NYC’s Virus Threat Has Faded, But Its Future Is Stuck in Limbo

The city is grasping for some semblance of its old self. Among the terrible what-ifs, there’s the big one: What if the virus strikes again? Begin in the East 80s, off Madison: waiters in surgical masks hand out sanitized menus to the regulars dining al fresco. Across town, in the West 70s, the sirens have yielded to the familiar clang of jackhammers. In Central Park, the zoo, the playgrounds, even the carousel have reopened. Soon, schools across the city will too, but not fully. Squint, and you can see it: New York, once the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak, is grasping for some semblance of its old self. Five eternal months after the lockdown began, office workers have started to trickle back to midtown. A fraction of the suburban commuters are braving the Metro-North lines. Wall Street is roaring, though still mostly working from home.