Former UK chancellor appointed as the new health secretary.
Health secretary Matt Hancock resigned Saturday after admitting that he broke the Covid-19 social distancing guidelines during alleged affair with his aide, which reportedly caused an outrage in the country.
Former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid has been appointed health secretary after the resignation of Matt Hancock on Saturday, Downing Street said. Javid previously served as home secretary from 2018 to 2019 and then as chancellor of the exchequer until February last year, when he was succeeded by Rishi Sunak. Hancock resigned Saturday after admitting that he broke the COVID-19 social distancing guidelines during alleged affair with his aide, which reportedly caused an outrage in the country. Former UK chancellor appointed as the new health secretary.
In his resignation letter to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Hancock said that “we owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance.” “The last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis,” he said. Hancock also posted a video on his Twitter account, in which he said “those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them, and that’s why I have got to resign.” Hancock has been under increasing pressure to quit after The Sun newspaper on Friday published pictures of him and his aid Gina Coladangelo kissing at the British Department of Health’s London HQ reportedly during office hours in May. Hancock’s resignation came after embarrassing footage emerged of the health secretary in a clinch with his aide Coladangelo on May 6, when the public were still being advised not to hug people outside their household, the Guardian newspaper reported. Former UK chancellor appointed as the new health secretary.
Southeast Asia sees steep jump in new Covid-19 cases
Asean countries logged 40,222 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, the highest on a single day in months, collated data showed.
Saturday’s total was higher than Friday’s 37,037, however the number of deaths was lower at 605 compared to 689 on Friday.
More than half the cases — 21,095 — are in Indonesia, which has seen a big jump in new cases over the last week
Total Covid-19 patients in the region rose to 4,734,117, while the death toll is now at 91,656.
Cambodia reported 745 new patients and 14 deaths on Saturday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 46,810 with 523 deaths.
Phnom Penh government agencies vowed to conduct a vaccination drive until July 8 this year, but citizens complained that existing vaccination centres were facing vaccine shortage and were being closed.
Vietnam reported 738 new patients on Saturday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 15,275 with 74 deaths.
Meanwhile, 6,137 patients had recovered and been discharged.
The Vietnam government planned to reopen Quảng Ninh province to foreign tourists who had already received two doses of vaccine.
Vaccinated tourists who test negative before departure can travel in the province after seven days of quarantine.
Southeast Asia sees steep jump in new Covid-19 cases
COVID vaccine walk-in centers open across England amid resurge of cases.
Britain reported 35,204 new cases of the Delta COVID variant in the latest week, a 46 percent increase, Public Health England (PHE) said Friday, adding that the Delta variant now comprises 95 percent of all sequenced cases.
Adults in England will be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine without an appointment at hundreds of walk-in sites across the region this weekend amid a resurge of coronavirus cases, local media reported Saturday. In the “grab a jab” campaign, those aged 18 and over can turn up at the National Health Service (NHS) drop-in sites, including football stadiums, theaters, supermarket car parks and shopping centers, The Guardian newspaper reported. The vaccine hubs are open to people having their first dose but can also provide second jabs for the over-40s who had their first at least eight weeks ago, or at least 12 weeks ago for the under-40s, according to the report. Britain has reported another 15,810 coronavirus cases in the 24-hour period, bringing the total in the country to 4,699,868, according to the latest official figures released Friday. The country also recorded another 18 coronavirus-related death. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 128,066. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test. COVID vaccine walk-in centers open across England amid resurge of cases.
A sign of COVID-19 vaccine center is seen in Brent, northwest London, Britain, June 19, 2021.(Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua) More than 43.8 million people have been given the first coronavirus vaccine jab while more than 32 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to the latest official figures. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a four-week delay to the final step of England’s roadmap out of COVID-19 restrictions until July 19, amid a surge in cases of the Delta variant first identified in India. Britain reported 35,204 new cases of the Delta COVID variant in the latest week, a 46 percent increase, Public Health England (PHE) said Friday, adding that the Delta variant now comprises 95 percent of all sequenced cases. Experts have warned that coronavirus may continue to evolve for years to come, and eventually it is likely current vaccines will fail to protect against transmission, infection, or even against disease caused by newer variants. COVID vaccine walk-in centers open across England amid resurge of cases.
