New York City’s Resilience and Post-COVID Recovery
Today, 9/11 occurred again in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Twenty-two years ago on September 11, thousands of innocent people lost their lives and many Americans showed tremendous courage.th,2001. For New Yorkers, this is a day we cannot and should not forget.
New York City’s decline was predicted in the 1970s, in the 1990s after 9-11, and in the post-pandemic era in which we live now. Reports of our demise are always greatly exaggerated. Today, the city faces many problems, but its energy, work ethic, intelligence and determination have always ensured its revival. When the clothing factories closed, artists, galleries, restaurants, shops, and designers virtually took over what is now Tribeca and SoHo. Half-empty downtown offices today Who knows what tomorrow will bring – but there’s definitely something there.
The demographics of the city’s downtown have changed in the wake of COVID-19, with commuting and work patterns changing. With our national political dialogue frozen, issues like immigration cannot be addressed. While some parts of the country turn away newcomers, others — like New York City — welcome foreign-born people despite the odds. New Yorkers like me remember our grandparents’ stories about Ellis Island and the challenges they faced when they came to the United States for a better life. We see ourselves in these newcomers. New York City is once again facing challenges. This isn’t a new story, but a return to an old, unpopular part of the city’s boom-and-bust cycle. People inevitably see empty storefronts, homeless people sleeping in doorways and dangerous-looking brawls in subway cars. We New Yorkers don’t run from our problems; we work to solve them. We live with them. If 100,000 immigrants need a place to start their American dream, we may not like it, but many of us believe it’s our responsibility as New Yorkers to lend a helping hand.
I have lived for seventy years, sixty of them in New York City. I also lived in Indiana, Buffalo, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., places I loved and learned from their people, but I always knew New York City was my only home. I love New York and I love its people. Forty percent of New York residents were born in other countries (excluding those who entered the country illegally). We have 2 million residents who speak Spanish at home and about 500,000 residents who speak Chinese. We are home to one million undergraduate and graduate students, beautiful parks, amazing culture and nightlife, and an awesome energy from more than eight million people who feed off each other’s freedom and sense of purpose. We’ve seen empty factories, offices and storefronts before, and eventually they will be repurposed. Rents will fall and new economic functions will be possible in the newly available space. Just wait and see. Neighborhoods in New York City are constantly circulating and changing.
I always say New York City is a very seasonal place.As a member of the New York public school system, and as an academic for most of my career, my school year begins on the Tuesday after Labor Day and runs through Memorial Day or the 4th of Julyth. Before the advent of air conditioning, and even today, many people headed to a nearby beach or mountain for all or part of the summer. As kids, we loaded up a U-Haul trailer at the end of school on June 30 and headed to a bungalow colony in Kerhunkson, New York. Later, my parents owned a small place in Putnam County near Seco Lake, New York. As an adult, I have spent my summer weekends since 1988 on the West Side of Long Beach, New York. But once Labor Day rolls around, we close up the summer house and return to the “city” along with many others. As New York City’s population swells with residents and visitors, the place becomes increasingly tight until Thanksgiving, when we stop for turkey, family, and parades. Then we slow down over the holidays and New Years until the big ball drops in Times Square. If they can, people use the December holidays and February school holidays to escape the cold; while the pace of spring picks up, it won’t be long before summer resumes, with things easing a bit as the cycle continues. Peak intensity in New York occurs between Labor Day and Turkey Day.
Growing up in New York, the public transportation system was our amazing gateway to the entire city. My friends and I had the freedom to use public transportation to explore the city from what seems like an early age today. I took a bus across Flatbush Avenue to explore the stacks at the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch in Grand Army Plaza. We took the subway to the Village, Central Park, and Yankee Stadium. My friends and I cycled to Rees Park and Brighton Beach. We played baseball in Ocean Park, on our own streets, and explored the places and people of this ever-changing city.
New Yorkers adapt to the time and resources available to them. Before the advent of the Internet, political activists set up card tables on Brooklyn’s Kings Highway, selling political campaign and cause-related buttons and bumper stickers, and handing out flyers promoting political views and propaganda. Today, all this organizing is done on social media. If we had had the Internet in the 1960s and 1970s, my friends and I wouldn’t have had to lug boxes of brochures on the subway from a printer in Manhattan to a card table in Brooklyn. One constant fact is that the best musicians in the world always perform here. As a teenager, I saw the band perform at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden, with Ike and Tina Turner as warm-up acts. Tourists haven’t arrived in large numbers yet, so you can spend an afternoon getting lost in museums, botanical gardens, zoos and other attractions and delving into exhibitions. When I was 15, I took a college course on civil disobedience at The New School. I read the works of Gandhi, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and learned political organizing strategies, which I applied to my work as a high school antiwar activist. Today’s museums may be more crowded, but they are larger and more professionally managed than ever before. High school students still take courses at many colleges in New York City.
The point here is that the city that never sleeps also never stops. It is a high-energy, dynamic, transformative machine. That was true half a century ago, and it is true today. People come here because they know this is the largest job market in the world’s largest economy. Iconic images of New York City appear in movies and social media, and the city remains visible globally. Many people struggle in New York, but when so many people are packed together, people tend to help each other out when they see a need. I think, personally, this is true for most Americans and people around the world. We saw this during COVID-19, after 9/11, and after Hurricane Sandy.
On this September 11thth, I recall the brilliant blue skies of a late summer morning in 2001 and the unimaginable horror of that day. Broadway was silent. Smoke drifted north and fighter jets circled over the city. But I also remember the brave first responders who went to the trade center, their ultimate sacrifice, and the people who helped people escape to safety through the gray and white dust of destruction. I think of a city that, in shock, shocked silence, manages to find community and ultimately rebuild and recover. More than two decades later, we should remember our experiences and be confident that if we can create a post-9/11 New York City, we can also create a post-COVID-19 city.
