South Pointe Park Reopen As Miami-Dade, Broward Draft Its Reopening Plans
MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – Miami-Dade and Broward Counties are expected to announce plans for phase one openings later this week, however, South Pointe Park is reopening Monday but only on weekdays. The reopening comes after the City of Miami Beach closed the park because of overcrowding and issues with face coverings.
Miami Beach Police said you don't need to wear a face mask as long as social distancing is required. Park goers should still have a face covering with them.
"I'm very excited to get back to this," said Susan Chapman. "This is like my daily routine."
South Pointe Park will be open Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. It is closed on weekends.
Tariq Karim and Rick Quackenbush live near South Pointe Park. The couple and their dog were some of the first to visit the newly re-opened park around 7:00am Monday morning. "Very excited," Karim said. "I hope it stays remained open and hopefully we'll get it back over the weekends too."
The park closed again on May 4 after a brief re-opening last weekend. Miami Beach Police said park rangers issued 7,329 verbal warnings across city parks between May 1 and May 3. The violations included people not following social distancing or wearing masks. Police said a majority of the violations were issued at South Pointe.
On Friday, city leaders decided to re-open South Pointe Park with limitations.
"Hopefully everybody respects the rules and stays far apart unlike the last weekend," said runner, Spencer Seely.
Protestors in Miami Beach on Sunday called for opening shops, restaurants, and the beach immediately. They want CDC guidelines like facial coverings to be optional.
"If this was a NYC subway at 5pm, where everybody is close together, absolutely. But outdoors, I'm sorry, it just doesn't make sense, organizer and Miami Beach Resident Jeanette Donatti said.
Since there's a concern people without symptoms are spreading coronavirus, the CDC wants people to keep a distance from each other and avoid large groups. The CDC also says face coverings can help prevent the spread. The guidelines are also in place to make sure the medical field can care for people with the virus.
"You can't just shut down the whole economy for this. You're really devastating people's lives," Donatti said.
There's a chain of command in place in order to reopen. Governor Ron DeSantis hands down an order that'll allow counties to ease restrictions. Counties then put guidelines in place for cities to follow.
Miami-Dade and Broward are already drafting reopening plans that'll follow CDC guidelines. Their target date is May 18th.
"We need to make sure we have consensus across the board that we are ready and all of Broward is ready to match the date with Miami-Dade County," Mayor Dale Holness told CBS4 News Friday.
Broward is considering shops, restaurants, nail and hair salons along with barbershops and drive-in movie theaters for phase one.
Miami-Dade hasn't been specific about the types of businesses but we do know restaurants are included. The mayor says that's been the toughest part of the phase one draft.
"There was a lot of back and forth between some of the owners of restaurants and some of our medical advisors." Mayor Carlos Giménez said Friday.
Both counties have already allowed public areas to reopen.
The Town of Davie in Broward reopened 15 parks Sunday. They also allowed pool areas at condos and apartments to reopen.
