We’re close to losing access to local parks, and it’s our fault

Orders to stay at home make it hard to stay sane. If you can’t go outdoors, you may feel like you might go out of your mind.

Now that mental relief is being constricted by social distancing limitations that may get even tighter in North Carolina.

Officials in the Triangle, Mecklenburg County and elsewhere have already taken down tennis nets, closed basketball courts, playgrounds and picnic areas, put beaches off limits and shut the gates of nature preserves. Now, alarmed by groups gathering in parks and people crowding through bottlenecks on trails and greenways, local officials are considering ways to thin the crowds or, failing that, closing the parks.

This week, Mecklenberg officials closed their gates at parks to cars to discourage traffic, and they warned that closing parks and greenways is the next step if people continue to gather. Raleigh may close parking lots at city parks.

For now, Raleigh’s parks director, Oscar Carmona, is relying on education. Signs about social distancing are posted and he may send park staff to remind people to spread out.

It’s easy to get annoyed by what feels like government nannying in outdoor spaces But the truth is that local officials are making an impressive effort to walk a line between guarding physical health and relieving the stress of worry and confinement.

“We want to make sure we’re doing everything in our power to keep parks open,” Carmona said, “People are losing jobs and they’re upset and anxious about the state of the world. We see parks and open space as an outlet for people to stay sane.” He realizes, though, that he has a conflicting mission. “It is kind of frustrating,” he said, “encouraging people to utilize [parks and trails] but discouraging them from congregating in them.”

Complicating the tension is a intuitive sense among many that the risk of virus transmission is reduced outdoors. That sense isn’t wrong., but that reduced risk grows as groups multiply and the distance between people shrinks. If people want the balm of visiting parks and other public open spaces, they need to respect the rules that make such outings possible during a pandemic.

Michael Kanters, the interim head of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at N.C. State University, noted that where public golf courses are open, golfers are practicing social distancing on the course, but then gathering for beers in the parking lot. Allow that, he said, and soon there will be bigger groups.

“You have to stop them so it doesn’t ruin it for everyone,” he said. “I hate fines but maybe a fine is a way to go.”

Balancing access and limits is a big topic in the recreation field, Kanters said. “There are so many restrictions already, local governments are trying to resist putting more restrictions in place,” he said. “If people will be smart and reasonable about using the space, it will work.”

Ken Howard, 66, a semi-retired systems analyst who spent part of Wednesday inline skating in Raleigh’s Moore Square, agrees that the rules are important, but closing parks would be extreme. “I’ve seen groups congregating, mostly young people, and I’m all for discouraging that,” he said. “But most people are following the rules.”

The value of parks and trails is especially clear as the confining rules coincide with the arrival of spring beneath skies turned a striking blue by the reduction in pollution. To keep that mental relief available, the message is simple: Go outdoors, but stay within the rules.

This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 8:15 AM.