Fellow humans,
I was living in Queens, New York when the COVID-19 pandemic started, and for the most part, I stayed there until July 2023. No, the city was not as chaotic as you may have heard. Around September 2021, I had a strong feeling something about the city was off, but I couldn’t pinpoint the issue until two days ago.
Obviously something on the surface was off, we were trying to overcome the virus, but I felt something deeper was happening, as if something was wrong with the roots of the city. Maybe I couldn’t understand because I was still living there, too close to the situation, but now I realize the New York spirit has died.
When I moved to Long Island in May 2017, I felt the energy of New York, and I was hooked. When you’re in New York for the first time, you don’t need to do anything interesting to have a good time. The energy of the city will nourish you, but the pandemic lockdowns and regulations snuffed out that wonderful energy.
We must understand why New York has their own brand of energy in the first place. It’s the people, it’s New Yorkers. They’re fast-paced, optimistic, and ready to contribute to the nonstop machine which runs arguably the greatest city on earth. They need for nothing, because their city has everything, until it doesn’t.
Prison and COVID-19 lockdowns are clearly not the same, but they have similarities. When you cut somebody off from their favorite restaurants, shops, and other hangout spots, you suffocate part of their identity. When you lock people down and prevent them from being social, you isolate them from love.
Add fear and confusion to the mix, and not only do you have an easy-to-control population, but you crush the human spirit. From 2017-2020, I was surrounded by New Yorkers during my time in the military. There are no Soldiers like New York Soldiers. I learned something very quickly, they’re a wild bunch.
New Yorkers were not accustomed to being still, spending all their downtime in the house. New Yorkers need to explore, and be surrounded by other New Yorkers, whether they’re engaged in conversation or avoiding all eye contact, it’s part of their way of life. Anything less causes people to lose hope.
New York is New York because so much is always happening. It’s the city that never sleeps, and people love that. I couldn’t possibly count how often I’ve heard people mention the energy of New York, and the fact that NYC has everything, but the city’s most loved attributes are predicated on the city being open.
Even when the lockdowns were gradually lifted throughout 2020, New Yorkers didn’t bounce back immediately. Imagine being punched in the face by Mike Tyson. You might be able to stand up within an hour, but you won’t be there like you were before. The lights might be on, but nobody will be home.
After the Mike Tyson punch of lockdowns, New Yorkers weren’t quite ready to get back in the fight. We all know how much confusion and back-and-forth controversy existed during 2020 and 2021. Eventually people took sides, but for awhile nobody knew what to think, and people were in a state of paralysis.
Even now, seems like an overwhelming majority of people sided with their political party, rather than using critical thinking to understand the pandemic, but this is another story for another time. I still think New York is dead in some real sense, but I believe if any city can bounce back, it’s New York.
Things are still being worked out as we feel our way through to finding our new normal. COVID-19 and all the aftermath is not something to be forgotten. It’s part of our personal history now, so it lives within us, affecting every major decision we make. My only hope is that while we rebuild, the right people lead the way.
Until next time,
Salvatore Norge