Outrage in NYC as schools close with gyms, restaurants staying open
The city reached a 3% testing positivity 7-day average threshold
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio received a wave of pushback on Wednesday, with parents and both sides of the ideological spectrum blasting his decision to close schools again during the COVID-19 pandemic.
De Blasio announced the temporary closure via Twitter, noting that the city "has reached the 3% testing positivity 7-day average threshold." While the closures affect schools, restaurants and bars were allowed to remain open.
"The important thing is that these kids can still go to bars, gyms and restaurants," quipped conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat.
His more liberal colleague at The Times, Hannah Nikole Jones, similarly tweeted that "[w]e, as a city, have shown that going to bars and eating inside restaurants and holding house parties was more important [than] the public school children of this city. And that is shameful."
Others piled on as well. Dr. Craig Spencer, who serves as Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at Columbia University, said the decision was "a---backwards."
"Should parents drop their kids off at the bar, indoor restaurants, or the gym - all of which are still open?" he asked.
Like Spencer, NYC Councilmember Mark D. Levine blasted the closures as "TOTALLY BACKWARDS."
"As a parent of a NYC public school student," Wall Street Journal reporter Melissa Korn tweeted, "I am angry and sad and frustrated and disappointed. Still baffled about why we prioritized indoor workouts and indoor dining over education."
Dr. Dara Kass, who described herself as an "NYC parent," was frustrated but blamed the federal government.
"Although I am frustrated as NYC parent, this is the downstream effect of a failed federal response," she said.
Brooklyn-based author Charles Soule tweeted: "They just announced the closing of the NYC school system. I don’t know what to say. I understand, but school was giving my daughter a LOT, even just two days a week. I am sympathetic to parents, teachers... but mostly I’m just thinking about how badly we have failed the kids."