For New York City, Glimmers of Hope and Signs of Revival
Yankee Stadium welcomed fans on Thursday, and some high-end hotels are opening their doors. But a widespread rebound from Covid-19 could take years.
Union Square Cafe in Manhattan is one of the popular restaurants that are opening for indoor dining as vaccination rates increase. Credit.Amr Alfiky/The New York Times
April 2, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
For New York City’s economy, the last 12 months have amounted to one long, brutal winter. The pandemic forced the shutdown of most of the city’s businesses, wiped out hundreds of thousands of jobs and kept away tens of millions of tourists.
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It’s been a year since New York City students experienced a normal day of school. As the pandemic abruptly turned life upside down around the world, roughly a million public school kids in NYC were thrust into a wildly inconsistent learning environment, with repeated openings and closings of school buildings and systemwide shifts to online learning as COVID-19 rates surge. The uncertainty amidst the pandemic has caused widespread reports of stress, anxiety and intense mental anguish among students with no definitive end in sight.
One second grader anxiously asks her mom every morning if she’s gotten a call from school about another case that shuts down the building. A teenager who enjoys remote learning has lost crucial engagement and socialization skills, preferring to tackle assignments alone in his bedroom and avoiding group projects. Another student said he has stopped commuting to Brooklyn Tech’s campus because his parents are worried about the rise in anti-Asian
The plan, which Adams’ has dubbed NYC Advanced Income Deployment, or NYC AID, aims to boost the earned income tax credits poor families receive by more than 10 times and cost the city $1 billion annually.
No stimulus could be too large for New York City, where capital needs for public housing are as high as $40 billion and the MTA is facing long-term structural challenges.
New data shows scope of economic devastation in NYC during COVID pandemic Shant Shahrigian
The COVID outbreak led to the loss of nearly one in five payroll jobs in Manhattan and Queens, and to a similarly jarring loss of employment in the rest of the city, according to recently released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the 12 months ending in June, employment dropped 18.8% in Manhattan and 18.2% in Queens, the feds found. It decreased 15.7% on Staten Island, 14.6% in Brooklyn and 11.5% in the Bronx.
The job loss came as the authorities shut down restaurants, entertainment venues and many other businesses deemed “nonessential” starting in March. New York City fared worse than the country as a whole, where employment decreased 9.4% from June 2019 to June 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.