No, it wasn’t a title mistake that suggests the city banned public defecation. (It wouldn’t do that anyway. California doesn’t apply “quality of life.”) Manhattan Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, is beginning to remove all public property seats, benches and tables. Yes, Manhattan Beach has banned “sitting in public” as of today. Residence facilities will remain in storage “until further notice”. As if you needed me to tell you, this is apparently being done to combat the spread of the dreaded novel coronavirus. (NY Post)
A city near Los Angeles closes outdoor relaxation areas on public property starting Sunday evening, amid an increase in COVID-19 cases in the county.
The city, Manhattan Beach, is located along the southern coast of California, about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.
On Sunday, starting at 10 pm, tables and chairs in outdoor seating areas will be removed until further notice, the city said.
The announcement comes after the city announced on Saturday that COVID-19 cases – currently at 821 – have almost doubled since November 1.
Exactly how dangerous does the mayor think the meeting is about transmitting the virus? If the park benches are at least six feet long, couldn’t you just put markings on them to indicate where people can sit, while still keeping mandatory social separation at a distance? (Assuming they’re too stupid to realize themselves.) So could the benches on the picnic tables. If there are individual public places less than six meters away, you can put a bag over some of them to make sure the minimum distance is met.
Instead, it will send a bunch of workers to all public spaces in the city to dig up and tear up all the places and transport them and look for a place to store them. Then, at some point, they will have to pay the same people to go out and reinstall them all. Not exactly resource efficient, is it?
But all these observations deal only with the logistics of the order instead of the underlying absurdity of the whole idea. In fact, your city government will ban it stand? What if people simply choose to sit around? And what about residents with partial disabilities? They will have even less motivation to go out and exercise if they cannot rest comfortably when they need to.
Hey, here’s an idea for you. The virus is transmitted through the air, usually when people cough or sneeze. How about banning coughing and sneezing in public? This would reduce the transmission of the virus. Or, better yet, just forbid breathing. If no one expires, no one else will catch COVID!
Huh. Maybe I should have run for mayor of Manhattan Beach. I never realized I was such an effective problem solver. I would be a natural!
