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Granted, I'm not a public health or parks expert. But it seems like common sense that closing lots of @chicagoparks in an effort to stop people from congregating is counterproductive. People will just gather in the streets in front of their homes, or inside their houses instead.
Meanwhile, by closing parks you're denying people the ability to get fresh air and healthy physical activity, which is good for mental health and boosting the immune system. Sure, you may prevent some congregating, but is that really a net positive for @ChiPublicHealth?
It seems like a wiser approach would be to do a better job of educating the public about why *certain* kinds of outdoor activity -- hanging out in big groups, team sports, playground use are bad. If necessary use parks workers or cops to break this up, but don't close parks.
Instead of closing parks, which squeezes people into increasingly crowded public space, we should be creating more capacity for recreation, spreading out the population, by opening streets for car-free transportation and rec, like these cities are doing. https://twitter.com/MikeLydon/status/1248206623857934337
Another thing I don't understand is why Chicago officials are fearful to try partial or complete street closures. When people suggest opening entire roadways, or even just fencing off parking lanes to de-crowd sidewalks, the response is "We're afraid this would attract crowds."
Why not do this on a temporary basis simultaneously on several different roadways across the city? If crowding starts to become an issue, it's pretty easy for police to order people to disperse, but that hasn't been the experience in other cities that have tried this.
