Race, wealth and public spaces: US beaches are a new flashpoint of the lockdown

Beaches are a polarizing issue amid the pandemic. Experts say that's because a frenzy of privatization' led to smaller, more crowded public spaces

As Florida's beaches shut down in April, part of the state's pandemic stay-at-home order, Josh Davis noticed something strange in Palm Beach county.

A lot of that beach crowd just kind of moved on to the road and the sidewalk. People set up lawn chairs on the grass," said Davis, an ocean rescue lifeguard with the county. If the goal was to keep people from congregating, all it did was really push them a few feet away."