The little California town of Solvang would normally be jammed with tourists now, strolling a main street bedecked with 100 brightly decorated Christmas trees or pouring into Danish-themed shops and restaurants, some with rooftop windmills, in search of tasty pastries and bric-a-brac like wooden shoes and puppets.
Instead, “People are calling from all over, saying, ‘What the hell is going on?’ ” City Councilman Mark Infanti said earlier this week after the community of about 5,000 announced it would not enforce the latest stay-at-home order Gov. Gavin Newsom put into effect Dec. 6.
Newsom’s order closed many businesses, forbids restaurants from offering anything other than takeout and delivery, and limits retail stores to 20% capacity, a level devastating for Solvang’s small storefronts that at peak times before the pandemic overflowed with shoppers.
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By Karen Garcia
Solvang’s newest City Council members don’t agree with the former council’s stance on the state’s increased COVID-19 restrictions, stating on Dec. 14 that they did not support the former City Council’s emergency decision on Dec. 7 to defy such orders.
NEW THOUGHTS
FILE PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
During the Dec. 14 Solvang City Council meeting, the former council accepted the results of the Nov. 3 election and welcomed newly elected Councilmembers Mark Infanti, Claudia Orona, and Mayor Charlie Uhrig.
The new council, save for Councilmembers Robert Clarke and Jim Thomas, came with a different take on the former council’s decision to continue abiding by the state’s purple tier safety guidelines and dismiss the state’s increased restrictions.
Image: Deputy mayor of Solvang, Claudia Orona As a city we believe that rather than enforcing and implementing fines, we know that businesses are being responsible and following the mandates and the laws and our role is best directed at looking for resources for education and safety.
The city s streets would usually be buzzing with tourists at this time of year.
On Copenhagen Drive, just along from the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, numbers are sparse on a Tuesday afternoon. Image: The so-called Danish capital of America is regularly voted the most festive place in the US
A handful of people sip their coffee and nibble aebleskivers at tables set up in the middle of a road now closed to traffic.
Solvang City Council’s Three New Members Signal a Changing of the Guard
The trio sport face masks and condemn the prior council for saying the city would not enforce stay-at-home orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Newly elected Solvang City Council members Claudia Orona, Mayor Charlie Uhrig and Mark Infanti take the oath of office Monday night. (Janene Scully / Noozhawk photo) By Janene Scully, Noozhawk North County Editor | @JaneneScully
December 15, 2020
| 7:54 p.m.
Three new members joined the Solvang City Council on Monday night and wasted no time in making changes by sporting masks on the dais, setting a meeting to discuss the city attorney’s contract and criticizing the prior panel’s mixed message regarding public health orders.
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Regional leaders hope the state will lump Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties into one region to avoid severe restrictions now in place, such as halting outside dining and closing salons. Those restrictions returned last week as the broader Southern California region experiences a larger outbreak affecting hospitals. It’s critically important, right now especially, that everyone cooperate together to reduce the spread of the virus and keep our cases and hospitalizations as low as possible,” Hart said. “All of the businesses in our county depend on everyone working together, and I’m hopeful that the city of Solvang will be a productive, cooperative partner in our joint effort to work with the governor and create a new path for us to exit sooner than would be the base.”