I always liked working in the office (only 1 mile from home) & didn’t like working from home. Now it is completely opposite. I would rather work from home. I do work 3 days in the office & 2 from home. Retirement in June; I have had enough!
80
Maybe, just maybe, your own preference of working at home be in the office is irrelevant?
17
I live in a neighborhood in NYC where I get all the positive sensory experiences I do from going to my office. What will happen to the outer borough places that have flourished while residents work from home when we all have to go to Starbucks and Pret a Mangers in midtown?
45
Younger people have been wearing pajamas to the grocery store for over twenty years prior to the Covid Era. I believe it was a requirement to wear pajamas on Sunday mornings at K-MART but I haven't been inside a KMART since the mid 1970's so I wouldn't know.
The pandemic is almost over except in Idaho and Montana. I will wear an N95 mask around all the grungy people in stores for the next thirty years.
76
I’ll keep wearing a mask in indoor, crowded places. Haven’t been sick since I started. And as for masking requirements on planes, I’d vote to keep that forever. I don’t miss people sneezing, coughing, and spitting on me; no amount of air filtering makes up for that.
155
I would be happy if people would just stop wearing pajamas to the local grocery or department store, lol. Here in Colorado our Governor has also pretty much declared "Covid is over". I didn't have the luxury of working from home, as I work for a pharmaceutical giant, and I've been "masking up" now for two years. This week was the first time in two years our company removed the mask mandate. While I do remove my mask when I'm at my desk (with at least 6' distance from my colleagues desk), as soon as I get up the mask is on. I've worked too hard over the last two years avoiding Covid to just accept at face value now the "everything is going to be ok". I understood quickly from the beginning that defeating Covid would be a "long term play". Governors declaring that "we need to get back to normal" hasn't changed my stance. I still need to be "vigilant" as I know others won't be.
95
Forget the 6 ft. COVID is airborne.
43
This is about revenue in the guise of cultural support (propaganda). It will be difficult to get people to waste time commuting in order to pay three times as much for lunch in order to feel the touted psychological edge of the city if these comments are any indication. I hope the mayor reads them. If working from home is as productive Adams will need a better business plan (and hook) than shaming the home bound for wearing pajamas too much in order to successfully accomplish municipal tax revenue enhancement.
112
Why I don’t want to come back to the office full-time in 4 sentences:
At 5am, the 45 mile trip from home to office in Jersey City will take 58 minutes
By 6am, the trip time now 65 minutes
On the road at 7am for a 70 minute journey.
At 7:45 am, the 10 mikes left will take 45 minutes.
My office gets started at 9am, and mostly people leave around 6. Getting in earlier than 9 doesn’t mean I can leave any earlier, so no benefit to leaving home at 6.
Public transit from where I live is - best case - 2 hours each way. Not really an option.
I work from home because I can get up at the same time, spend 45 minutes exercising in the morning, start working by 8am and when I quit at 5:30, be home. Or I can sleep an hour later and still start work by 8. An hour more work time, more time to sleep or exercise and an extra hour with my family at the end of the day. What kind of nut would want to give that up?
223
Over 300,000 city employees do. And most are low mid wage earners.
22
Not sure employers should base their policies on employees who live 45 miles from the office. Assuming your employer has not relocated over the years, you knew where the office was when you hired on.
And the carping about public transportation seems myopic. Should any public transportation system account for a seamless 45-mile commute?
Good that your set up is working for you but not sure your convenience should be foremost in the mind of your employer.
26
Wanting to encounter the distinctive markers of the hustle, to live them, to engage the world of public intimacies?
I would restate that: Rising crime, a failing public transportation system?
I'll take a pass, regardless. I cross-pollinated easily from my online conference calls.
57
The pandemic has been over for a while. NYC chose a path of self destruction based on science that at best changed and did not change along with new better information. The decimation of businesses and of those people that worked is consequence. Then the crime and tolerance of lawlessness. I have several family members living in NYC and they are frightened of the streets.
38
@JoeGiul The difference in COVID policy across the country has been striking. The flyover states have been thriving for the better part of a year now. New York in particular seems to have become culturally sclerotic to an extraordinary degree. I hope the city is able to find itself again.
17
@JoeGiul How quickly we forgot what stage the virus was in when it hit NYC. We were losing 800-1000 people a day. Hospitals were overrun. There weren't any tools to fight this off except isolation and masks. It is easy to sit from afar an judge the steps that NY took to stop this spread, NY taught this country how to respond. NY also gave the World a vaccination so that the rest of the country could benefit from. BTW we are not living in fear "frightened of the streets" . Lets not dump on NY to feel better.
