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In New York City, fears are growing over the worsening situation with the coronavirus pandemic’s new wave across Europe and parts of the U.S.
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Is it only me?
“No,” Dr. Jessica Stern assured me at the end of a freshly foreboding week. “A lot of people are feeling stressed now. It’s a change from just a few weeks ago.”
New York felt so much brighter then. “The weather was nice,” Dr. Stern recalled. “People were able to sit outside or go to the park again. The New York virus numbers were low and stable.” The first wave hit us harder than anywhere, and we’d heroically tamed it.
But now? “People are anxious again” — and for good reason.
You don’t need to be a clinical assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health to detect a rise in anxiety among COVID-weary New Yorkers. But it helps, if you’re trying to assemble all the reasons why. And the city’s rising coronavirus positivity rate is only the start of it.
“The days are getting shorter,” Stern said. “The temperatures are going down. The winter holidays are approaching. That’s stressful for some people, especially this year when we don’t quite know how to celebrate. And people have suffered tremendous loss.” Loss of health. Loss of loved ones. Loss of physical contact. Loss of work, camaraderie and economic security.
Then, there’s the nerve-racking election and the question of whether the kids should be in actual or virtual school. “The school question is difficult for a lot of people,” Stern said, “whatever side of the debate they are on.”
All of it is. “We have guidance from health-care providers and scientists. At the same time, a lot of individual decision making is also required.”
“Worrisome” is the word Mayor Bill de Blasio is using now. “We do see a slow and steady rise throughout many, many parts of the city,” his health adviser, Jay Varma, warns. If the seven-day infection rate tops 3%, city schools will go all-remote again, according to the mayor. We screeched toward the weekend just under 2%…and rising. Two percent is where de Blasio wants to suspend indoor dining, though Gov. Andrew Cuomo will make that call.
It isn’t just New York, of course. The U.S. coronavirus new-case count is nipping at 100,000 a day, the highest ever. And the nation’s suffering 1,000-death days again. But unlike the flyover-country flare-ups of a month or two ago, New York’s along for the ride this time.
Also see: The many stresses of COVID push some New York marriages over the edge
The practical message is the same it’s been from the beginning. Wash your hands. Wear masks. Avoid crowds. And hope for the best. Though psychology is always helpful, it can’t solve everything. Take the long view. It may be all the solace we have.
For nearly half a century, Mitchell Moss has been dispensing the long view as a professor of urban policy at NYU and a trusted whisperer to New York mayors and governors, especially at times of high anxiety. He wasn’t sounding giddy this week, but he wasn’t despondent either.
“It’s a rough patch,” he said. “But we’ll get through it. This is no time to give up on New York. The factors underlying New York City won’t be torpedoed by a pandemic,” not when the city is still such a draw.
And it isn’t just Pakistani construction crews and Mexican flower vendors. It’s highly trained tech jockeys who’d much prefer living in a multicultural city than some boring Silicon Valley suburb. They still want to come here, Moss said, even as some grumpy lifelong New Yorkers threaten to abandon the city that enriched them. Most of them won’t leave. They’re just grumpy. “For those who do leave,” Moss said, “new people will take their places. That’s the story of New York.”
No temporary work-at-home option is going to change that.
“What unifies people in New York is that, fundamentally, no one cares who you are, no matter what you look like or what religion you practice or what kind of food you eat,” Moss said. “That person on Houston Street with a cat on his head, he can’t get any attention. New York is a work-oriented city, but people also come here because they can practice their religion, because they prefer the schools, and there are other people just like them. So New York’s Jewish and Muslim populations are about the same size now.”
Read: Here are all the reasons why COVID-19 cases are surging again
Just look at the massive leases that Google GOOGL, +3.45% and other tech firms are signing on Manhattan’s lower West Side, he said.
“The New York City economy has adapted to the pandemic by going digital, and people overrate working at home. The average home is not made to be a workplace. The office has great advantages for gossiping, for learning about opportunities and for absorbing the culture of your organization. People may not come back to the office five days a week. But they’ll come two or three.”
Whatever the momentary anxieties, where better to do that than New York?
Ellis Henican is an author based in New York City and a former newspaper columnist.
