Which San Diego Beaches Are Open Monday?

Speaker 1: 00:00 Surfers and swimmers have been heading to the coast today as city beaches reopened at sunrise for limited use. Water activities are allowed along with walking and running on the sand. But sunbathing and gathering in groups are prohibited and parking lots are still closed. Demonstrations that local beaches continued this weekend with a gathering of a couple hundred protestors in Pacific beach on Sunday for more on the scene at the shore is San Diego lifeguard chief James Gartland joins us from mission beach. Welcome to midday edition. Hello, how are ya? Well, uh, what can you tell us about how things are going so far? How many folks are out there are beachgoers abiding by the rules today? Speaker 2: 00:42 So we're doing great actually. Uh, we've got full compliance. I've done a patrol of the entire city's beaches. We have certain areas that have a few more people, but everybody's in compliance Speaker 1: 00:55 about as many as you might expect on a Monday morning. This time of year, Speaker 2: 00:59 more than I would think normally for this time of year. But this is kind of what I expected today. Um, but I'm really proud of San Diego. People are following the rules, they're complying with the parameters that are put out there. So nobody's sitting or uh, loitering or crowding on the beach. It's mostly water use. Uh, walking on the beach or running. Speaker 1: 01:21 Now, how are San Diego lifeguards enforcing the restrictions and the social distancing orders? Speaker 2: 01:27 We have public address, um, from our vehicles, from our towers. We have the police department is out here today and we're just making warnings and educating people and letting people know that you have to social distance coming. May one, uh, you're going to be required to wear facial coverings. Speaker 1: 01:44 Are you prepared to issue citations or uh, are warnings going to be the, the story of the day. Speaker 2: 01:50 Now we're educating, warning and helping people understand the rules. But we always have the option to write citations. We want people to remember that the state home order is still in effect. So the reasons the beach and the water is open is for you to come out, get your exercise and go home. It's not for you to come and spend the day at the beach. And that's where trying to remind people and let people know that the beach is open, but it's open for your exercise and then it's time to get back home and comply with that. Stay at home order. Speaker 1: 02:21 Now the boardwalks along mission and Pacific beaches and long mission Bay, they're still off limits, right? No biking or walking or jogging. They're on the boardwalks. Speaker 2: 02:30 Yeah, the boardwalks are still closed. Um, it's kind of a confined space. So the beach area, you can still transit traffic and be able to six foot distance and once you put people on that contained area and the boardwalk, you wouldn't be able to do the social distancing. Speaker 1: 02:45 Now it seems that would, rescues would pose a serious risk. Uh, after all, you can't stay six feet distance when you're pulling a struggling swimming or shore, right? Speaker 2: 02:54 Yeah. You can't, you cannot six foot distance. And that's kind of the nature of the rescue. Lifeguards get tested, they get screened. Um, three times a day. They get medically screened. We take their temperature. So we're medically screening and doing that to kind of protect our people and monitor them. Speaker 1: 03:11 Now before the beaches were reopened here were the lifeguards consulted about it? Can you talk about sort of the factors that went into this decision to reopen? Speaker 2: 03:21 Yeah, so the, there's a a organization called the SDR alert. It's a task force and it has all the regional, uh, all San Diego counties, lifeguard agencies sit on it, some federal partners, state partners, state lifeguards. Uh, we got together and developed a plan on how to open the beaches, the phased approach, that two phased approach that you see. Uh, we put that together, we got a unanimous decision and unanimous vote on that plan. And then we presented that to the decision makers in the various cities and County. So the County decided when, uh, we decided how Speaker 1: 03:58 and the um, the partial reopening that's a part of phase one plan was phase two looks. Speaker 2: 04:03 It is, it's part of phase one and it's a plan that's set up to keep the beaches safe, uh, protect the folks who come out to the beach, uh, as well as be able to protect the lifeguards. Phase two just opens more spaces. It opens to a little more activity. But it still has the facial covering still has the uh, social distancing. You just get more access to areas of phase one does not have recreational boating. Um, and that will have to be lifted by the County. So that may be something you see in phase two but hasn't been decided at this point. Speaker 1: 04:37 Okay. So boating, as you mentioned, maybe the boardwalks at some point open up people can ride bikes or jog along the boardwalks. Speaker 2: 04:44 I would say the boardwalks is probably going to be last just because it's kind of a confined area and it's hard to stay six feet away out on these boardwalks the beach, it's still, you can still do that. You have the ability to move around and kind of stay away from one another. Speaker 1: 04:58 Would you recommend the city shut down beaches again of San Diego experiences scenes or large crowds like some we saw in orange County over the week. Speaker 2: 05:06 Yeah. If we cannot maintain the social distancing, I mean that is one thing that they will have to do. Speaker 1: 05:11 So it's a, it's really a very much wait and see and watch and see. But so far it's going pretty well. You think? Speaker 2: 05:16 Yes and the no sitting, no loitering. You can't come out and sunbathe. It's th the beach just is it. We can't do that right now here at the city beaches because we can't keep that social distancing, so that's why that is not included in the plan. It's not included in the opening. You got to keep moving. It's really just for you to get your exercise. I can't stress enough that the state home order is still in place. This is just giving people another venue to come out and get some exercise and then head home. Speaker 1: 05:46 All right. I've been speaking with San Diego, like our chief James Gartland. Thanks very much. Thank you Sarah, and have a great day or more on which beaches in the County are open. Go to kpbs.org.