Lack of social distancing leads to closure of parks and trails
It was a sunny day, the first in about a week when temperatures had climbed past the 50-degree mark, and people in Chicago did what they always do on such a day: They flocked to the shores of Lake Michigan.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not consider that the kind of postcard perfect scene that attracts visitors from around the world.
She saw danger.
She saw “packs” of people and worried about the possibility that the coronavirus was spreading from one person to another.
“We know what happens when you don’t social distance,“Lightfoot told reporters after observing the waterside vista on Wednesday. “The illness rate goes through the roof, the strain on the hospitals is enormous and the death rate starts to escalate.”
A day later, she shut down the lakefront trails and nearby parks for the duration of the coronavirus crisis, warning that projections show more than 40,000 Chicagoans could need hospital treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, in the coming weeks.
“We can’t mess around with this one second longer,” an exasperated Lightfoot said.
Padlocks, fences
All over the United States, mayors and other officials fed up with residents who ignore social distancing guidelines have been shutting down parks, beaches, marinas and other public areas that people visit for physical and mental health. That’s because the chance of catching or spreading the virus grows as the space between people shrinks.
They have padlocked playgrounds and taken down basketball hoops and tennis nets. They have fenced in parks or spider-webbed entrances with yellow tape, making them look like crime scenes.
Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania closed its trails.
Access to the boardwalk in Long Beach, Long Island, has been blocked.
In Florida, just as the Illinois governor issued a stay-at-home order after seeing crowds spilling out of Chicago bars over St. Patrick’s Day weekend, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced that all marinas and boat ramps would close indefinitely after reports of parties near the water.
In California, the largest state to impose a statewide stay-athome order, officials took one look at the crowds flocking to the beach and closed parking lots to discourage visitors. While most people on the sand heeded guidelines to stay 6 feet away from others, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti still saw too many beachgoers “too close together, too often.”
“The longer we do that, the more people will get sick and more people will die,” Garcetti said at a press conference.
In New Orleans, where experts attributed the explosion of infections and deaths to last month’s massive Mardi Gras celebration, Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered basketball hoops removed from city facilities. And she took to Twitter to scold people for joining large gatherings and urged witnesses to report such events.
On the North Carolina-Tennessee border, after more than 30,000 people arrived each day last weekend, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park closed down.
Breaking barriers
In Oak Park, a leafy suburb west of Chicago, officials were upset that some were flouting social distancing guidelines by playing basketball and other group activities at parks.
“We want people to be able to walk on the paths and get fresh air, but they were playing games,” said Diane Stanke, a spokeswoman for the city’s park district.
The final straw, said John Borland, the park district’s grounds maintenance supervisor, was seeing that people were “breaking through the barriers” his crews had erected to block access to the fields. That prompted the village’s health department to order the parks and park facilities closed to everyone. Borland and his crews took down the tennis nets and basketball hoops.
Brooklyn’s Prospect Park has remained as crowded at times as it is on a summer weekend, prompting police officers to circle the park and announce over loudspeakers that runners and bikers should keep their distance.