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City residents are flouting warnings to stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic by continuing to flock to local parks, videos and photos show.
The park-goers may simply be taking their cues from Mayor Bill de Blasio — who has taken heat for continuing to go to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to exercise.
The throngs include sun-worshippers, exercisers and cooped-up families looking for an outdoor escape, even as Gov. Andrew Cuomo has increasingly warned about the life-saving value of social-distancing — and doubled the fine for offenders.
“Frankly, there has been a laxness in social distancing, especially over this past weekend,” Cuomo said Monday in announcing the fine hike from $500 to $1,000. “That is just wholly unacceptable.
“Now is not the time to be playing frisbee in the park,” he said.
But try telling that to the steady stream of revelers everywhere from Central Park in Manhattan to Astoria Park in Queens and McCarren Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
In Astoria Park, a few people waited in line to buy ice cream from a truck vendor, with one customer standing far less than the required 6 feet to get his treat. Several other park-goers wore masks — around their chins. Others cycled, exercised and enjoyed the sun either alone or with one or two other people, according to video.
Solo or small groups of shirtless men were among those lounging on towels in Central Park, photos show, while McCarren also hosted strolling couples with bike-riding kids, joggers and friends in groups of two or three walking around the track or on its two fields, according to video.
A cop stationed in a van between the two fields insisted that proper social-distancing was going on.
“They’re staying 6 feet apart,” he said.
But NYPD officers were mostly far and few between to monitor the situation, according to a Post survey over the three parks and several others.
The city parks are open, although some have sections such as their dog walks and basketball courts closed.
