All over the world, I see people trying to stop people from being outdoors, regardless of the health and safety implications. In the UK, police are issuing citations to people in parks. NYC has set up a tip line to report "social distancing violations" and is closing some parks.<p>I don't understand it. I understand the imperative for social distancing, of course. But it seems like enforcement has been targeted at relatively low-risk activities (hanging out in large, public outdoor spaces) and not at all at the high-risk ones (e.g. where I live in Brooklyn, half the laundromats have closed and the remaining half are constantly crowded).<p>I can't help but think that part of this impulse comes from a certain sour-grapes mentality that sees people trying to enjoy themselves during a trying time and wants to take it away from them. A real public health intervention would ensure that all necessary activities - getting groceries, doing laundry, going to work - are just as safe as going to the park.
I'm honestly so surprised to see stuff like this -- from a logistics standpoint.<p>It's so easy -- free even! -- to just not do anything.<p>But someone said, "We have to stop these skaters." And brainstormed ideas. And came up with "sand". And figured out how to acquire that much sand, and how to truck a literal ton of sand to the park.<p>I'm not disagreeing with what they did. I'm just surprised that someone considered the cost/benefit to be worth it. Even more surprising if this was a government action instead of a private skatepark owner -- surely this must be a private skatepark. How many committees would it take to figure out this whole sand thing?
Anyone who still thinks this is about 'protecting' people from themselves is just deluding themselves. When there's footage of children being harassed and arrested by cops for selling lemonade in public or old folks being dragged off trains by groups of cops for not wearing a mask and talk from governments of allowing law enforcement to enter people's homes on suspicion of 'being sick' there's something seriously fucked up going on.<p>I don't give a shit how many people get sick from covid-19 at this point, I'm not going to accept living in some fucked up dictatorship because people are scared of dying.<p>People die all the time. I don't care, get over it. That's what life is, you live and then you die. Everyone living right now will die some day. Period. Living your life like a prisoner because some authority tells you you need to be scared of this is unacceptable to me and.in all honesty I would rather be dead then live in a world like that.
It's funny to see a skate park so close to home. I play softball in a men's league across the way from it. This seems like a lazy solution that will be very hard to clean up after the fact though.
Skateboarding is de facto illegal. You can't stop kids from skating without making it physically impossible because they are already dismissing the law and its enforcement. Notice the sand has already been cleared in enough areas to start skating again.
I look out over our skate park, and its buzzing since spring is arriving (Sweden, largest skate park).<p>37 tons is about one truckload? It will be mostly brushed away quickly when quarantine ends. Wish they did the same here, but the skate park is the least of our social distancing problems.
This is the insanity of overreaction. Let's shut down all outdoor activities and force people to huddle in tightly enclosed spaces. Sounds like a great health policy! So draconian and unnecessary.