No sunbathing on Florida beaches
Some areas of Florida are starting to reopen their beaches with restrictions: no sunbathing, no sitting in folding chairs, no coolers. Just walk, run, swim, fish or surf.
Kevin Sweeny took his 2-year-old daughter on St. Augustine Beach on Saturday for the very first time in weeks. It was a thing that used to be routine. He lives a brief bike ride from the shore and he and his family prefer to enjoy it normally because they can. That stopped when local governments commenced closing beaches. However now some beaches are reopening but with restrictions.
"People were in frequent movement. I saw everybody walking and moving and minding their six, seven, 10 feet from each other. It had been certainly not chaos by any means. It was exactly what you would have wished to see on your beach if you made a decision to open the beaches today," Sweeny said. "There have been no beach chairs."
To be clear, the state of Florida never closed the beaches along its 1,350 miles (2,173 kilometers) of shoreline, except in South Florida - a hot spot for coronavirus infections. Decisions on beach closures have already been left in the hands of local governments, and when Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a "safer in the home" order on April 1, he specifically said walking, swimming and running were essential activities.
From then on order, Volusia County, home to the famed Daytona Beach, opened its beaches with restrictions on April 4. While exercise was allowed, beach volleyball wasn't.
But on Friday, a reporter asked DeSantis about Duval County reopening its beaches earlier that day. The governor repeated what he's said all along: exercise is good, just be smart about it.
"I've always promoted essential activities with recreation. You've just surely got to do it in a way that's going to have low risk," DeSantis said. "I get a kick out of somebody jogging on the beach in California, like simply by his lonesome, and you have a fleet of cops venture out there. He's just jogging. In the years ahead I think we have to be promoting persons to get exercise."
His response led to a nationwide misconception that he ordered the reopening of beaches, so much therefore the hashtag #floridamorons was trending on Twitter with criticism about your choice DeSantis didn't make. Which includes singer and actress Bette Midler.
"Florida reopened some beaches today & they were packed. I guess in a way it creates perfect Florida-sense. To try to get a little sun which means you look healthy at your funeral. #FloridaMorons," Midler tweeted.
Local governments are revising beach closures, and in Duval County, the home to Jacksonville Beach, people are allowed back on the sand from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Signs were put along beach access points saying, "DO YOUR PART STAY 6 FEET APART" and plainly specifying "sunbathing, towels, chairs, coolers, group activities, blankets, tents, umbrellas or almost everything that promotes a stationary presence" isn't allowed.
It was a welcome relief for Judi Spann, who used to walk a mile on the beach each day before it had been closed.
"It had been low tide and it's such a wide beach, there were no problems at all. I didn't see anyone congregating. Everybody was just walking and enjoying being out," said Spann, who lives four blocks from the beach. "I definitely felt safe. As I was walking, easily saw someone walking toward me, it had been really easy to go a few feet out of the way to keep my distance from other folks."
