LA County to provide nearly $6M in aid to restaurants

A week after it banned outdoor dining, Los Angeles County said it will provide $5.6 million in aid to help pandemic-affected restaurants.

The county will award up to $30,000 each to restaurants that will help cover employee payroll, business expenses, changes that were made to stay open and other expenses, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. It gives preference to restaurants that were providing outdoor dining as of Nov. 24, when the measure went into place.

It does not include properties in the City of L.A. and Pasadena.

It would be difficult to find a restaurant that hasn’t lost business because of the pandemic, given the continued ongoing struggles to contain the virus.

County restaurants have been able to operate at some capacity for most of the pandemic, but were hit with a gut punch recently, when authorities suspended outdoor dining. They are now subject to the strictest guidelines since the near-complete shutdowns this spring.

The county’s recent move to ban outdoor dining came in response to the sharp increase in the spread of coronavirus over the last several weeks. Restaurant owners and local government officials have sharply criticized the measure.

Pasadena broke with the county and is allowing outdoor dining.

The Beverly Hills City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution demanding the outdoor dining ban be repealed, according to CBS LA. It also directed city staff to explore options to establish its own health department to make policy independent of the county. [LADN] — Dennis Lynch