County & City Parks Close for Easter Weekend

UPDATE April 9

THE CITY OF HOUSTON HAS CLOSED CITY PARKS and Trails FOR EASTER WEEKEND in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19.  This includes Memorial Park and Hermann Park.

The closure will start this evening, with barricades and patrolling planned.  There are 36 urban park rangers set to patrol some 130+ city parks, so that’s about 10 parks per ranger.  But police will also be patrolling certain areas, according to Mayor Turner’s 3 p.m. briefing, and chief of police Art Acevedo added that those not in compliance with leaving a park after an officer’s warning could receive a citation or even be arrested.

It looks like it will also be a rainy Easter weekend, with storms forecast for Saturday and Sunday, so let’s just all stay home.

In order to help combat and mitigate #COVID19 further, I have told @HPARD that we will be closing all our city parks beginning this evening.

— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) April 9, 2020

April 8

With Easter weekend rapidly approaching, and families likely all having the same idea to get out of the house and into the fresh air, Harris County has closed all county parks from Friday, April 10, until Monday, April 13, in an effort to prevent the inevitable crowding in parks, and to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the Houston area.

These parks include Terry Hershey Park, George Bush Park, Armand Bayou Nature Center, and well over 100 more beloved gardens, pocket parks and greenspaces among the county’s four precincts:

• Precinct 1 parks
• Precinct 2 parks
• Precinct 3 parks
• Precinct 4 parks

The county has reportedly not agreed on how to regulate our nearly 150 miles of hike and bike trails, however, so it’s unclear if these will function as normal or not.

Earlier this week, Texas State Parks also closed, for the remainder of April at least. And while city parks remain open at this time, Mayor Sylvester Turner has also given park rangers the authority to shut them down should overcrowding occur, so please practice social distancing.  Memorial Park Conservancy, for one, has urged people to stay home this weekend, and is closing the park’s Picnic Loop to cars.  

Our #Houston City Parks will remain open. If people do not engage in #socialdistancing, our park rangers has the discretion to shut them down.

If you go to a park and can not engage in social distancing, please go to another park. #COVIDー19

— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) April 8, 2020