Long Beach
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Budget vote and board candidates
New police commissioner
Student earns merit scholarship
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Vol. 31 No. 23
JUNE 4 - 10, 2020
Long Beach marches for George Floyd By darwiN YaNES dyanes@liherald
Christina Daly/Herald
thE Boardwalk waS full of demonstrators on Tuesday as they marched in honor of George Floyd.
It was Long Beach’s turn on Tuesday night to join the nationwide protests of what many have called the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes on Memorial Day. Hundreds of protesters shouted “We want justice!” and “I can’t breathe!” as they gathered on the boardwalk at Riverside Boule-
vard, joined by city officials and state lawmakers. The demonstration was organized by Long Beach resident Jeb Bellsey. Bellsey said that some people have underestimated the power of the movement opposing racism and police brutality. “I want you guys to be the change you want to see,” he told the crowd. “Actions speak louder than words.” City Council President John Bendo and other council members initially joined a smaller crowd at City Hall Continued on page 3
L.B. businesses take small steps in Phase-One reopening By JamES BErNStEiN jbernstein@liherald.com
Long Beach’s business community is waking up — slowly and cautiously. The first breaths of life could be felt on the West End, where, last Friday morning, Angela Skudin opened the door of her four-year-old artisanal gift shop, the Codfish Cowboy, on West Beech Street, for the first time since March 16, when the coronavirus pandemic was sweeping the county. It was fitting that Skudin’s store was among the first retail shops to open in Long Beach. The Codfish Cowboy, which she
opened with $25,000, personifies the city. It features a colorful array of paintings, jewelry, clothing and children’s books, most of them created by Long Beach artists. “I’m excited about reopening,” said Skudin, a peppy mother of two and a member of the prominent Long Beach surfing family. “I want people to feel comfortable here.” She said she was cautiously optimistic about the future, and added, “I just hope we get the support of the community.” During the shutdown, Skudin took her business online, and delivered orders from Manhattan to Northport. The shutdown,
she said, was costly. She estimated that her business lost $60,000 in sales in the two and a half months that it was closed, and she had little hope of making up the loss. In the early-morning hours on Friday, a few longtime customers walked in, welcoming Skudin back to business. “A lot of local businesses are opening,” said one of them, Samantha Esposito, a 28-year-old speech pathologist. “They’ve been closed a long time.” The rules for reopening were not entirely clear, either to customers or retailers themselves. Under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Phase 1 reopening plan, manu-
facturing, construction, agriculture, wholesale trade and retail stores offering curbside pickup are allowed to open. But retailers interpreted the rules differently. Skudin and others said stores were allowed to open to 50 percent of their capacity. Skudin said she was allowed to have 20 people in her store, and that masks were required.
But at Moku, a surf sportswear shop a few doors away, co-owner Johnny Barnas said that only two people at a time could enter a store. Ian Danby, chairman of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, said on Friday that he was putting together a guide for what retailers can and can’t do. Continued on page 5