Status: 19.05.2021 02:37 a.m.
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New York, the city that actually never sleeps, was in a corona coma for more than a year. Now life is waking up everywhere in the Big Apple – and the euphoria is palpable.
From Antje Passenheim,
ARD-Studio New York
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“The show continues in New York” – it’s Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wake-up call for the city. Now she’s getting serious, and waitress Anne in the student East Village sets the stage: “I’m not used to putting my tables so close together,” she says as she moves furniture. “We’re still thinking about how we can do it logistically.”
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Antje Passenheim
ARD-Studio New York
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After all, their customers still needed the feeling of security. Around half of New Yorkers are vaccinated. The number of infections is falling. Masks are no longer compulsory outdoors. But Governor Cuomo warns the New Yorkers to be careful: “With one hand we keep the Covid monster in check. With the other we are planning the rebirth of the city.”
100 percent opening
It is true that the city started doing this a long time ago. But only from today will bars, shops, fitness clubs, cinemas and museums be able to reopen one hundred percent.
“I’m looking forward to seeing more faces here again soon,” says Anna. She also knows: Many New Yorkers will still find it difficult to roar through the night into the morning again from now on. Since this week the subway has been running through again. 24/7 – after more than a year there is no more corona-related night’s sleep. But after 10 p.m. most of the wagons are still empty. People have to learn that again, says one woman.
It’s great that it’s working again. Lots of people drive here around the clock. You have to come to work and elsewhere. You need the service.
“Can you feel the energy”
And they look forward to getting their city back, says a passerby named Ian. The way she was before she fell into that deep sleep over a year ago. “Full of people who can do what they want, who don’t have to queue or register.”
It’s starting again, bar owner Ian Conroy feels that too. Every little good news, bring the city forward again. He’s happily standing in front of a few guests behind the counter of Mustang Harry’s Bar in Midtown. “You can feel the buzz and the energy here.”
Many prefer to stay at home
But it’s still not buzzing as loudly as it should: in the office towers around Madison Square Garden, where his restaurant is located, most of the windows are still dark. Cardboard signs in empty corridors greet the employees of the desk castles like returnees after a war. “Welcome Back, Team” – but many have fled the city and prefer to stay in their home offices, says Andrew Riggie, head of the New York Restaurant Association.
We still have a lot to do to get people back to New York. If your bar is in Midtown, where the offices are only 15 percent occupied, then you need the employees back so that your shop can recover.
70 million tourists are still largely missing
Hundreds of restaurants in the Big Apple did not survive the pandemic. Almost half of the around 330,000 jobs in the industry are still missing. And also 70 million tourists. The cultural scene also notices that. The small, off-Broadway theaters in particular urgently need full rows again, says Aimee Todorroff of the Association of Independent Theaters. “Now we have the opportunity to make our comeback to business better.”
Many small troops would have saved themselves through the crisis through creativity. But ultimately the audience wanted the right stage. “We’re seeing an incredible amount of interest from our audience who want to go back to the theater. Not outside, as has long been possible. They want to sit inside, in the dark, and the magic can begin.”
Broadway won’t sparkle again until the fall. Then the city should start into the final phase of insomnia. The New York Marathon will also start on a smaller scale again. It is not yet clear whether tourists from Germany will be allowed to line the streets again. But New York already wants to lure them: With a marketing campaign worth the equivalent of 25 million euros.
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