Business still booming despite gov’t shutdown in Joshua Tree National Park
It’s Day 14 of the government shutdown and that means most park rangers at Joshua Tree National Park are still on furlough. However, that’s not stopping visitors from coming and one local business is seeing increased foot traffic.
It’s a busy register as orders are placed at The Natural Sisters cafe in Joshua Tree. Customers lining up, ready to get their snacks and coffee. The cafe remains packed despite a government shutdown at the national park and cafe owner Christy Lopez believes there’s a reason why. {“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1081244864140828672″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Customers are still coming in at The Natural Sisters Cafe in &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/JoshuaTree?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#JoshuaTree&#lt;/a&#gt;. Owner tells me there’s even more people in her cafe than last year where the lack of admission fees to the park due to the gov’t shutdown is playing some role. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/k11lsrk7xe”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/k11lsrk7xe&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1081244864140828672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;January 4, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″} “People are still flying in. Yes. I think they’re taking advantage of the fact that they’re not having to have to pay,” she said.
More park visitors means more potential customers.
“I think we’ve seen a 50 percent increase, maybe a little less. 40 to 50 percent increase,” Lopez said.
A native of the Morongo Basin says he’s noticed that while getting his morning coffee.
“This is the first time I’ve seen it without a line out the door. There’s just people from all over the place coming in here,” Seth Nounnan of Yucca Valley, said.
Lopez says she had initial worries about a government shutdown, but is relieved her business isn’t effected. She estimates 90 percent of her business comes from tourists visiting the park and with campgrounds already shut down and no staff to maintain park, she has one request for visitors
“I just wish if people are going to come and visit our beautiful area that they would take care of it. That would be the best,” she said.
