Mid-March thru Late-May was a scary time to be in New York. We were living in the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths were climbing, we knew next to nothing about the virus, and everything basically felt radioactive.
By April 1st, the city was a ghost town. Everybody remembers that scene in “Vanilla Sky” where Tom Cruise takes his Ferrari out for a drive in the city only to find it completely empty but with the lights and public screens all on. Ultimately he gets out of his car in the middle of Broadway in a Times Square that is shockingly devoid of people. The very idea of a quiet, eerily serene Times Square is so far-fetched and beyond any reasonable expectation that he experiences a full mental-break (as does the audience). I remember watching it and thinking, “that would never happen…” and then “how the hell did they pull that one off?”
Now that NYC appears to be through the worst of it (for now), things are starting to return to normal. Outdoor dining has been a charming addition to the city; however, enforcing social distancing must be a challenge as “Covid Fatigue” is probably more pervasive at this point than the virus itself. I will say that levels are lower than they’ve been since early-January likely, but that hasn’t stopped the vast majority of New Yorkers from taking the pandemic seriously. 30,000 Deaths in four months will do that.
