With virus restrictions lifted, New Yorkers had mixed reactions to ending the precautions they’d grown used to.
The lives of New Yorkers were marked by solitude and alarm during the worst months of the pandemic: Tens of thousands died, thousands of businesses closed and the city’s regular tempo screeched to a halt. But as vaccination rates have climbed, the city’s long hibernation has begun to end.
When some capacity restrictions and mask mandates fell away, neighbors, for the first time in months, greeted one other with bright smiles, no longer struggling to recognize the person behind the mask. Family members and friends reunited with long-sought embraces. Still, some parts of pandemic life — temperature checks and socially distanced lunch tables — remained.
Last week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s order to lift almost all virus restrictions on businesses and social gatherings represented one of the final steps in the city’s reopening. The governor said the new guidance represented a “return to life as we know it.”
But for some, the news was only a symbolic triumph, as the most stringent restrictions had been removed weeks ago. And the decision over whether to do away with precautions lies with individuals and business owners, many of whom said the governor’s announcement would not spur immediate change.
“We’re not back to normal,” said Sedonia Croom, a longtime worker at Croom Boutique Salon & Spa, a family-run business in the Crotona area of the Bronx. The shop, she said, has no immediate plans to throw out its face covering or capacity guidelines.
“You still got to protect yourself and your clients,” Ms. Croom said. “You have no other choice.”
It is a reflection of a unique dynamic in the city: The first full weekend without most virus restrictions had arrived, and many calendars have grown crowded with weekend plans and after-work get-togethers. But, for the foreseeable future, New York’s prepandemic shape will remain out of reach.
In the Fordham area of the Bronx, Phu Vaa, 55, said his shop, Jimmy Nail Salon, would be keeping its plexiglass barriers to separate seats and temperature check for entering patrons, among other precautions. “He says everything’s good,” Mr. Vaa, the manager, said in reference to the governor. “I’m still checking, making sure.”
Some New Yorkers are opting for small gatherings and parties among close friends over bars and nightclubs. “It’s still scary,” said Angel Martinez, 41, who works at a barbershop in Crotona. “You’re not going to find me in a large crowd, I’ll tell you that.”
And though many vaccinated New Yorkers are no longer wearing masks in public, some say they are not rushing to remove them. “It’s not so simple,” said Ravi Manneru, who lives in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens.
Mr. Manneru, 52, and his teenage son, Uday, were two of the few people who kept their masks on while at a crowded outdoor event in Queens this weekend. Mr. Manneru said he had lost too many loved ones and friends to the virus in both the United States and India, his home country, to feel fully safe retiring his face covering.
“I can’t believe that the virus is completely gone,” he said. “I cannot simply go out.”
Both New York and California celebrated the same milestone earlier this week: Both states announced that 70 percent of adults had received at least one dose of the vaccine. But inoculation rates remain significantly lower in some pockets of New York, particularly across Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Those gaps left some residents unsure about Mr. Cuomo’s announcement. “It’s quite confusing,” said Ricky Ahmed, 38, who manages Perfect Brows NYC, a beauty salon in the Fordham area of the Bronx. The 70 percent mark was a positive sign, he said, but that meant another 30 percent, millions of New Yorkers, were still without their first dose.
He has chosen to continue taking precautions at the store. But, Mr. Ahmed said, his refusal to abandon all restrictions has been met with resistance at times.
“Some people come in here and give you back the harsh words,” he said.
While anxiety around the virus lingers, the past several weeks have been marked by a new day-to-day rhythm in New York.
On Sunday night, Madison Square Garden was to host its first full-capacity, no-mask-required concert in more than 15 months with a performance from the Foo Fighters. The evening before, thousands turned out at the Barclays Center for the Brooklyn Nets’ final game in this year’s N.B.A. playoffs.
The annual Queens International Night Market, where dozens of vendors sell art, food and other items in Flushing Meadows Corona Park each weekend, also opened for its summer season on Saturday after last year’s events were canceled for the pandemic. For some New Yorkers in attendance, the large crowds and long lines were another sign of the return of vibrant city life.
Less than four hours after the event started, one vendor, Hendra Lie, 32, was sold out. He said he began selling traditional Indonesian food at the market in 2019. But this year’s level of enthusiasm seemed to outmatch his previous experiences.
“I feel like we’re pretty much back to normal,” said Mr. Lie, who lives in Elmhurst, Queens. “People are not scared to go out and socialize — and the opening of food markets is getting everyone excited.”
Some of the traditions that have yet to return in all neighborhoods have become newfound longings. “I’m dying to watch a movie,” said Nilda Febus, 59, who lives near a Multiplex Cinemas theater in the Concourse neighborhood of the Bronx.
Ms. Febus said she has traveled to the theater three times over the past two months. Each time, it has still been closed.
She added that she would not have abandoned all precautions: She would wear a mask while inside and would attempt to socially distance. Regardless, she said, “I want to get out of the house.”
Those cravings to venture out are now playing out late into the night, after a midnight curfew for bars and restaurants in the city was lifted last month.
On Thursday night at The Sultan Room, a nightclub and music venue in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, performers spun across the stage in front of a packed crowd cheering them on during a Lady Gaga-themed drag night event.
Ronnie Lanzilotta, 29, who is from the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, had come to meet up with friends, as part of his own effort to slowly ease back into late-night activities. But when it comes to the city’s larger return, he said, “We’re back as far as I’m concerned.”
“There’s like a layer of anxiety that kind of permeates my life,” he said, adding that he was unsure of whether events in his personal life or the pandemic caused it. “But I don’t feel like I’m in danger anymore.”
Charlene Incarnate, 30, a drag queen from Brooklyn who served as an M.C. for the show, said that the return was overwhelming, and performers were still “a little bit rusty” from their long hiatus. “But there’s so much energy,” she said.
“This has really illuminated the ways in which the digitization of all social life has failed,” she added. “Being in real space with each other is just what humans do.”
Kristen Bayrakdarian, Julia Carmel and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
"back" - Google News
June 21, 2021 at 06:40AM
https://ift.tt/3wJ4xLB
‘We’re Not Back to Normal,’ but New Yorkers Savor Reopening Weekend - The New York Times
"back" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QNOfxc
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "‘We’re Not Back to Normal,’ but New Yorkers Savor Reopening Weekend - The New York Times"
Post a Comment