Democratic and Republican lawmakers in New Jersey are taking credit after Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order Wednesday that will allow parks and golf courses to reopen in time for Saturday morning tee times.
But Murphy said his decision to reverse his April 7 order to shut down state and county parks had little to do with the three weeks of pleading and cajoling that’s gone on publicly and behind the scenes.
“I don’t know how to say this delicately but, with the exception of the mental health case that many of you have [made], your interventions to me did not matter one little bit,” Murphy said during his daily press briefing in Trenton.
“With all due respect to all the pressure that’s been out there, we couldn’t frankly care.”That didn’t stop Senate President Steve Sweeney from issuing a statement shortly after Murphy began his press conference thanking the governor for “listening to the bi-partisan legislators and thousands of state residents” in reopening the parks and golf courses.
Assemblyman Jay Webber, a Morris County Republican who has opposed the park closures since they were first announced, issued a statement declaring victory in his efforts to get Murphy to rescind the order.
Republican leaders in the Senate issued a joint statement a little more than a half-hour into Murphy’s press briefing, urging him “to trust the tens of thousands of small businesses that have plans in place and are ready to reopen safely.”
Murphy said he decided to reopen parks and golf courses only after similar actions were taken in Pennsylvania and New York, thereby ensuring New Jersey’s facilities wouldn’t be inundated by out-of-staters.
The governor said state and local officials would keep a close eye on parks and golf courses to make sure visitors are adhering to social distancing guidelines.
“If we don't like what we see, I reserve the right to reverse the executive order I signed today,” he said.
While some leaders have pushed back on Murphy’s parks order, Monmouth University polling data released a week ago showed a majority of residents supported the directive. The original order came as New Jersey faced a mounting number of deaths and hospitalizations linked to Covid-19. Two weeks after Murphy issued his initial “stay-at-home” order, outdoor recreational areas were increasingly becoming highly trafficked venues for residents looking to blow off steam.
As of Wednesday, hospitalization data suggests New Jersey is beginning to turn a corner in its fight against the pandemic, which has amplified calls for Murphy to scale back some of the more draconian measures his administration took to choke the pandemic’s spread.
New Jersey has recorded 116,264 cases of Covid-19, including 2,481 new cases reported on Wednesday, In addition, Murphy announced 329 more deaths, bringing the statewide total to 6,770 since early March.
Even so, a declining number of patients are entering the state’s hospitals to receive treatment for Covid-19 symptoms and reports of new cases remain relatively flat. Encouraging signs in the state’s public health data played a role in Murphy’s decision to open the parks, he said Wednesday.
The public’s response to his reopening of parks and golf courses will influence his decision-making to take “baby steps” to lift restrictions on other forms of travel and economic activity, he added, noting that he may also require residents to wear masks or scarves if they can’t adhere to social distancing guidelines in public spaces.
The state’s economic reopening remains contingent on the development of mass testing regimes and the ability of state health officials to contact trace and quarantine those who test positive moving forward, a process that will likely take weeks to develop.
On Tuesday, Murphy announced the members of a Restart and Recovery Commission who will advise his administration on New Jersey’s recovery efforts.
“Their opening remit is a blank sheet of paper, so I can’t promise you that they'll make a tactical decision or recommendation on this or that,” Murphy said of the 21-member commission. “It would be foolish for me, or for any of us, to take any item off the table for consideration. It's a blank sheet of paper and we’ll go from there.”