Partially reopen, New York City bears little resemblance to its former self

A restaurant in SoHo serves customers seated at sidewalk tables as the city moves into phase two. | Getty Images

NEW YORK — Two middle-aged men stood on the corner of Maiden Lane and Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan Monday morning, surveying the quiet calamity: New York City was finally open for business, but their corner of the once bustling neighborhood was a ghost town.

“People don’t want to come back to work, I guess,” the manager of Friendly Pizza remarked shortly after 9 a.m. He shifted his face mask to sip coffee from a paper cup he held with a gloved hand, as his workers inside stared at rows of untouched baked goods. “We rely on office people and if offices don’t come back, we’re done.”

As restaurants and stores entered the second phase of a gradual reopening across a city once known for its round-the-clock activity, an unwelcome realization set in: With significantly fewer office workers, residents and tourists, business was not going to be booming for the foreseeable future.

Three months after New York was put into a temporary coma to halt the spread of Covid-19, the city began to allow limited outdoor dining to accompany takeout and delivery. Salons could resume haircuts, children could re-enter padlocked playgrounds and brokers who had grown accustomed to virtual tours could once again show apartments in person.

But the city bore little resemblance to its former self.

“Phase one was a big deal, but phase two is really a giant step for this city. This is where most of our economy is,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his daily press conference, as he announced 3,192 restaurants had been approved to set up tables in parking spots and on sidewalks.

The program brought measured relief at George’s New York, a diner near the World Trade Center that withstood the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a blackout, Hurricane Sandy and a recession.

“The difference with this one — this is the worst I think [of] all of them — is the unknown,” restaurant owner Bill Koulmentas said in an interview.

“You have literally three to four moving trucks a day I’m seeing in this neighborhood, people moving out,” he said. “What scares me is that even if office [business] does come back, they’re realizing now they don’t need so much space.”

“Less people, less mouths to feed,” he added.

George’s opened to a small outdoor crowd on Monday, buoyed by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer who showed up for eggs and moral support. Still, the two-level restaurant can only serve about 20 people, a fraction of its former capacity of 140. The nosedive in revenue has not been met with a discount on an annual property tax bill of $70,000 and other monthly expenses.

Koulmentas has hired back fewer than one-third of the staff he laid off and said a few workers have sought refuge in their home countries of Greece and Mexico.

The manager of Friendly Pizza, who asked not to be named, said his business is down nearly 90 percent. A nearby office tower that normally employs 5,000 workers who frequent his shop has been virtually empty for months, tourists are nowhere in sight and residents have moved out, he said.

Business owners throughout the city echoed similar concerns.

The city has assisted 4,000 small businesses in accessing more than $73 million in financial aid since the onset of Covid-19 in March, said Samantha Keitt, a spokesperson for the Department of Small Business Services. The agency is also running a “restart hotline” and distributing face masks, protective gear and other supplies.

De Blasio indicated enforcement of social distancing and mask protocols would only be in response to 311 calls and would not be handled by the NYPD, which came under fire for stark racial disparities in summonses.

Brewer said struggling restaurants are begging for more closed streets to lure foot traffic. The city Department of Transportation has so far closed 45 miles of roadways throughout the five boroughs, including nine miles of temporary bike lanes, and is expected to announce more later this week.

De Blasio, who dined at Melba’s in Harlem Monday night, anticipated 150,000 to 300,000 people returned to work Monday.

But while offices were permitted to reopen, landlords said most of their tenants chose to continue working remotely. Social distancing measures and other Covid-related protocols were put in place, they said, but companies still appeared hesitant to send employees back.

Based on initial data collected Monday, Rudin Management Company said it reached just 5.2 percent of normal occupancy across its 14-building commercial portfolio.

Dino Fusco, chief operating officer at Silverstein Properties, anticipated similar levels based on the experience of cities that reopened ahead of New York, such as Tokyo. “A lot of it had to do with building tenants not feeling comfortable with public transportation,” Fusco said.

The city’s subway system remained open throughout the lock-down but suspended service between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. De Blasio said buses, subways and the Staten Island Ferry have all reported an uptick in ridership, with nearly 1 million people packing onto subways daily. Bridge traffic is increasing as well.

Meanwhile many real estate agents, who live off of commissions, were wary of returning to work on Monday.

“I saw today firsthand that a huge majority of our agents aren’t willing to come into the office and I think that’s going to take a period of adjustment,” Steven James, CEO of Douglas Elliman’s New York City brokerage, said.

New Yorkers anxious for haircuts harbored fewer reservations.

At an Aveda salon in Lower Manhattan, a woman in an N95 face mask got a trim shortly after 9 a.m. Green Room Hair Studio on the Lower East Side had a lineup of five to six clients. And a wig and extension store and neighboring threading salon in Central Brooklyn were booked all day.

“I’ve been out of work for three months, from when this started until today,” Jose German, a barber at Star Born Barber Shop in the Hamilton Heights section of Manhattan, said as he tended to his first customer of the day. “I spent most of the time at home, doing nothing.”

In one return to normalcy, a customer at a shoe repair store in Brooklyn who was allowed inside argued about pricing with the store owner who stood behind a clear protective barrier.

In Midtown Manhattan, workers who rely on tips rallied for unemployment insurance, paid sick time and stronger safety measures as the city continues to reopen.

One Fair Wage, a nonprofit organization that advocates for such workers, launched a support fund in March to provide cash assistance to delivery drivers and other service employees. So far nearly 200,000 people have applied to the fund, the group said as it demonstrated outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office — part of a series of actions nationwide.

Emma Craig, a server at a Manhattan restaurant and a performer in Harlem, said she waited eight weeks to receive unemployment, and spent two months with less than $200 in her bank account.

In Borough Park, children filled playgrounds that had been shut — a mayoral decision that three Orthodox Jewish elected officials defied by opening the locks at Dome Park last week. They argued the mayor was hypocritical by allowing weeks of citywide protests against police brutality, where social distancing measures were not followed.

„They felt there was a double standard,“ said Mike Kohane, who was at the sparsely-filled park Monday afternoon. Nearby, children rode around on scooters and bikes, small groups gathered on benches and several recent graduates posed in their caps and gowns.

As the city assesses daily Covid-19 cases before deciding to continue its phased return, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza recently sent a letter to principals and superintendents indicating September’s reopening goal may occur in phases.

Mary Ruth Buchness, president of the New York County Medical Society, said the reopening was a difficult challenge.

“You need to balance the detrimental effects on the economy,” Buchness said. “People have to work. People have to have an income. This is probably a good compromise.”

Buchness said she will reopen her practice at roughly half capacity on July 7, after more than three months without business.

“We need to be really careful with phase three,” she said. “You’re talking about bigger gatherings. Personally, it makes me nervous. People get complacent, and you see people on the streets not wearing a mask and going to big gatherings and not wearing masks.”

Michelle Bocanegra, Amanda Eisenberg, Joe Anuta and Danielle Muoio contributed to this report.