City officials have covered a popular skate park in sand after people continued to violate lockdown orders and gather to practice skateboarding and hang out.
The incident occurred in the California city of San Clemente where outdoor facilities, including public parks, have been closed on April 1.
According to the reports, signs indicating that the parks have been closed were placed whereas people were given stay-at-home warnings.
Nevertheless, the city officials claimed they “routinely saw people visit” the popular Ralph’s Skate Court in an interview with CBS.
In response to lockdown violators, the officials have filled the park with some 37 tons of sand.
“On April 1, we kind of let it play out to see if users would abide by the closure. During that [time], we saw people continue to skate the park, groups would gather, kids with their parents; it became a regular. It appeared the closure was not being abided by,” Samantha Wylie of the Beaches, Parks and Recreation Department said in an interview with San Clemente Times.
As the department manager added, they followed the example of other officials and agencies who resorted to similar measures to make sure people obey the lockdown orders.
While Wylie told the outlet that fencing the park was an alternative they discussed, putting up barriers would be “difficult” at this time and wouldn’t necessarily prevent people from getting into the park.
Since the dumping of sand on the skate park, the officials have allegedly faced some backlash whereas the city’s Skatepark Coalition president claimed they weren’t informed of the endeavor in advance.
“There’s a lot of people within our community who have put a lot of time and money, personal money… to the skate park,” Stephanie Aguilar told San Clemente Times.
“That visual representation of the city dumping sand into the skate park, it almost feels like, when you look at it, the city vandalized its own park, and I think it pains people to see it.”
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Replaced!