I’ve tried finishing this twice now. Writing is hard.
It’s been a long time since i did a weekly diary for COVID. The last 5 months 7 months drastically changed the US, and NYC. As it stands now, we have 5 Million 6.4M Infected in the US, and 160,000+ 190K dead. Thankfully, NYC and NY State have drastically declined in cases, but the scars and fallout aren’t going away any time soon.
Covid and a cities heartbeat
Growing up, you’d hear the cicada’s buzz and crickets chirp on nights. The ever present bugs singing a symphony gave the outdoors its own heartbeat. I’ve been in the city for 4 years now. Longer than I lived in Tulsa, or any other place since my hometown.
The City, at least in my area, doesn’t have a symphony made up of bugs. Instead, NYC’s heartbeat, it’s symphony, is made up of everyone. The ever present cars zooming or honking if a card didn’t move. The bars open til 4am on every block with their sound tracks. People walking dogs or eating dinner outside.
But COVID took all that heartbeat for most of April and May. All the bars and restaurants went quiet. Everyone went remote, so traffic nearly vanished overnight. After 10pm, you couldn’t find a soul outside, or in the city.
Summer in a Covid Time
Then June erupted into protests. For 2 weeks, every night, 10,000+ people marched or sat in protest of police violence in the city and country. A few days they marched past our block, on their way to a sit-in protest in-front of the mayors mansion. I was fortunate enough to not be busy and get to join for a while.
Because of COVID, we had record job loss, and plenty of idle time. We were able to use that time to protest, and hold our governments accountable in ways we might not have been able to without COVID.
As we enter fall, and school season, I pray we can continue this upward trend. The city isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.