Long Beach city council approves $5 million in aid for local restaurant industry

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council approved a $5 million “resiliency fund” to assist restaurants, breweries and bars that have been impacted by COVID-19 health mandates.

After Long Beach and Los Angeles County health officials temporarily banned outdoor dining, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia proposed the Restaurant, Brewery and Bar Resiliency Fund last week to aid local businesses. 

With this ban now extended for at least three weeks under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s regional stay-at-home order, which went into effect Sunday, many of these businesses are facing significant financial losses. 

“Obviously our restaurants, bars and the industry are in great need of additional financial support, and not just in Long Beach but statewide,” Garcia said during Tuesday’s meeting. 

The mayor’s proposal means this $5 million in aid will come directly out of the city’s anticipated $40 million stimulus package, which Garcia said he has been discussing with President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s transition team. According to Garica, the stimulus may be available before the end of the year. 

“I’m very confident in the conversations I’m having with the Biden administration that there is going to be a strong relief package on its way,” Garcia said. “There may even be an interim package here in the next few weeks, but there will be a significant package come January.” 

If the stimulus package is indeed granted to the city in January, the mayor said Tuesday’s approved $5 million will just be the start of the fund. 

Several Long Beach residents voiced their support of the proposal and said they were looking forward to this aid going to the local restaurant industry, including Alex Cherin, a spokesperson for the Long Beach Restaurant Association.  

“We want to work with city staff and others to make sure that we’ve got the infrastructure in place ahead of time,” Cherin said. “So that when the tranche of funding is received, hopefully in the second waves of the CARES Act money, that we’re prepared to deploy it.”

In addition to the Restaurant, Brewery and Bar Resiliency Fund, Garcia has proposed the Personal Services and Fitness Resiliency Fund, another $5 million resiliency fund intended to assist personal care service providers like barbershops, nail salons and independently owned fitness centers. The Long Beach City Council is scheduled to consider this fund during next week’s meeting.

Councilmember Stacy Mungo maintained that there are “lots of industries that need help,” and that city officials “will work tirelessly” to ensure they “really know and understand the needs of each industry” when distributing the relief package. 

“If you’ve only read this to be restaurants, it’s just one piece of a big puzzle,” Mungo said. “I recognize that this will not be a quick turnaround…The reality is we’ll never be exactly where we were, but we want to put people back on their feet.”