Times Square: Then and Now

Recently, my family got in our car and drove to Times Square. We passed Rockefeller Center, the Intrepid, and many other landmarks. We wanted to see the effects of the coronavirus on the way the city looked. Here are our findings.

On a normal day,  the first thing that you see is people. People. People. And many more people. The city is bustling and always busy. Even if you’re not in Times Square yet, you always see people on the subway going to the Square. But when we drove into Times Square, it was a different story. Times Square was practically a ghost town. Just outside of Rockefeller center, a normally busy section of the Square, there was almost no one… at all.

A normally bustling boulevard, reduced to what is now an empty plaza. Where have all the people gone? Well, a lot of them are staying inside. This is partially because of social distancing: a recent guideline recommending people to stay 6ft. away from each other. Recent evidence shows that social distancing is working; we are succeeding in flattening the curve. 

However there is another side to the story. The stores are shuttered, everywhere, by law. Because people are not going outside and businesses are being closed; there is a massive economic burden on small business owners and shop owners. These people (204,719) have lost their primary source of income. The workers employed by these businesses have also lost their income source. We are all taking the damage caused by sheltering in. 

As unemployment claims skyrocket, many people will want to reopen our economy. Open the figurative floodgates of money that it appears the government is purposely holding back. We’ve flattened the curve,  right? So what is stoping us from returning to work? The answer is that until a vaccine is developed, anyone can get COVID-19. And if people begin to mingle again, the curve flattening and the emptiness of Time Square will have been for nothing. Times Square’s emptiness may be depressing, and a painful reminder of the measures that we have taken to stop the coronavirus, but it is also a symbol of proof that social distancing is working, and that New Yorkers understand these measures are for their own safety, as well as everyone else’s.