Republican Lawmakers: Murphy Should Re-Open State, County Parks

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — A growing chorus of New Jersey Republican lawmakers, including three in Monmouth County, are calling on Gov. Phil Murphy to rescind his controversial decision this week to close county and state parks in New Jersey during the coronavirus pandemic.

So far, nearly all the calls to re-open the parks have been issued by New Jersey Republicans. But it's not a solely partisan issue: Aaron Morrill is a Jersey City resident and longtime businessman; he and his wife own Two Boots Pizza in downtown Jersey City. Morrill penned this op-ed this week asking Murphy to reconsider, calling the decision "well-intentioned but misguided."

"I'm a Democrat who uses Liberty State Park a lot," Morrill told Patch. "I've seen no danger there of too much closeness. There were measure they could have taken short of closure."

"I don't know why more Democrats aren't fighting for this," state Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-NJ13) mused to Patch Thursday. "The governor's a Democrat, so they are less inclined to criticize him. To be clear, if we had a Republican governor, I would be just as vocal against this. I'm an equal-opportunity attacker when you implement bad policy."

Murphy said Tuesday New Jersey has had "far too many incidents" of crowding at state parks. The state allowed each municipality to decide whether to close town parks.

In Holmdel and Middletown and surrounding towns, town parks remain open. However, Sandy Hook, run by the National Park Service, closed a day after the governor's ruling. Murphy suggested that people "take a walk or bike ride in your neighborhood."

Monmouth County's three local representatives to Trenton said the decision "took things to a new level."

“We’ve hit a saturation point where residents have almost every single ounce of movement and activity unilaterally restricted," said O'Scanlon, joined by fellow Monmouth County state lawmakers Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso and Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger, both Republican.

"As soon as the weather turns nice you're gonna have people going stir crazy, and by keeping the parks closed you are going to have exactly the opposite of what you want: Concentrating too many people in drastically smaller spaces. That is exactly the opposite of what we should be encouraging right now," said O'Scanlon, who lives in Little Silver. "I've been out; I've seen people in parks and open spaces and the overwhelming number of people are abiding by social distancing."

"People aren't idiots," O'Scanlon continued. "For the most part, people, be they Democrat or Republican or whatever, are smart and reasonable. And the ones that aren't were not going to abide anyway — they'll be outside and they'll still be gathering."

Former Somerset County Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who is seeking to be the Republican nominee for governor, called on Murphy to rescind the order, as did Senator Kip Bateman (R-NJ16).

"People will be more likely to cram into the few places where they can walk, run and exercise,” said Bateman, who also represents Somerset County. “This is an avoidable public safety hazard. Individuals shouldn’t be forced to walk on our roadways."

In his op-ed, Morrill echoed that town and city streets are no place to be gathering at this time.

"Restless families and exercisers seeking a break from work will spill over onto the streets — be it on the pedestrian plaza on Newark Avenue, on the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway and along Westside Avenue," Morrill wrote. "This is a recipe for congestion, this is what to be wary of. Parks have become the new essential amenity."

O'Scanlon added that it will be the poor and those who live in densely-packed urban parts of the state that will suffer the most from the decision.

"The rich have backyards or can drive out to Pennsylvania or wherever there is open space. But the poor cannot," he said. "Areas like Asbury Park and Long Branch will be hurt the most by this. Socio-economically disadvantaged places have fewer access to open space. These folks particularly need county parks."

Neither New York nor Pennsylvania have closed state or county parks. The New Jersey Assembly GOP delegation launched this petition this week asking Murphy to change his mind: https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/reopen-new-jerseys-state-parks.html