Declining Immigration Threatens New York’s COVID Comeback
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Hiram Alejandro Durán/THE CITY
Leidy Jimenez and her family are a classic New York City success story and a portrait of COVID’s toll on immigrants at a time when fewer are investing their hopes in the five boroughs.
She ran a bike shop in Astoria with her “perfect team” her sister and parents for nearly two decades. Jimenez’s parents left Bogota, Colombia, for New York City in 1990, and later brought the rest of the family over.
Now, Jimenez is a homeowner with two children.
The perfect team, however, lost a member last April to COVID-19: Jimenez’s mother, Beatriz Soler. “She was so healthy. We didn’t see it coming,” said Jimenez. Her mother was 62.