 reopening our state parks and allowing for golf courses to reopen this order will take effect at sunrise this Saturday May 2nd and this will bring us in line broadly speaking with our neighboring states as I have previously said I did not want to see is in a situation where residents would be needlessly crossing state lines in either direction. This is the Michael K. Show we cannot have everyone rush out to a park or golf course social distancing will be strongly enforced 98.7 ESPN I'll press conference from earlier in the day governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey opening the state up just a little bit and he's nice enough to join us now governor Michael Don and Peter how are you doing. Hey guys how are you thanks for having me on. We appreciate it so when you make decisions like the one that we just played do you confer with Cuomo and Lamont just to make sure that everybody's on the same page now each one has different things have to worry about but are you in constant contact with them before you make such a call. Yeah in this case it was our chiefs of staff but the answer is yes we speak either myself personally or our teams constantly we realize that as we shut our states down like 4 to 6 to 8 weeks ago at this point we were we were constantly comparing notes on the example that Andrew Cuomo and I were using frequently is you don't want a restaurant in Jersey City to have a different reality than one of the lower west side of Manhattan and we determined you know what as we begin to think about reopening our states even if it's not tomorrow why don't we do the same thing and let's put a little formal counsel around that. So each state we're now seven states with each contributed our chiefs of staff plus two appointees and it's a group that talks literally all the time. Now how long governor will it take for you to know that this decision ended up being the right one where you can move on to another phase. I don't want to be too black and white but I'll probably know Sunday night or Monday morning at the latest whether or not folks did it the right way. So we wouldn't be taking this step on the state parks and golf unless the the curves that the infection curves the hospitalization curves were flattening or going down. They are thank God. We're still by the way losing. I mean I assume folks realize the gravity and your listening audience but we have 329 deaths today. I mean it's just it's now 6,770 lost lives so that the the the fatalities God bless them all are sort of a lagging. These are folks who were infected in many cases weeks ago but the infection and hospitalization curves are going in the right direction which has allowed us to say you know what let's give this a shot. The weather is getting a little better. There is a valid mental health argument that we've got people cooped up for a week upon weeks upon weeks but we got it we're going to be very aggressive in not just just enforcing but observing this weekend that folks don't congregate. They keep their distance begging folks to wear face coverings. If it goes well that portends a very good park season going forward. If it doesn't we're going to have to reconsider. Governor Murphy of New Jersey is our guest here on the show. This is kind of a philosophical question because the thing that is so distressing to me is that people view this situation in this pandemic through political lenses and I think it makes me angry. If there was no pressure from the other side and from people that are actually protesting in other states if you had your druthers and the economy didn't have anything to do with it would you still have everything shut down for a while. Yeah and in fact I said this today when I announced that we were going to reopen the state and county parks and golf I said I want I want to acknowledge all the many people out there who have protested me and they protested me as well who have made speeches who have spoken to the press who've called me have texted me I want you to know everything you didn't didn't matter one little bit based on the facts whether or not we think the curves go into the right direction allow us the freedom to do this and again there's a mental health argument guys that I I have to underscore here you've got a lot of people who are just desperate to get out so the answer is that the pressure is out there but the pressure is on all sides we just got to call the balls and strikes as we as best we can see them we pray that we do get to a point where certain businesses can open and the economy and people can go back to work does opening schools and daycares have to coincide with that governor so that the people that go back to work have someone to be able to keep an eye on the kids you guys are asking great questions and I'm huge fans of yours by the way I should say not necessarily we have not made a determination on school we have said that at least until May 15 we're remote learning at least until then and I mentioned today would make it we'll make an announcement I don't think we're going to wait till May 15th but I can't give you any sense yet as to whether or not we're going to stay remote for the balance of the school year or or call folks back in too early to tell likewise we've got essential businesses remember that are already out there and working they've got to social distance they've got to practice you know wear face masks etc so the curves between business on the one hand and and education decisions on the other aren't necessarily in sync