China News Service, San Francisco, September 7th, title: America under the epidemic: visiting workers during Labor Day
China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan
For many Americans, the annual Labor Day holiday is a time for parties, gatherings, and shopping.
At the same time, this festival also means the end of summer.
According to data from the National Weather Service, at 3 pm on September 6, San Francisco recorded a rare high temperature of 37.8 degrees Celsius.
When the San Francisco thermometer reached this mark, Bryce, the barber, was doing haircuts for regular customers outdoors.
After the busiest Highway 101 in the San Francisco Bay Area enters downtown San Francisco from south to north, a low building is skipped over the viaduct.
A triangular area next to the viaduct was originally a gathering place for dining cars. Recently, the parking spaces here have been transformed into "large" outdoor barber shops that can accommodate dozens of barber stalls.
In the afternoon of the 6th, more than a dozen barbers provided customers with haircut services under the awning.
Bryce also saw his old customers again after half a year.
Without a haircut for half a year, some customers’ heads are already “overgrown with weeds”.
The customer who made an appointment for a haircut at 14:30 arrived as scheduled. After ten minutes, they saw the new hairstyle in the mirror, and the customer smiled satisfied.
Before they knew it, their backs were soaked with sweat.
Before the next reservation customer arrived, Bryce talked with the reporter.
He told reporters that it is open every day and the barbers can work from 10 am to 6 pm.
Today, Bryce has 13 reservation customers, and each paid $50 in advance online.
Originally, Bryce rented a workbench in the barber shops in San Francisco and Fremont, but during the epidemic, he could only provide customers with on-site haircuts.
California began to "restart" the economy as early as May, but the summer epidemic rebounded significantly, and local governments had to resume some lockdown measures.
Recently, California once again allowed more businesses in areas where the epidemic has eased.
Practitioners in San Francisco’s barber, massage, and nail industries are allowed to serve customers outdoors.
At the same time, shopping malls can open indoor shopping.
In the well-known Westfield shopping mall in San Francisco, Sally, a clothing store clerk, stood at the door, disinfecting customers one by one.
On the electronic screen behind her, an advertisement of 40%-60% discount of the whole store was displayed.
Sometimes there are two or three customers waiting in line at the door.
She told reporters that this clothing store only allowed 18 customers to enter at the same time.
Although going to work can make money, Sally does not support restarting the economy now.
She raised her hand over her head and told reporters: "If the economy is opened up now, the number of cases will rise again, and the situation will get worse again."
Although the gates of the shopping center have been opened, many of them are not open.
On the way from the shopping mall to Union Square, the doors and windows of many shops are still nailed with wooden boards.
Macy's Department Store put out the slogan "We welcome you back so much" at the door.
However, looking in through the iconic five-pointed star of Macy's on the window, the store is sparsely visible.
Local media in San Francisco cited information from the American review website that since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, more than 2,000 companies in the Bay Area have been permanently closed.
The revenue of major shopping malls has not improved, but Jindi’s stall selling masks has brought her a good income.
On the side of a main road, Jindi put the heads of plastic mannequins open, and put them on different styles of masks, some of which were embroidered with San Francisco-related elements.
From time to time, pedestrians stop to ask prices and trade in cash.
She told reporters that the masks are all self-made, each sells for $7, which can sell about 100 a day.
However, Jindi said that he still hopes that the epidemic will pass soon and that he can live without a mask.
If you don't pay attention to the masks on people's faces, the famous scenic spot Fisherman's Wharf seems to have returned to normal.
In the middle of the street, people are one after another.
On both sides of the street, people sit around tables and enjoy food.
A waiter who was tidying the table smiled and said that he is very supportive of outdoor dining, which is very safe.
In addition, "Customers want to eat, we also have to eat".
In order to promote economic recovery, Chinatown in San Francisco also started a "meal" idea.
Recently, some sections of Chinatown will be blocked on weekends, and catering practitioners can put tables and chairs on the road to receive guests.
In some restaurants, there are almost no vacant tables, ranging from a few to a dozen dining tables.
However, apart from the occasional noise of the "net celebrities" filming here, the empty and quiet streets are hardly reminiscent of the hustle and bustle of Chinatown in the past.
The San Francisco Tourism Association predicts that in 2020, the total number of tourists in the city will drop by 53% from the 26 million in 2019.
The impact on service providers such as hotels, restaurants, airports and transportation will continue for many years.
Above the heads of the Bryce, Highway 101 has long been restored to its former busy state, and traffic jams even started in some periods.
Barbers working with noise on their heads are more concerned about hair on the ground.
"It feels good to see the fader swept over and the hair falls on the ground." Bryce's colleague Tim said. "We barbers have a saying that the hair on the ground is the money in the pocket." (End)