Professional Documents
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O o o o O: by Farah Stockman
O o o o O: by Farah Stockman
A surfer and fishermen in Sandy Hook, N.J.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York
Times
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Benches were removed from the boardwalk in Asbury Park, N.J.Credit...Bryan Anselm
for The New York Times
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Beachgoers waiting to buy season passes in Sea Bright, N.J.Credit...Bryan Anselm for
The New York Times
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The boardwalk in Asbury Park.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times
Although the Memorial Day ceremony in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is still on, organizers
are begging the public not to come. Instead of filling 500 chairs, the solemn event
honoring fallen veterans will be livestreamed into residents’ homes.
“It’s been really difficult for us to say, ‘We really don’t want you there,’” said Tom Rice,
chairman of the committee that sponsors the event, which will feature the national
anthem and a benediction from a priest. “So far, there’s been no blowback.”
The iconic boardwalk in Ocean City, Md., opened on May 9 to throngs of people, but
signs reminded beachgoers that contagion is still afoot, and that groups of 10 or more
were discouraged.
In Massachusetts, beaches will be allowed to reopen for swimming on Memorial Day,
but volleyball is banned and sunbathers must place their towels 12 feet apart. In New
York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio opted to keep the city’s beaches closed over the
weekend and even threatened to cordon them off with fencing, prompting elected
officials on Long Island to try to ward off a flood of would-be beachgoers from the city
by restricting access to local residents.
In California, where tens of thousands have flocked to beaches in recent weeks, Gov.
Gavin Newsom had announced that he was shutting beaches down to protect public
health, but then backtracked and allowed them to open for “active use,” which does not
include lounging on beach towels.
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Mayor Will O’Neill of Newport Beach, Calif., said the city was unlikely to fine or arrest
sunbathers on his city’s seven-mile stretch of beach.
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“At a time when tens of thousands of people have been released from jails, why are we
being told to arrest moms on beach blankets and seniors under umbrellas?” he asked.
“There was no data or science supporting the decision.”
He estimated that about 40,000 people showed up in late April on the first warm
weekend of the year, but he said that beachgoers have generally followed social-
distancing rules and that neighborhood complaints have gone down since the beaches
have been open.
At this stage of the pandemic, people are beginning to feel the negative health effects of
social isolation, which Steve Cole, a social genomics researcher at the University of
California, Los Angeles, argued can increase the chances of chronic disease and other
types of illnesses the longer it goes on. Over the summer, he is planning to take his
children to the Grand Canyon as soon as logistically possible, and socialize in small
groups with trusted friends.
“We should be able to find some equilibrium between those two extremes,” he said. “We
don’t want to be packed like sardines in a crowd, but at the same time, a lone human
being is a recipe for death.”
But across the country, many of the normal opportunities for fellowship and summer
fun have been canceled or transformed beyond recognition.
On Lake Champlain in upstate New York, the cabins at Camp Dudley will be empty this
summer for the first time since 1885. In neighboring Vermont, campgrounds will be
allowed to open, but only at 25 percent capacity.
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Both the Yarmouth Clam Festival and the Rockland Lobster Festival have been canceled
in Maine, which relies heavily on tourism. But officials in Portland, the state’s largest
city, are preparing to block off streets in June to give restaurants more space for outdoor
dining, which is considered less risky than dining indoors.
“People who are looking to get out and about more are excited,” Mayor Kate Snyder of
Portland said.
A lifeguard in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.Credit...Sarah Rice for The New York Times
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Brad Bouthout, the manager of Bill’s Pizza in Old Orchard Beach.Credit...Sarah Rice for
The New York Times
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Stickers were set six feet apart at Pier French Fries in Old Orchard Beach. Credit...Sarah
Rice for The New York Times
Nonetheless, he said, his group is developing a special training program for front-line
restaurant and hotel workers to handle the new coronavirus-related health
requirements, as hope for some semblance of a summer season builds.
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Perhaps nowhere has the decision about how to handle Memorial Day weekend caused
more angst and heartbreak than in Ironton, Ohio, an Appalachian town of 11,000 people
that holds the holiday parade at the core of its identity.
The Coronavirus Outbreak
The town has hosted a parade every year since 1868, and lays claim to being the site of
the nation’s oldest continuous Memorial Day observance. Tens of thousands of people
flock there every year, forming crowds that can get 10 people deep.
But this year, Gov. Mike DeWine asked local officials to adhere to social-distancing
guidelines that make hosting a normal parade impossible. Members of the parade
committee in Ironton agonized. They did not want to be the first in 152 years to cancel.
The parade will go on, they decided, but the number of vehicles on the route will be cut
back drastically. Instead of marching, participants will stay inside their vehicles. The
crowd has been asked to stay on porches or watch online.
The changes have sparked outrage among some who want to honor their military dead
by marching, as well as parents who have waited for years to watch their children in the
high school band.
“Some of them just can’t take it,” said David Lucas, a volunteer on the parade committee
who serves as its spokesman. “Everybody’s tired of being quarantined. They are stunned
that they couldn’t watch their children graduate from high school. They are afraid that
the whole world is going to get canceled.”
He chalked up the anger about the parade to the general frustration of a population that
is tired of being cooped up at home. In quarantine, people yearned for summer, but now
that stay-at-home orders are being lifted, they are realizing it still will not be like
summers past.
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Little League in Ironton is starting up in June, but baseball players will have to stand six
feet away from one another when they are waiting to bat, and they will not be allowed to
give high-fives. The fate of the county fair has not yet been decided.
Mr. Lucas predicted that a few renegades might come to town on Memorial Day anyway
but that most observers “will quietly watch the parade on the internet and wonder what
the world has come to.”