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Update: 4:55 p.m. Monday -- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Monday she's concerned about crowds at Belle Isle over the weekend, particularly visitors who didn't practice social distancing.
Asked whether she may close some Department of Natural Resources sites, she said: "We're looking at state parks and we'll have more to say on Wednesday."
Original post, Monday morning:
On a sun-drenched Sunday, scores of people had the same idea to break the monotony of the Covid lockdown: head to Belle Isle.
The problems was, the island was packed to capacity, so the state, which operates the park, temporarily closed the island twice to new traffic -- once at 4:15 p.m. and then at 5:30 p.m., reports Steve Neavling of Metro Times.
"We were overwhelmed with cars,” Ron Olson, chief of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Division, tells Metro Times. “There was a lack of parking.”
Neavling notes that the action wasn't because people were defying social-distancing measures. Most respected the national mandate, with the exception of more than a dozen bikers who congregated near the James Scott Memorial Fountain.
