New York, ghost town … but less

New York is empty, the world’s media report. And it is clear that, compared to the vibrant city that was until recently, the change is evident. However, if you compare it to Madrid or Milan, there are clear differences. In New York, it is still common to see citizens walking without a mask or gloves and calmly taking the subway and bus, which, on the other hand, continue to function relatively normally. My sister-in-law Alexandra, who has been working from her computer for New York University for a month and a half, tells me about it.

The universities closed their doors when the colleges continued as if nothing had happened. They only did so when the teachers union rebelled against the mayor, De Blasio. The classes online The ones my daughters attend took another week to implement. The medical and sanitary material took even longer to reach the places that needed it most and now the governor, Cuomo, who lives in constant controversy with President Trump, ensures that only masks, gloves and other protective equipment remain for a few days.

New York looks towards Europe. That is his legend and his aspiration. Much of its population comes from Italy, where the tragedy, weeks and weeks before New Yorkers took action, played out live. Another part of its inhabitants comes from China. The writer Roberto Brodsky he remembers the sensation he felt when he saw a woman in a mask and gloves in Chinatown. It seemed exaggerated to everyone. On March 16, when the country had declared general alarm, I walked through Central Park and the High Line, where everyone seemed to be celebrating a spring day.

The very slow response of New York to this crisis can be attributed to the unconsciousness of its authorities and the fight between the federal and state levels of the United States. But perhaps the very nature of this city has also played a role in all this. “New York is like any Latin American city, very dense and very uneven,” says Vicky Murillo, director of the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University, adding: “Many of those Latinos, who are illegal, have no access to public health.”

New York had precisely a density that differentiated it from the rest of the country. Now look at how rival Los Angeles has kept the virus curve from growing at lightning speed. Social distance is a concrete impossibility in New York because the prosperous Manhattan is surrounded by belts of poverty who live on social assistance and cannot even dream or think of anything like teleworking.

Faced with the growth of Covid-19, New York seemed to believe the danger did not exist… until its urgency became apparent and inevitable. The Big Apple had become for the virus a delicious dessert that he had no choice but to devour with great bites.

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