I ran a little late in Brooklyn and could only get on this train instead of the earlier one I had been hoping for -- the trains before 4 are technically off-peak and have a lower fare. But it turns out that all trains are off peak until full service resumes, so I'm in luck! The train was maybe 60% full, fuller than I thought it would be. Just as the subways are pretty full but not packed.
Though I didn't make it around midtown much, my qualified prognosis is this: New York lives. People are inching back to normalcy, day by day. Residential neighborhoods are full of life. Everyone is happy for the warm weather -- late coming this year -- so they were out.
There is no doubt persistent pain. Crime is higher. There is still a lot of hunger out there. My client who's a school principal in East Harlem tells me that the school continues to serve twice as many meals as it does during the normal school year as people from the community come in to eat. This has been a little understood function of the city schools: they have big kitchens, so they have been feeding lots of people.
It's interesting to observe mask-wearing in different neighborhoods. In Flatbush today, on the streets, there was maybe 85-90% compliance in a largely Caribbean neighborhood. In Ditmars, Queens, it was probably around 50-60%. In Central Park, maybe 35-40% of people wore masks as they walked. Up by Columbia, maybe 70%.
The science is pretty clear that there's little risk of outdoor transmission, but New York hasn't changed its guidance just yet, and a lot of New Yorkers have died. So people are keeping it together and staying masked up on the streets. It's good to see, even though I hate wearing the durned things outdoors myself, especially when it's hot.
No comments:
Post a Comment