05/26/2020
We're closing in on reopening here in NYC, the lone area of the state that is still agonizingly close, but not yet there. No fault of (most) people in the street, though. Last week, wandering through Hell's Kitchen, I felt chaos - at least 5% - 10% of people maskless, bars open in the middle of the afternoon, and a sign on McDonald's that said "come on in." But we've cleaned up our respective acts - maybe we sense that opening in the air and just want to help ensure it happens! A similar stroll today found at least 98% of people wearing masks (spurring me on to call a young maskless couple "a**holes" to their faces) and the McDonald's sign replaced with a proper new sign that said: We're open for takeout only!" The remaining quandary are sidewalks - really not possible to social distance on 8th, 9th or 10th aves without jumping into the street. But hey, we'll work it out. Just let us open, because we seem to be mostly following mandates to reduce infectivity. Should we be forced to stay closed because of capacity issues - ie, 2% lag in hospital beds? Or because we haven't signed up enough tracers? Hey, we people in the street can't really do anything about that - not everyone's free to become tracers. And hospital beds? Why not consider bringing back those ships that were underutilized during the peak to expand capacity as we open,and then let them go again. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Let us run into the light!
