Home » World » Containment drags on in New York, the future of the city in question

Containment drags on in New York, the future of the city in question

AFP, published on Friday May 15, 2020 at 7:56 p.m.

After two months of confinement still extended Friday, the city of New York, economic and cultural capital of the United States, still does not see the end of the tunnel, raising growing doubts about the future of this metropolis symbol of crowds and effervescence.

If many European cities gradually revive their economy, the first city in the United States, epicenter of the American epidemic with more than 20,000 dead, will remain confined at least until May 28, according to a new decree of the governor of the state Andrew Cuomo.

No one knows when its shops, restaurants or theaters, which attracted tourists in the millions, will be able to reopen. It is only “in the first half of June that we can begin to think of relaxing the restrictions,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday.

“We are going to go slowly and carefully so as not to make a mistake and protect lives,” said De Blasio.

“We have to be smart,” insists the governor, who continues to warn against a new outbreak of the virus.

State beaches will be allowed to reopen from next weekend, he added, although mayors may keep them closed if they deem it necessary.

Despite the slowdown of the epidemic in the American metropolis – the daily death toll is falling sharply, below 200, and ambulance sirens have become scarce – the authorities refuse to commit to the resumption of schools in September, leaving millions of parents in limbo.

For the moment, this metropolis of 8.6 million inhabitants is far from fulfilling the criteria necessary to gradually revive the economy: continuous decline in the number of hospitalizations, people in intensive care and positive tests for coronavirus.

Faced with the prolonged confinement, New Yorkers have so far remained relatively disciplined, despite the dramatic consequences for hundreds of thousands of people now deprived of income, especially among the Black and Hispanic minorities.

While elsewhere in the United States, demonstrations have multiplied against containment, many adhere to the prudence of their leaders. Especially since a hundred New York children have suffered from rare pediatric inflammation, probably linked to the virus.

“The confinement must continue for another two or three months, because we live in a big city with a lot of people,” said factor AFP Denzel Charles.

“Many people are in a hurry to resume quickly (…) but in the places that have reopened, it’s chaos,” said Kiyona Carswell, a model now unemployed.

– Threat of bankruptcy? –

However, the more the economy remains immersed in lethargy, the more uncertainty rises on the future of a city which owes its influence to its density and its permanent hyperactivity.

Many wealthy New Yorkers have already gone green, and some are thinking of never coming back.

“All the reasons why we are (in New York) – restaurants, concerts … – have disappeared”, testifies Hans Robert, 49, IT manager of a large New York bank.

He and his family, for 10 years in Manhattan, moved in late April to their country house north of New York, 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 considering, like other companies, to allow its employees to continue working remotely.

Another question: the financial health of the city, whose tax revenue melted with the stopping of the economy.

The Democratic mayor is raising the specter of a bankruptcy like that of the 1970s, which had considerably reduced public services and caused crime to explode.

He is begging Republican President Donald Trump to validate a new $ 3 trillion aid plan concocted by the Democrats in Congress that would bail out the city to the tune of $ 17 billion over two years. But the president has already ruled out adopting it as is.

New York has experienced many crises and is still rebounding,” says Maria Kopman, a doctor and anesthetist at a New York hospital. Even if everything will not be as before, “the people who come here for the boil, the socialization, I do not believe that it will disappear”.

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