SF Will Allow Salons, Gyms, Museums to Reopen for Indoor Service

For the first time since March, folks in San Francisco can finally get a haircut, lift heavy in a gym or take in the sight of an abstract painting — all inside.

Nail salons, gyms, massage services, tattoo shops and barber shops in the city will be allowed to reopen for indoor operation starting Monday, with "limited capacity."

Gyms will be allowed to open at 10% of their normal capacity, while barbershops and salons will allow customers at a social distance. Masks are required for everyone inside any business.

Museums will be able to open, with restrictions, as early as Sept. 21, after submitting health and safety plans.

That's according to San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who on Thursday jointly announced the next phase of reopenings with the Department of Public Health.

“I’m so glad we can move forward earlier than expected to reopen more businesses that have been closed since March. These businesses have been struggling, and starting Monday, they’ll finally be able to serve customers again, with the necessary safety precautions and modifications in place,” Breed said in a statement.

Just where in the Bay Area you can get your bangs trimmed during the pandemic, or hop on a treadmill, has been a fluid, ever-changing source of befuddlement. Cities and counties have opened businesses and closed them back up again. The patchwork response in myriad California counties has meant, for months, people across the bay could get haircuts, while San Franciscans were left growing unintentional mullets.

In late August, Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced a new strict reopening plan using a four-tiered, color-coded system to more easily communicate what types of businesses could open in which counties, depending on local risk factors.

Danielle Rabkin, owner of CrossFit Golden Gate, said her gym has been hammered financially by the pandemic closure. She's relieved to be able to finally open her doors again.

"Every day matters after almost six months of closure," Rabkin said. And while her business was allowed to operate outside, that's changed with the recent wildfires. "We absolutely need to move it inside with this air quality."

San Francisco’s own city-run gyms are also allowed to officially reopen, although many of those staff-only facilities at police stations, fire stations, and the Hall of Justice had been open throughout the pandemic without the knowledge of health officials.

After it was made public that those city-staff gyms were still operating, even as private gyms were told to close, San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón on Wednesday ordered them to close - just a day before Breed's announcement.

"It is critical for each department to play its role not only in protecting its own workforce but in also modeling best practices to the larger community," Aragón wrote.

Hotels, outdoor family entertainment centers, drive-in entertainment — like outdoor movies — and outdoor tour buses and boats will also be allowed to reopen in the city on Sept. 14 under rules Breed previously announced. Hotels have been open only for essential workers and unhoused people since the beginning of the pandemic.

This post has been updated to reflect new information on the rules for salons and barbershops from city officials.

— Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez (@FitztheReporter)