随着洛杉矶逐渐摆脱新冠肺炎重新开放计划中最严格的限制，努力维持运营的小企业主表示，无论它带来什么希望，都夹杂着沮丧和愤怒的情绪。

对许多小企业主来说，过去的一年充满了牺牲和心碎，他们一直担心自己的企业可能会倒闭，因为他们试图跟上最新的要求。

布里克健身中心的所有者和经营者贾里德·佩尔穆特(Jared“JP”)去年一直无法开设自己的健身房进行室内锻炼。自去年夏天以来，健身房外的停车场和忠诚的客户使户外面对面锻炼成为可能——即使这意味着戴口罩、保持社交距离和保持低噪音水平。

“所以，这相当于一个无声的迪斯科舞厅，”佩尔穆特在《夜生活》最近的一次访问中说。“你可以看到他们中的一些人戴着耳机，这样他们就可以听自己的音乐，然后他们只需要专注地听，因为教练不能尖叫。”

美国广播公司新闻

杰瑞德·佩尔穆特是砖国的所有者和经营者。室内健身房关门了怎么办

“他们只是很高兴走出家门，移动自己的身体，”他补充道。

在该州的紫色等级下，洛杉矶的餐馆和健身房被允许只在户外经营，并进行改造，而剧院和音乐场馆等其他企业仍处于关闭状态。

在美国东部时间今晚12:35收看“夜生活”的完整报道。

佩尔穆特说，对于他在这家有11年历史的健身房所能提供的有限项目，它们仍然只增加了他正常音量的50%。此外，尽管做生意的成本增加了，但流行病爆发前健身房的28名员工中有一半不得不被解雇。

美国广播公司新闻

布里克国家的所有者和经营者贾里德·佩尔穆特对《夜生活》杂志谈到了他的花费

“每月，我们增加的户外安全运营费用在1万到1.2万美元之间，”他说。“增加清洁人员，增加清洁材料，租用帐篷……我们的维护费用是仅设备维护费用的五倍;(它)在外面被磨损和损坏，被风化。”

虽然他仍然被禁止使用该空间进行正常业务，但预计Perelmutter仍将支付他10000平方英尺健身房的全部租金——每月惊人的30000美元。他称之为“非常昂贵的仓库和存储设施”

“只是完全空了。仅仅是一般的维护，即使是一个建筑，如果它们被遗弃太久，它们基本上就会分崩离析，”他说。“我们还是要维护它。清洁工仍然每天晚上来做一些基本的修饰工作——确保这个地方是干净的。我们更换了所有的HEPA暖通空调过滤器，因为我们确实有工作人员和成员来使用浴室。”

美国广播公司新闻

洛杉矶“砖头国家”的一个标志为新冠肺炎的安全措施提供了指导。

佩尔穆特说，他“理解”这场流行病的严重性，他自己也有免疫受损的家庭成员。但是他说，新冠肺炎预防措施的处理令人沮丧。

“有很多负面能量，因为我们都觉得自己被留在岛上独自生存，”他说。

30分钟后，在历史悠久的拉美裔东洛杉矶，58岁的塞恩·桑切斯(Senen Sanchez)依靠送货应用程序在奇科的墨西哥餐厅提供辣椒红烧、玉米卷饼和taquitos。

美国广播公司新闻

塞内·桑切斯是东洛杉矶奇科墨西哥餐厅的老板。他说他的收入

“对我来说，浏览平板电脑并尝试对其进行编程仍然很难。桑切斯告诉《夜生活》杂志:“我必须给我的女儿们打电话，否则我需要帮助。”“但没错，我必须投身于这项技术，否则，如果我不在网站上或不使用媒体，我就彻底死了。”

然而，桑切斯说，由于只有几张桌子用于户外用餐，他的收入来源受到了“痛苦的”打击。送货应用程序可以对每份订单收取高达30%的佣金，这使得在疫情爆发前利润率就已经很低的餐馆老板口袋里的钱减少了。

“你带回家的东西少了，”桑切斯说。“现在就是这样。”

桑切斯说，他很“幸运”有一个“伟大”的房东，自从大流行开始之前，他就一直保持低租金。

美国广播公司新闻

东洛杉矶的奇科墨西哥餐厅。老板塞恩·桑切斯说他很难留下来

桑切斯说:“这有很大的不同，因为做生意的人——像我这样的小企业——当他们疯狂提高租金时，我们无法支付。“这么多人房租这么高，然后酒吧关门，真让人难过。天井关了这么久。”

