Tag: New York City

  • Coronavirus in NYC: Trader Joe’s Edition

    Again, 24 hours later and things have changed yet again in New York.

    I wouldn’t say there are a great number of people out in gloves and masks, but they are now clearly present wherever you go in the City.

    When I took the kid to school this morning, it was clearly noticeable that other students were absent, as parents were keeping their kids home. Also, the school was eerily quiet. It was a very rainy and cold morning, but even still, that school usually is boiling over with exuberance and energy in the mornings

    The wife and I both feel that it is only a matter of time before NYC will close all of the schools. As such, we might need to hunker down in the apartment for a couple of days. Which meant, we had to go grocery shopping to stock up.

    We are taking this seriously, but not THAT seriously. Not panic shopping over here.

    We headed down to the Trader Joe’s on West 93rd, but before we went over there, we ran some other errands, and walked around that part of the City, as we are rarely over there. Either way, by the time we got to the Trader Joe’s, there was a line out the door, that did wrap around the block. This wasn’t our first “end of the world, let’s go to Trader Joe’s” shopping experience. We dealt with Superstorm Sandy, and the Kincade Fire in California.

    So, we got in line, and it did move rather quickly. (Trader Joe’s does know how to handle a large crowd.) When we were in the final stretch of the line so we could get in, the wife and I noticed that people were taking pictures of the line. Clearly to prove to the rest of the world what happens on the UWS when shit gets real. So, being the mature and stoic people that we are, we attempted to make the most revolting faces that we could when we saw someone taking a picture.

    You’re welcome interwebs…

    It took about an hour and a half to grocery shop, which normally it takes us an hour, (See; Trader Joe’s knows how to handle a crowd.) and the people in there were all behaving normally for New Yorkers. To me that says, people are being cautious about all of this, and not panicking.

    Now, every day this week, things have changed, and not for the better. Sadly, I’m not hopeful for things getting better. I mean, it will get better and we’ll all get through this, but we haven’t hit that turning point just yet.

  • Coronavirus and Changing America

    Funny what the different a day can make.

    Yesterday, all was pretty normal in the City.

    Today, there is a decided change. I can see it with the people on the street. There are more masks out, and though this was always a town where people went out of their way not to come in contact with others, today everyone is moving as if there is a bubble around them.

    Trump’s address on tv last night didn’t help anything. Shutting down Europe access while leaving the UK alone doesn’t really help anyone. The problem is that the virus is here, and we need to start dealing with that. Testing, and limiting groups does make sense, but right now, I only see state and local governments doing that. The Trump administration isn’t really leading.

    I do think the NBA also made the right call, and other leagues should consider doing the same thing. These are mass gatherings, and it’s not that everyone who goes to these events will get infected, it’s that enough might take it home to parents and grandparents, who are the truly vulnerable here.

    I would hope, and this is hope not a fact, that 30 days of this, of people laying low, will slow the spread of coronavirus down, so it can become manageable. The only way for that to happen is to allow testing and gathering data. Let the doctors and scientists do their job, and that will take time.

    For the rest of us, let’s have level heads, and pitch in together. Should we help small business and workers; yes. What if there was a 30-day “Bill Holiday,” where no bills, rents, or payments are mandatorily collected? Everyone gets a break. This wouldn’t be a government hand out, but would be the people of this nation choosing to do this on their own. I have seen it happen in small towns that are hit by natural disasters. Why not everywhere else?

  • Coronavirus and Belief over Facts

    The coronavirus is in New York, and I am not really surprised. Whatever the issue might be, it will eventually show up here. I’m not too worried. A little worried, yes, but more like keeping my guard up, worried.

    I haven’t started hoarding masks, or latex gloves, or toilet paper. We have the normal amount of food that we would have for a Tuesday.

    We have gone to sporting events, parks, museums, and plan on continuing to do that.

    I’m not very confident in the City, State and Federal government working together on this, but if I had to pick a big city to be in when a pandemic hits, I will still go with New York. This town seems to handle disasters rather well.

    The one thing that I started to notice on social media are the anti-vaxxers making statements about how they will not be contracting coronavirus because their kids never received any vaccinations. At least that is what an old high school friend just posted. (Heard immunity, I know, they should look it up…) Somehow, not getting a vaccination is their plan to survive this.

    Selective science people fascinate me. I had a girlfriend once who swore up and down that evolution was fake and the world was only 5,000 years old because the bible said so… but at the same time, she was in college to become a nurse, and that meant medical science was completely real and to be trusted. I would point out that geology and biology and all the sciences used the same scientific method, and also used peer review to verify results. Didn’t matter, God had “told” her and nothing could dissuade her. (Yes, we did break up.)

    That is what makes me nervous about people and this virus; going off of what they believe to be true, and not what the facts are.

  • Walking New York

    I have been taking walks in the City again. I just seem to be finding myself doing it. Such as, I get done having a drink with a friend, and instead of heading to the subway and going home, I just decide to walk to the next stop. Or walk around the stop and see the neighborhood. Sunday I walked down Columbus Ave, down in the 80’s, just to look at the place.

    I have gotten into a rut in this City. I only exist in the neighborhood I live in, the one I work in, and that’s about it. With this large city around me, I only see Harlem and the Financial District. It’s a forty-minute subway ride between them in the morning, and it is like living in two different worlds.

    From the bottom of the island, I walked up Broadway, which at that point is heading up hill. I passed all the tourists at the Charging Bull, and made my way to City Hall. Technically, I think I entered into the boarder of Tribeca, and then, the boarder of Chinatown. SOHO popped up, and then I had to call it as I entered into the Village. I think I walked for little over an hour. I watched the people on the streets ebb and flow. I thought about how Broadway used to be a path the Lenape used. I tried not to think about all of the craziness that is going on in the world right now.

    I tried to clear my head, and look at the people who all live here. That we try to exist in the same place, to make it work here. Millions of people have walked the same route I did, in times that were way more dangerous than now. I want to believe that we are moving the ball forward, making things better. I wonder if there is a place for me, still. It is the question that seems to have been dogging me since I was eight years old. Do I belong? Am I supposed to be here?

  • No Headphones and Other Thoughts

    I didn’t think I left this morning in a hurry, but clearly, I did. I left so fast that I forgot my headphones. I was forced to not listen to music, but read the news off my phone. I felt defenseless and vulnerable. On my subway ride to work, I had to hope that someone wouldn’t discover my state, and then think that I was a person who was willing to engage in a conversation, or worse share a glance of recognition.

    My headphones allow me to be and not be present at the same time; open for business but the door is locked. I cannot deal with human contact that early in the morning, and I am an expert of being on a crowed train and not touching another person. I live in the most densely packed city in America, existing in tight spaces, but nothing is worse than accidently touching a stranger on public transit.

    This is me is the great paradox of living in NYC; actual contact with other people. The fact that I choose to live here to me is a statement that I like people and I accept diversity, but at the same time, if I don’t know you, don’t touch or bother me. I wouldn’t be the first person to write about living in this City, and there are still times that I feel like that no one has touched on the modern elements of living here. It’s not the same City that I moved into 11 years ago, but somehow still the same.

    Bottom line; don’t forget your headphones.