San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
RIVER WALK MASKING
COVID enforcement: City efforts to keep visitors safe undermined by those flouting the rules.
It’s a crowded Saturday night on the River Walk, and the bridges and trees are still draped in holiday lights even though it’s February. People are dining alfresco along the San Antonio River.
The tables at On The Bend Oyster Bar & Cigar Lounge are spaced 6 feet apart, a concession to the safety rules enacted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But the outdoor diners still have plenty of company. Hundreds of visitors crowd this portion of the River Walk, Texas’ most popular tourist attraction.
Some visitors linger close to diners as they snap photos or listen to two jazz musicians at work.
Many of the passersby share something in common with the diners: They’re not wearing masks, flouting city rules requiring face coverings on the River Walk.
About 1 in every 4 visitors to the River Walk isn’t complying with safety rules requiring masks, according to the San Antonio Police Department, the San Antonio River Walk Association and restaurant owners.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said he asked city administrators during the holidays for stricter enforcement of mask-wearing on the River Walk. But local enforcement is limited by state rules. Under an order by Gov. Greg Abbott, violators of mask rules only receive a warning the first time they are seen without a face covering.
“It’s fair to say that a year into this pandemic, everyone has heard the message about the importance of mask-wearing and really doesn’t need to be warned anymore,” Nirenberg said.
Nirenberg favors fines for first-time offenders. As it is, offenses after an initial warning can bring penalties of up to $250, but Nirenberg said it’s almost impossible to catch a person a second time.
His push for more enforcement succeeded — somewhat. City records show that more than 1,500 people received verbal warnings from San Antonio police to wear a mask or put one on correctly between Dec. 30 and Feb. 5. The records do not show even one verbal warning issued from mid-March to Dec. 30.
Yet no warnings were issued Feb. 6 and 7, a weekend of warm weather that bought thousands to the River Walk.
Park police officers who patrol the River Walk have been giving verbal orders to pedestrians to mask up since the beginning of the pandemic, but they weren’t documenting the actions, said Lt. Jesse Salame, spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department. (The park police are under the SAPD’s purview.)
Since the holidays, more visitors have been crowding walkways along the river.
“People are coming out more,” Salame said. “During March, April and May, the River Walk was like a ghost town.”
He believes many of the violators are tourists from rural parts of Texas.
“I traveled through West Texas a few months back, and I was surprised that no one in the convenience stores was wearing a mask,” he said. “If you stop in a little town, they look at you like you're from another world if you show up with a mask.”
Salame said visitors generally put on masks after being confronted by an officer. But a normal contingent of about 10 officers can only give so many warnings during a shift along the River Walk, honeycombed with bars, restaurants and attractions.
Jonathan Pischner was one of the maskless pedestrians on a sunny Sunday afternoon on the River Walk this month.
“I have breathing issues,” said the 32-year-old from a rural area near Mankato, Minn. Pischner pulled a blue surgical mask out of his pocket and said he would put it on if asked.
He said few wore masks back home. Pischner and his parents, who are farmers, had been staying at a hotel near San Antonio International Airport since Jan. 8.
“We're snowbirds,” he said as he checked the temperature in Mankato on his cellphone. There, it was -2 degrees. Here, it was about 70 degrees.
Michael Calderon, a corrections officer from San Saba, wasn't wearing a mask either as he strolled down the River Walk with family members.
In San Saba, “most people don't wear their masks,” he said. “It's more rural Republican over there.”
Nevertheless, he said he carried a mask and put it on whenever somebody asked him to.
“I wear mine out of respect for other people if they don't feel comfortable with me not wearing a mask,” he said.
Calderon said he found it funny that he had to put on a mask to go into a River Walk restaurant to ask for an outside table but was allowed to take it off as soon as he sat down.
Not everyone going maskless on the River Walk is from a rural area.
A couple from Jacksonville, Fla., who declined to give their names, said it was their right not to wear a mask as they strolled on the River Walk. The couple had come to San Antonio to attend a wedding.
“It's your discretion. Everyone is adults here,” the woman said.
Her partner said he didn't see the need for a mask.
“I don't think they do anything,” he said.
The man said he does electrical work in hospitals and hasn't caught COVID-19, leaving him unworried about the virus.
Customers who refuse to put on a mask can put restaurant owners in difficult situations, said Maggie Thompson, executive director of the San Antonio River Walk Association.
“There are some people who do argue. They feel they have a God-given right not to wear a mask,” she said.
The reality is that nothing can be done when tourists refuse to wear masks, said Robert Thrailkill, general manager of the Hilton Palacio del Rio. Still, he said most guests comply when he tells them mask-wearing is required in hotel's public areas and on the River Walk.
“But some people say it's their right not to wear a mask,” he said.
Six people in line at The Frosty Dog, a small pavilion serving frozen margaritas to go, weren't wearing masks on a recent Saturday night.
“If they're not wearing the mask, we politely to ask them to wear a mask,” owner Terry Corless said. “They happily comply until they get their drink and then walk away and pull it off.”
Mask-wearing is only required when coming within 6 feet of unrelated parties. But the River Walk's twisting walkways can lead visitors to brush against tables full of diners just around a bend. In some parts, the stone pathways narrow to as little as 6 feet, making social distancing impossible for oncoming walkers.
“We're asking people to do one thing for us — wear a mask,” Salame said.
Fortunately, being outdoors in the pandemic is safer than being indoors, according to epidemiologists and experts on outdoor air flow.
“If people put on masks outside, the risk of transmission is quite low,” said Anne Liu, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford Health Care in Palo Alto, Calif.