这座拥有1040万人口的城市的餐馆几周前才恢复户外用餐，此前该市的病例激增，使1月份成为该州迄今为止最致命的疫情月份。根据Yelp的分析，截至2020年9月，洛杉矶有超过15，000家企业关门，比美国任何其他城市都多，其中一半预计将永久关闭。

然而，尽管这一现实给桑切斯的头蒙上了阴影，但对于两个孩子的父亲来说，更严峻的现实依然挥之不去:在洛杉矶，拉美裔社区死于新冠肺炎的人数增加了三倍。桑切斯说，他正在尽最大努力保护他的客户和员工的安全，避免他们接触病毒。

桑切斯说:“他们正在努力研制疫苗，试图控制这种病毒，因为没有人想要它。”。“我是说，我们不想要它。我们只是想把它拿走。我希望他们能控制住。我的意思是，我认为这将是答案。如果一切恢复正常，那是因为一切都在控制之中。”

各州以不同的速度放宽了对新冠肺炎的限制，就在本周，得克萨斯州和密西西比州宣布，他们将取消口罩禁令，并全力重新开业。然而，加州在关闭和部分重新开放之间摇摆不定，愤怒的企业主和员工将他们的不满指向了州长加文·纽瑟姆。

谢尔曼奥克斯菠萝山烧烤沙龙的酒保杰森·伦敦说:“你想关掉那些不重要的东西，但你不能挑那些重要的和不重要的。”。“它支付我的账单。它支付我的租金。我不能像这样给雪佛兰经销商打电话，‘嘿，我这个月付不起卡车费了。“对不起，”他们不在乎。就像，他们为你感到难过，但他们仍然想要450美元买他们的卡车。"

伦敦指出，受限制影响的不仅仅是在餐馆工作的人，还有帮助餐馆保持运营的每个人。

“我的制作人一直没有工作。我的啤酒供应商一直没有工作，”他说。“我的啤酒送货司机一直不工作。所以，不只是我们。它往下流，很悲伤。”

菠萝山的主人安吉拉·马斯登在收到强制关闭的消息后，于2020年3月首次接受美国广播公司新闻采访。当时，她不确定她的餐馆今天是否还会存在。

美国广播公司新闻

凤梨山烧烤沙龙的老板安吉拉·马斯登站在她的店门口，她的店

从那以后，她努力遵守国家的限制，先是只靠外卖，然后建一个露台供室外用餐，最后在被迫再次关门前做了一些改造的室内用餐。

“夏天是最艰难的，”马斯登说。“他们把我们关在里面之后，基本上就是说，‘好吧，现在你可以出去了，但是你不能进去。但这是你在外面需要做的。同样，就像这48小时的警告。"

马斯登说，她转向脸谱网，从其他不能在户外用餐的餐馆老板那里购买二手家具。她指着一套她说是从一家意大利餐馆老板那里买的桌子，解释道:“一切的压力。他年纪大了，对COVID的恐惧。他最后进了医院，他的经理正和我一起研究我买的旧家具该收多少钱。”

“所以这非常令人心碎，”她说。“但我必须这么做，因为我必须生存。”

马斯登说，当他们在去年夏天的热浪中重新开业时，她的员工不仅戴着口罩，而且还想戴上面罩和手套。“我这里有一个人差点中暑，”她说。

她说，9月份业务开始复苏，10月份她看到了全年的第一笔利润。至于今年剩下的时间，她说，“我每个月都有亏损——从2万美元到3万美元不等。总的来说，我损失了超过50万美元的收入，而这些收入通常是会进来的。”

美国广播公司新闻

安吉拉·马斯登的菠萝山烧烤沙龙从去年夏天开始就有户外座位了。

然后，在11月，该州实施了另一次全面关闭，禁止在户外用餐和与自己家庭以外的人聚会，即使是在户外。马斯登说，到目前为止，她已经花了80，000美元改造餐厅，她得到的薪水保护计划贷款资金已经用完。

马斯登说:“我告诉我的员工下周来见我，我会给他们最后的薪水，然后给他们几袋食物。”。“记住，感恩节是餐馆最大的节日之一。我出去买了价值一万美元的食物卖，现在已经卖不出去了。”

