Day 188…
Traffic around New York seems almost back to normal.
We were only in Provincetown for a week, but biking downtown yesterday, I definitely noticed a change. The streets are busier.
Traffic cops were posted at several intersections in Midtown. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that. There are no tourist buses on the streets or, obviously, tourists walking the streets. However busy it might get, that still makes it markedly different from what the city was like before March.
Almost everybody walking around on the streets of New York these days, knows where they are going. That doesn’t sound like it should be worthy of comment, but for those of us who live here, it’s huge.
It’s bad enough trying to navigate around people on the sidewalks who are glued to their iPhones. Getting through crowds of tourists all looking up in the air who draw together in large clumps when they get lost is one of the more frustrating things about maneuvering everyday life in Manhattan. Those people aren’t here. Nor are the long lines up and down the sidewalks of visitors waiting to get on the Sightseeing buses. Instead, traffic is flowing, and you can walk fairly uninterrupted.
There does seem to be more homeless people hanging around in midtown than there were even a week ago. Yesterday, I was aware of more people hanging out in front of closed businesses and sitting in doorways than I had ever noticed before. I walked up Eighth avenue through the 30’s and 40’s and was actually surprised at how many people were out there. Many were looking for help, but most were just hanging out with their belongings.
Walking through the theatre district, the further we go into this shut down, the more those buildings start to feel like part of an exhibit from times gone by. It’s been six months since any show in the city has had a performance.
The theatres where shows have actually closed like the St. James where Frozen was and the Booth where the revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf had started previews are now completely dark. There is no indication at all of who their former tenants might have been.
The others, where shows are still hoping to reopen, still have their marquees and signage up. You can still see advertising for the revival of Company on the side of MTA buses. Jersey Boys posters are still up on the side of trashcans all throughout Times Square.
A huge poster advertising Plaza Suite starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick is still outside its theatre. That show never even started previews. The poster, however, has been up so long that it now just seems like a normal part of the landscape.
Plaza Suite along with The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman are two big splashy, starry new shows that Producers are hoping will help jumpstart Broadway in March. That’s when everyone is hoping we will be able to start coming back. If Dr. Fauci and other health experts are right, though, that may not happen for another year beyond that.
We were thrilled to be able to see Judy Gold and Drag-a-Maniacs perform live up in Provincetown this past week. It is, unfortunately, much more difficult to be able to make something like that happen here in the city. We don’t have the space in much of New York to do it and the overhead is so high that selling that few tickets, makes it hard to justify economically.
If the timing had been better, the Public may have been able to get something going in the Delacourt in Central Park, but as we head into Fall, the weather is not going to allow for that.
The weather is about to change and with that is going to come a lot of new challenges for all of us.
The party atmosphere on a lot of New York streets these days because of outdoor dining will last as long as people are willing to put up with falling temperatures. I am sure that there is going to be a shortage of outdoor heaters as everyone starts grabbing them. We are going to want to eat outside for as long as we can.
Two weeks from now on September 30, Governor Cuomo has announced that indoor dining will be able to resume at 25% capacity. That, coupled with outdoor dining, will really help restaurants to survive. That measure without outdoor dining later on is likely not going to be enough to keep many places open.
The warnings from health officials about a possible second wave of the virus are springing from what has been observed in similar outbreaks from the past.
During the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, what happened was that cases started appearing in March, as they did with COVID, peaked, then started to subside as they moved into the summer. The second wave returned and peaked in November of that year. The colder weather had forced everyone indoors which made it easier to spread. It was that second wave which was the deadliest.
We’ve learned that the large Black Lives Matter demonstrations which happened outside with most people wearing masks did not become super-spreader events.
On the other hand, the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota which attracted nearly half a million people who did NOT wear masks, did. Where the demonstrators mostly left room between them, the bikers ignored that and gathered tightly together. The spread from that event alone, as people from the rally returned to their homes, is potentially responsible for over a quarter of a million new cases. Those cases could lead to health care costs of over $12 billion dollars.
Indoor church services, parties, and, yes, political rallies have created many super-spreader events. Outdoor distanced versions of the same have not.
Winter is coming. It’s like the catchphrase from Game of Thrones come to life. Winter is coming, indeed. What will it bring? We will have to see.
Michael and I have been talking about trying to spend some time this fall back up on the Cape. The two weeks that we spent there this summer have only whetted our appetites for more. The thought of being up there and walking along a wintry beach then huddling at home in front of a fire sounds too good not to at least fantasize about.
It is, however, starting to look a bit unlikely for the best possible reason. There are some actual work possibilities cropping up. With pay even. We will see what happens, but they are all geared towards virtual performance but require onsite production.
I just got off a conference call for one of them where we spent a good twenty minutes talking about COVID safety in the workspace. It all seems well thought out and relatively safe. There’s a bit of light in the tunnel.
So, yes, winter is coming with all of its uncertainty, but it’s still a way off.
First is fall.
Fall is why many of us choose to live in New York City. Clear crisp beautiful days that bridge the gap between the hot and humid days of summer and the cold and grey days of winter.
Fall days, when you might have to wear a jacket but might not. The leaves will start changing very soon, but not quite yet. All of the great harvest flavors will start appearing in stores and restaurants. The street markets will become full of apple cider and pumpkins.
We should all make as much use of these days as we can. Anxiety about the future should not take away the joy of experiencing what we have now.
Here in New York, you can take a long walk through Central Park and go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can go to the Whitney downtown and then walk up the Highline Park which has timed entry from its Gansevoort and Washington entrance.
Winter will come, but it isn’t here yet. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.
We can do our part to ensure that the winter is better by voting in November.
Almost more importantly, however, to ensure that the winter is better, we need to take care of ourselves. We are given these occasional glorious days in New York and we should take full and greedy advantage of them.
For my friends out west, who are suffering from the fires, and my friends down south who are suffering from the hurricanes, please stay safe and well.
Your glorious days will come just as ours will pass.
It’s all part of the same cycle.
Yes, winter is coming, but then again, so is spring.
I love autumn in New York....
spring, summer and winter too...
go to Innwood Park
magnificence at it’s most sublime
💕❤️