No, it was not a general mistake of the title to suggest that the city has banned public defecation. (They wouldn’t do it anyway. California doesn’t enforce “quality of life crimes”). Manhattan Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, begins the process of removing all public property chairs, benches and tables. Yes, Manhattan Beach has banned “sitting in public” as of today. Seats will remain stored “until further notice”. As if I needed to tell you, this is being done to combat the spread of the dreaded coronavirus. (NY Post)
A city near Los Angeles closes outdoor seating spaces to public properties starting Sunday evening amid an increase in COVID-19 cases across the county.
The city, Manhattan Beach, is located along the coast of Southern California, about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Starting at 10pm on Sunday, tables and chairs will be removed from the outer seats until further notice, according to the city.
The announcement comes after the city announced Saturday that COVID-19 cases (currently 821) have nearly doubled since Nov. 1.
Precisely to what extent do you think the sitting mayor is dangerous in terms of transmitting the virus? If the park benches are at least six feet long, couldn’t you put up markers indicating where people can sit while maintaining mandatory social separation at a distance? (Assuming they’re too stupid to figure it out for themselves.) You could do the same with the benches on picnic tables. If there are separate public seats less than six feet away, you can put a bag over some of them to make sure the minimum distance is respected.
Instead, he will send a gang of workers to all public spaces in the city to dig and tear all the seats and drag 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 install them all. It’s not exactly an efficient use of resources, is it?
But all these observations only deal with the logistics of order rather than the underlying absurdity of the whole idea. Your city government will actually ban it sitting? What if people just decide to stay by the side? And residents with partial disabilities? They will have even less motivation to go out and exercise if they cannot rest comfortably when they need to.
Hi, here’s an idea. The virus is transmitted through the air, usually when people cough or sneeze. How about coughing and sneezing in public is prohibited? This would reduce the transmission of the virus. Or, better yet, just ban breathing. If no one exhales, no one else will catch C COVID.
Eh. Maybe I should have run for mayor of Manhattan Beach. I never realized I was such an effective troubleshooter. I would be natural!