同一天，她说一个电影制作团队在她建造户外用餐露台的停车场搭建了一辆餐车和帐篷用餐区。纽森认为电影制作至关重要。

“说起这件事我还是会心烦意乱。我看了看女朋友。我想，不管人们是否认为这是政治性的，我都必须开始说实话。我不知道他们会怎么想……我不相信COVID?因为我知道。但他们正在杀死我们，”她谈到限制时说。“他们正在扼杀我们的社区，我目睹了太多企业的死亡。”

马斯登随后在Facebook上发布了一段感人的视频，她在视频中质疑这两种餐饮业务的区别，并抨击该州将像她这样的企业归类为不必要的。这段视频在网上疯传，来自世界各地的人们帮助她在众筹活动中筹集了超过22万美元。

马斯登说:“我真正的抱怨从来不是来自电影公司或电影行业。“我有很多为支持我的酒吧的行业工作的人，他们都失业了。我的问题是(埃里克市长)加尔塞蒂和纽森，因为他们是制定规则的人。他们是制作分层程序的人，他们说谁能打开，谁不能。”

美国广播公司新闻

安吉拉·马斯登是谢尔曼奥克斯邻居菠萝山烧烤店的老板

像马斯登一样，加州的许多人都对纽森表示失望。有些人甚至要求他辞职。

纽森在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时说:“我们刚刚投入了25亿美元的小企业赠款。我们刚刚在该州实施了近100亿美元的刺激措施，并直接拨款38亿美元，向受到这一流行病不成比例影响的家庭拨款600美元。除了我们为小型企业提供的5亿美元赠款之外，还将增加20亿美元。”

“我们正在穿过一层层——现在是紫色、红色的，”他补充道。“随着案件率的下降，我们在各层之间移动……随着这种情况的稳定，您将会看到业务在接下来的几周内，而不仅仅是几个月内……开始以比目前更大的规模重新开放。”

美国广播公司新闻

加州州长加文·纽瑟姆接受美国广播公司采访。

随着限制的放松，佩尔穆特和马斯登现在担心他们如何解决过去一年积累的所有债务。

“我们12个月就要来了。佩尔穆特说:“我被迫关闭了我的公司，因为它已经成功运营了十年，但我仍然认为我应该维持所有的正常开支。”“这在任何故事情节中都是如何运作的?”

马斯登说，即使有众筹捐款，在从小企业协会获得公私伙伴关系贷款和单独贷款后，她仍有近30万美元的债务。

“我拿了钱，付给我的员工。我付了露台的钱。我支付了COVID的所有费用，”她说。

然而，随着他们继续面临前进的不确定性，所有的企业主都说他们不打算放弃。

马斯登说:“事实上，我真的很喜欢外面的世界，但我真的想回到里面去，因为我的商业伙伴们，有很多人现在甚至不能出去。”。“所以，我希望我拥有这家[餐馆]，直到我死去的那一天。我迫不及待地想回到里面，我们能在那个场景中再次相见。”

LA business owners fighting to survive in pandemic feel mix of hope and frustration

As Los Angeles edges out of the most restrictive tier in its covid-19 reopening plan, small business owners who’ve struggled to stay afloat say that whatever hope it brings is mixed with feelings of frustration and anger.

For many of the small business owners, the past year has been defined by sacrifice and heartbreak, and the constant concern that their business could go under as they try to keep up with the latest requirements.

Jared “JP” Perelmutter, the owner and operator of Brick Fitness, hasn’t been able to open his gym for indoor workouts for the last year. Since last summer, the parking lot outside the gym and a loyal clientele have made it possible to hold outdoor in-person workouts -- even if that means wearing masks, social distancing and keeping the noise levels low.

“So, this is the equivalent of a silent disco,” Perelmutter said during a recent visit from “Nightline.” “You can see some of them have their EarPods in so that they can listen to their own music, and then they just have to focus and listen intently because the coach can’t scream.”

“They’re just happy to be outside of their house and moving their bodies,” he added.

Under the state’s purple tier, L.A. restaurants and gyms have been allowed to operate solely outdoors and with modifications, while other businesses, like theaters and music venues, have remained closed.

Watch the full story on "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET on ABC.

