With restrictions on construction projects, residential moves and in-person showings of homes having been eased back at the end of April, at which point some outdoor facilities and businesses were allowed to reopen as well, the tentative plan and dates for the complete economic and social reopening of San Francisco have been drafted.

Expect curbside retail offerings and the re-opening of outdoor attractions, such as the Botanical Gardens and historical sites, to increase over the next couple of weeks.  And with a target date of being implemented on June 15, “Phase 2b” of the plan will then allow indoor retail, outdoor dining, religious services, private indoor services (cleaners and cooks), professional sports and tournaments held without spectators and outdoor fitness classes to be held with social distancing protocols in place.

All restaurants and hair (but not nail) salons are slated to be allowed to reopen in “Phase 2c” of the plan, around the middle of July, at which point real estate open houses will be allowed to be held as well (the exact parameters for which have yet to be set in stone).

Gyms, bars, movie theaters, museums, playgrounds, pools, nail salons and the like, along with all schools, are expected to be given the green light to reopen in mid-August (Phase 3).

And depending upon how all the aforementioned phases are handled and received, the final phase of the plan (“Phase 4”) would then remove “all social distancing limits and other restrictions related to the COVID-19 response,” including a new order that now requires everyone over 12 years of age in San Francisco wear a face covering when outside their home and within 30 feet of a non-household member, including when exercising or in a shared office space but with a few exceptions (such as if siting outdoors and at least 6 feet away from non-household members), allowing all hotel and short-term rental operations to recommence; night clubs to reopen; and festivals, concerts and attended sporting events and performances to be held, representing “the full reopening” of San Francisco’s economy around September or October of this year.

50 thoughts on “The Target Dates and Plan to Fully Reopen San Francisco”
  1. Were hotels actually ever required to close? I know non-essential travel was prohibited, but essential wasn’t (airports remained open), there must have been hotels open to accommodate this.

    [Editor’s Note: Since clarified above.]

    1. Thanks! Gratitude aside, I’ll move on to bewilderment: I don’t really see why hotels are under any (particular) restrictions at all; certainly (just) renting a room and sleeping in it are about low risk as one can get…unless of course they’re trying to keep as many people out of town as possible who might engage in “high”(er) risk activities like shopping and clu….no clubs are closed, so THAT can’t be it.

      I think when people complain this process isn’t “guided by science” as much as eccentric stupidity, something like this is in mind.

      1. > when people complain this process isn’t “guided by science” as much as eccentric stupidity

        Yes, like requiring facemasks everywhere outdoors (when multiple studies show the risk of outdoor transmission is miniscule), yet simultaneously talking about allowing outdoor dining June 15, and indoor dining July 15… And while the un-masked homeless are free to wander to and from their city-supplied watering stations and portapotties plopped into the middle of formerly clean neighborhoods.

        They say nothing makes you conservative faster than being a liberal who moves to San Francisco; I can certainly say that seeing Breed and the Supes’ response to this *healthcare* crisis has left me desirous of complete change from the top down.

        1. “They say nothing makes you conservative faster than being a liberal who moves to San Francisco” – LOL so true. I moved to SF in ’98 as a democrat. Left 5 years ago as a republican. (A moderate republican, not a Trump republican.) LOL

        2. No exercising without facemasks, but church services and ceremonies can resume. No real estate open houses until mid July, and then appointment only, but bookstores are OK June 15.

          How many outbreaks have been traced to things like funerals? What, are employees going to wipe down books off the shelves?

          It’s all whack a mole and bizarre and poorly done.

        3. I’ve lived in SF 16 years. Showed up as an “Independent,” voted liberal for a while and changed my registration to Democrat to vote in the 2016 primary election. A few years, I am now a closet conservative who has been starting to come out of the closet. The only reason I haven’t changed my registration from Democrat to Republican is because I don’t trust the state not to “lose” my registration if I go Republican.

          I’ve watch the policies of the left destroy the city. For example: tearing up a perfectly good street like Van Ness to cater to the transit/biker crowd at SFMTA. Four years later? It’s a complete mess. They couldn’t put down smooth pavement if you paid them in gold. And for what? So everyone involved could double bill, do shoddy work, and get kickbacks? Let’s start with the fact Nuru had Van Ness contractors working on his ranch 3 1/2 hours from SF. Not to mention the growing Homeless Industrial Complex (TM) run by a group of failing upwards broken ‘progressives’ like Jennifer Friedenbach and Jeff Kositsky.

