I'm here in Queens. Not in Elmhurst, the hardest hit neighborhood, but as I mentioned above, I live on the same block as a hospital.
For a week or so the worst thing was the sirens. Normally you hears tons of cars passing by, but since the roads have been so empty every single siren you hear cracks through the silence like a gunshot. I noticed them getting more and more frequent, but now I've been able to tune them out. Now the starkest reminder are all of the gloves and masks littering the ground, because New Yorkers are gonna New York. People have generally stopped picking up their dog poop, too. We're scared, but I think on the whole we're mostly sad. It's so drab and joyless out there, it genuinely feels like City 17.
It's really difficult working from home in a tiny apartment. We don't have upstairs and downstairs, or backyards. I have a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen. That's my whole world now. My fiancee is working from home as well, and since her job is more technical she's working at my computer desk while I've essentially been typing on a laptop in my bed for a month out of necessity. We have our windows wide open and are trying to get as much sun and fresh air as we can. I can't imagine what it's like trying to ride this out in a one-room studio apartment.
We can't really load up an SUV with a month's worth of groceries, since we don't have cars and live in small apartments, so we make more trips than we should to the store just out of necessity. The big supermarkets are frequently out of stock for essentials, but the bodega on the corner is bizarrely more well-stocked than ever. They even hooked me up with some surgical masks when the dude saw my home-made monstrosity I was wearing on my face. It's still scary every time you step in the store, though. The aisles are tiny and they're designed like mazes to fit into 100 year old buildings that were by no means designed to accommodate dairy aisles, and when at the very least 1/1000 people have the virus, it feels like you're always rolling the dice.
Most of the people I see on the streets and sidewalk are being compliant. There are still groups of teens hanging out not giving a fuck, but good luck ever getting an NYC teen to do anything you say. It's just not gonna happen. I see older assholes who should know better walking around without masks, but for the most part we are keeping our distance. I saw more masks today than yesterday.
NYC makes it easier to realize that most other people are just as scared as you are. In the suburbs, you probably don't see other people unless you're fighting them for toilet paper at Costco, and those that you do see are still probably not taking it as seriously as they are here. I still have to see ~5-6 people a day when I walk my dog. They're wearing masks. They're walking in the street. They give you a nod when you wait for them to pass by. They are scared people who are worried about their loved ones, themselves, and their livelihoods just like you.
There are signs in my apartment building lobby offering to help out neighbors in need. We've converted schools into places where anyone can get three meals a day, no questions asked. There's still a lot of problems right now. The prisons are rife with COVID and there are still communities defiantly holding gatherings. Joggers keep blasting down the sidewalks sweating and panting a trail of aerosolized droplets behind them. But we're turning the corner.
New Yorkers have a reputation for being assholes but the solidarity I've seen over the last month has genuinely moved me. I've never been more proud to live here and I can't wait to see how we bounce back.
