Mayor London Breed was not pleased with crowding she saw at Dolores Park over the weekend and warned she may close it down if people do not practice social distancing and wear face coverings.
“I did notice something that was really upsetting and that is the number of people who were not social distancing themselves at Dolores Park,” Breed said during a Monday press conference. “Dolores Park continues to be a real challenge because we know that on nice days that is the place to be for so many folks.”
Breed said does not want to have to keep telling people at the park to comply with the health order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
“The fact is we are all adults here, and there is no reason that we should have to send any of our law enforcement or anyone to tell people what they should already be doing,” Breed said.
She said The City will monitor Dolores Park in the coming days “and if we see that that behavior has not changed we will close the park.”
“This is the last thing I want to do. We know people need fresh air. But if we continue to see that behavior become problematic at Dolores Park it will no longer be available,” Breed said.
Breed emphasized The City still needs to adhere to the shelter-in-place order.
“We still see the number of deaths go up. We still see the number of cases go up. So, we are by no means out of the woods on this,” Breed said.
Crowds at Dolores Park weren’t Breed’s only complaint.
She also said people need to move their vehicles on the streets to allow for street cleaning.
“Street cleaning has been a problem,” Breed said. “People are not moving their cars.”
The City had suspended enforcement of parking laws around street cleaning out of consideration for people who may not have the ability to move their vehicles for whatever reason, but did ask those who could move their vehicles to do so.
“At a time when we need to clean our streets the most, we don’t have the luxury to allow this continue,” she said.
And Breed said, “Here is another warning.”
“For those of you who are able bodied and are not sick and can get up and move your cars for street cleaning, I am asking for you to do that,” Breed said. “Otherwise we will have no other choice but to begin to reimplement our ticketing procedures around street cleaning.”
