Coronavirus Florida: Delray Beach is first big PBC city to enact a curfew
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The city of Delray Beach became the first major municipality in Palm Beach County to institute a curfew for its residents to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
The decision had at least one detractor in the tourist hot spot, with the vice mayor calling it “near-hysteria.” But a commissioner said communities to the south from Miami Beach to Boca Raton were making Delray Beach the place to be as restrictions clamped down on their hard-hit home towns.
Delray Beach’s declaration called for a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew starting Monday and a stay-at-home order. Only the town of Palm Beach previously had a curfew, with a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. restriction.
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The city of Boca Raton has issued a stay-at-home order but no curfew.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has opposed a countywide curfew even as the county’s death toll from COVID-19 rose to six Saturday and the number of people in the county with the illness reached 318. Confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Palm Beach County are doubling every three days.
Delray Beach Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson wasn’t a fan of her city forging ahead with a curfew. “Some of the things that are happening are near-hysteria,” she said.
She wondered how Delray Beach plans to enforce it.
“That is what always gets me when they put out these declarations. If it doesn’t say anything about enforcement what is the difference from what we were already doing,” she said.
When told Palm Beach County as a whole hasn’t issued a curfew, Johnson said, “And here we go. We have different things for different places and different rules. I think it is just beginning to not make sense if we are not all doing the same thing.”
Delray Beach’s new order requires that all residents stay at home and within the entirety of their owned or rented property.
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“Residents may also leave their homes to travel to supermarkets and to other essential businesses and workplaces, medical facilities, as well as to walk their dogs and to exercise,” the order states.
Delray Beach Commissioner Adam Frankel said Delray was becoming a magnet for other areas, particularly Miami-Dade and Broward. He said throngs of young people came to Delray Beach when beaches down south were closed before any others.
“We are trying to strike a balance between keeping people safe while allowing our businesses to operate somewhat in what is ... a very difficult time,” Frankel said.
“What the first responders have been finding people are just coming up from Broward and Dade and now Boca because they have these orders.”
He said during the COVID-19 crisis there really is no reason to be out between midnight and 6 a.m. anyway.
“It’s a strict curfew between 12 midnight and 6 a.m. That’s a hard curfew. I think that is reasonable,” he said.
He said he also hoped the edict “helps people realize that this is a very serious situation.”
He said the stay-at-home order is “a strong recommendation.”
“If you violate it, there is no criminal penalty, it just authorizes the police department to say ‘go home.’ It helps the first responders,” Frankel said.
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Vice Mayor Johnson said there has been a lot of pressure on City Manager George Gretsas to follow the lead of communities to the south to restrict the movement of residents.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘Shut everything down. Force everybody to stay inside their homes.’ That’s not possible,” she said. “If we want to use the China model, then use it.”
Palm Beach Post reporter Lulu Ramadan contributed to this story.
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