. >> abc 7 reporter leslie brinkly with more. >> allow these babies to get back outside and be kids again. >> reporter: coaches join forces with thousands of parents and students friday morning in a virtual plea to the california governor to open up youth sports as they showed off a new physicians letter to bolster their case. >> a three page document with 57 different positions from across the entire state of california that shows support for the return of safe play for our students. >> this is not a political issue. athletes are not democrats. they're not republicans. all they want to do is play. we want to work with both sides of the legislature. >> they say the closure of sports during the pandemic is doing irreparable damage to kids. >> our churches are closed. our gyms are closed. our recreational parks are closed and gated up. the goals have taken down off the rims. what else do we want these kids to do? >> we're finding more suicides, kids are going back into gangs. >> these kids are born with the zoom check ins. they're bored with the motivational group chat texts. so now we're s

leslie brinkly met many in contra costa county today who are fearful for the future. we're taking a look at the economic health of the bay area businesses in our efforts to build a better bay area. >> ghost town out here. >> reporter: this cafe owner says he's on the edge as he sees no end in sight of the shutdown. >> we're not doing good at all. i left off six people the last three weeks. >> reporter: businesses say in the spring shutdown they had a sense of somehow we'll get through this. they say it's totally different. now this winter they've shifted into desperation mode. >> we're going to be opening our patio and indoor dining. >> reporter: in desperation the chef and owner of the hide outon lafayette went on social media to say he was going to defy the health order and pay the fines to stay afloat, but the county threatened to have his license revoked. >> the threat of permanent closure is greater now than it has been in the last ten months. >> we're talking to businesses every day and we're hearing a lot of struggles. >> reporter: the contra costa county da's