5. อาการของมันเป็นอย่างไร? ข้อมูลจากการศึกษาอาการโควิด-19 ของ ZOE Covid Symptom Study ซึ่งมีการวิเคราะห์ทางวิทยาศาสตร์ดำเนินการโดยผู้เชี่ยวชาญจาก King’s College London ชี้ให้เห็นว่าอาการหลักของการติดเชื้อไวรัสเดลตาคืออาการปวดหัว เจ็บคอ และน้ำมูกไหล ข้อมูลจากเว็บไซต์ Healthline ที่เผยแพร่ข้อมูลด้านสุขภาพของสหรัฐระบุว่า “ในสหราชอาณาจักร ซึ่งสายพันธุ์เดลต้าคิดเป็นร้อยละ 91 ของผู้ป่วยรายใหม่ ผลการศึกษาชิ้นหนึ่งพบว่าอาการที่รายงานมากที่สุด ได้แก่ ปวดศีรษะ เจ็บคอ และน้ำมูกไหล”
6. นี่คือการเปลี่ยนแปลงจากข้อมูลอย่างเป็นทางการเกี่ยวกับอาการของควิด-19 ก่อนหน้านี้ เช่นในข้อมูลที่จัดทำโดย National Health Service (NHS) ของสหราชอาณาจักร ซึ่งระบุว่าอาการโควิด-19 ก่อนหน้านี้จะไข้ อาการไออย่างต่อเนื่อง และการสูญเสียกลิ่นหรือรสชาติ ทั้งหมดนี้เป็นอาการหลักของโควิด-19 รุ่นก่อน
Engineer warned of major structural damage years before Florida condo collapsed
An engineer warned in October 2018 that he had discovered “major structural damage” to a concrete slab below the pool deck in the section of the Champlain Tower South condominium building that collapsed Thursday, killing at least four and leaving scores trapped, according to records released by local authorities late Friday.
The engineer, Frank P. Morabito, said in a structural survey report that waterproofing had failed below the pool deck and entrance drive, allowing damaging leaks.
“Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,” Morabito wrote. He said a “major error” had been made in the construction of the building, when waterproofing was laid on a flat slab rather than a sloped surface, to allow water to run off.
Morabito also found “abundant cracking” and deterioration in the concrete columns, beams and walls supporting the parking garage under the pool deck, along with damaged and exposed rebar.
Morabito said in his report that necessary repair work, which he said would be aimed at “maintaining the structural integrity” of the building, would be “extremely expensive” and create significant disruption for residents.
He also wrote that some previous repairs to the slab supporting the pool above the garage, including the patching of cracks, had been done “less than satisfactorily” and needed to be completed again.
Morabito’s report detailed other problems including “significant cracking” in the stucco facade of the building, along with flooding in some apartments due to failed seals on doors and windows, and damaged balconies.
It was not clear from the records released whether any repairs were completed, but a separate 84-page draft plan drawn up by Morabito for extensive repair work, dated April 27 this year, was also released by Surfside authorities.
The plan was aimed at ensuring that the building, which was completed in 1981, passed a mandated 40-year recertification process. Morabito did not respond to requests for comment.
A separate inspection report on the building by Morabito, completed around the same time as the structural survey report, was also released by Surfside, along with a note that said the town had only received it from Morabito at 5:26 p.m. Thursday, after the building had collapsed.
“This report was not formally submitted or authorized” by the condominium association as required by the county code, the note said. An attorney for the association, Kenneth Direktor, did not respond to a request for comment.
A former member of the Champlain Towers South condo board, Max Friedman, said that the damage identified in the 2018 report had prompted a $15 million construction project to make repairs.
“It was an expensive project,” Friedman said. Some condo owners “have paid up front and some were going to pay over a period of time.”
He also said the condo association had taken out a line of credit for the project. The repairs on the roof that were taking place before the building collapsed were an early part of this larger repair effort, he said.
