After two months of confinement, the city of New York, the economic and cultural capital of the United States, still does not see the end of the tunnel. On Friday, the governor of New York State extended the confinement decree until June 13 except for five less populated regions of this state of 20 million inhabitants.
If many European cities are gradually relaunching their economy, the largest city in the United States is the epicenter of the American epidemic with more than 20,000 deaths. No one knows when its businesses, restaurants or theaters, which attracted millions of tourists, will be able to reopen.
Bill de Blasio: “Slowly and gradually”
“We have to be smart,” insists Governor Andrew Cuomo, who keeps warning against another outbreak of the virus. “We have to be really, really disciplined,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio repeated Thursday on CNN. “We are going to take it slowly and gradually”.
Despite the slowdown in the epidemic – 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 million parents in uncertainty.
Minorities particularly affected
For the moment, this metropolis of 8.6 million inhabitants is far from fulfilling the necessary criteria to gradually revive the economy: continuous decline in the number of hospitalizations, people in intensive care and positive tests for the coronavirus.
In the face of 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 black and Hispanic minorities.
80 cases of rare pediatric inflammation
While elsewhere in the United States, demonstrations 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 must continue for two or three more months, because we live in a large 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.
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 cut public services and exploded crime.
City dwellers go green
Many affluent New Yorkers have already left to go green, and some are thinking of never coming back. “All the reasons for which we are (in New York) – restaurants, concerts… – have disappeared”, testifies Hans Robert, 49, IT manager of a large New York bank.
Newsletter Morning essentials
A tour of the news to start the day
—
He and his family, 10 years in Manhattan, moved at the end of April to their country house in northern 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 thinking, like other companies, of allowing its employees to continue working remotely.
Blasio is calling on Trump for a stimulus plan
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 it will go away.”
–
