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Tuesday afternoon, Marissa and her black lab Rocky pulled up to the Bell Street Dog Park, in Providence’s Federal Hill neighborhood, only to be greeted by yellow police tape across the gate. Mayor Jorge Elorza had ordered the dog park — and every other city green space — closed to the public.
“It sucks,” Marissa said from the front seat of her car. “There’s nowhere else to go. This is the only thing I did every day.”
That is, the only thing she’s been doing since being laid off from both her jobs.
The order to close parks, fields, walking trails, and sports courts is the latest effort by the city to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Elorza said he was concerned by reports of people congregating in public parks, as spring weather draws more people outside.
“I know that this is difficult for our city,” Elorza told reporters Tuesday morning. “We don’t have sprawling backyards in most of our triple deckers throughout our city. Our public parks are our families’ backyards. However, this is a necessary step, and we need to use this to encourage more people to do the right thing and just not gather in large groups.”
Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré said in an email that police officers are hoping people comply with the order voluntarily, but that the penalty for violating it could include a fineof up to $500 and up to 90 days in jail.
A few blocks from the dog park, people basked in the sunshine at Dexter Training Ground. Crystal Thornebrooke was just setting out for a run, when police cruisers pulled into the park and began telling people to disperse.
“For a lot of us in this neighborhood, this is the little bit of social time and exercise and fresh air that we had for the day, and so to take that away, it just seems a little arbitrary,” Crystal said.
As we stood talking, people filtered into the park. Periodically, a police cruiser or two pulled onto the grass, and people ambled to the fringes of the park. Unlike the dog park, this open rectangle can’t be sealed off by locking a gate. The flowering trees and warm spring air continue to lure cooped up residents outside.
Crystal and Daniel — another person hanging out in the park — both said this latest rule feels it’s taking social distancing too far.
“It starts with taking a few things here and there–” Daniel said.
Crystal continued his thought, “You accept it as the norm, and then all of a sudden, there’s a new norm, and so on and so forth. This is not to belittle anyone who’s lost their life because of this. Of course we should be cautious and be safe.
“But at the same time,” Daniel went on, “under whose foot? It’s tyranny.”
