By: Margaret Lamont
State after state is turning a cold shoulder to New Yorkers trying to get away from the heart of the pandemic.
“Popular vacation spots by the beach, upstate and in New England have been a magnet for Manhattanites fleeing the coronavirus,” reported the New York Post. “But as locals retaliate with verbal insults, pointed signs and other intimidating behaviors, stir-crazed city slickers — even those who were regular visitors before the pandemic — have been branded geographic undesirables.”
Back in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised those who live in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey to avoid nonessential travel for 14 days.
Southampton passed a residents-only rule on Memorial Day. Leaders in East Hampton pressured Governor Andrew Cuomo to hold off on reopening local hotels and resorts for fear that the town would be overrun by nonresidents.
Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, went so far as to issue an executive order that required New Yorkers and other passengers arriving at Florida’s airports from New York City to self-isolate for two weeks. His counterpart in West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice, told the press that some folks were traveling to his state “to get away from a real big-time issue where they’re at.” He added that it was vital that those arriving in his state, “especially those from New York,” go into quarantine for 14 days.
And police in Rhode Island made national headlines by pulling over cars with New York license plates. There, Governor Gina Raimondo insisted that those arriving from the Empire State – if they intended to stay — self-quarantine for 14 days, even if they showed no symptoms.
“How is this fair?” Michelle Chu, 44, a graphics producer who lives Manhattan, told Reuters when she tried to travel to another state. “I mean, this thing is already everywhere. I know people are worried, but this should be based on whether you’re sick or not. For all we know, everyone’s already exposed. I don’t see how this helps.”
“In the fickle calculus of what defines fashionable, New Yorkers have always been a constant, the seen-it-all sophisticates whose idea of normalcy includes riding an impossibly overcrowded subway and inhabiting a ridiculously overpriced apartment,” noted The Washington Post weeks ago. “But now America’s largest city is pandemic central, and New Yorkers have become the face of the fearsome infection — virtual pariahs whose potential arrival has spurred anxious demands for roadblocks up and down the East Coast.”