          The current mask requirement is stupid, just a power trip by Breed. There is no actual science behind it. They say wear it as a sign of respect. No, Breed wants you to wear it as a sign of SUBMISSION. The curve is flattened, the homeless are not dying from the virus, which shows that lack of social distancing does not lead to increased deaths. Though they’re increasingly dying from drug overdoses, maybe because drugs are more available since they elected Boudin, who has been releasing dealers from jail. If you follow the Tenderloin District station on Twitter, you will see they’re arresting the same dealers over and over again. They don’t stay in jail and Boudin refuses to prosecute. So it’s just a stupid, frustrating game of catch and release.

          I dunno what the overall agenda is of the feudalistic overlords in charge right now, but I know it’s not good for the average, law-abiding resident of SF. If I were a landlord of an apartment building that rents to the middle/lower class, or even techbro class, I’d be very worried right now w/ the prospect of tech workers dispersing to the suburbs and red states to work remotely and/or at satellite hubs. San Francisco is a mess, and eventually it’s going to impact the rental/home market.

          1. All you people who claim you were “turned” Republican by living in SF were Republicans all along. You just didn’t want to admit it. Like all the tech types who call themselves “libertarians” – which really just means “Republicans who don’t like Trump.” You’re not fooling anyone.

            As for SF’s COVID response- I’m a health care worker at a large city hospital. The city had done far more right than it has wrong, going back to taking the threat seriously well before any other major city except Seattle. The numbers don’t lie – SF has had fewer COVID hospitalizations and deaths per capita than any major city in the country, I know that doesn’t fit into your right-wing narrative about the city falling apart, but I’m actually on the front line and an telling you the truth. Wear your damn mask and quit acting like you know more than people who do this for a living.

          2. SS commenters are who they are, but the stats are pretty clear that living in cities turns you Democrat.

            As for SF, living here taught me that some people need help because they can’t help themselves, and that many people work their asses off and are vastly undercompensated. Many of the most interesting people and events in the city are only here thanks to rent control. If the libertarians don’t like it there are plenty of less liberal places to live – but for some reason they prefer to stick around and talk about how much better it would be if more of it was for sale.

          3. I agree they got it right initially. But last week’s announcement was full of odd inconsistencies and botched.

          4. Not sure how the Van Ness project indicates a failure of the left. All public works projects suffer similar outcomes, not just those promoted by sustainability or left leaning politicians. It is endemic in the USA.

          5. Public transit is pretty widely viewed as a “left” favorite – tho in a large urban area it can probably be seen as more of a necessity than an ideological flashpoint.
            It will interesting to see how – if?? – the sector will endure over the coming months; with the CDC reportedly urging – or at least suggesting – people curtail their usage, the future doesn’t look very promising.

          6. Notcom – I guess I did not make my point clear. I agree that transit appeals more to the left. What I’m saying though is that cost overruns are not limited to transit projects. Check out the cost of a freeway interchange remodel, those costs run into the hundreds of million dollars and take years to complete.

            There are systemic problems with how we develop large public works projects. The causes might be political but seem to be good old bipartisan corruption.

          7. Thanks ‘shake…I’m afraid I muffled my response as well: you’re probably correct that the left doesn’t (necessarily) do public works worse that the right – they may or may not but I’m not going to make assumptions – but I think so many more public works are left-oriented that just the (bad) luck-of the draw means it’s going to appear that way.

            Some of the things – hospitals, schools – are built both privately and publicly, so we ought to be able to do relevant comparisons; but something like BRT conservatives would likely argue shouldn’t be built at all.

          8. I totally get people complaining about inconsistencies in policy. But to say there is no science behind wearing a mask is false. I also don’t get people who feel trodden upon, feel like wearing it is a sign of submission, or think that being told to wear a mask is a violation of their constitutional rights.

            The science of covid has and is evolving rapidly and there have been disputed studies so I get that people can selectively try to pick and choose what they believe. But the evidence on masks is pretty strong. The most recent study was in the Lancet this week.

            This instant, is it that necessary to wear a mask outside in SF? We are fortunate here in that our baseline number of cases is low enough right now where the risk of transmission is very low. But how quickly will we know when this changes throughout the year. It’s unfortunate that we are developing these habits where it feels like social distancing is over and masks are unnecessary except still required by our “feudal overlords.”

            As a country, we failed in the first months of this in such an embarrassing and tragic way. It’s not just that many people died who didn’t have to, but many jobs and businesses are/will be lost that didn’t have to. The CDC could somehow not muster testing 500 people total in the first 40 days since our confirmed first case. Going forward, if there are outbreaks this summer or next winter, wearing a mask will not only help to save lives but also jobs and the economy.

