The basketball hoops came down Thursday morning in McCarren Park along with 79 other New York City courts to further deter groups from congregating and to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
“Social distancing is taking hold with New Yorkers — but we’re seeing some issues when it comes to basketball courts,” Mayor de Blasio tweeted on Wednesday. “If you want to go shoot hoops with your kids, that’s fine. But we can’t have pick-up games. If people don’t follow the rules, we’ll take hoops down.”
Social distancing is taking hold with New Yorkers — but we’re seeing some issues when it comes to basketball courts. If you want to go shoot hoops with your kids, that’s fine.
But we can’t have pick-up games. If people don’t follow the rules, we’ll take hoops down.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) March 26, 2020
Playgrounds in the city are still open for the time being, and select streets in each borough (except for Staten Island) will be closed to traffic starting Friday to give residents more space to get outside and individually exercise.
After observing the scene for himself at Prospect Park last weekend, on Monday Governor Cuomo called for a plan to cut down on the groups of young people hanging out in the parks.
In response, Mayor de Blasio will close streets to traffic in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx this Friday through Monday (3/30) from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., making the following corridors pedestrian-only; Brooklyn: Bushwick Ave. (between Johnson/Flushing Ave.); Manhattan: Park Ave. (between 28th/34th St.; Queens: 34th Ave. (from 73rd/80th St);the Bronx: Grand Concourse (between East Burnside Ave./184th St.)
McCarren Park was identified as one of the city’s 80 basketball courts (out of 1,700) where the hoops will be removed. “We are going to remove the basketball hoops and make it impossible, sadly, for people to play basketball there,” Mayor de Blasio said at a press conference on Wednesday.
they took down all the basketball hoops in sunset park pic.twitter.com/rh0kyPowvW
— 🕳⚰️💨 (@a_alesy) March 26, 2020
After closing all recreational centers on Tuesday, NYC Parks posted a list closures that includes the postponement of the tennis season.