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Board discusses playground closures, park access and proposals to close streets for safe recreation
Summary
Members noted signs closing playgrounds, discussed parks remaining open, and considered proposals to temporarily close low-traffic streets to provide space for socially distanced walking and exercise.
Manhattan Community Board 2 members discussed city guidance on playground closures and considered temporary street closures to give residents more space for walking while maintaining physical distancing.
"They're just signs that are going up saying they can't clean them and the kids should go in them," Rich (Parks & Waterfront committee member) said of new notices on playgrounds.
Members noted Hudson River Park was still open for walking, but others have reported closures elsewhere. The group discussed whether closing select low-traffic streets would provide more room for residents to walk while preserving emergency-vehicle access. "There was the idea of closing down streets so people could walk down the middle of them...perhaps they're finding the foot traffic is low enough that that's not an issue," one member said.
Traffic-and-transportation members signaled some projects such as quarterly updates to the Fourteenth Street priority project and flexible delineator placement can be paused until conditions stabilize; the committee will consider street-closure suggestions informally and may discuss them in a future virtual meeting.
No formal action or resolution was taken; members suggested the transportation committee draft ideas for specific street locations that could be safely closed off for social distancing and bring proposals back to the board for consideration.