          9. Pardon me for sounding harsh but you seem to not “totally get it”: the comment isn’t that masks aren’t effective, ‘per se’, it’s that there little to no evidence they’re needed up to 30′; the Lancet Review addresses distances in the 1-2 metre range…so somewhat akin to requiring seatbelts in strollers b/c …well, they work at highway speeds. (or to be a little less abstract: an n95, by definition reduces exposure by 95%, so if exposure beyond 6 feet outdoors is already reduced, say 99%, then the gain from 1%>.05% may not excite too many people…especially since staying in your house, maskless, is 100% effective)

          10. At 30 feet, there is no need to wear a mask. There won’t be any research at 30 feet as there are too many variables; Notcom’s abstract math for 99% N95 might even be overstate the impact of wearing a mask depending on the conditions and duration.

            But when there isn’t an explicit mention of 30 feet, it’s good to point out to anyone reading that there is good science and multiple studies behind masks and not just N95’s- especially when there is a general anti-mask movement that tends to go with some of the political ramblings above. And I’m not a London Breed fan but she did get the most important thing less wrong by going into SiP earlier than other places. Maybe this one thing will make her the Elaine Garzarelli of mayors.

            Yes there are inconsistencies in policy. But the reality in my neighborhood is that 2/3 of the people don’t wear masks and the majority will walk right over top of you. Many people thing we’re done with it. And our case load in SF is quite low right now, but it’s too early to declare victory or count on a complete summer effect.

          11. More to the point and practical intent of the order, the 30-foot rule is intended to provide a buffer and give people “adequate time to put on a Face Covering before the distance closes and [they] are within six feet of each other, which puts them at greater risk for transmission of the virus,” particularly in light of the fact that as more activities are permitted, “more people will be near each other without much advance warning, making wearing a Face Covering essential when people are within 30 feet.”

            To put it another way: If you’re walking towards another person and you’re both walking at 3 miles per hour, how far in advance, as measured in feet (x), would you need to start putting on a face covering in order to ensure that you’re properly covered by the time you’re within 6 feet of the other person? When solving for x, please state your assumptions in terms of average reaction and covering times. And then re-solve assuming that you and/or the other person is jogging (5 mph) or biking (12 mph).

          12. The “two trains” problem – “a train left St Louis in 1918, traveling west…” – excellent!

            And we might even celebrate that natural selection will take those who were too stupid – or lazy – to have solved the problem in High School Algebra, but for the fact that the idiot engineer who doesn’t pull into the siding b/c s/he’s busy texting also takes out the eastbound train.

            Which I guess is the round-about way of saying that if ‘anon’s thoughtless neighbors aren’t abiding by the 6 foot rule I’ve little hope they’ll abide by a 30 foot rule…so it seems like so much wasted effort.

          13. The “two trains” problem – “a train left St Louis in 1918, traveling west…”

            Minor enhancement to the problem. The 1918 Saint Louis train departs eastbound heading towards Philly. While a Philadelphia train departs westbound for St. Louis, both trains heading to each other’s Liberty celebrations.

          14. Further complication: everyone on the Philly train – thus including the stoker – dies and so the train comes to a halt. What rate of “R” is necessary that this happens at a spot where the oncoming StLo train will encounter it in daylight and avoid a collision ??

        4. FYI if you’re referring to the portapottie on the corner of 4th and Townsend, that one there is locked and for the use of muni employees only. Those employees used to use the bathrooms inside of Safeway, but I guess those are closed for the time being.

    1. While not explicitly mentioned in the tentative plan, other than noting that “anyone who can should continue to telework except those who are necessary for operations” with the rollout of Phase 2b next month, it would appear that companies will be encouraged to keep office workers at home until “all social distancing limits and other restrictions” are lifted in the final phase of the plan (around September/October of this year).

  2. Well, as we kill off the last of the Greatest Generation, we witness the rise of the Feeblist Generation. Where’s my haircut? I wanna go shopping! I thought the Bay Area was a libertarian utopia! It’s been a couple months, isn’t it over yet! Eeeww, masks! Masks make it hard to smell those intoxicating conservative pheromones! Lets go the beach! What’s a good MLK quote?

    Hello, Hello, Hello, How low

    1. That whole take is off and skewed.. The Greatest Generation were all largely deceased prior to covid-19. You seem to skip the boomers who are in charge still, and gen x, who are nearly obtaining some semblance of hegemonic power, and go right to millennials, who aren’t there yet … odd.