Friedman said he has owned his condo for about a decade and he served on the board for several years but does not now.
He said there was occasional water in the basement garage that would “come and go depending on the season.”
“I think before the catastrophe it was quite dry,” he said. “When it rains there is water in the garage. That was part of the project also, to put more water-proofing in and fix the columns.”
Friedman lives in New York City and he was down in Surfside a few weeks ago visiting the condo.
“Our apartment was completely destroyed,” he said. “It’s gone.”
Investigators will review Morabito’s reports as they search for signs of why the building collapsed catastrophically early on Thursday. Surfside Mayor Charles W. Burkett told reporters Friday that authorities have “no idea” what had caused its destruction.
John Pistorino, a veteran engineer who helped write the Miami-Dade County code that requires buildings to be inspected and recertified once they are 40 years old, said he had been hired to look into the collapse.
As a young engineer, Pistorino discovered that the area’s salty and humid climate had contributed to the erosion of a building that collapsed in downtown Miami in 1974, killing seven people.
Investigators will probe whether salt, humidity and other environmental conditions could also have weakened the Champlain structure or if other problems such as a sinkhole-like collapse in the ground underneath the building led to the disaster.
“We got to get to the bottom of this. This is such an unusual and mystifying type of collapse,” Pistorino said. “Something very unique has happened here.”
Some local officials and others interviewed said that the 40-year review process should be made more rigorous and more frequent. They noted that the checklist does not include an examination of the ground under buildings such as the Champlain tower.
“It’s not just what’s happening above ground – it’s what happening below ground that counts,” James McGuinness, the town’s building official told reporters. Accordingto McGuinness, the review is strictly focused on the structural load-bearing elements of the building and its electrical systems.
Surfside Town Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer told reporters Friday that commissioners believed the process should be adjusted to include underground checks.
“They look for cracks in the concrete, but they really have no clue what’s going on beneath the ground,” said attorney David Haber, who specializes in construction and condominium law. “Who knows what it looks like below grade? That’s something that I think we are going to have to look at changing in South Florida, with the rising water table.”
Haber said policymakers should consider requiring the recertification process to begin after 30 or 35 years because of the corrosive effects of the ocean air.
Salzhauer agreed and called on state lawmakers to begin updating the guidelines.
“Why are we are we waiting 40 years to do recertification, especially on the beach?” Salzhauer said in an interview.
In recent months, a much larger building was constructed next to The Champlain Towers in Miami Beach. During construction, Salzhauer said some Champlain Towers residents had complained that the vibrations had damaged their property, including some cracks in the building.
“Some of those things may have been factors, but this is an investigation, and we don’t know where it’s going to lead,” Salzhauer said.
But Salzhauer said Surfside, like communities throughout South Florida, has been battling erosion. Many buildings have been constructed on reclaimed marshland.
“Remember the water just doesn’t go where we see it,” Salzhauer said. “The water is underneath. Miami Beach has water underneath. There is water below us, and the water is above us. And we have to live in that precarious balance of having to build on what is essentially a big puddle of water.’
Last year, the Army Corps of Engineers did a full replenishment of Surfside’s beaches, Salzhauer said. Much of the sand for that project was initially stored directly in front of Champlain Towers, she added.
“We trucked in thousands and thousands of tons of sand, and it was dumped right in front of that location,” Salzhauer said. “And I don’t know if that weight of all of that schlepping of sand contributed to anything. But I don’t think its going to be any one factor. I think its going to be a cumulative effect of many different things.”
Jason Borden, a Fort Lauderdale-based engineer, said that he had examined the building during a January 2020 walk-through as his firm prepared an unsuccessful bid for the contract to conduct the 40-year inspection.
Borden told The Post that he had noticed deterioration of the building’s stucco cladding; deterioration of concrete on some balconies; deformation or damage of balcony guardrails; and cracks in the ceiling of the garage along with calcification and rust that indicated a water leak through waterproofing.
But Borden, a regional director at O&S Associates, said these issues were typical and not alarming. “I certainly didn’t see anything requiring evacuation or any indication of imminent collapse,” he said.
