Beaches and Parks Try For a New Normal in Memorial Day Weekend Reopenings
People across the country attempted to kick off summer this holiday weekend, as beaches, parks and bars began to reopen while following social distancing guidelines with varying degrees of success.
In New Jersey, poor weather kept many residents desperate to get outside off the beaches.
Belmar, New Jersey, Mayor Mark Walsifer said on MSNBC Monday that the city had “the weather gods on our side” to prevent crowds. Still, Walsifer said boardwalks were busy, and the city is getting used to adjusting to the new normal.
But in nearby Pleasant Point, protesters seemed to ignore social distancing guidelines to make their voices heard on Memorial Day, saying the governor needed to reopen the state immediately.
Elsewhere in the country, beachgoers balanced risk with the desire to spend time outdoors. In Clearwater, Florida, beaches were open, but police said “plenty” of social distancing was occurring, and photos of the Memorial Day scene showed large spaces between beachgoers who were separated by cones. “It’s not always going to be perfectly 6 feet between people, but I feel like people are trying to keep their space,” Yasmina Hernandez, who went to Sunset Beach, just south of Clearwater, told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s everyone’s individual choice whether they come out or not.”
“I’ve been in the house for months and had to get out for some fresh air,” Michael Montoya, at a nearby beach, told the Times. “But I’m not socializing or sitting close to people.”
The scene in Clearwater is good news for Floridians worried about their neighbors violating social distancing guidelines, after footage showed large crowds in Daytona Beach, Florida, over the holiday weekend.
In Houston, the mayor said city officials will have to ramp up enforcement of the governor’s reopening guidelines after one club hosted a massive pool party that appeared to defy social distancing guidelines.
In coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, Mayor Bill Saffo acknowledged that the city is having some difficulty getting people to wear masks.
“It’s an enforcement issue for us, and I think it’s going to be an enforcement issue for most communities around the country,” Saffo said on MSNBC. The city has seen a rise in coronavirus cases since reopening, which Saffo said was expected.
“We knew that when we went from the mitigation phase to the reopening phase that we would see a spike,” he said, adding that he would “take a significant action” if the numbers rose further.
At the Grand Canyon, which began its reopening process, Victoria Girgis, a student at Northern Arizona University, said many people were wearing masks.
“It was not as crowded as I expected, especially for Memorial Day,” Girgis, 21, said. “A lot of opportunities to socially distance. People kept their distance.”
By Ben Kesslen
