Cooped-Up Children Lose Refuge as N.Y.C. Playgrounds Are Closed
All New York City’s playgrounds were ordered shut on Wednesday to slow the spread of the coronavirus — a move that led to scenes of crying children shaking locked gates, even as other parkgoers called the measure long overdue.
The announcement by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo followed calls from New York News public-health experts and many City Council members to shut all playgrounds. But it added a new challenge for families weathering a lockdown that has closed schools.
“It’s like a nightmare — school’s closed, the parks are closed,” Sandy Friedman, 43, said. He had just arrived at Middletown Playground in South Williamsburg with two of his seven children only to find it padlocked; he had hoped they would play outdoors for the first time in 10 days.
Mr. Cuomo said he had to act because despite multiple public Press Release Distribution Services In New York City warnings, too many people continued to crowd playgrounds and jostle on basketball courts instead of staying six feet apart, as experts recommend to cut down on virus transmission.
“I warned people that if they didn’t stop the density and the games in the playgrounds — you can’t play basketball, you can’t come in contact with each other — we would close the playgrounds,” he said.
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