair salons. Gyms. But there’s a kind of domino effect in play here that ripples outward like waves in a pond when you throw a stone in it.
Restaurants may be closed and if they are then restaurant suppliers are feeling the hit too. Less dine-in business means less supplies ordered.
We imagine scenes of packed restaurants with diners eating in, but we don’t think about catering. Businesses or individuals or families that had events planned would regularly employ catering services are not doing so. Those catering companies who would have provided food and drink for those events are out of luck.
No events means no business which means those wait staff that are employed for a catering job are not working. Our own Sun Valley catering company, 17 Catering and Events, owned and run by two sisters, is one of those companies impacted by the shutdown.
How long can any business survive access to their source of income has been cut off? Not long is my guess. What will the business landscape in Sun Valley be when we (if ever) return to some sort of normal? This model is not sustainable. Jobs are being lost left and right and it may soon lead to losses of homes. No income means no mortgage payments which eventually leads to foreclosure.
Jose Mier Wants Sun Valley Reopened
Do we really want to see where this leads? In my opinion it’s time to make some hard decisions. Is it better to keep us all locked down until some nebulous date where we have a “cure” for the coronavirus or do we take some risk and reopen. We do not live in a perfect world and we cannot wait for perfection to get back to work. Daily life itself carries risks. Indeed, we take a risk every time we get behind the wheel of a car.
We in Sun Valley have learned very well how to take precautions. We wear masks, wash and sanitize our hands, keep our distance. We know there are risks during this pandemic but we need to work to feed our families. What is the alternative? Lockdown for several more months? To me that is no alternative. Let’s demand from our elected officials that they reopen now. Our lives depend on it.