Over April break I spent an overnight in NYC with my youngest daughter - this was on her request. Although I have loved the vibrancy of the city from my teen years forward, the pull it used to have is no longer there for me. But my rebel soul enjoyed the challenge: NYC post pandemic - when many people around me are still in awe that they step inside a restaurant - I’m there!
Overall: the city will survive and predictions of it becoming a "ghost town" are wildly condescending. In Grand Central Station most of the lower level restaurants have closed. However walking the streets (we were mostly downtown) there are tons of restaurants that have been allowed (probably for a lot of $) to expand outdoor dining onto the street; so the streets look quite different with all of these restaurants. While in an Uber I felt like we were going through a tunnel with these dining huts on both sides. They take up former parking spaces right on the street. Many are decorated with flowers so it's quite pretty.
There were noticeably fewer yellow taxis. Twice when trying to hail one, we gave up and ordered Ubers. Some of the large tourist area stores were closed such as the flagships Gap and Old Navy in Times Square. But down in SoHo all the regular designer, mall brand and boutique stores were open and had shoppers, although dressing rooms were closed. Many kept count of patrons allowed indoors but being a mid week in April we never had to wait to enter.
Mask usage is similar to what I see in Connecticut: 95-99 % usage while those eating, drinking, smoking, running or biking are unmasked with no complaints.
Citibikes were everywhere and my daughter would've been happy to rent one if old mom wasn't so hesitant. There are many bike lanes so my safety concern was quickly tamped down. But I haven't even ridden a bike in years and didn't want to pay the $30 ($15 each per day) and then discover it killed my back after 5 minutes. They even have electric ones that I would choose for myself.