156
@Scanmike But it was not the case a year later and yet the same policies held. It was nice of NY to vaccinate the world. And the example of NY to the world just shows how poor of a job your elected official prescribed.
16
It make take a few years but we will know but in the end if exaggerated fear mongering may have done more damage than the virus itself.
Humans are not rational beings and there are many conflicting interests (children vs. a union) at play in such situations.
21
@Si Seulement Voltaire
Did we get the balance right between damaging precautions and a damaging disease? Of course not. But what was the right balance?
Early in the pandemic, a combination of vulnerable people in close quarters made some nursing homes death traps. Safety got ramped up at severe costs of social isolation, making for lonely deaths. Was that balance right?
For health care workers, surges in hospitalization --particularly in the first few months of the pandemic (say Feb.-Aug. 2020) created a horrid situation. Again, early on, this was made worse by mistakes in treating moderately severe illnesses. Probably nothing short of a large-scale reduction in interactions could have slowed this. That reduction damaged a lot of lives even as it saved lives. Small businesses got ravaged. I think we often understate the psychological damage from that alone. Was that balance right?
There are lots of other decisions that have been made over the past two wearying year. They've not been easy. I hope we do look back. I hope we do try to see more clearly the balance between the damage from COVID and the damage of our responses. But lets not pretend that figuring out what was right and wrong was simple. It was never that.
63
There’s a million Americans who already just how much damage COVID can do.
70
The new normal is actually okay. Everything has a season!
19
Ah, New York. The sea of people every time you make a move. The smell of body odor from the bum next to you on the subway. The rude New York behavior. The puddles of urine in the alleys. The stratospheric prices for everything. And the crime! have I told you about the crime? Weirdos and mental cases pushing you onto subway tracks! That's the city we are, world! Start spreadin' the news!
Never have understood the attraction of that place. Give me some land, some quiet, some low cost of living, plenty of trees, and room to move, think, breathe.
Must be a New York thing.
33
@Man This reads like a caricature of a 1970s urban dystopia movie. If I could attest to experiencing even one of the things you mentioned here to any extent, I'd have left long ago. But so far, none of these is ringing a bell.
62
@Man Thank you for not living or even visiting New York. We who choose to live in this remarkable city open our hearts to those who appreciate its wonders.
60
@Man Your New York, is not my New York, and I've been here for forty years. If you see what you see, of course, New York isn't the place for you - the suburbs or gated communities sound better for you. I'm glad people see New York like you do, I wish more people did - when I came in 1982 the country thought New York was dirty and crime filled, but for me the streets were empty and when a Gap opened on the corner of 8th, we knew suburban creep had set in. I had to leave while Bloomberg was in office, as he turned downtown New York into a "high class" mall. 9-11 was the downfall of NY, before then I never saw a Midwestern person, certainly not one asking "where is the hole?" So tell everyone you know, New York is back to its "crime infested, dirty self." Adams hopefully is the last vestige of the people who came to NYC enticed by the hotels and restaurants of Bloomberg's tourist trap.
20
Are rent moratoriums still I. Effect in NYC? Are people still getting stimulus checks, evictions? Landlords got killed
8
Move forward, not back. You're not going there.
10
This was a well written article.
8
Why do we constantly have to be preached to about our own actions regarding covid? When people wants to get out of their sweats, they will. Working from home is perfectly fine for many of us. We don’t need a NYT columnist’s petulant and dismissive directives on how to conduct our affairs.
91
Taking this piece's title literally, I have to say I've not owned pee-jays since I was a child, and so I have none needing to be taken off.
Even staying home for the past two years, as a mature adult I've dressed as I ordinarily would. It's been the practical thing to do in the face of stressful circumstances. Keep as much as possible normal has been the watchword in this household.
20
@BayArea101 - I like that "as a mature adult. I was so serious as a kid I was married at 19, bought my first home at 21 and stopped drinking at 25. Some people deserve to act like kids when they are 60.
8
missing the signs of "the hustle"? never!
19
“If only I had spent more time commuting to work” uttered no one on their death bed.
Life is short. If you can make a living from home, do it.
129
@WestchesterPeach Wouldn't be good for the nation, though, and that seems to be the Times official role. gotta get that "economy" going.