Attorney Donna DiMaggio Berger, a colleague of Direktor whose law firm represents the Champlain condominium association, said the replacement of the building’s roof had been flagged as a top priority as hurricane season approached.
McGuinness, the town building official, said he had been on the building’s roof only 14 hours before the collapse. He said he did not see an inordinate amount of materials or equipment that he believed could have led to the disaster.
DiMaggio Berger said that a “subsurface, structural issue” likely caused the collapse. “This building was on pilings buffeted by the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway,” she said. “We’ve got water coming at this thing from both sides.”
In recordings of emergency responder radio traffic from early Thursday, around 1:20 a.m. an unidentified person is heard saying that an alarm was ringing at Champlain Towers. The kind of alarm was not specified.
Around 1:31 a.m., another unidentified person said over the radio that county authorities reported there was “a collapse inside the building” and a fire, before amending their comments to say there was no fire, “just a straight-up collapse.”
The radio traffic was posted on Broadcastify, a website that compiles such recordings.
The day before the collapse, one of missing residents told her son that the building was making “loud creaking noises,” CNN reported. Pablo Rodriguez, whose mother and grandmother are among those missing, told CNN the creaking was “loud enough to wake her.”
The 12-story Champlain Towers South building was completed in 1981, according to county records. It stood alongside two similar towers named East and North.
The properties were developed by a real estate partnership including the Polish-born Canadian Nathan Reiber, who died in 2014.
Faced in 1979 with a moratorium on construction in Surfside due to problems with the sewer system, the developers agreed to pay half the $400,000 bill for upgrades, according to reports at the time. Rival developers with stalled projects complained that the deal secured Champlain preferential treatment for permits.
The following year, the Champlain developers asked two members of the town council to return campaign contributions that they had made, after the company was accused of trying to buy favor from local officials.
On Friday, as officials and attorneys called for greater scrutiny of the ground underneath residential structures, The Washington Post found that research indicating that the site of the Champlain building had been sinking was made public at least three and a half years ago, earlier than was previously known.
An academic study published in April 2020, which found that the building appeared to have been sinking during the 1990s, was first reported by USA Today on Thursday, after the tower collapsed.
But findings in that study previously appeared in a 2017 doctoral thesis by one of the authors, a copy reviewed by The Post shows. The thesis included satellite imagery in which apparent subsidence in the area around the building was highlighted.
The thesis, by Italian researcher Simone Fiaschi, was submitted in January 2017 and subsequently published on the website of the University of Padua in Italy, where it remains available to download. The thesis was online by December 14, 2017, archives of the site show.
Fiaschi’s co-author, Professor Shimon Wdowinski of Miami’s Florida International University, told The Post that he had presented research in the past to Miami-Dade officials as part of a regional task force seeking to tackle climate change, but could not recall whether the subsidence in the area of Champlain Tower South had been discussed.
Leaders of the task force and a senior Miami-Dade official who participates on it declined to comment when asked if they had been aware of the findings.
Wdowinski said that he did not believe Surfside town officials were aware of his work. Town Manager Andy Hyatt told reporters Friday that he had not been made aware of the research, which was published several months before he took his position in November 2020.
Fiaschi stressed in an email to The Post that the reason for the collapse of Champlain Tower was unclear, saying it was “not possible to understand which are the causes of the collapse, or if the subsidence we detected have some sort of contribution to the failure of the building.”
As the Champlain Towers South Condo collapsed, it left behind parts of rooms and furnishings. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Saul Martinez.
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In the studies, Fiaschi and Wdowinski detected sinking by comparing images of the Earth’s surface taken over time by microwave beams emitted from a satellite.
While the April 2020 study was limited to images of the Champlain site captured between 1993 and 1999, Fiaschi’s doctoral thesis used imagery taken more recently, in 2005. Both studies indicated that the Champlain site sank at a rate of around two millimeters per year, but the thesis highlighted in red additional hot spots of possible quicker subsidence – more than three millimeters per year – in the area immediately to the north of the condominium building.
