Every morning I take about a 3 mile walk around the neighborhood with our seven year old female Samoyed, Kara. Over the last week or so we have seen both the auto and foot traffic dwindle. This morning, for example, I only saw three cars and no joggers on our walk. There were very few pedestrians walking, just a few people walking their dogs.
The one thing I did see was a city work crew doing non-emergency work on some of the trees in the neighborhood. They were not observing “social distancing” and, indeed, blocked both the street and the sidewalk so we needed to walk across nearby lawns to maintain the appropriate distance ourselves.
As you can see Gov. Pritkzer continues to give daily press conferences, not not observing “social distancing”. Note, too, that the sign language interpreter repeatedly touched his face. Can he stop short of touching his face without changing the meaning? I don’t know. My point here is not a “gotcha” or claiming hypocrisy but more to point out that what is being advised is difficult.
If city and state employees including the governor himself won’t take the directives the governor has issued seriously, why should Illinoisans more generally?
The oddest observation so far this week was that a neighbor’s lawn service brought their leaf blowers to their house and gathered up all the leaves. There were still patches of snow on the ground, which was probably pretty damp. Not only was this probably not essential in the normal understanding, its far earlier in the Spring than this would normally happen. Almost as if time had opened up for the workers, who might normally be doing something else.
I went to the grocery store yesterday as the crisis has pushed me into a role I’m not entirely accustomed. (Wife usually does the big trip on Mondays, and I may get individual items at any time) The store was less crowded than usual, and there were increasing signs that shortages are being eliminated (no TP still), and the only thing on my list that wasn’t there was dried beans.
Illinois meat and poultry producers are basically keeping production at pre-crisis levels, and state that any disruptions are from a temporary surge and there is plenty of food being reallocated from the restaurant sector to the grocery stores.
Shortcoming of New York’s lockdown:
They’re leaving.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/03/23/new-yorkers-flood-florida-governor-desantis-writes-executive-order-requiring-14-day-self-quarantine/
Obey. Don’t criticize. We’re old and wise.
Here in Colorado there is an order that limits gatherings to no more than 10 people. Most businesses are closed except those that can do some kind of take out service.
My neighborhood is quite lively. I’d say a lot more people are out and about. The weather has been good and almost everyone is home. A lot more people walking their dogs.
My neighbor is a nurse at a local hospital who works in the trauma ward. She’s been living in their basement, studiously avoiding her kids and husband who stay upstairs. She says her ward will probably be reconfigured to deal with COVID patients, which are starting to pour in.
Here in this part of Illinois they have banned even the gathering of one person,……especially if that person has multiple personalities.