Lockdown-weary New Yorkers ditched the distancing to get social instead this weekend — transforming parts of the Big Apple into a raucous, late-season Mardi Gras.
Yet the city’s COVID-be-damned attitude was nothing compared with the scene in Belmar, NJ, a beach popular with Staten Islanders and Brooklynites.Huge crowds waited shoulder-to-shoulder on the boardwalk for their turn to buy beach badges.
“The line for beach badges was like four non-socially distanced blocks long,” tweeted Jarrett Seidler, who described the boardwalk as “obscenely packed.”
Outside popular bars on the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, the East and West Villages and in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, The Post found booze hounds arriving for the takeout cocktails and then staying — and staying — to sip drinks on packed sidewalks and soak up the lively scenes.
The crowds, which enjoyed summer-like weather that climbed to a high of 76 degrees on Saturday, apparently had forgotten that they live in the epicenter of the pandemic.
Outside the East Village Social on St. Marks Place, two guitarists helped kick off the weekend’s festivities Friday night by plugging into a portable amplifier and jamming for tips from the gathered crowd.
City Councilman Mark Levine, who chairs the Health Committee, blamed the recklessness on “quarantine fatigue” and said he feared it might lead to a rebound in COVID-19 deaths.
He urged Mayor de Blasio to plan now for the safe outdoor use of streets, beaches, playgrounds and parks — “or we will drive noncompliance underground.”
The result will be massive indoor house parties, swimming without lifeguards and neighborhoods “busting open fire hydrants,” he warned.
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch noted that cops can’t be responsible for policing every scofflaw in every corner of the city.
An NYPD spokesperson said there will be no crackdown — and if social-distance violations increase, cops will continue issuing summonses as a last resort.
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