Suddenly it was New York: the rumor of the city had returned. Fire sirens sounded again, as each morning on the way to school the streets congested, with a chorus of horns sounding half a second after the light turned green. The queues in front of Covid-19 testing clinics have subsided and New Yorkers have reappeared – mostly white and young men – without protective masks. On state highways leading to the financial capital of the United States, illuminated signs warn: “The Covid is still a danger. “ Everything is in the “still”.
A year after the city, which for a few months was the global epicenter of the pandemic, confined itself, the crisis seems to be a thing of the past. New York, an open city: this is the predominant feeling with the return of fine weather and the helicopters that fly over Manhattan. Of course, visitors to California for the first time in a year have the impression of a very empty city, still deserted by international tourists and its finance employees, still telecommuting. However, in the residential neighborhoods of Manhattan, where bicycle delivery men abound, we are resolutely moving forward.
The year 2020 was catastrophic for the megalopolis, which lost 13.7% of its jobs (4 million in January 2021, down 640,000). If public employment (- 1.7%), health and education (- 6.6%) as well as finance (- 4.5%) resisted, personal services are damaged. Timidly, the bars and restaurants, which, along with the hotels, have seen more than half of their workforce melt (167,000 jobs destroyed), have reopened. At least in part, at the beginning of February, for Valentine’s Day.
Even if it means taking the risk of an inevitable promiscuity, the state authorities had authorized a reopening of the interior rooms at a quarter of their capacity. During the frosty weeks of January, it was necessary to stick together, bundled up, on terraces heated in Parisian style by gas cookers. The occupancy gauge, currently set at 35%, will rise to 50% on March 19 – two days after St. Patrick’s Day, when all New Yorkers, who have become Irish for one night, congregate in bars, exhaling beer and good humor.
Incredible daring
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