A.M. Brief: ‘Protest Zone’ Coming to Dodger Stadium After Anti-Vaxxer Disruption

Anti-vaxxers bring Dodger Stadium vaccinations to a standstill, new numbers say the stay-at-home order might have actually worked, and a no-go on Super Bowl watch parties outside your favorite restaurant. Finally, a reexamination of apex gentrification in one of L.A.’s hippest neighborhoods. It’s February. This is your Monday news brief. Take it!

Morning News Rundown

On Saturday, several dozen anti-vaccine protestors managed to shut down the Dodger Stadium vaccination site—the largest site in the county. They marched and carried signs on Stadium Way, preventing cars from entering the parking lot. The site was reopened after about an hour, but angry health officials and vaccine recipients expressed outrage over the disruption of service. In the aftermath of the demonstration, the city says a “protest zone” will be set up outside the Dodger Stadium parking lot to ensure there is no delay in vaccinating those who show up for their appointments. [NBC Los Angeles]

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide stay-at-home order on Dec. 3 was not received without controversy. Some argued the order didn’t go far enough, while others were upset over restrictions on business activities like outdoor dining. Two months later, state health officials point to a marked drop in transmission rate as evidence that the order paid off. Officials estimate that individual movement around communities was 40% lower than what is typical (the lowest percentage since May), and as many as 25,000 people were saved from severe COVID-19 hospitalizations as a result. [L.A. Times]

The governor has a $2 billion plan to reopen schools by mid-February, but pushback from lawmakers and the California teacher’s association has thrown the timeline into limbo. A key sticking point: the plan does not provide specific funding or a timeline for teacher vaccinations. Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner has previously stated his opposition to reopening campuses until teachers are vaccinated. [ABC 7]

Outdoor dining may be back on the menu, but if you were thinking of heading to your favorite spot to watch the Super Bowl, think again. One of the key provisions of the new guidelines for outdoor service is that “televisions or any other screens that are used to broadcast programming must be removed from the area or turned off.” The measure is specifically aimed at keeping large groups from gathering at restaurants on Super Bowl Sunday. [The Eastside]

The gentrification of Silver Lake has been a decades-long process, but has the L.A. neighborhood truly, finally, morphed into a sort of WeHo East? In a scathing essay for Los Angeles Magazine, Jeff Weiss argues that the opening of an ultra-trendy grocery store near Sunset Junction represents the final nail in the coffin. “Neighborhoods never die a corporeal death,” Weiss writes. “They slowly atrophy and mutate, leaving behind a husk of corporate salad chains and hemp-latte bazaars. In that sense, Silver Lake has been slipping into a coma for years. But the appearance of the exorbitantly priced paleo palace might be the final gasp of the former bohemian refuge.” Worth a read. [LA Mag]