The City of Edmonds said Friday that unless more people comply with the state’s mask-wearing directive, it will have no choice but to close the Edmonds Fishing Pier to all visitors.
After receiving reports from concerned residents that few people are wearing face coverings on the fishing pier, the city on Friday launched a week-long outreach campaign to increase the number of masked visitors.
“We have significant concern for the community’s safety,” said Edmonds Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Angie Feser. “There needs to be a much higher compliance rate of wearing masks while within 6 feet of another person. We see too many people standing too closely together without masks. We know some use the pier for subsistence fishing, so we want to get the word out to everyone in as many languages as possible.”
Starting Friday, visitors will see more signs in more languages that outline the real consequences of no mask: wear a face covering or close the pier. A decision on whether to keep the pier open will be made within the next 10 days.
Edmonds is not the first government organization to consider this. The State of Washington, King County Parks and some cities have closed facilities due to low mask compliance rates.
“We don’t want to have to close the pier,” said Feser. “We know how much people love and use the pier. We need folks to love it enough to mask up when they use it.”
What a joke! Quit controlling people.
All freedoms have their limits. It’s a pandemic, and in that circumstance not following the health protocols endangers the public.
Why do you feel your behavior is being unreasonably “controlled?” QAnon? Donald Trump? Is the effect of your actions on others simply absent as an area of personal concern? Curious about how else you feel controlled – childhood vaccinations perchance?
Great questions I ask constantly myself. Maybe cries for attention?
I’m still stunned when I see people disregarding life saving health mandates. I wonder if those same people send their kids to school when they have a fever and hope no one notices. Perhaps they would have chosen to leave their lights on when if living in London during WWII. I’ll bet they don’t buckle up their children in a car seat since the odds are they will just bang their heads against objects in the car and not be tossed out the windshield. I’m certain they don’t bother with smoke detectors, safety helmets, fencing around pools, or leashes for dogs who love running into the street. I’m almost certain they don’t lock their doors. I mean, what are the odds crime will touch them when a pandemic can’t? They are lucky folks—the chosen! And by golly, they are not going to give one moment’s thought to the safety of others. Why should they? In their minds, they matter and no one else does. It’s a fool’s errand trying to educate those who will not learn. Close the pier so they at least can’t infect others. We who care about our neighbors will at least draw comfort from knowing no one is on the pier, especially those who ruined it for everyone.
Plesse stop this policing of our right for freash air, to BREATH. We are being kind and cosiderate of space and have a right to choose to wear a mask or not!
Without a mask, a cough spreads water droplets up to 12 feet in 50 seconds. Do I really have to spell out that a person walking nearby will encounter said water droplets? With a mask, that is reduced to mere inches. Your “right” to not wear a mask is not “kind and considerate of space.” You can google “live science mask visualization” to see what I mean.
Been down on the pier a few times over the last couple of weeks, have not seen a big problem with people not wearing masks. The few that were not were sitting by themselves facing the water. Have still seen some people wearing the vented masks which studies have shown are no better than not wearing a mask.
I am very glad to see this. I have avoided going out onto the pier because I can see from the shore that there are many people on the pier, many not wearing a mask. Let’s not have the pier become a coronavirus hotspot.
On a related Edmonds observation, I noticed that their playground in the park along the beach has been marked closed and responsibly surrounded by yellow ribbon tape since early in the pandemic. I imagine they likely do the same to their other park playgrounds.
Yet in Lynnwood, I noticed that the playground in the Meadowdale Playfields has only a sign, and as often as not parents are ignoring it and allowing their kids to use the playground anyway. I imagine the same is likely true for the other Lynnwood playgrounds.
Lynnwood has taken actions re the pandemic that were explicitly REQUIRED. I imagine physically cordoning off playgrounds as Edmonds did was not a requirement, but perhaps it’s not too late, late as it is, to show by action that they take the pandemic seriously, and follow Edmonds original lead.
In the Second World War, cities on the west coast used blackout curtains at night to keep the enemy from seeing where our populated areas were. This was because night-time bombing raids by the Japanese Imperial were considered a plausible threat. Everyone back in those days worked together because the threat of death by bombing was real.
In our modern world (today), events have been politicized, especially by our Chief in Staff, causing everyone to question everything from police protection to stoplights. The President has caused people to question scientific facts as “false news”.
An other issue at stake is people in general don’t care about anything except themselves. Their shortsightedness doesn’t allow for considerations of respect and thoughtfulness and being min full of others.
We are witnessing societies shift from a compassionate view to one of a self-centered reality. The only way to return to a compassionate state is for people who understand this trend to “call out” the non compassionate fraction and lift their conscious thru example and leadership and gentle but persistent guidance. This means when you see someone without face coverings, tell them why it’s important to think of your fellow man’s safety and how face covering are a sign of respect for your fellow citizen.
COVID is certainly dangerous, but come on guys, a little risk assessment and common sense in order. I’d be shocked if the act of driving to the peer is not at least 10 times more dangerous than the risk of contraction here, could be 100X legitimately. Whatever else they would be doing, likely indoors, is also likely far more dangerous than that time spent outdoors.