While elsewhere in the United States, protests have multiplied against containment, many adhere to the caution of their leaders. Especially since more than 80 New York children have suffered from rare pediatric inflammation, probably linked to the virus.
“The confinement needs to continue for two or three more months, because we live in a big city with a lot of people,” said Denzel Charles, postman.
“Many people are in a hurry to resume quickly […] but in the places which have reopened, it is chaos ”, underlines Kiyona Carswell, model now unemployed.
Threat of bankruptcy?
However, the more the economy remains immersed in lethargy, the more uncertainty rises about the future of a city which owes its influence to its density and permanent hyperactivity.
Many affluent New Yorkers have already left to go green, and some are considering never coming back.
“All the reasons why we are [à New York] – restaurants, concerts … – have disappeared ”, testifies Hans Robert, 49, IT manager of a large New York bank.
He and his family, who have lived in Manhattan for 10 years, moved to their country home in upstate New York at the end of April, from where they telecommute.
If their daughter’s school does not reopen in September, Mr. Robert does not rule out staying there. Especially since his bank is thinking, like other companies, of allowing its employees to continue working remotely.
Another question: the financial health of the city, whose tax revenues have melted with the stoppage of the economy.
The Democratic mayor brandishes the specter of bankruptcy like the one in the 1970s, which dramatically reduced public services and exploded crime.
He begs Republican President Donald Trump to validate a new stimulus plan, concocted by the Democrats in Congress, which would bail out the city to the tune of 17 billion over two years. But the president has already ruled out adopting it as it is.
“New York has known a lot of crises and always ends up rebounding,” says Maria Kopman, an anesthetist in a New York hospital. Even though everything will not be the same as before, “people who come here for the boil, the socialization, I don’t believe that will go away”.
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