Fiaschi told The Post that the 2005 images contained higher possible error rates, making the data less reliable. “I can’t say that the subsidence accelerated based on our previous results,” he said.
Other analysts on Friday said focus should remain on the building’s structural integrity.
Kit Miyamoto, a veteran Los Angeles-based structural engineer who specializes in structural resilience, said that a pillar or column supporting the building appeared to have failed. Corrosion by the salty air or a “differential settlement,” meaning differences between how sides of the building were sitting on the land, could have caused a pillar to collapse, he said.
“This is truly a classic failure of a column,” said Miyamoto, chief executive of Miyamoto International, a global earthquake and structural engineering firm. “It was supporting many stories and that’s why it happened very suddenly.”
Miyamoto, who has studied building collapses around the world, added that it would be difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the degraded pillar because of the near-total destruction of the building. “It requires a forensic investigation, like peeling off the skin of an onion, one by one,” he said.
Peter Dyga, president of Associated Builders and Contractors Florida East Coast Chapter, an industry trade group, said that Miami-Dade’s building code was one of the strongest in the nation but added “of course, you can always do more.” He said that there would be obvious cracks in the building if there were deficiencies underneath.
“The process is already very extensive,” he said. “Also, you don’t have to wait 40 years to take action on something that’s visible.”
Investigators are likely to examine whether necessary repairs were carried out promptly. A relative of two missing residents told The Washington Post that there had been some disagreement among members of the condominium board about funding for necessary improvements to the building.
“They knew they had to do something, but they were fighting over the cost of having to address this issue,” said the relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters that are already the subject of a lawsuit.
Direktor did not respond to a request for comment on the relative’s claim.
An attorney who sued the condominium association in 2015 said Friday that if the building collapsed due to neglected structural problems, it would be consistent with past unwillingness to address such issues in his client’s case.
The attorney, Daniel Wagner, said corrosion had contributed to water damage caused inside his client’s first-floor unit. In that case, resident Matilde Fainstein said damage to her home was caused by water seeping in through an exterior wall.
Wagner said an inspection of the unit and its surroundings showed signs of corrosion. He sent a letter to the board, he said. A confidential settlement was reached.
Wagner said the collapse should serve as “a wake-up call” to other condominium boards, some of which fall short in fixing problems in the interest in saving money and to avoid raising maintenance fees. Condominium boards and unit owners prefer to keep maintenance low and avoid charging special assessments “presumably to attract buyers and keep market values up, all to the detriment of those same unit owners,” he said.
“Associations sometimes opt to forgo necessary maintenance repairs and to take the risk,” he said. “All this does is pass the buck to future generations.”
The interior of the Champlain Towers South building left exposed after the residential building partially collapsed. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Zack Wittman.
Published : June 27, 2021
By : The Washington Post · Jon Swaine, Joshua Partlow, Beth Reinhard, Antonio Olivo
Cities are making covid-era street changes permanent. Some are facing pushback.
Paris barred most cars from the majestic road that goes past the Louvre Museum, then months later announced it would keep it that way. New York followed suit, making permanent a program that clears space on public roads for walking, biking and, in the case of 34th Avenue in Queens, Mexican folk dance classes.
In San Francisco, officials are weighing whether to keep part of John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park closed to cars, prompting a tussle among drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and a fine arts museum that lost easy public access to its facilities.
Leaders in other cities are pushing to do the same, seeing an opportunity to cement progress in making streets safer, more enjoyable and less polluting. The moves have also roiled long-running debates about the role of the automobile and the purpose of public streets.
In Washington, the D.C. Council in June appealed to the National Park Service to keep cars off a scenic stretch of Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park, a move also supported by Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser. But one initial supporter of the idea, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., tapped the brakes after opposition emerged, showing the complexities of limiting car travel, even in a city where local and federal officials have sought to emphasize other modes of transportation.
President Joe Biden is pushing an infrastructure overhaul that prioritizes climate change, pedestrian safety and equity. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is advocating for “complete streets” designed for more than cars. And Norton, as chairwoman of the House Transportation Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, has championed a major transportation bill that seeks to curtail the primacy of the automobile.
