Election night was quiet in downtown Long Beach, as local businesses boarded up their windows in anticipation of a possible riot.
Most restaurants and bars appeared relatively empty.
Shannon’s on Pine Ave. had a modest number of guests, although the crowd was still relatively low for a typical Tuesday night, said doorman Corban Baker.
“This is a lot smaller than we usually get, especially with the Dodgers and the Lakers games, we’d be packed. We’d be at capacity, even with all of our social distancing and all the city codes, we’d still run into people walking up and trying to join their friends. We can’t have people standing up, not wearing masks.”
Baker said he did not think many people were staying home due to the election or the pandemic.
“I think with the election, everyone feels like, since the results don’t come out til later, it’s okay to come out, and with COVID, I think everybodys just kind of over it. They’re tired of having their lives shut down, and they just want to go out and have some semblance of what it used to be.”
However, Shannon’s did have plans to potentially close early, depending how the rest of the night unfolded, according to Baker.
At 7 p.m., the Carvery, which is under the same ownership as Shannon’s, had already been boarded up.
Baker said the staff was already beginning to bring in everything from the outside, and the televisions had already been taken inside, “just to preemptively get them out of the way. We’re looking at probably closing early just in case. We’re kind of waiting to see what happens, it depends how busy it is. Right now, since the election results won’t be in til about midnight when we close anyway, we’re not too worried about it, unless we start to see things on the street then we’ll call it a night.”
Baker was working armed security around L.A. and Santa Monica during the riots and looting that ensued during the June George Floyd protests.
“It was crazy mass looting. With the riots, mainly our standard operating procedure was to just try to protect the property and to tell people to go away, but to not engage with them, because if you engage with them, then the whole crowd could turn on you, so it was more of, do your best, but don’t let it get physical.”
Regarding the rest of Tuesday night, Baker said, “I’m a little nervous about how it’s gonna go, just because I’ve seen what has happened. I don’t think it will get like that, just because of the mail-in ballots, I don’t think we’re going to be seeing anything like that ‘til maybe Thursday or Friday. A lot of the businesses I work on security for, they’ve boarded up, they’re closing down for the next two or three days, so they’re prepping for that.”
On 3rd Street, R Bar, another establishment with a modest crowd, was prepared to board up as well.
The two doormen, while they said they were ready to board up if needed, said they were not aware of any procedures or any other details from their management in case events escalated in Long Beach, but the two seemed unconcerned.
Both said they didn’t think things could be worse than the looting and rioting in June.
“But this is downtown, so you never know. I think businesses are just trying to be safe [rather than] sorry,” said a security guard named Maxwell, who refused to give his last name.
“I know everybody’s glued to their TV or their cell phone. I didn’t think nobody was going to be here. If things get worse, I will walk the other way,” said Dee Till, who was working his first night at R Bar. However, he seemed confident that the night was “going to be straight sailing.”