EDITORIAL
AVOIDING A COVID-19
SUMMER HORROR MOVIE
IN NEW YORK CITY
There’s a great scene in the classic horror film
“Jaws” where the town mayor is trying to convince
the chief not to close the beaches in the
middle of summer due to a shark attack.
“You yell ‘barracuda,’ and everybody says, ‘Huh?
What?’” the mayor tells the chief. “You yell ‘shark,’
we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.”
Here in New York, amid our own panic, Memorial
Day — the unofficial start to summer — is approaching.
No New Yorker wants to be stuck in a stuffy home
or apartment all season long. We want to go out and get
some fresh air — and there’s no better place to do that
than the many amazing beaches we have in Brooklyn,
Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.
The problem this year, however, is COVID-19,
and the ease in which it passes from one person to
another.
We’ve struggled for nearly three months now trying
to get it under control, and we’re finally on a slow,
steady decline in infections. Yet New York state is still
losing more than 100 people to this illness every day.
If you’ve ever been to Coney Island on a hot Saturday
in July and encountered the throngs of people
on the sand and the boardwalk, you can imagine the
nightmare health officials can visualize with a highly
contagious virus like COVID-19 thrown into the mix.
Even so, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced
Friday that the state beaches would reopen for Memorial
Day weekend, under strict crowd limitations.
Local governments were left to make their own decisions
for their own beaches, and Mayor Bill de Blasio
made his Sunday: The city’s beaches will remain
closed to everyone except those who want to take a
seaside stroll.
De Blasio made the right call for New York City.
The virus is still too prevalent here, and even if halfcapacity
limits and tough-to-enforce mask requirements
are imposed, there’s still a great risk of beach
congregations spurring a second massive wave of
coronavirus cases that would put us right back where
we started in the crisis.
The beaches should open here this summer. Hopefully,
by late June, the numbers will have dropped to
the point where that will be possible.
But if we open up too soon, we will indeed have
something worse than “a panic on our hands on the
Fourth of July.”
HOW TO REACH US
TIMESLEDGER | 18 QNS.COM | MAY 22-MAY 28, 2020
Attention healthcare workers:
Tell us your coronavirus stories
As the coronavirus epidemic
rages on across New York City,
we want to hear from the health
care workers on the front lines
battling to save lives.
Our reporters want to speak
with health care workers about
what they’ve witnessed in emergency
rooms, medical centers,
nursing homes and other facilities
where lives hang in the balance
every day. We want to tell
their stories to show New York
City their courage but also the severity
of the conditions they work
in — and the situation they face.
We welcome submissions at
any time from active New York
City physicians, nurses, lab technicians
and other health care
workers who are helping to treat
patients.
Email Editor-in-Chief Zach
Gewelb at zgewelb@schnepsmedia.
com, and a reporter may contact
you soon. Your information
will be held confidentially; your
name will be used only with your
express permission, or withheld
upon request.
By submitting, you understand
that the content must not be false,
defamatory, misleading or hateful,
or infringe any copyright or
any other third party rights or otherwise
be unlawful.
We will use the contact details
that you provide to verify your
identity and answers to the questionnaire,
as well as to contact
you for further information on this
story. If we publish your content,
we may include your name and
location.
PROUD MEMBER OF NEW YORK PRESS ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHER
Brian Rice
EDITOR
Zach Gewelb
V.P. OF ADVERTISING
Ralph D’onofrio
CIRCULATION
Robert Palacios
CLASSIFIED
Classified Director:
Celeste Alamin
Classified Sales
Manager:
Eugena Pechenaya
EDITORIAL STAFF
Reporters: Bill Parry, Angelica
Acevedo, Carlotta Mohamed,
Jenna Bagcal, Jacob Kaye
Copy Editor: Katrina Medoff
Contributing Writers/Columnists:
Tammy Scileppi
ART & PRODUCTION
Production Manager:
Deborah Cusick
Art Director: Nirmal Singh
Layout: Zach Gewelb
ADVERTISING
Senior Account Executive:
Kathy Wenk
Account Executives:
David Strauss
Sherri Rossi
MAIL: 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361
PHONE: Display Advertising: (718) 260-4537
Editorial: (718) 260-4549
WEBSITE: Visit www.qns.com
E-MAIL: Editorial: timesledgernews@schnepsmedia.com
Display Advertising: brice@schnepsmedia.com
Classified: classified@schnepsmedia.com
TO SUBSCRIBE: Call (718) 260-2515
Copyright©2019 Queens CNG LLC.
Not every beachgoer at Coney Island on May 16, 2020, chose to wear a mask during their day of fun in the sun.
Photo by Todd Maisel
link
link
link
/www.qns.com
link
link
link
/QNS.COM
/www.qns.com
link
link
link
