Game over!
City officials will take down basketball hoops at 80 courts where persistent pick-up games have flouted social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor said.
“There will not be any basketball games because there will not be any basketball hoops,” de Blasio said during a City Hall briefing Wednesday evening.
Cops and Parks Department workers identified the hoops among the 1,700 courts in the Parks Department system. “Repeated attempts” to stop pick-up games there failed, according to de Blasio.
But mayor said he would close more courts if necessary to curb the high-contact sport.
“If we have to end up closing down basketball courts across the board, we’ll do that,” he said.
De Blasio is still sitting on a decision on whether to close Parks playgrounds and reiterated that would be determined by Saturday.
“Parks will remain open but with a lot of enforcement under any scenario,” he said.
The mayor is also still figuring out which pair of streets to close in each borough in his attempt to give pedestrians more space to walk about.
“We are finalizing with NYPD and other city agencies and the [City] Council,” de Blasio said. “As we said, it will be up to two sites per borough.”