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Comment by brenden2 | Hacker News Reader

In Manhattan I've noticed a huge drop in the number of tourists in the past few days, but what's more interesting to me is the total number of people out and about in central park (and other parks) hasn't dropped much. It seems like most of the tourists you usually see were just replaced by locals. I suppose now that everyone is "working from home", they've got time to take walks in the park and enjoy the nice weather. I've also noticed fewer taxis/cars in general on the roads, which is quite nice.

This, of course, is strictly anecdotal observation, so take it with a grain of salt.

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The first day of lockdown in Bologna, half the city ended up sunbathing in the local park. The city council was then forced to close parks and gardens.

Same in France

If people are keeping their distance, it shouldn't be a problem.

Their city parks are just not big enough to accommodate all those people at a safe distance. And of course couples and groups will never actually stay at a distance. Hence the order.

Couldn't cities just limit the number of people in the park, and presumably couples live together or are in contact anyway?

Do you really want to deploy even more already-at-risk police forces, just to count people in a park...? Let’s be real here - people are now forbidden from walking in the city except to get food, let alone stroll in the park.

This is silly. I’m just suggesting that people can be informed about the risks, and told to keep their distance. Any enforcement can be pretty light handed. Testing is the key regardless and focusing our efforts there could alleviate many downstream problems.

> Any enforcement can be pretty light handed.

From this statement I deduce you're not Italian. "Light handed enforcement" over there does not exist - people will not respect any rule unless they are somewhat certain that they'll be caught and punished for breaking it. Half-measures just don't work, they will be gamed out of existence in a few hours.

Something dumb that happened locally is, they shut down the public restrooms in the local parks, but not in the grocery stores. So now the local parks are as full as ever, but everybody is cramming in to the one open bathroom in the nearby store.

I am seeing the same thing in my neighborhood in Austin. Whole families out walking around together, people playing in the streets... my wife commented that it's like life slowed down and people are refocusing on just being together again. It's a nice side-effect of this whole situation.

Once this trouble is over everyone will realize how great life can be and work fewer hours, right? Right?

My commute is a lot shorter, which does free up more hours for me, but so far I'm working the same number of hours -- possibly more because it's easy for me to let work bleed over into non-business hours when I work from home.

Heh my neighborhood looks like night of the comet... no one out and about at all. No cars... a lone pedestrian every once in awhile.

What percentage are social distancing when they're in the parks? Where I am, outdoor recreation areas are busier than ever, but I estimate <5% are actively social distancing and it's common to see close proximity between strangers, sometimes brief, sometimes not. I initially thought I could keep my distance from others while in these areas, that my own vigilance would be adequate, but they're just too crowded and I worry about a momentary lapse in my defenses, especially if I go out on a regular basis.

I noticed this too. I'm on the upper east side and when I went out for a walk in the morning a lot of people are gathering in the park with their dogs like usual. I was running to the store yesterday and there were so many people on 1st Ave and hardly anyone was practicing the 6ft rule.

I want to go out today because its going to be 75 out, but I'm afraid that a lot of people will head out too. Its a tough situation.

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