but I will say this the similar protocols whenever they open similar protocols will be in place and there's I can't see a restaurant opening at you know this is one guy's opinion and now we just appointed a commission to advise us on stuff like this I can't see a restaurant opening with more than 50% capacity for instance or x feet apart between tables I would think whenever it is that schools open again again we haven't made that call yet you've got similar realities governor I know this is a this is tough I really appreciate the idea of golf courses I play golf and have thought well this seems like something that could be open but you talked about the mental health component and it does seem like that that's an activity that benefits a certain sect of sort of the well-to-do population yeah you know we know that culturally golf is a game that more affluent people tend to play yeah are there any activities and things that could reopen in the near future for other people who maybe aren't avid golfers yeah by the way I'm not a golfer I golf once a year and you should be happy not not being the forcing behind me there's not much of a course left but the fact of the matter is that weighed heavily on me this is what there be no doubt this is like a lot of other things in life taking the disproportionate toll out of those who have been left behind in particular out of communities of color if you look at our fatalities the African-American rate is about 50% higher than it is in the overall society in New Jersey so it did weigh heavily and it's a it's a reason why we married golf with state and county park opening because other states have opened golf but kept parks closed which meant that it was even worse because the privates were the only ones that were able to open and not the public's so we at least added that these are going to go in harmony that any courses that are public are going to be a part of this I don't have any activity off the top of my head we have explicitly said no team sports in in in parks and so I don't have a crisp answer for you other than your premise is exactly right and it's part of the reason why we married golf to state and county parks we didn't want to just make this even more elite reality with private courses now I know you you have a limited time to be with us I wanted to ask you this you have the numbers in front of you you see the graphs and all of that and you share it with the public but in your estimation governor can you see any scenario where the Giants and the Jets would play at netlife Stadium in front of 70,000 people in this year tough question I don't know but it as I sit here right now it's hard to say I mean sports in our state are a big deal I spoke with both John Mara and Chris Johnson and his team within the past number of days Josh Harris obviously they've got the Devils and the Sixers are headquartered now in Camden it's hard to see it is just given that we know congregation with no social distancing is is the gasoline on the fire in this virus it's for the foreseeable future I can't see it I'm not saying definitively but I just can't see it you know you can you see without people in the stands a hundred people on the field yeah we were talking about that potentially I mean that's at least a lot more achievable I think but you've got you got the reality what happens to those and I know you guys have discussed this what happens to those hundred people when the game is over right you know are you are they isolating and how long can that realistically last with families and can you keep people on a bubble I'm the former US ambassador to Germany I'm a big sports fan I actually my wife and I are majority owners of the women's pro soccer team in New York New Jersey the Germans are gonna open the Bundesliga up looks like sometime mid-May with no fans which I get that but I you know the only thing there is they've only got like 10 or 12 games left in their season and they play you know they can play that in a fairly compressed time zone you got NFL teams coming in in July in the current schedule and the Super Bowls in February I don't know how you keep you know I don't how you keep that in a bubble even without fans for what would be six months plus I know your time is up we appreciate you giving us as much as you have we really do love talking to you and you give our fans a lot of information that they need listen you guys are the best I'd love I'll come on anytime and God bless y'all I thank you governor thank you governor that's governor Murphy and I'm what I think that that's that's a very honest answer because he's got all the information in front of him and you tell me how you're gonna allow 75,000 people without a vaccine 75,000 people crammed into one place to watch the Jets or the Giants so if he says he doesn't see the insane definitely not he doesn't see it and then when you ask him about a game in front of no fans he's wondering where the hundred people are gonna go one and a hundred is very very conservative because there's 53 players on each team right so that's a hundred and six right there then you've got coaches and trainers and doctors and things like that medical other medical professionals I mean again I don't want to be the doom and gloom guy but when you hear Bob Costa said I don't see sports being played in this country in 2020 those are the reasons why what governor Murphy just said it's pie in the sky minus a vaccine to think that you're gonna please playing giant and jet games this calendar year or or