The park closure saga is becoming Halifax’s smoking ban 2.0.
For the most part, Nova Scotians have embraced the provincial orders that shut down parks and trails in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 via public interaction. “Stay the blazes home,” we scream with delight into the ether.
But HRM and the province’s implementation of the new policy has created confusion over whether paths and trails through the downtown’s greenspaces can—or should—still be used, leaving Halifax walking a thin line between effective public safety measures and byzantine over-enforcement of the outdoors that may prove misguided in the long run.
Until a few days ago, all of the Halifax Common was off-limits, including the paved walkways for pedestrian use. Those hoping to cut through the Common had to either travel the long way around using public sidewalks—which are only 1.5-metres wide and thus too narrow for proper social distancing—or risk a $700 fine.
“That is part of our transportation network, and blocking it does absolutely nothing to fight COVID-19,” tweets urban policy writer Tristan Cleveland, whose brother was ticketed for using the Common’s pathway on his way to work. “This policy is broken and unjust.”
The city quickly responded by putting up some little flags.
HRM spokesperson Brynn Budden told The Coast: “The paths that are flagged are open as pedestrian sidewalks and are meant to be used as a thoroughfare. People are not permitted to gather on the paths or travel on any of the surrounding green space.”
It appears the path was always able to be used, and the overzealous officers who ticketed Cleveland’s brother erred in their enforcement of the sudden and confusing policies that have had to be enacted to limit public gatherings and keep Nova Scotians alive.
It’s hard not to think back to the Before Times and Halifax’s smoking ban. There we had another suddenly-enacted policy to police behaviour. Assigning random zones for the use of cannabis and tobacco products created a quagmire of legal and administrative red tape that, ultimately, only used up time and resources.
But that was before the world went away. City officials, like all of us, are scrambling to figure out the best information and actions to flatten the curve. Across the globe, governments are closing down outdoor spaces to avoid coronavirus spread, with many authorities displaying the same technocratic anger our unexpectedly now-beloved meme-ier barked at the public.
Zeynep Tufekci, over at The Atlantic, says this is a misuse of resources and could make things worse over the long haul. Exercise and the outdoors will be important for our immune systems and our mental health as society’s shutdown continues for months, if not years.
“This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t limit park attendance at all, but there are better answers than poorly planned full closures,” writes Tufekci. ”We could, for instance, reduce congestion by regulating inflows of people over time. In large cities with limited park space, households could be assigned days for visiting, with even and odd house numbers going on different days. This has to be mostly voluntary, of course, but this is a pandemic: Most everything has to be voluntary because there is no way to get through the next 12 months by arresting everyone who wishes to get some fresh air.”
Like the smoking ban of yore, other jurisdictions in Canada have taken a different approach to the use of neighbourhood parks that may be worth imitating. Erica Butler, over at the Halifax Examiner, notes that Ottawa has closed parks except for walking through, provided those inside are maintaining social distance. Vancouver has parks staff patrol areas to remind people to maintain a two-metre distance.
“Vancouverites were flouting distancing as badly as Haligonians in recent weeks. But that city’s approach was not to bring the hammer down and close all parks,” tweets Matthew Halliday. “And yes, going to a park may seem like a trivial thing right now, and jurisdictions are making the best choices they can on the fly. But with weeks and months to go, the physical and mental-health issues associated with sheltering in place will rapidly mount.”
For now, the little flags will have to be enough. HRM says anyone with trail or path specific questions can call 311 and staff will triage your question.
Though it may “feel like a trap,” it’s perhaps a small sign our governments will be willing to listen and adapt their isolation measures to keep keeping us safe, while still allowing us to live.
Until then, remember, the grass is lava.
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2020.
At what point will you start QUESTIONING what’s going on? How far does the government have to push before you’re jolted awake from your slumber? How far are you willing to go with this?
by Anonymous
We’re seeing the most draconian measures enforced at all levels of government that we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes, and yet rather than being alarmed, so many of you applaud.
People are being arrested for spending too much time outside, and you applaud.
Pastors are being arrested for daring to hold church services, and you applaud.
A child’s birthday party is raided by police, and you applaud.
A young woman is ticketed for going on a leisurely drive alone because it’s deemed “non-essential travel”, and you applaud.
A parade of school teachers and administrators who wanted to drive through neighborhoods and wave at children is busted up by cops because they were “nonessential,” and you applaud.
A lone paddle boarder in the ocean on a beach without any other people around is arrested because he’s violating quarantine orders, and you applaud.
Businesses are beings forcibly closed and padlocked and owners arrested for refusing to shut down, and you applaud.
Dairy farmers (and soon, other farmers) are being incentivized to stop dairy farming and to sell their herds, and you don’t seem to understand the implications.
You’re being told to use hotlines and online forms provided by your local governments to report your neighbors who don’t obey, and you comply…..
At what point will you start QUESTIONING what’s going on? How far does the government have to push before you’re jolted awake from your slumber? How far are you willing to go with this?
If they told you to load your families onto train cars so that you could be taken to Virus Protection Facilities for your own safety, would you do it?
YES. Yes, you would.That much has become painfully obvious to me. And the whole time, you’d be shaking your finger and yelling at those of us who refused, accusing us of being “a danger to society” and “not caring if people die.”
But they don’t have to load you onto train cars and take you to Virus Protection Facilities, or force you to comply, because you do that voluntarily. They control your mind. They control you through fear. They control you by convincing you that the world is a scary dangerous place, but they’re here to protect you, care for you, and keep you safe, just as long as you OBEY.
They know that as long as you’re locked inside your comfortable home with Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a cell phone, while dangling a $1200 check in front of you like a carrot on a stick, you’ll comply. No force is necessary for the majority of the herd.
YOU ARE IMPRISONED, willingly, and you’re too blind to see it.
I am impressed that you have found the well-written and well-reasoned Atlantic Article which provides several sound medical reasons while a full ban on the use of parks, beaches and trails is NOT the way to go. Let us cast our mind back to how this came about. The first weekend after the Province declared a state of emergency was unusually mild and sunny hence the flocking to the parks and beaches on the first real taste of Spring. At this time the term “Social Distancing” had hardly been used! The result – the next day a “knee jerk” reaction from McNeil and Strang hardly enough time to give the closure and and consequences any serious thought. Now we are aware of the need for physical distancing – it is far easier to maintain in a Park or Beach than it is on city sidewalls. As the Atlantic article points out several jurisdictions with far worse COVID cases then NS e.g New York and London have NOT closed their parks. Sure they have been preventing gatherings and sunbathing etc. Even our Maritime rival the city of Moncton has come up with a more innovative approach and established one-way systems around their city parks. Chances of back-tracking from “Blazes McNeil” not likely but he doesn’t live in a one room basement apartment!
Early in his political career, and even before… Pierre Trudeau was fascinated by the question, “Why do we obey?” People follow laws, because they believe that GOOD people do so, and most of us like to think that we are good people. That’s my theory, not Pierre’s!! 🙂
E.g.
Before, it was illegal to buy cannabis; now, it’s illegal
NOT to buy it from the government!!!
Three cheers to Anonymous for having the balls to say this. Unless you’re really old, you probably don’t see the similarity between what happened in Europe more than a half century ago and what’s happening here. The biggest difference is that back then, the onslaught was sudden. Here, it’s like watching a lobster in a pot before the heat’s on. By the time he realizes that he’s cooking, it’s too late to do anything about it.