Coronavirus Update: San Francisco Mayor Threatens To Shut Down Dolores Park Due To Overcrowding
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Monday officials will be monitoring Dolores Park, a popular gathering spot in the city's Mission District, to see if it needs to be shut down because park goers are not maintaining proper social distancing.
Breed said she spent a lot of time traveling around the city during the warm weather weekend. She was pleased to be able to buy flowers from a vendor that had reopened.
"We still see the deaths go up, we still see the number of cases go up, so we are by no means out of the woods on this," she said. "But we also recognize there is the possibility to provide opportunities for our small businesses to reopen with some guidelines."
But Breed said she was disheartened by what she saw in Dolores Park.
"As I spent time in a lot of neighborhoods just to get a feel for what was happening in the Castro, by the beach and other places, I did see something that really was very upsetting...the number of people not socially distancing themselves at Dolores Park," she said at her Monday COVID-19 update news conference.
"Dolores Park continues to be a real challenge," she continued. "We know that on nice days that is the place to be for so many folks. It's a great place, good energy, good weather. But unfortunately, again we had a real challenge with people who were coming together in groups and not socially distancing themselves from one and another."
"And our park rangers and other security really had their work cut out for them. The fact is we are all adults here and there is no reason we should have to send in any of our law enforcement or anyone to tell people what they should already be doing."
She then put Dolores Park goers on notice. If they did not begin obeying the city's shelter in place order restrictions, they won't be allowed to use the park.
"We are going to be monitoring, today is a nice day in San Francisco, our goal is to monitor Delores Park within the next couple of days," she said. "If we see that that behavior has not changed, we will close the park. I want to be clear. This is the last thing I want to do. We know that people need fresh air. They want to be out, but if we continue to see that behavior become problematic at Dolores Park, it will no longer be available."
Earlier Monday, the city's website was updated to allow all essential workers, regardless of symptoms, to get tested for COVID-19 in San Francisco.
"We're making free COVID-19 testing available for everyone who is going in to work, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not," Mayor Breed tweeted on Monday morning. "We're making free COVID-19 testing available for everyone who is going in to work, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not."
After users complained the website was still not allowing "front line workers with no symptoms" to get an appointment," the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management made the update, and tweeted it was fixed.
San Francisco workers can schedule an appointment to get tested for COVID-19 at http://sf.gov/gettestedsf or call 311.
