What makes Sonoma County an outlier when it comes to reopening

During the month of May, California became a state with a great divide.

In one camp are counties like Napa, where people shopped and treated themselves to their first sit-down restaurant meals in weeks over Memorial Day weekend, thanks to the county’s “variance attestation.” The bureaucratic-sounding phrase signals a release from some of the harsh restrictions set down by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

“It was really crazy,” said Baris Yildiz, who co-owns Ristorante Allegria with his brother, Rodi, in downtown Napa. “People were just coming out, like they’ve been chained or locked down at home. It means everyone started driving to Napa for a daytrip.”

That presented a stark contrast with the other side of the divide, in counties that haven’t been able to satisfy the state’s criteria for variance; there, restaurants remain closed, retail shops locked and churches reduced to online services.

Then there is Sonoma County, practically a category of its own.

Newsom gave the go-ahead for this county Tuesday, offering Sonoma the opportunity to move deeper into Stage 2 of the reopening process. It was an announcement that briefly buoyed the spirits of pastors, hairstylists and itchy consumers all over the county. But their excitement was short-lived as the stoplight failed to go from red to green. Later Tuesday, Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase declined to approve some of the variance’s wider freedoms.

It was a wake-up call for local business leaders and a reminder that in this pandemic, county health officials such as Mase hold just as much power over public policy as the governor.

“California has modified our Stay-at-Home order to allow counties to decide if specific sectors or activities should be resumed within their jurisdictions, based upon their local data, preparedness and circumstances,” Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, told The Press Democrat through a representative. “Local health officials know their communities best, and Californians should pay attention and listen to these leaders.”

That was news to some Sonoma County residents who, noting that Mase had followed Newsom’s lead on most reopening measures before this week, figured their region would grab any opportunity the governor presented to loosen restrictions. Instead, Mase said she wants at least two weeks to observe the impact of her previous revision, which allowed, among other activities, patio restaurant dining and summer camps.

Mase’s demurral Tuesday made Sonoma County an outlier. According to California’s covid19.ca.gov website, only 10 of California’s 58 counties, more than half of them in the Bay Area, had yet to seek greater latitude from the governor’s office as of this weekend. Nonessential businesses remain closed there. (That number does not include Los Angeles County, which reportedly received permission Friday, a move not reflected on the website.)

Of the other 48 counties, the vast majority have taken full advantage of their freedom. It was unclear exactly how many, as the state does not compile that information.

Among the counties bordering Sonoma, Marin is the only one that has not been cleared to move forward. The other four - Napa, Mendocino, Lake and Solano - quickly adopted in-room dining, haircuts and church services when allowed.

It’s a source of frustration to many in Sonoma County who have come to see “Wine Country” or “the North Bay” as an integrated whole, with overlapping terrain and culture. That’s especially true of Napa and Sonoma counties, opposite sides of the same vineyard-dominated coin. How can one of them feel safe in opening its restaurant dining rooms and barber chairs when the other doesn’t?

The answer, Mase has made clear, is driven by data. She has not considered shared heritage or hills when making her decisions.

Asked last week whether Napa County’s wider reopening could prove to be a useful model for Sonoma, she went straight to the numbers. “I’m looking right now to see how many cases they have versus us,” she said on a video press conference. “Just a second. Here we go. Well, I don’t think so. Napa has 92 cases and we have 411.”

As of Friday, Napa County had reported 113 cases, Sonoma 548.

“The less people that are together at one time in one place, the less transmission there is,” Mase said then. “And we have a much greater population, and we have our urban areas, which I think are probably more crowded and populated than that of Napa.”

As of Friday, Sonoma County hadn’t recorded any deaths related to COVID-19 over the previous two weeks. But the county’s rate of 37.9 new cases (those within two weeks) per 100,000 people was markedly higher than that of Napa (21.5), Mendocino (17.0), Lake (15.4) or Solano (24.8). Marin’s rate was a worrisome 58.7 new cases per 100,000, an indication of why that county has yet to be given clearance to reopen more.

The divergent policies have some Sonoma County residents thinking about driving over the hill for a haircut or long-anticipated restaurant dinner. Yildiz hasn’t been checking where his customers live, but he figures some must be from nearby Sonoma or Petaluma.

“I want to say last weekend, 90% of our guests were from out of town,” he said.

Napa’s reopening has not been the capitalist paradise that some may have envisioned, though. Thursday, a full day after that county revised its stay-at-home order to include salon services, it was hard to find a single stylist or barber shop open in the city of Napa. Retail shops had been green-lighted for a week by then. Some were open downtown, but customers were sparse.

The public, it seems, isn’t entirely ready to begin mixing again. And not all businesses are ready to open. Some Napa restaurants remained closed during the Thursday lunch hour, while many were sticking to the takeout orders that have helped get them through the pandemic.

The challenges for restaurants are steep. Some found it difficult to reel staff back in after the long layoff. And then there are the social distancing protocols that require at least 6 feet between dining tables. At Norman Rose Tavern on First Street in Napa, owner Michael Gyetvan estimated his capacity at half of normal.

“The bar is the biggest challenge for this restaurant,” he said of the popular happy hour spot. “We’re dancing with how you seat people up there.”

And Napa offers some cautionary reopening tales. Memorial Day weekend brought its share of crowding and overindulging day tourists, just the sort of behavior that makes health officials worry about an infection spike.

“It was kind of weird downtown last week, because people were walking around with cocktails in their hands,”

It’s a dilemma many in Sonoma County would love to have. By Mase’s order, it will be at least another week before they get the chance.

You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.