New Health Order Gives Canines, Hoopsters and Skaters More Freedom in City of Santa Clara

As the city of Santa Clara continues to implement health and safety protocols to bring back more public services, dogs, hoopsters and skaters get new freedoms—with some social distancing rules—beginning today.

Santa Clara’s off-leash dog parks are reopening this morning in accordance with Santa Clara County’s amended public health order. This includes:

Larry Marsalli Park’s off-leash dog area

  • Turf aeration, seeding, mowing, edging and weed control are completed.
  • The concrete picnic table is wrapped to prevent use and there is a limit of 15 persons at a time (10 in large dog area and five in the small dog area) to assure social distancing of at least six feet.
  • Hours are 6am until 30 minutes after sunset.

Everett N. “Eddie” Souza Park’s off-leash dog area

  • The off-leash area benches are wrapped to prevent use and there is a limit of 15 persons at a time (10 in large dog area and five in the small dog area) to assure social distancing of at least six feet.
  • Hours are 6am until 30 minutes after sunset.

For more information about the city’s off-leash dog areas, call 408.615.3770.

Basketball hoops have reopened at Santa Clara public parks for public recreational use, subject to social distancing and health and safety protocols.

  • Play is limited to members of two households at a time.
  • For more information, contact the Community Recreation Center at 408.615.3140.

Santa Clara Skate Park

Starting today, the Santa Clara Skate Park reopens with reserved, free, one-hour sessions from 1 to 8pm every Wednesday. The skate sessions will be conducted in compliance with the county’s public health order including social distancing and health and safety protocols. Skaters are required to wear a face covering except when skating. Participants must use their own equipment. Loaning and sharing equipment are not allowed.

The 60-minute time slots for ages 5 years and older require advanced online registration.

For more information, contact the Santa Clara Youth Activity Center at 408.615.3760.

Santa Clara Tennis Center

The Santa Clara Tennis Center at Central Park is now open with reservations required by either phone at 408.247.0178 or online at LifetimeActivities.com.

  • Each court is limited to four persons; up to two households may play together.
  • Call or reserve online prior to arriving at the tennis center. There are no in-person reservations.
  • Neighborhood tennis courts are also open on a first-come, first served basis.
  • Use of the tennis courts is subject to the county’s public health order, including social distancing and health and safety protocols, and Santa Clara City Code, which prohibits commercial activity (including professional instruction) without a permit from the director of parks and recreation.

6 Comments

  1. > New Health Order Gives Canines, Hoopsters and Skaters More Freedom in City of Santa Clara

    Why not just cancel the “New Health Order”, and instead of giving the City of Santa Clara “More Freedom”, simply allow them to have “freedom”.

    “Freedom” doesn’t need a modifier.

    • MR. Bubble, the government can’t give you freedom back, it was ours all along. They can guard it or they can destroy it, as they have now done.

  2. I don’t see the need to block benches. Some of us have mobility issues and cannot stand for long periods and appreciate sitting and watching our dogs play…. fail to see how my butt on a bench will make its way to someone jose or mouth to spread covid-19 which the WHO has now said is RARELY spread

    • > fail to see how my butt on a bench will make its way to someone jose or mouth to spread covid-19 which the WHO has now said is RARELY spread

      Excellent point.

      If Sara Cody were a REAL scientist — one that relies on SCIENCE and not guesses — she would be able to use REAL data and scientific principles and calculate the probability that you will acquire, transmit, or die from coronavirus as a consequence of sitting on a park bench for thirty-six minutes.

      If we can land a man on the moon, if we can detect and calculate the mass of a Higgs boson, we can calculate the chances of getting coronavirus by sitting on a park bench.

      My belief is that the chance of dying from coronavirus while sitting on a park bench is less than the chance of dying from choking on a Higgs boson.

  3. So, has the city hired hoops cops to be sure that all the people on the courts are from just two households at a time.
    Skaters don’t have to wear masks when skating, when their increased respiration will spread droplets and aerosols farther. This is yet another example of the complete inanity and arbitrariness of the rules by these unelected health (not very) experts all over the country. Each little local despot gets to make their own stupid rules. ALL THE MODELS HAVE BEEN WRONG. Fauci’s folly continues unabated. The CDC and WHO change the rules almost as often as most of us change our socks.
    What ever happened to freedom of choice? If you are afraid to be around people who aren’t wearing masks, just stay away from them.

  4. .> If we can land a man on the moon, if we can detect and calculate the mass of a Higgs boson, we can calculate the chances of getting coronavirus by sitting on a park bench.

    I am serious about this.

    There is NO reason that — in the heart of Silicon Valley and with nationally recognized health expert Dr. Sara Cody in our very midst — someone could not develop an iPhone app, incorporate up to the minute Santa Clara County health data, and estimate the probability of becoming infected with coronavirus during your next walk in the park, visit to Safeway, or riot in downtown San Jose.

    If my probability of contracting coronavirus in the next two hours while walking in the park with a mask is 0.00012 percent, and while rioting in San Jose without a mask is 0.00027 percent, I might choose walking over rioting.

    But MOST importantly, it would give the entire scientific community of planet earth the opportunity to double check and peer review Sara Cody’s data and assumptions. Right now, no one knows where the hell her numbers and “scientific judgments and data” come from.

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