Perelmutter says that for the limited programs he’s been able to offer at the 11-year-old gym, they’ve still only added up to 50% his normal volume. Moreover, while the cost of doing business has increased, half of the 28 staff members at the gym pre-pandemic had to be let go.

“On a monthly basis, our increased expenses to operate safely outdoors is between $10,000 and $12,000 a month,” he said. “Increased cleaning crew, increased cleaning materials, the tent rentals … our maintenance is five times what it was on equipment alone; [it’s] getting worn and broken being outside, and being weathered.”

And while he’s still prohibited from using the space for normal business, Perelmutter is still expected to pay the full rent for his 10,000-square-foot gym -- a staggering $30,000 per month. He called it his “really expensive warehouse and storage facility.”

“It’s just completely empty. For just general upkeep, even a building, if they stay abandoned too long, they basically fall apart,” he said. “We still have to maintain it. Cleaning crew still comes in every night and does some basic touch-up work -- make sure the place is clean. We change out all the HVAC HEPA filters because we do have staff and members that come in … to utilize the bathroom.”

Perelmutter said he “understands the severity” of the pandemic and that he has immunocompromised family members himself. But the handling of COVID-19 precautions, he says, has been frustrating.

“There’s a lot of negative energy because we all just feel like we’ve been kinda left out on the island to survive on our own,” he said.

Thirty minutes away, in historically Latino East LA, 58-year-old Senen Sanchez has relied on delivery apps to serve chili rellenos, enchiladas and taquitos out of Chico’s Mexican Restaurant.

“It still is hard for me to go through the tablet and try to program it and stuff. I have to call my daughters or I need to get assistance,” Sanchez told “Nightline.” “But yeah, I had to jump into the technology, otherwise I would be totally dead if I’m not on the website or using the media.”

With only a few tables set up for outdoor eating, however, Sanchez says his revenue stream has taken a “painful” hit. Delivery apps can charge commission fees as high as 30% per order, putting less money in the pockets of restaurant owners who were already operating under tight profit margins before the pandemic.

“What you take home is less,” Sanchez said. “That’s how it is now.”

Sanchez said he’s been “blessed” to have a “great” landlord who has kept his rent low since before the pandemic began.

“It makes a huge difference because the people that are in business -- a small business like mine -- when they raise the rent crazy, we’re not able to cover it,” Sanchez said. “It’s sad that so many people have such high rent, and then the bars are closed. The patios were closed for so long.”

Restaurants in the city of 10.4 million people only returned to outdoor dining a few weeks ago, after seeing a spike in cases that made January the state’s deadliest month of the pandemic so far. By September 2020, more than 15,000 businesses in L.A. had shut their doors -- more than any other city in the U.S. -- with half of the closures expected to be permanent, according to a Yelp analysis.

Yet, even with that reality casting a shadow over Sanchez’s head, a harsher reality lingers for the father of two: In Los Angeles, the Latino community has seen three times more death from COVID-19. Sanchez said he’s trying his best to keep his customers and employees safe and avoid exposing them to the virus.

“They’re working hard with the vaccine and trying to control this virus because nobody wants it,” Sanchez said. “I mean, we don’t want it. We just want it away. And I hope they can control that. I mean, I think that will be the answer. If everything goes back to normal, it’s because it’s under control.”

States have loosened their COVID-19 restrictions at different rates, and just this week, Texas and Mississippi announced they would lift their mask mandates and reopen businesses at full capacity. California, however, has fluctuated between shutdowns and partial reopenings, and angry business owners and employees have directed their frustrations toward Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“You wanna shut things down that aren’t deemed essential, but then you can’t cherry pick what’s essential and what’s not,” said Jason London, a bartender at the Pineapple Hill Grill and Saloon in Sherman Oaks for over a year. “It pays my bills. It pays my rent. I can’t call the Chevy dealership like, ‘Hey, I can’t pay my truck note this month. Sorry.’ They don’t care. Like, they feel bad for you, but they still want their $450 for their truck.”

London noted it’s not just those working inside the restaurants who are impacted by the restrictions -- it’s everyone who helps to keep the restaurant running, too.

“My produce guy has not been working. My beer vendors have no been working," he said. "The delivery drivers for my beer have not been working. So, it’s not just us. It trickles down, and it’s sad.”

Angela Marsden, the owner of Pineapple Hill, first spoke to ABC News in March 2020 after she’d received news of the mandatory shutdown. At the time, she wasn’t sure if her restaurant would still exist today.

