All,
When I think of opportunity, grit, and hardworking people, I tend to think of a lot of places. I’ll think of towns like Detroit and its blue-collar, hard-scrabble mindset. I think of Boston and the people's will hardened by the Nor'easter blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. Both of these cities, and many more, can be characterized as ‘tough’ and ‘hardworking’ because of the people that live there, the struggles they face and how they don’t crumble while staring down the face of adversity.
No town and no population claims to be more ‘tough’ than New York City. New Yorkers are known for embracing the collective attitude popularized by Frank Sinatra in “New York, New York”.
“If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you
New York, New York”
Whether or not this is true is a matter of opinion. As someone who grew up in southeast Michigan, I will acknowledge my personal bias of Detroit being a tougher city ala “Detroit VS Everybody”. But I digress.
Yesterday, New York City began its process of opening up after 14 long months of COVID-19 restrictions and New Yorkers are about to test the theory that if they can make it there, even during a pandemic, they can make it anywhere.
So, how does a city with nearly 8.5 million residents go about opening up in 2021? How about we check on the New York Times.
Four hundred and twenty three days since the city shut down, on a Sunday in March 2020, when it accounted for half the nation’s coronavirus cases, its first day fully back in business was messy and inconsistent and confusing. In short, it was New York City, and a single set of new rules statewide was widely superseded by the personal comfort levels of the city’s millions of residents.
Obviously, there were going to be issues, one of the biggest ones however is the confusion on the use of masks. Masks are no longer a hard requirement in New York State and many other states, including Michigan, making it very confusing for store owners to ask customers to wear masks.
Two shop owners in the linked NYT article both found it very difficult to create a store policy that requires masks given that many people are excited to receive permission to stop wearing them. Honestly, I don’t know how I would go about enforcing a mask rule in a retail space or restaurant because of how political and personal the debate over face-covering got in the last year. It’s going to be interesting for business owners and employees to try to find a balance between feeling comfortable while keeping any customers, whatever their opinions may be.
Of course, this specific problem is not unique to New York City. State governments are reducing mask requirements or lifting them altogether. Michigan is one of them and they’ve definitely caused confusion for me and others. But New York is unique. Nearly a year ago, NYC had nearly half of the United States COVID-19 cases and deaths. The millions of cases ravaged the healthcare system, ruined many businesses and, of course, cost lives. Because of this, I wouldn’t blame people in New York City, or anywhere that at one point was a COVID hot zone for that matter, for being a little hesitant at the thought of lightened COVID safety requirements.
That’s not to say there isn’t much hope for the City, or country, or the world for that matter. Millions of people are getting vaccinated every day, treatments are being developed and studied and we are constantly learning more about this virus. Just recently, US President Joe Biden announced that the United States will begin sending vaccines around the globe starting with 80 million doses.
I finish with a message to New Yorkers; Have hope, be safe and remember the classic lyrics from the legendary Frank Sinatra.
If I can make it there
I’ll make it anywhere