Upper West Side Sees Dozens Of Social Distancing Complaints

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY—As New York City, once the epicenter of one of the worst pandemics in modern history, moves into phase three of reopening, residents continue to slowly inch back to a life of normalcy - or at least the closest thing to it.

On Monday, additional personal care services opened for business. This included nail salons, tanning salons and tattoo parlors. Hair salons and barbershops were allowed to open during phase two. Low-risk youth sports also opened under phase three.

In-door dining, however, is a still a no go. City and state officials nixed it over fears that the indoor service would cause a spike in coronavirus infections.

With more activities now allowed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been reminding people that they can face fines for failing to follow social distancing guidelines. Based on data collected from 311, social distancing informants also have no problem reporting violators to authorities.

Since phase two began June 22, there have been 69 social distancing complaints made to 311 in the Upper West Side, according to data released by the city. New Yorkers made nearly 2,400 social distancing complaints to 311 around the same time.

Here are the social distancing complaints in Upper West Side broken down by ZIP code since phase two:

• 10025 ZIP code—24 complaints
• 10024 ZIP code—20 complaints
• 10023 ZIP code—23 complaints
• 10069 ZIP code—2 complaints

The origin of most of the complaints involved stores, commercial buildings and some residential areas. In many of the cases, "The police department responded to the complaint and took action to fix the condition," the data shows.

Social distancing watchdogs in New York are nothing new. New Yorkers made about 59,000 complaints about their neighbors getting too close for medically-advised comfort since late March, data shows.

Social distancing problems caught the eye of Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week.

"Citizen compliance is slipping. That is a fact," he said.

Cuomo warned that the coronavirus could have a resurgence in such conditions and urged New York City to "enforce" compliance.

Patch's Matt Troutman contributed to this report