  3. New cases are already spiking in California, but that’s no reason not to throw millions more logs on the fire.

    Goodbye, Grandpa. Sorry, some of us meant well, but, you know, haircuts and cocktails.

    1. New cases are down relative to tests, they aren’t “spiking”. New cases are up because testing is up. Yet only 38 hospital beds are in use in Santa Clara county (which publishes the best stats), 1100 still available. Georgia has been open for 6 weeks and deaths have dropped to half. Why are we destroying an economy, causing huge spikes in suicides, deaths from cancer screenings missed, etc? The lockdowns cause deaths too.

      Nursing home deaths are down to 4 per week in Santa Clara county, from a peak of about 200 per week. Tell me how many years Grandpa stayed inside all winter to protect great, great grandpa from 4 flu deaths per week? What’s that? Zero?

      1. Whoa there, spinmeister: GA deaths feel about 15% – hardly “half” – then plateaued. https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/georgia
        As for your “huge spike” in suicides, given that it takes months to tabulate vital stats, that’s even more conjectural than the “lives saved” guesstimates.
        Yes, of course the economy has to restart, and it is doing so. in all areas of the state at varying rates. The parts that we’ve no idea about yet are the clear contagion-breeders like Chase Arena, and given that the Dubs season is officially over, that seems like a small issue. (The investors may have one less bundle of cash to throw on the fire this winter, but they’ll just have to wear a sweater..smaller carbon footprint too)

        1. You’re just completely wrong. Scroll down to the graph and click on the “deaths” tab. 35 on the day of the lockdown, 18 on the most recent official stats on 5/21 and it’s been heading down. They don’t consider the stats official until two weeks has passed.

          I’m sure “healthdata.org” is a very authoritative source, but I use the Georgia department of public health. I realize it’s probably not as official as “healthdata.org”. /s

          1. Is this the same GDPH that ‘s been accused of publishing “inaccurate or misleading data” and whose own chart admits “Data during the reporting period may be incomplete”?

            But enough: I’ll leave this to SS’s Georgia branch. Meanwhile, in California – the state WE’re actually in – the reopening process has begun…so I’m not sure what it is you think you need to complain about in your dotage.

          2. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has caught GA repeatedly bungling and fudging the data.

            “Thanks to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, we now know things did indeed look too good to be true. Georgia’s coronavirus numbers looked so rosy because officials misrepresented the data in such a way it’s difficult to believe it wasn’t done on purpose.” – LA Times.

            The US is a banana republic.

            btw, Sweden, beloved of libertarian virus fans everywhere, has the highest current daily death rate per million. It’s #5 overall (and rising, with a bullet) of any country with a population greater than 80,000. Good job, Sweden!

          3. My favorite Georgia DPH “error” was listing days on the x-axis in non-chronological order and mixing up counties to show a clear declining trend if you just glanced at it. Do they really think that people won’t notice? Is it possible that they are that incompetent???

            I don’t cheer Sweden’s strategy not working but they have come out and said they would do things differently now.

          4. Yes, as they say in Sweden: “Leva och lära” (Live and learn)…altho in this case maybe “dö och lära” – I’ll let you guess what that means – might be a better fit.

  4. UPDATE: Last week, San Francisco restaurants began offering outdoor dining, following the success of curbside retail and some outdoor activities that were allowed in mid-May.

    The activities and businesses allowed to resume today as part of San Francisco’s Reopening Phase 2B are:

    – Indoor retail with 50% capacity limits (enclosed malls with approved plan)
    – All curbside retail with direct street access with no limit on the number of on-site personnel, subject to social distancing, and with direct street access (enclosed malls with approved plan)
    – All manufacturing, warehouse and logistics with no limit on the number of on-site personnel, subject to social distancing
    – Non-emergency medical appointments
    – All private indoor household services like cooks and house cleaners
    – Outdoor fitness classes (up to 12 people) with social distancing
    – Professional sports games, tournaments and other entertainment for broadcast with no in-person spectators. Events with more than 12 people must have an approved plan.
    – Religious gatherings and ceremonies, outdoors only (up to 12 people), with face coverings and social distancing
    – Other small gatherings, outdoors only (up to 12 people), with face coverings and social distancing
    – Summer camps with stable groups of up to 12.
    – Outdoor dining including restaurants and bars serving meals with a limit of six customers per table unless all are members of the same household (which was effective June 12)
    – Dog walking of multiple dogs (which was effective June 8)
    – Some offices: anyone who can telework must continue to do so, but individuals necessary for operations who cannot work remotely may come into the office as long as certain safety rules are followed (wearing a face covering and limiting the number of people who can be in the office at one time).

