File Photo
Mayor Bill de Blasio has indicated that all City beaches, including Rockaway Beach (pictured), will be closed for the summer.
By Michael V. Cusenza
City pools and beaches will be closed this summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.
“We need to get it right. You got one chance to restart the economy the right way,” Hizzoner told Bill Hemmer on Fox News. “If we rush when we are still in the throes of this crisis, if we let people come back together and start gathering again, and there are lessons, again from around the world and from our own past that show us when you take the foot off the gas too early, you could have a spread again. So my point would be, show consistent progress reducing this disease, start to drive it down to the point that we can contain it. We have a small enough number of cases to actually know where we are quarantining people again, the right way. We are testing widespread, so we can drive it back once and for all. And if we don’t, you don’t want to see a boomerang affect. You do not want to see this thing reassert.”
As expected, not many area residents were fans of the decision.
“A full beach closure would be difficult to enforce and would deal a devastating blow to the local economy. We are already seeing significant gains in the fight against COVID-19 and we don’t know where we will be in June when the budget is adopted,” City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) said. “This decision is premature.”
