New York City shutting down car access on 100 miles of streets to allow pedestrians more room during pandemic

De Blasio said the city would focus on shutting down streets near parks first to allow pedestrians to maintain social distance by pouring onto the streets instead of gathering on sidewalks or at intersections. He said some of the closed roads would be in neighborhoods that do not have parks nearby but are in need of additional outdoor space.

“The way we will do it is we are going to focus first on streets in and around our parks. [We are] very concerned about the streets around parks. Often times we are seeing that immediate area getting very crowded,” the Democrat said. “Those streets adjacent to parks are an obvious opportunity to open up more space. We are going to work together to figure out how we are going to do that.”

De Blasio addressed the decision on Twitter and noted that he wanted to begin finding more opportunities for New Yorkers to go outside as summer weather rolls into the city.

“We’re focusing on where the need is greatest, prioritizing neighborhoods that have been hardest hit and where we’ll have the biggest impact,” de Blasio tweeted. “I’m glad we’ve found a way to do this safely AND quickly.”

New York has suffered the largest coronavirus outbreak in the nation. As of Monday, the state had more than 288,000 coronavirus cases and 22,269 deaths.