Right before Easter weekend, City Manager Ben Harvey gave the Pacific Grove Police Department the authority to immediately shut down any outdoor recreational area if too many people showed up and didn't follow social distancing rules required under Monterey County's shelter-in-place order. The parks and shore areas remained open.
Two weeks later, on Saturday, April 25, the beautiful sunny weather proved too enticing. Too many people showed up to Lovers Point, at least in the estimation of PGPD. The department shut down the beach, park and parking lot about mid-afternoon until further notice citing the lack of social distancing.
Over in Carmel on the same afternoon at the city's popular white sand beach, Carmel Police were driving a marked SUV and an ATV up and down the beach making sure people were following the city's rules: no blankets, no sitting, only walking and exercise—and always at least six feet apart from others.
Earlier this week, Carmel officials announced they were prohibiting parking near the beach at the Del Mar parking lot and along Scenic and San Antonio avenues, as they had over Easter weekend. The prohibition will remain until further notice.
On Friday, Monterey City Manager Hans Uslar told reporters on a briefing call that because of the prediction of beautiful weather, Monterey Police would be on ATVs patrolling beaches and breaking up any groups not following the shelter-in-place order. He also said the city would be keeping tabs on how many city parking spaces near the water were getting used, to track how many people were coming to the shore.
Uslar did not promise to shut down any beaches over the weekend, but he did say that if it appeared too many people were showing up the city would take time on Monday to consider what actions to take as the shelter-in-place order continues.
On Friday, the city posted to its Facebook page a plea to not travel to its parks and beaches.
"Car travel should be limited to doing 'essential' business, such as seeking medical treatment or buying food. Please enjoy the outdoors near your home if you want to get fresh air.
"While everyone is anxious to visit our beaches, this is all about preserving lives and reducing the workload for our professional healthcare providers."
UPDATE: On April 28, the Pacific Grove Police Department issued a press release about the closure of Lovers Point with an explanation of why they made the decision.
"Over the past several weeks, the Pacific Grove Police Department conducted public outreach on various platforms and provided warnings for social distancing and shelter-in-place violations.
On April 24, 2020, police staff specifically walked the Lovers Point Park and Beaches, issuing verbal warnings to individuals not abiding by the Monterey County Health Officer Shelter-In-Place Order; and posted additional signage reminding visitors of the rules.
"On April 25, 2020, Lovers Point Park and Beaches continued to attract visitors to convene and not abide by social distancing standards. Due to public health concerns, Chief Cathy Madalone, with authority from City Manager Ben Harvey, closed Lovers Point Park and Beaches until further notice.
"The Pacific Grove Recreational Trail and Ocean View Boulevard remain open and accessible for those practicing social distancing protocols while walking, running and bicycling. For water recreation, other local access points to the ocean are still open and available to the public."
(4) comments
Amen to the comments. Would LA shut down if Monterey was hit like they? LA and SoCal have 60% of the deaths due to, yes, densely populated/mass transit. I'm with the survivor, where is the common sense aspect?
I’ve lived on the Monterey Peninsula since 1987, mostly in Carmel, until a year ago when I developed leukemia (from which I’ve mostly recovered-yay!), had a stroke (due to the leukemia, from which I have also mostly recovered, again-yay!), but the point being I’m no longer the 30-something climbing Ocean Avenue that I was when I first moved here. I have some deficits, but I still love the ocean. But now I live in a retirement center, walk with a cane, and sit on a blanket at the beach. Only now you’re telling me I don’t. I’m now breaking the law and will be hauled off to the hoosegow for even attempting to enjoy my share of the ocean waves breaking on the shore? Pardon me, but I’ve been in my “chalet” at the home since the first of March and I’m getting a little punchy. And if I want to sit six feet away from the next living thing at the beach, I fail to see (short of martial law) how this can be illegal. If I can sit at “the home” I fail to understand why I cannot sit at the beach. My doctor has recommended more Vitamin D, it’s quite obvious I could use an attitude adjustment and gazing at the ocean is my ideal form of therapy. I am officially 100% disabled so I would like an explanation how this law is not violating my rights. As long as I show up with clean hands and am wearing a mask, I don’t see how I can give anybody anything. Did I mention I’m a big fan of common sense? I look forward to someone’s explanation. Thank you.[rolleyes]
Agreed Trisha! Additionally, the remark in the article, "Car travel should be limited to essential business such as food and medical" is a pretty ignorant statement of an official, since both the revised County order and the current Statewide order for shelter-in-place allow and describe recreation as an "essential" activity exempt from the generalized prohibitions anyway.
So as more places are closed (by local orders) that are public spaces, this leaves les and less areas remaining for people to go to enjoy the very essential (in every sense of the word) recreation activity.
The BLM properties in our near vicinity, such as Condon Peak, Williams Hill, etc., are open, though they are a couple hours drive. The bathrooms and campsites / developed areas are closed. Likewise the CDFW lands adjacent to San Luis Reservoir are open though it's a bit of a drive, over an hour. These sites all have so much acreage that once you are on the trails or undeveloped portion of the property you are unlikely to see another soul for most of the day.
If you have someone who gives you transport due to your disability I recommend planning a visit to one of these locales. They are rugged but quite beautiful. There will be no open facilities such as bathrooms, campsites, etc so it is advisable to bring everything you might need.
The National Forests of California are still closed. They should be opened. Currently many National Forests (not just those in California) are closed to hunters and everyone else (even though BLM properties are open to hunting)!
To help restore National Forest Access for licensed hunters, e-petition as follows:
Text the phrase: Sign CSYNSO to 50409,
or to @resistbot on Messenger, Twitter, or Telegram.
This will in turn ask you for your name and other details if you'd like to sign to support this petition effort.
Thank you!
Here we are - recently, Los Padres National Forest was closed on April 17, though the birds, bees, and boars wouldn't know it, and now Lover's Point Park is being closed, this being claimed as a necessity due to Lover's Point social distancing issues, and as a decision made following quickly after the announcement of an extension of the county shelter-in-place order and the announcement of requirement of masks.
So, if the shelter-in-place order is working, and we know that statewide the cases and resource use (hospital beds needed, etc) are anticipated to drop off sharply around May 1st, and if masks are now going to be a required thing, why then is Lover's Point closed?
You'd be correct if you said "because of the danger from the corona, dummy," except the question remains, is it necessary to keep closing public spaces? Is it helping, or is it doing more harm than good?
There was an article posted several days ago at The Hill, titled, "The Data are in: Stop the panic and end the total isolation" https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/494034-the-data-are-in-stop-the-panic-and-end-the-total-isolation
This article should give us pause and cause one to ask questions: Are the actions protecting a clearly defined population at risk? -- and, Are the current actions allowing our population to begin a process of developing immunity? The current policies which have tightened the noose on use of our public spaces, and the resultant effect on our health and well being, make clear that we can answer "no" to both of those questions.
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