By: Serach Nissim
After living in the pandemic-age for too long, New Yorkers are back to their essence. Back to their own normalcy– though still dysfunctional in many ways. The year 2022 ushered in the endemic, where we no longer needed to get a COVID-19 test to fly or attend a large event. We no longer need to eat our expensive meals outside the restaurants on a cold sidewalk table. We can enter office buildings and schools in-person, unmasked and even break the 6-foot barrier to engage with our peers. We can even imagine a time when we would offload zoom from our phones. Things are getting back to the way they were. Once more, there are long lines at breakfast pastry shops. Subways are getting crowded again. In a recent article, the NY Times compiled a list of 7 things that have returned– marking the return of the Big Apple.
Rats are back. The biggest proof of this is a municipal job listing posted in October. The city was in search of a “director of rodent mitigation”. The witty employment listing said the ideal candidate would be someone “highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty.” The posting said, “rats are not our friends” and “must be vanquished.” As per the NY Times, the listing ended up being taken off the site after successfully drawing a flood of applicants.
Tourists are back. New Yorkers always loved to complain about tourists. During the pandemic the visitors ceased, and even Times Square was desolate for a while. Selfies at tourist destinations are back too– particularly at one of the most popular selfie spots in the world– a strip of Washington Street in Dumbo, in Brooklyn. The spot provides a great shot of the Manhattan Bridge framing the Empire State Building. As per the Times, the neighborhood natives are quickly back to complaining about the cameras and the visitors, even though experts have repeatedly explained that the city desperately needs tourists to spur an economic recovery. The city agency responsible for tracking visitors, said that over 54 million visitors will have come to New York by the end of the year. That’s about 85 percent of 2019 tourist numbers, providing an essential boost to our economy.
Independent bookstores are back. Indie stores had a hard time competing with the increase of chain stores and online retailers over the past decade. Still, several standalone bookstores have opened this year, and other stores have expanded.
Heroes are back. New Yorkers are courageous, agile and resilient. The doctors and nurses who handled the pandemic were nothing short of heroes. In the face of a novel virus, an overwhelming public health crisis and shortages in scrubs, masks, beds and all kinds of other necessities, they shined, swooping in to save the day. A new book that came out this summer, “The Desperate Hours”, by journalist Marie Brenner tells the tale of the Pandemic’s Front Line heroes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, confirming the superhuman effort undertaken by the city’s health care workers.