Since then, she’s worked hard to comply with the state’s restrictions, first relying on takeout only, then building a patio for outdoor dining, and finally, doing indoor dining with some modifications before she was forced to close again.

“The summertime was the hardest,” Marsden said. “After they shut us down inside, they basically said, ‘Well, now you can go outside, but you can’t go inside. But here’s what you need to be outside.’ And again, it’s like this 48-hour warning.”

Marsden said she turned to Facebook to buy used furniture off other restaurant owners who could not set up outdoor dining. Pointing to one set of tables that she said were bought from an Italian restaurant owner, she explained, “The stress of everything. He was older, and the fear of COVID. He ended up in the hospital, and his manager is working with me on what to charge me for his used furniture that I’m buying.”

“So it was very heartbreaking,” she said. “But I had to do it because I have to survive.”

Marsden said that when they reopened during a heat wave last summer, her staff were not only wearing masks but they wanted to wear face shields and gloves as well. “I had one person out here almost have a heat stroke,” she said.

She said business started coming back in September and she saw her first profit of the entire year in October. As for the rest of the year, she said, “I have taken a loss every single month -- anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000. Overall, I’ve lost over half a million [dollars] in revenue that would normally be coming in.”

Then, in November, the state implemented another full shutdown, prohibiting outdoor dining and gatherings with individuals outside of one’s own household, even if outdoors. Marsden said by this point she had already spent $80,000 on modifying the restaurant and that the Paycheck Protection Program loan funds she’d gotten had already run out.

“I told my staff to meet up with me the following week and I would give them their last paychecks and then bags of food,” Marsden said. “Remember, Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays for restaurants. I went out and bought $10,000 worth of food to sell that now can’t be sold.”

That same day, she said a film production crew set up a food truck and tented dining area in the parking lot where she’d built her outdoor dining patio. Film productions had been deemed essential by Newsom.

“I still get upset talking about it. I looked at my girlfriend. I was like, I have to start telling the truth whether people think it’s political [or not]. I don’t know what they’re gonna think … that I don’t believe in COVID? Because I do. But they’re killing us,” she said of the restrictions. “They’re just killing our community and I’ve watched too many businesses die.”

Marsden subsequently posted an emotional video on Facebook where she questioned the difference between the two dining operations and blasted the state for categorizing businesses like hers as nonessential. The video went viral and people from around the world helped her raise over $220,000 in a crowdfunding campaign.

“My real complaint was never with the movie company or the movie industry,” Marsden said. “I have a lot of people that work for the industry that support my pub, and they’ve been out of work. My problem was with [Mayor Eric] Garcetti and Newsom because they’re the people that are making the rules. They’re the people that are making the tiered programs and saying who can open and who can’t.”

Like Marsden, many people across California have expressed frustration with Newsom. Some have even called for his resignation.

Speaking to ABC News, Newsom said, “We just put $2.5 billion in small business grants. We just did an almost $10 billion stimulus in the state and $3.8 billion in direct grants, $600 grants to households -- families that have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic. An additional $2 billion on top of our $500 million for grants for small businesses.”

“We’re moving through tiers -- now purple, red tiers,” he added. “And as we move through tiers as the case rates decline … as that stabilizes, you’re going to see businesses over the next weeks, not just months … begin to reopen with modifications at a much larger scale than they currently are.”

With their restrictions loosening, Perelmutter and Marsden are now concerned about how they’re going to settle all the debt they’ve accumulated this past year.

“We’re coming on 12 months. I have been forced to shut down my business as it was operating successfully for a decade, while still under the assumption that I’m supposed to maintain all of the normal expenses,” Perelmutter said. “How does that work in any storyline?”

Marsden said that even with the crowdfunding donations, she’s still close to $300,000 in debt after taking out both a PPP loan and a separate loan from the Small Business Association.

“I took that money and I paid my staff. I paid for the patio. I paid for all the COVID stuff,” she said.

Nevertheless, as they continue to face uncertainty moving forward, all of the business owners said they don’t plan on giving up.

“I actually am really loving the outside, but I really want to get back inside because my fellow business owners, there are a lot of them that can’t even be outside right now,” Marsden said. “So, I hope that I own this [restaurant] until the day I die. I can’t wait until we’re back inside and we can see each other in that setting again.”