LOCAL: Mayor says beaches will reopen when rules are followed.
Beaches throughout South Florida could reopen any time, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Tuesday — but reopening likely won’t happen too soon because people have shown they’re not willing to comply with social distancing guidelines.
“If we all act responsibly we can open up much quicker — if we all act responsibly, and that’s the issue,” Gimenez said on WIOD-AM 610.
“I don’t want to act like this, and I don’t want to be a like a big daddy to anybody, but look, we just act the right way, follow the rules, then a lot more things can be opened. If everybody followed the rules we could open up the beach tomorrow — if everybody followed the rules, Gimenez said.
“But we know that there’s going to be a whole bunch of people who aren’t going to follow the rules,” he said.
With 64 of the state’s counties in Phase 1 reopening, beaches in many places are open. But they aren’t in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which have been acting in concert on the coronavirus. The three counties account for 59% of Florida’s cases and 56% of coronavirus deaths, despite having 29% of the state’s population.
In a region with more than 6 million residents, county and city mayors also have said they’re concerned about a reopening of one type of facility in just one area might cause a mass of people from a still-closed communities to newly open communities.
“They feel there may be a rush to the beaches, certain beaches, and that it would be very, very difficult to control,” Gimenez said. “We just have to have buy-in from all the coastal cities, and Broward and Palm Beach [counties].”
Gimenez is juggling multiple roles. Besides being the chief executive in the state’s largest county, with by far the greatest rate of coronavirus cases and deaths in the state, he’s also a candidate for Congress this year. He’s seeking the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Miami.
Supporting his concern about non-compliance with social distancing guidelines, Gimenez cited what happened in late March, when he first imposed restrictions on recreational activities in the state’s largest county, but didn’t close marinas.
People still congregated for “rafting up” — the tying together of a number of small vessels to form a raftlike structure — and held large group parties.
“I had to close it down. Because some people, a lot of people, not the majority but a lot of people, just did not abide by the rules,” Gimenez said.
On Monday, the city of Miami Beach said it was closing South Pointe Park, just days after it reopened, because people weren’t wearing face coverings. The Miami Beach Police Department reported that its park rangers gave 7,329 verbal warnings from Friday through Sunday, mostly in that one park before it was closed.
Gimenez said he is especially concerned that some people may do things they think don’t harm themselves but could produce danger for those who are more susceptible to serious illness and death from coronavirus.
He said some people think “’I’m young and I’m strong. I don’t have any underlying physical conditions.’ But the problem is then you pass that virus on to somebody that does have an underlying physical condition or somebody who is elderly and then this virus is deadly to them. That’s the whole problem.”