Atlanta mayor: Young people need to cut the play and follow social distancing
ATLANTA - Mayor Keisha Bottoms has grown impatient with young people who are not abiding by the social distancing requirements prompted by the coronavirus outbreak.
At Atlanta parks, workers have begun taking down basketball hoops and volleyball nets to prevent close-up organized play. Even that failed to deter some people who decided they would play dice on one of those courts.
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Atlanta was among the first large cities in the nation to invoke the stay-at-home policy except for necessities.
Bottoms has maintained it is acceptable to leave your home and go exercise -- such as the BeltLine trails -- but no one should congregate. And it is impossible to play meaningful basketball without guarding someone.
For now, the mayor plans to keep the BeltLine open, but she hinted that could change if behavior forces a change.
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Citizens can help the city police the activity by making an anonymous report to a city line 311.
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