Pol: Open streets up to people

The city should open up streets to people who want exercise, lock playgrounds and send more staff to make sure people don’t crowd one another at parks, says Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

The recommendations — which include removing barbecues from parks — came Monday in response to a call from Gov. Cuomo asking the city’s top pols for a plan to reduce crowding in green spaces that may be tempting New Yorkers to go against health officials’ pleas to observe “social distancing” amid the coronavirus.

“We’re a cramped city in a lot of places, and our parks and playgrounds are like our backyards. But overcrowding is a serious issue right now,” Johnson said in a statement. “We also want to open up streets to pedestrians for exercise and fresh air to offset the loss. This won’t be forever, but we have to do everything we can right now to stop the spread.”

While Mayor de Blasio shied away from ordering street closures Sunday, Johnson said the city should use a model like the “Summer Streets” program, in which 7 miles of Manhattan streets were closed to vehicles three Saturdays in a row last year.

He noted Council members and others were working to identify other streets for potential closure.

Cuomo and de Blasio gave differing assessments of the city’s parks over the weekend, with the governor calling people congregating on basketball courts and other facilities “reckless” and the mayor saying he hadn’t seen anything objectionable. Hizzoner announced a weeklong trial run of a program in which NYPD officers and others will advise parkgoers not to form crowds.

Cuomo on Sunday aired the idea of street closures and gave de Blasio and Johnson 24 hours to come up with a plan to reduce crowds in parks, drawing applause from advocacy groups.