EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng review công ty eyeq tech eyeq tech giờ ra sao EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng crab meat crab meat crab meat importing crabs live crabs export mud crabs vietnamese crab exporter vietnamese crabs vietnamese seafood vietnamese seafood export vietnams crab vietnams crab vietnams export vietnams export
Metro

De Blasio: NYC beaches likely closed for summer due to coronavirus

By
Julia Marsh and
Natalie Musumeci
Published April 16, 2020
Updated April 16, 2020, 4:34 p.m. ET

You can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach … just don’t expect to get anywhere near the surf this summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Thursday.

The mayor fizzled New Yorkers clinging to hopes for a summer dunk in the ocean, saying Thursday that there’s “no plan” to open city beaches like Coney Island, Brighton and Rockaway due to the coronavirus crisis after his executive budget also cut funding for public pools.

“Right now we do not have a plan to open the beaches, just like we do not have a plan to open the pools,” de Blasio said during a conference call with reporters. “It’s not safe.”

According to de Blasio’s slashed executive budget for the fiscal year 2021, which was released Thursday, all outdoor city pools will be shuttered for the 2020 season due to coronavirus, saving the city $12 million.

The mayor warned New Yorkers hoping to have a summer filled with typical fun-in-the-sun activities to “lower expectations — just for everyone’s sanity, lower expectations.”

As city hospital admissions for suspected COVID-19 increased Thursday along with a jump in the number of suspected coronavirus patients in ICUs, de Blasio warned New Yorkers not to anticipate traditional summer-in-the-city activities.

“Right now I don’t see a scenario anytime soon,” de Blasio said, adding, “Imagine Coney Island in the middle of summer, hundreds of thousands of people packed tightly together — I don’t see that happening any time soon.”

The mayor continued, “The notion of having lifeguards and people coming to the beach like normal, we don’t have that in our sights yet.”

Red flags along the board walk and beach on Coney Island
Dennis A. Clark

De Blasio said he would have to see the number of hospitalizations and those testing positive for the bug decline in order “to talk about some loosening of restrictions, and they have not been moving yet.”

“Every one of use would love to have our summer or some part of our summer, but keep expectations low for now,” de Blasio warned.

“We’re at a point right now, middle of April, where we are practicing intense social distancing, everyone’s being very careful,” the mayor said. “To go from that to mass gatherings of thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, that’s a big jump.”

However, de Blasio said, “Obviously you could have a situation where people could go to the beach to walk along the beach, but not in large numbers any time soon.”

Manning the beaches with lifeguards, the mayor explained, would “endanger people.”

But the mayor gave a glimmer of hope on the beachfront saying, “If things evolve we’ll reassess.”

“I can’t project it now, because it wouldn’t be safe to project it now,” said de Blasio.