I came ready to scold. I came prepared to wag my finger, Dikembe Mutombo style, and tsk-tsk-tsk my way around our state parks as I observed what I was certain would be a complete breakdown in our social distancing rules.
Gov. Phil Murphy had reopened the state’s greenways for the first time in nearly a month because of the coronavirus, and as luck would have it, he did so on a perfect spring day in New Jersey after a full week of rain. He warned that if we didn’t behave ourselves -- i.e., wear masks and stay six feet apart -- he would close them right back up again.
“We’re basically saying: We’re prepared to trust you,” Murphy said, and this felt like a father telling one teenager not to have a house party while the other teenager rolled a keg into the backyard.
I was certain, after 50-something days in quarantine, that we would pack those parks like Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday. And, trust me, I understand why. I was so stir crazy that I wondered if The Shining was a documentary.
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I needed fresh air. We all did. So, yes, when I pulled into Cheesequake State Park at 10:45 a.m., I expected to see wall-to-wall humanity around its lake. Instead, the only crowd disobeying the guidelines was a gander of Canadian geese.
Is it possible that people actually ... listened?
“I think it will get more crowded later in the day, but for the most part, everyone just wants this to be over,” said Carly Baldwin, a Secaucus resident who came to the park with Eli, her 3-year-old son. “We’re all going to do whatever it takes.”
Eli, as 3-year-olds do at a lake, was drenched from head to toe a few minutes after they arrived and was now running around in his underwear. A park ranger scolded him for being near the water without a lifeguard present -- in other words, for breaking the normal rules -- but social distancing was not an issue.
On the trails around the lake, people politely stepped out of the way when others approached. The concrete picnic tables were cordoned off with yellow tape, and for the most part, people seemed to come for exercise. Don’t get me wrong: Cheesequake wasn’t empty. But it wasn’t a crowded virus-spreading mess, either.
Time for a disclaimer: I obviously could not get to every park in the state on Saturday. If your outdoor experience was different than mine, no need to fire off an angry email. I believe you. I heard from neighbors that the park closest to my house, Brookdale Park in Essex County, was filled with people who didn’t wear masks or stay six feet apart. Eight state parks hit their reduced capacity during the day.
That wasn’t my experience. Even at Liberty State Park, at the edge of densely populated Jersey City, things seemed refreshingly normal. There were joggers, bikers and families -- plenty of them, to be sure -- and park rangers used bullhorns to tell people to keep moving if they stopped anywhere and congregated. But it didn’t feel stupid.
This is Liberty State Park at 12:30 on the day that Gov. Phil Murphy reopened state parks during the coronavirus crisis.
“I’m here at least couple times a week and this is definitely a good-sized crowd for a weekend,” said Warren Hill, who was shadowboxing with a view of the Statue of Liberty. “But there’s enough room for everyone if you’re smart about it.”
Smart was the key word. We’ve seen enough images of -- to borrow Murphy’s word -- knuckleheads, here and around the country. They are crowding state capitols with assault rifles and packing beaches in Florida, showing an ignorant disregard for science as they do.
I guess all the stories of people calling the virus a hoax, only to end up in a body bag two weeks later, didn’t get through their thick skulls.
Most of us, though, seem to get it. The only thing more infuriating that being locked down this spring would be having to do it all over again because we got complacent. Murphy has hammered home that message, again and again, and people seem to be listening. The governor himself seemed cautiously optimistic.
The parks were not the overcrowded mess that I expected on a perfect spring day. It is a small sample size, to be clear, but it gives us hope that maybe things will get back to normal -- or something resembling it -- sooner than later.
Now, can we all agree that we won’t turn the Jersey Shore into wall-to-wall Snooki if they open up our beaches next? Please?
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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.
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We did it, Jersey: The parks reopened and we didn’t lose our quarantined minds - NJ.com
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