New York City finally moves toward reopening

New York City, long the epicenter of the global coronavirus crisis, is poised to start reopening in slightly more than a week, setting the stage for a slow and tentative recovery after two months of suffering, social isolation and economic hardship.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Friday he expected the city to meet several benchmarks that would permit millions of virusweary residents to enjoy the first signs of a normal life as early as June 8. Retail stores could open for curbside or in-store pickup, and nonessential construction and manufacturing could resume, part of an initial phase that could send as many as 400,000 people back to work.

As other parts of the nation, including less-populated sections of New York state, have already reopened, New York City, which lost more than 20,000 lives to the virus, has taken much longer to recover. It required a gargantuan effort to even reach the point where officials were comfortable with loosening the restrictions on movement and commerce that were put in place in March.

Deaths in New York have dropped to only dozens a day, rather than the 700 or 800 a day that were taking place in April, and the number of virus patients in intensive care in the city’s public hospitals has fallen by more than half.

That progress largely came because many New Yorkers followed the rules and have been wearing masks and maintaining social distance as requested. The rewards of vigilance have been manifest not only in decreasing fatalities but also in the declining number of people testing positive for the virus and those requiring hospital stays because of it.

“I am proud of the way New York is figuring it out,” Cuomo said. But even with the strides the city has made, the road to normalcy will no doubt be steep and rocky. Since February, nearly 900,000 local jobs have vanished, and thousands of businesses have closed their doors — some forever.

Revenues from sales taxes are expected to drop by $1 billion, part of a frightening $9 billion estimated budget shortfall that could push officials into risky borrowing and force drastic cuts to essential city services.

Even as the weather warms and summer nears, once-bustling swaths of midtown Manhattan remain all but abandoned, marred by vacant streets and shuttered storefronts. The subway system is limping along at record-low ridership. Tourism has evaporated. Broadway theaters plan to remain dark at least until Labor Day, and many industry leaders say they may stay closed until January.

Under the first phase of reopening, much of the city would still be shut down, with restaurants and bars limited to takeout service and offices, gyms, movie houses and grooming salons all closed.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, appearing virtually with Cuomo on Friday, seemed optimistic as he called the plan to begin reopening in June “the gateway to the next big step.” But neither he nor the governor have figured out certain crucial details yet, perhaps most notably how to get hundreds of thousands of commuters safely back onto public transit.

When questioned if the city was prepared for the coming spike in traffic, de Blasio said that many city dwellers would simply walk or bike to their jobs while others would drive or take taxis.