Hoboken Mayor Shuts Parks Amid Coronavirus

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla said Sunday morning that he would completely shut the city's parks starting Monday at 8 a.m., to further enforce social distancing amid the spread of coronavirus.

"We’ve still seen congregating in our public green spaces, including at our waterfront parks, despite our best efforts to dissuade people from doing so," Bhalla wrote in an alert.

The city already had closed playgrounds on March 13.

See Hoboken residents take to their windows Saturday night to applaud emergency workers (video here).

Bhalla said he made the decision after consulting with a medical expert from Harvard. "It’s not lost on me the further disruption to our daily lives this will have," he wrote. "Just last week, I was in Columbus Park playing catch with my eight-year old son. I know he won’t be happy, and I’ll do my best to explain the decision to him and his friends. Ultimately, this is a sacrifice we need to make as a community now."

Bhalla had said on Saturday night that 85 Hoboken residents had been confirmed with the virus, and officials stated that a third of the patients in the local hospital were coronavirus patients — causing the hospital to beg for 13 more ventilators.

The mile-square city of Hoboken has 53,000 residents, many of whom commute across the river to Manhattan.

On Saturday, Gov. Phil Murphy said that 140 New Jersey residents have died of the disease and more than 11,000 are confirmed to have it. Nationally, it was reported that an Illinois infant died from coronavirus, the first child that young in this country to die from the disorder.

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Bhalla's letter said:

<blockquote>

Today, the Office of Emergency Management and my office are announcing the difficult decision to temporarily close all Hoboken parks for a two-week period. As COVID-19 cases in Hoboken and across the region increase, and as we anticipate to reach our apex in the next several weeks, we need to ask again the following question – have we done everything we can to prevent the further spread of COVID-19? While it may not be popular and will cause further disruptions to our daily lives, closing our parks is necessary to contain the spread of this deadly virus and can literally save the lives of Hoboken residents.
Over the past week, we have seen improvements throughout Hoboken and also in our parks with more residents participating in social distancing. It has made a positive difference, and I thank many residents for doing so. At the same time, we’ve still seen congregating in our public green spaces, including at our waterfront parks, despite our best efforts to dissuade people from doing so. Even though the majority of people are behaving responsibly, those that still congregate put not just themselves at risk, but also everyone in our community. With warmer weather anticipated during the month of April, it’s safe to say even more people would soon be populating our parks in the weeks ahead, and the risk of further spread of the virus will grow unless we take proactive measures to contain this pandemic.
Since the beginning of this crisis, we’ve been guided by the opinions and recommendations of medical professionals, and this decision is no different. Last night, I spoke to Dr. Ashish Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, and he strongly believed closing parks would help contain the spread of the virus in Hoboken and help save lives. While I know there have been a variety of opinions from residents on this topic, at the end of the day, ultimately relying on the sound advice of medical experts was paramount in making this decision.
It’s not lost on me the further disruption to our daily lives this will have. Just last week, I was in Columbus Park playing catch with my eight-year old son, Shabegh. I know he won’t be happy, and I’ll do my best to explain the decision to him and his friends. Ultimately, this is a sacrifice we need to make as a community now, in order to protect our residents and most vulnerable populations. I know this is difficult, especially for those with children in a full household. I completely understand and sympathize. But know that when this is all over, this small sacrifice could very well have saved the lives of your own children, parents, grandparents, or neighbor with a pre-existing condition.

</blockquote>

Residents who have questions about coronavirus can call 211 or contact the State of New Jersey's hotline at 1 (800) 222-1222.

Experts say that the novel coronavirus, because it's new, is more lethal and much harder to treat than the flu.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

Got a Hoboken news tip or just want to reach out? Email caren.lissner@patch.com.