California lawmakers want to push through reopening theme parks

'Worldwide, theme parks have proven they can reopen responsibly while protecting the health of guests and staff. Science and data show it can be done'

Six Flags Magic Mountain (Getty Images)

California’s famous theme parks have been closed for almost a year due to Covid-19, but a new bill proposed by local lawmakers could change that.

Sharon Quirk-Silva and Suzette Martinez-Valladares, both members of the California State Assembly, say they will co-sponsor a bill to allow all theme parks in the state to reopen under the same conditions. This would contradict the state’s current reopening plan, which sets different guidelines for parks of different sizes.

“As a veteran of the theme park industry, I intimately understand their operations, their procedures and their ability to move people and keep them safe,” Martinez-Valladares said. “The industry, and Six Flags Magic Mountain in my district, has been closed for nearly a year, while parks in other states have been open to the public and serving them safely.”

Under Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan, titled the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, all counties in the state are sorted into colour-coded “tiers” indicating how widespread Covid-19 is in the area. Smaller theme parks are allowed to reopen in Tier 3, where the spread is “moderate,” but larger parks can only reopen in Tier 4, where it’s “minimal”.

California Assembly Bill 420 seeks to do away with that differentiation, allowing all parks to reopen in Tier 3 – something leaders in the theme park industry are eager for.

“We deeply appreciate Assembly Members Quirk-Silva and Martinez-Valladares for their leadership and for introducing legislation on safe theme park reopening,” said Erin Guerrero, director of the California Attractions and Parks Association. “Worldwide, theme parks have proven they can reopen responsibly while protecting the health of guests and staff. Science and data show it can be done.”

The bill is likely to meet resistance from Governor Newsom, who has promised to be “stubborn” about reopening amusement parks until it is absolutely safe to do so.

“Self-evidently, we should be concerned about opening up a large theme park where, by definition, people mix from all possible walks of life, and putting ourselves and others at risk of seeing transmission rates rise,” the governor said back in October.

California’s Covid positivity rate has been falling lately, following a peak after the winter holidays, but cases are still high. On Wednesday, 12,558 new cases were reported, with a seven-day average of 16,269.

Meanwhile, Six Flags Magic Mountain, the park in Martinez-Valladares’ district, remains open in a different capacity: as a mass vaccination site.