It’s been a week since I flew with my kids and ex into JFK on a full Norwegian Covid SkyBus (NCSB), along with 291 other carriers of whatever variant we’d been cooking up in our systems over the previous 2 weeks in Europe
MARCH 2020
01 SUNDAY: First confirmed case: a 39-year-old health care worker who had returned home to Manhattan from Iran on February 25 (researchers later estimated that approximately 10,700 New Yorkers had already contracted the virus by that time)
6.11pm 8th Street NYU Subway: Let’s just see what happens. More importantly, there’s this Netflix show Tiger King I’ve heard about…
02 MONDAY: Mayor de Blasio tweets that people should ignore the virus and “go on with your lives + get out on the town despite Coronavirus.”
1.49pm Washington Square Park: Perfect time for a second date and some rays….
03 TUESDAY: Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that the first recorded case of person-to-person spread in New York State had been confirmed via a New Rochelle man who was working at a law firm within One Grand Central Place in Midtown Manhattan”
2.44pm F Train @East Broadway subway stop: On way to Brooklyn for school pickups. Maybe these Euro-tourists aren’t so crazy with their masks after all….
Very soon they will be disappointed that “Cool Brooklyn” doesn’t seem to exist @Jay Street Metrotech
07 SATURDAY: Cuomo declares a state of emergency in New York State after 89 cases have been confirmed in the state, 70 of them in Westchester County, 12 in New York City
5.32pm Astor Place Subway: Is now the time to panic? Naaah still be cool NYC
09 MONDAY: 16 confirmed cases. Port Authority chief gets Covid (my personal cue to leave my infected office @4WTC, not to return for years…)
5.43pm St Marks Place East Village: All this roughage is gonna keep us so regular (6 rolls each)
11 WEDNESDAY: The World Health Organization declares a global COVID-19 pandemic
5.43pm St Marks Place East Village: All this roughage is gonna keep us so regular (6 rolls each)
7.47pm: Too late, it’s here already big time. (and where the hell are those 6 planes in the mid-Atlantic going?)
13 FRIDAY: Flights from Europe suspended
16 MONDAY: Schools are closed
4.13pm Houston/Lafayette: First time not seeing back to back yellow school buses. Lucky kids.
17 TUESDAY: Theaters, concert venues and nightclubs in NYC shut down starting today
10.44am St Patrick’s Cathedral 5th Avenue. Heaven now has Zoom.
20 FRIDAY: Governor closes “Non-essential” businesses. 5,683 confirmed cases in NYC
11.09am Equinox Gym NoMad: I’m actually totally fine with gyms going dark. Good riddance.
22 SUNDAY: 8pm Governor Cuomo’s PAUSE order goes into effect: all non-essential businesses statewide will be closed; No Non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason, When in public individuals must practice social distancing of at least six feet from others;
2.31pm Broadway & E22nd NoMad: Essentially, the rich can do pretty much whatever they want
23 MONDAY: state officials say that based on preliminary results of an antibody testing survey, they estimate around 21% of city residents have contracted COVID-19
1.09pm Bryant Park Midtown: Spring office romances on the lawn are placed on hold indefinitely
29 SUNDAY: 30,000 cases confirmed
12.30pm Broadway @E4th: Many longstanding dreams are being realized. He grew up wanting to skateboard down the Guggenheim, but he’s gone one better
30 MONDAY: Refrigerator trucks set up on city streets outside hospitals to accommodate the overflow of bodies of the deceased
9.23am St.Vincent’s Medical Center West Village: It’s real, hard to believe but it’s real
APRIL 2020
01 WEDNESDAY: Cuomo orders all playgrounds in the city to be shut down in order to promote social distancing
3.11pm Washington Square Park: Even the weed sellers are staying away, along with the bubble blowers and #FreeHugs brigade
05 SUNDAY: A Malayan tiger at the already-closed Bronx Zoo tests positive for COVID-19
11.34am Howard @Centre, Soho: Escape from NY is possible for some
06 MONDAY: >2,000 deaths (~25% of total deaths in the US). 8,700 new confirmed cases daily, 72,181 total confirmed cases. The New York Times reports that the city’s overall death rate has tripled and that morgues are overwhelmed. More than 20% of uniformed NYPD officers out sick
11.01am New York Presbyterian Hospital Downtown: The system here dictates arrival via ambulance, departure via the refrigerated trucks around the corner
08 WEDNESDAY: 92% decline in subway/bus/train ridership. 41 Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers have died
12.31pm Fishs Eddy, Broadway @19th: Anticipation of what we’re about to be asked to all do
11 SATURDAY: de Blasio orders all schools to remain closed for the rest of the academic year
1.30pm Broadway @Prince: Vermont teachers fire up their VWs for the long road to the deep north
15 WEDNESDAY: Face masks in public areas mandated
2.41pm Grand Central: A train every 30 minutes & a person every 15 minutes
20 MONDAY: de Blasio announces that major events have been cancelled through June, including the Pride March and the Puerto Rican Day Parade
8.08am Carmine @Bleecker West Village: Just when you thought the West Village could not gentrify more
27 MONDAY: de Blasio announces plans to convert 40 to 100 miles of streets to open streets
11.58am Broadway @19th: Open streets is great news for Lambo Aventador owners
29 WEDNESDAY: authorities discover dozens of decomposing bodies in two trucks parked outside a funeral home in Flatlands Brooklyn. >17,000 deaths in New York City
3.19pm 11th @41st: We have toilet paper and gloves: Conclusive proof of God’s existence.