But when it comes to the idea of permanently ejecting cars from a creek-side stretch of road in her district – which she requested from the National Park Service in a letter last month – Norton was surprised by the pushback.
“I must have been wrong . . . The community appears much more divided than I thought,” Norton said in an interview. She planned a public meeting on June 29 to hear from residents ahead of a second session on July 8 organized by the Park Service.
From left, Spiro Tsianakas, Theoni Tsinonis, Nektarios Tsinonis, and Anastasia Kontos stroll along Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda, Md., in June. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Toni L. Sandys,
Acting with unusual swiftness, hundreds of cities changed the way their roads were used early in the pandemic, often using paint, plastic posts, temporary barriers or signs asking for compliance. Some adjustments were popular, creating what supporters saw as urban oases. Others provoked drivers’ ire.
Efforts to make pop-up infrastructure permanent offer a preview of bigger battles to come amid changing priorities in Washington, with safety and environmental advocates saying cities must become more nimble and responsive to community concerns if they are to tackle climate change or reduce the death toll on U.S. roads, which topped 38,000 last year.
“The nature of the emergency was that things happened fast. But the nature of democracy is that the things that last are the things that people talk over and agree to,” said Philippe Crist, adviser on innovation and foresight at the Paris-based International Transport Forum.
Transportation chiefs from 63 countries, including Buttigieg, jointly called in May for seizing on a surge in walking and biking during the pandemic to accelerate a move toward more “accessible and resilient” transportation infrastructure. Milan, Brussels, Rome, Bogota and Lima are among cities making much of their pop-up pedestrian and cycling changes permanent, the group said.
In the United States, the National Association of City Transportation Officials tracked the trend and offered grants to cities that repurposed streets in neighborhoods hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic.
Detroit temporarily closed streets near schools for community groups to create outdoor learning spaces and provide child care. Philadelphia worked with restaurant owners in communities of color who were underrepresented in the city’s pandemic-era program to convert streets to dining spaces.
“Our streets are physical manifestations of our policy and funding choices,” said Zabe Bent, the transportation association group’s design director. “Cities are taking a moment to say, ‘Where are we now? What are the needs now?'”
Some cities, including Philadelphia, plan to continue their program at least through this year, Bent said. Kevin Lessard, a Philadelphia city spokesman, said officials are working with businesses and residents to figure out what to roll back while also considering “a permanent program that can be implemented in a safe, responsible and equitable way.”
Others are working on similar efforts to repurpose streets.
In San Francisco, officials created a five-step process to gauge which “slow streets” that restricted cars during the pandemic are worth keeping. It includes multilingual outreach and design improvements before the installation of more durable traffic barriers.
Transportation officials in Pittsburgh, where brutal winters can upset plans for outdoor dining and recreation, are looking to keep several closures at least seasonally, said Karina Ricks, director of the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.
“We remain focused on small business recovery, safety, climate and job creation, and these street adaptations are vital contributors to that,” Ricks said in an email.
A new law in New York requires city transportation officials to operate an “open streets” program that gives space to pedestrians, bike riders and others for up to 24 hours a day.
A community group in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens has been honing a popular closure along 34th Avenue, installing tennis balls under traffic barriers so they don’t annoy neighbors when dragged into place each morning. Discord has bubbled up, with an objector in Brooklyn hurling barricades into a nearby creek. City transportation officials have been pushing further changes, and recently began replacing a traffic lane on the iconic Brooklyn Bridge with a two-way, protected bike lane.
In Paris, the pandemic broadened the ambition of changes that had started along Rue de Rivoli, a major east-west thoroughfare that runs past the Louvre Museum to the square that once held the Bastille prison. The city had set aside one traffic lane for bikes in 2018, then last year created a multilane boulevard for cycling. Space is reserved for buses, taxis, residents and deliveries.
The move, part of a broad expansion of bike lanes during the coronavirus pandemic, has proved popular with many Parisians, less so for some on the outskirts of the city who drive in, said the International Transport Forum’s Crist, who lives in France and grew up in Tennessee.