  5. UPDATE: San Francisco has been granted permission to accelerate its reopening plan and the following activities and businesses will be allowed to reopen/resume on June 29 with safety protocols in place:

    – Hair salons, barber shops and nail salons
    – Tattoo salons
    – Museums and Zoos
    – Outdoor swimming facilities
    – Outdoor bars

    1. Wonder what the science really says about what’s allowed and what isn’t at this point? Seems arbitrary. there is no way some of these newest close contact indoor allowances are safer that many things still not allowed.

      1. Maybe it’s not “science…says” as much as “survey says”: remember on ‘Family Feud’ how they’d ask some random group of people a question and then go with that as the basis for what was the “right” answer?

        Anyway, we’re running out of things to reopen: the only thing I don’t see anytime soon is large capacity indoor spaces – the Opera, Moscone,…a.k.a. all the tings that make SF a “world class city”…or Chase (I hope that poster a few months back who was looking forward to seeing the ‘Neutered Impalas’ – or whatever the name is – in August took my suggestion to stock up on home-reading materials)

        1. churches, weddings, open houses, indoor dining, indoor bars, non-essential office work are still waiting

          1. CoCoCo already gave indoor dining the go-ahead for July 1, it’s surprising SF hasn’t faced more pressure to do the same (or if they have, surprising they’ve resisted).

            The “outdoor bar” thing I find puzzling: are there really any …well maybe a few, but many… in SF. It’s not like this is some tropical resort where you swim up to the bar and order a margarita.

            So does this just mean bars can set up tables outside and bring a cocktail out? I know the drowning will grasp at a straw, but this seems more like grasping at a piece of algae.

    2. UPDATED UPDATE: The accelerated reopening of salons, museums and outdoor bars has just been scratched and the new date for entering Phase 2c is now TBD.

  6. UPDATE: The mid-July target for allowing restaurants to resume indoor service in San Francisco, along with the opening of outdoor bars, has just been shelved and the potential reopening of salons, museums, gyms and the zoo, along with the ability to hold open houses, are now at risk as well.

    Per Mayor Breed: “We know the pause on reopening is disappointing, but it is in the best interest of public health. We’ll continue to make decisions based on the data and the situation in our city, and in the meantime, we all need to do our part to keep each other safe and healthy. That means wearing face coverings, keeping your distance from others, and getting tested.”

    The rate of new COVID-19 cases diagnosed per day in San Francisco has risen to 6.1 per 100,000 people, which is nearly quadruple the city’s target of 1.8 and versus a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 people when the city began reopening on May 18. In addition, the rate of local hospitalizations related to COVID-19 has increased by 25 percent, versus a goal of growing at less than 10 percent, and the local reproductive rate of the virus (Rt) has climbed above 1.

  7. UPDATE: While the San Francisco Zoo will be allowed to reopen on Monday, shoppers will be able to resume using reusable bags, and boat and fishing expeditions will be allowed to operate with up to 12 people on board, all other activities and businesses that were previously scheduled to reopen on either June 29 or July 13 will remain on pause, including indoor dining, outdoor bars without food, indoor museums and aquariums, outdoor swimming pools, all salons and real estate open houses by appointment.

    Personal services such as haircuts, massages, tattoos and body piercing, manicures and pedicures, will be the next groups of businesses considered for reopening, but without a set date and only if clients and providers can be masked at all times.

        1. The new statewide order shutters indoor portions of zoo operations, not (necessarily) zoos overall, along with all bar, brewpub, brewery and pub operations, “both indoor and outdoor,” statewide.

  8. UPDATE: Due to a rise in hospitalizations, San Francisco has just landed on the State’s COVID-19 Monitoring List.

    As such, all recently re-opened indoor malls and non-essential offices will be required to re-close, except for minimum basic operations, effective Monday, July 20, and all future re-opening phases are on an indefinite hold.

    And if local conditions do not improve, there will likely be another rollback of re-opened business operations (think outdoor dining) and permitted activities.

  9. UPDATE: Salons (including hair, nail and massage establishments) that can operate outdoors, with both clients and providers masked at all times, will be allowed to legally re-open on September 1. Outdoor gyms and fitness centers can legally re-open starting September 9.

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