NEW YORK (AP) – After three months of coronavirus quarantine, New York City on Monday took an important step in reopening: New Yorkers began attending hair and hair salons or visiting restaurants to eat, albeit only at outdoor tables.
Shoppers were once again able to explore the city’s famous iconic shops and children were able to re-enter the playgrounds, instead of playing within the walls of their apartments.
Monday marked the second of four phases of the city’s reopening, but Mayor Bill de Blasio called it “the biggest step forward” as the city fends off the coronavirus health crisis.
Employees were able to return to their offices, although many were not yet. Others, like 89-year-old Larry Silverstein, couldn’t wait to get back to his desk.
The World Trade Center developer headed to work Monday at his office there, along with up to a third of the Silverstein Properties staff. The company released schedules so that employees could keep their distance from each other. In the lobby of the skyscraper with number 7 of the World Trade Center it is now mandatory to wear masks. On the floor were markings indicating where to stand in front of the elevators, now limited to nearly a quarter of their usual capacity.
For Silverstein, returning to office life and in-person teamwork brought “joy, satisfaction, a sense of being able to function.” He wasn’t convinced that the pandemic doesn’t play well with office jobs or New York City.
“I went through September 11th. I remember people telling me that we could never get people back to lower Manhattan, ”said Silverstein, who rented a site in the Twin Towers six weeks before the 2001 terrorist attacks destroyed them. “Never bet against New York, because New York always comes back, bigger and better than ever.”
However, other New Yorkers were apprehensive.
Eve González, a food industry worker whose work has not yet resumed, feels it is too early to relax restrictions on social movement.
“I’m dying to get out, but people’s health is more important,” said Gonzalez, 27.
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Associated Press retail specialist Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this report.
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