“Cities bear the marks of past pandemics,” Crist said, pointing to green spaces laid out in London over the course of successive plagues. “We are starting to realize our allocation of space had maybe gone too far one way” – toward the automobile, he said.
A push to permanently shift the balance away from commuters on a stretch of road through Rock Creek Park in the U.S. capital shows the cleavages that can open around such efforts.
On weekdays, people jog with their dogs, bike and roll strollers down the middle of curved, car-free traffic lanes, including over the historic Boulder Bridge, which was fitted with large stones in 1902 to blend with a picturesque part of the park that drew repeated visits by president Theodore Roosevelt.
For some, it has provided relief. Sherry Marts rides her bike on the closed stretch to offices downtown from her home in the Shepherd Park neighborhood. “Being able to ride without having to play dodge-car is such a delight!” she said.
Cyclists in Washington D.C. enjoy a stretch of Beach Drive that is closed to vehicle traffic. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Toni L. Sandys.
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Priyanka Banerjee-Guenette used the space to build back her strength, balance and confidence after brain surgery last year, she said, and loves “the wind on my face.”
But some neighbors say they fear longer commutes and rerouted traffic.
Frances Burke, one of thousands of people who signed dueling petitions over the proposed permanent closure, argued the number of cars zooming past “will skyrocket,” worsening existing speeding problems through her Hawthorne neighborhood. “I have four children and do not want their lives risked every time they walk out the front door,” she wrote.
D.C. Council member Mary Cheh, whose district includes some of the communities beside the national parkland, said she’s seen no evidence of added safety risks in neighborhoods stemming from the closure, a move she supports.
“Covid, as bad as it was, has allowed us to reimagine a lot of things,” Cheh said. “One of the things is how we use public space.”
Published : June 27, 2021
By : The Washington Post · Michael Laris, Luz Lazo
Former UK chancellor appointed as the new health secretary.
Former UK chancellor appointed as the new health secretary.
Southeast Asia sees steep jump in new Covid-19 cases
COVID vaccine walk-in centers open across England amid resurge of cases.
COVID vaccine walk-in centers open across England amid resurge of cases.
จากอิสราเอลถึงไต้หวัน หลายประเทศเริ่มใช้มาตรการเหมือนล็อคตัวเองจากการติดต่อกับโลกภายนอกเพื่อก้องกันการไหลทะลักของสายพันธุ์อันตราย
ข้อมูลสำคัญเกี่ยวกับสายพันธุ์ที่กำลังอาละวาดไปทั่วโลกและกำลังสั่นคลอนโครงการฉีดวัคซีนในหลายๆ ประเทศ
หัวหน้าหน่วยงานด้านสุขภาพของสหประชาชาติแสดงความกังวลเมื่อวันศุกร์เกี่ยวกับสายพันธุ์เดลต้าของโควิด-19 ซึ่งเขาเรียกว่าเป็นการกลายพันธุ์ที่ “แพร่เชื้อได้มากที่สุด” ณ ปัจจุบัน
ชาวซิดนีย์หลายล้านคนตื่นขึ้นมาในเช้าวันอาทิตย์เพื่อเริ่มต้นวันแรกของการล็อกดาวน์สองสัปดาห์เต็ม ในขณะที่ออสเตรเลียพยายามควบคุมการระบาดของสายพันธุ์เดลต้าที่ติดต่อได้ง่าย
ไขข้อข้องใจเกี่ยวกับวัคซีนจีน หลังจากเชื้อเดลตาเริ่มอาละวาดหนักขึ้นเรื่อยๆ ทั่วโลก
As the Champlain Towers South Condo collapsed, it left behind parts of rooms and furnishings. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Saul Martinez.
The interior of the Champlain Towers South building left exposed after the residential building partially collapsed. MUST CREDIT: photo for The Washington Post by Zack Wittman.
From left, Spiro Tsianakas, Theoni Tsinonis, Nektarios Tsinonis, and Anastasia Kontos stroll along Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda, Md., in June. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Toni L. Sandys,
Cyclists in Washington D.C. enjoy a stretch of Beach Drive that is closed to vehicle traffic. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Toni L. Sandys.
