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It’s Phase 1 now. Are you ready to party, New York?
Wait! No! There’s no partying in Phase 1 of the gradual reopening of New York City after 80 days mostly inside, not in what was until recently the coronavirus capital of the U.S. Just like there’s still no theater going, no restaurant eating, no bar drinking, no gym sweating, no hair cutting, no team rooting, no museum visiting, no body modifying and no doing much of anything else in close proximity to others without all parties involved wearing face masks—and probably not even then. All that has to wait. Also still forbidden: Church, mosque or synagogue worshiping, which is normally a part of New York life even if some outsiders assume that only heathens are allowed to live here.
To many New Yorkers, Phase 1 looks pretty much like Phase Zero.
Yes, some construction sites are officially open again, which is great if you’re a construction worker. Manufacturing facilities are back, too. But New York hasn’t really been a factory town for more than half a century. And here’s another Phase 1 development: Curbside pickups from nonessential businesses are allowed, an undeniable convenience for all those New Yorkers who do their shopping by car. There must be some people who fit into that category. I just don’t happen to know any. Gov. Andrew Cuomo acknowledged that reality when he made clear on Monday that, yes, shoppers may be served on the sidewalk when they arrive at a store on foot, bicycle, bus or subway, so long as they order and pay in advance.
But these are all baby steps in a city ready to leap forward, while New York’s leaders keep urging caution for the sake of public health.
See also: As Europe grapples with placing visitors in quarantine here’s what’s happening around the world
You could hear the tension in Cuomo’s voice as he described the new reality. He started with a burst of exuberance. “Congratulations,” he said. “We are back. Not only are we back, but we went from the worst situation in the nation — frankly, one of the worst situations on the globe—to not only flattening the curve but bending the curve…We continued our decline while the rest of the country is still spiking. How remarkable is that?”
But then the governor quickly added: If “New Yorkers get sloppy, you can see those numbers go back up because they are purely a function of behavior.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio sounded his own version of the same alarm on Monday. “We got this far by the hard work and the discipline,” he said, gamely rallying the city’s 8 million residents to stick with the program. “The most important thing to remember is don’t forget the lessons we’ve learned.” Otherwise, the mayor warned, Phases 2 (in-store retail, offices, outdoor dining), 3 (indoor dining) and 4 (schools, museums, theaters and other indoor fun) could be delayed for who-knows-how-much longer.
See: ‘Our energy’s back,’ Cuomo says on Day 1 of New York City’s reopening
And nobody wants that.
The city’s coronavirus carnage is plain enough to see: 207,000 people infected, nearly 17,000 dead, 900,000 jobs evaporated and a $9-billion municipal-budget shortfall. And no one knows what impact the past week’s marches and rallies against police brutality might have on the fragile disease count. Is the virus mostly beaten or is it poised for a comeback?
One thing Cuomo is undeniably correct about: The people will decide. And they too seem torn.
In most parts of the city, a clear majority of people are wearing masks outside. There isn’t the culture-war debate over the right to be infected and to infect others. Yet Columbus Avenue, St. Mark’s Place and many bar blocks in Williamsburg can turn into Florida spring break in a hurry. And whatever the rules may say, more and more people are quietly popping the friends-and-family bubbles that limited their social contacts for the past three months. It’s a strange middle zone New York finds itself in.
Also read: How Iceland flattened the curve
The city sounds different now. A jackhammer woke me up this morning, pounding outside my window. I hadn’t heard one of those since all this began. Too bad helicopter flying isn’t also on the still-forbidden list. Ever since the George Floyd marches began, lower-Manhattan and close-in Brooklyn have sounded like the first four minutes of “Apocalypse Now.”
What’s up with that?
The streets are still emptier than normal, a lot emptier, even as the traffic slowly creeps back. City officials say 400,000 furloughed and home-working employees are heading back in. That may well be happening. But when Gov. Cuomo arrived on the 7 train at Grand Central Station Monday, the train, the platform and the station were still almost empty, emphasizing what slow going we still have ahead.
That other defining New York reality, the bone-crushing crowd, must be what happens in Phase 5.
Ellis Henican is an author based in New York City and a former newspaper columnist.
