VANCOUVER -- As governments and private industry alike begin to think about what a gradual relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions could look like, the Vancouver Park Board says some fairly simple measures could be implemented to reopen playgrounds and facilities.
General manager Malcolm Bromley said while the early days of the pandemic saw crowded beaches and public spaces that necessitated the closure of facilities and restriction of vehicle traffic to reduce the numbers of visitors and close contact, now that people have spent weeks self-isolating and getting used to the idea, they’re considering how to restore access beyond a handful of golf courses.
“I have a team exploring safe ways that we can open up playgrounds — do we have to sanitize the equipment? Do children have to wear protective little mittens or gloves?,” said Bromley. “Sometimes an elegant solution is really a simple one. If I had a toddler, I’d say let’s put our mittens and gloves on, pretend it’s winter and go play in the playground and it’d be fun and you’d reduce the risk of point of contact.”
Earlier this month, the park board banned vehicle traffic in Stanley Park and required bikes to stay off the seawall as it scrambled to reduce the number of people pouring into the park.
Bromley revealed on Tuesday he had a teleconference with parks officials from Canada’s biggest cities, which are now looking to Vancouver to see what measures the city will take to allow people to safely enjoy the outdoors. The province is also hammering out details on how to safely reopen BC Parks properties in the next few weeks.
“Unlike other cities, here (in Vancouver) it was just restaurants the mandatory orders apply to, so it was kind of terrifying because we didn’t have a guidebook, nobody told us what to do and we had to do it ourselves, but the opportunity was we could be creative and listen to the public and respond accordingly,” said Bromley.
Two city golf courses and VanDusen Botanical Garden will reopen on Friday with measures in place to keep visitors spread out. The reopening of tennis courts is one of the next things Bromley’s team is considering.
“You need to have confidence in the public,” said Bromley, noting the park board has printed and posted more than 6,000 signs to explain and promote social distancing. “We’ve really taken the educational, information route rather than the enforcement routes and I think it works in Vancouver. If you take the uninformed behaviour of that first weekend to where we are now, we’re miles ahead. People are getting the hang of it.”