6
I adore working from home (of course) because I’m a collage and cyber artist, and writer. For me, the “lockdown” has given me the freedom of solitude without the “shame” of being called a “recluse.” I’ve also been relegated to social media, phone and a tiny bit of Skyping - with my therapist - (I don’t Zoom. Ugh.) Social media has been fun for sharing my art. I feel like a world traveler. I’m buddies with some of the greatest visual artists in the world, which thrills me. My beloved husband of 25 years died in a mountain climbing accident 2012, and I have no wish or need for romance. Once you’ve met your soul mate, no one else will do.) However, I flirt online with sexy artists. That’s probably because our work is, by definition, erotic, and Eros leads to flirting. So I’m not badly off. Having been so removed from most friends and outside activities, I’ve been forced to evolve into a better person doing at-home Pilates, taking walks around a nearby sheltering, emerald park, intermittent fasting and daily meditation with Tara Brach and Mooji on YouTube. I’ve also gotten into gratitude and prayer. With the Goddess in my corner, I can never feel truly “alone.” As long as I’m still alive, I’d say I’ve weathered this storm with benefits. One more thing: It helps to have the NYT. TY!!
26
@CutZy McCall What Women Want Now I'm with you. I'm a writer, and my fondest memory is of the quit that descended upon Brooklyn. Nothing really changed in my life; it seems everything was instead geared to my lifestyle:-)
5
Back to work proles! Back to work! There are $20 sandwiches that need buying for lunch. It's been very selfish of you worker-bots to save a little cash on commuting, that cash belongs to big business, not to you. Now get with the program, we learned nothing, we don't want change, we don't want work life balance. We want profits!
144
Let's look at this Inga's Bar opening from another angle. 9 out of 10 businesses, statistically, fail. In the best of times. The continuing prevalence of covid assures failure in an industry where the best laid plans crumble into dust. The couple here, middle aged and with time to spare, should've taken the delays as a sign to pull the plug. I wonder if this story isn't more about a marriage and much less about establishing a business in a tranformative, dangerous time.
11
As far as actual work goes, I think the concept of beneficial and creative "interactions" is greatly overrated. Most interactions among worker bees at big office environments consist of griping about work and/or commuting to work. That said, there is something about an intangible feeling of purpose and possibility associated with just going to work among all the anonymous throngs doing the same. I do think there is a problem with all the office space that will never be in such demand again, but it's a problem that could be solved via alternative utilization of the already-built places.
32
Dear Mayor Adams:
Let me respectfully explain why so many are reluctant to hop back on the subways and buses and get back to the office.
Many - most - can’t afford to live in Manhattan. 2 or 3 hours or more each day are spent commuting from the outer boroughs or suburbs. Now that commute is not only long, but more dangerous, considering the alarming uptick in subway crime.
It’s fun coming into Manhattan for entertainment and events, not so much fun when you have to do it every day.
Most of the worker bees are enjoying their lower-stress existence, spending more time with their families, saving money as well! The powers that “bee,” the queen bees, if you will, didn’t give much thought to their well being in the past, yet we expect them to bite the bullet now for the greater good at the expense of their convenience and safety.
I just don’t see it happening, not without substantial, permanent concessions to those who keep this city moving.
99
@Michele Acerra I agree! While getting out for fun was missed, the drudgery of the modern workplace is, on the whole, a destructive force on the human spirit. Workers should bargain hard and even ruthlessly.
57
Adams would do better trying to figure out how to turn all that commercial real estate into affordable housing. People aren't going back. It's a new day, buddy. You're going to have to adjust. And as long as thousands a day are dying, my mask stays on, and I'm not eating indoors. Period.
109
I hear you, and we're not alone in being cautious. When the pandemic is really over we won't need some PR campaign to convince us - we'll know from the worldwide data trends. This slide from "following the science" to hoping it will be over if we pretend hard enough, could be dismissed as silly if it wasn't downright dangerous.
31
The concept of an office is obsolete. Slack, video chat, digital file transfers, and other cloud based tools have rendered office towers as functional as they pyramids. It's over. As a boot strap entrepreneur I have never had money for an office and I rarely see my employees when they serve our customers face to face, but I train them well, pay them well, and trust them. Less is more.
68
Let the executives work in the office. They’re the only ones with private offices and they’re not doing any actual work anyway.
106
@Irene Brophy - But, but but, middle managers need to justify their existence.
12
“But for now, at least, it feels like a moment.” I couldn’t have set it any better myself. Over the past two years we have become the living dead… zombies. It’s time to get back to living our lives. No one gets a second chance. Why waste another second.
7
Would help tourism (and NY has taken a significant knock) if the window for the pre-flight covid test would be restored to 72 hours from 24.
6
There is certainly a lot of irony in the current situation. Some of the same companies that spent millions in developing work-from-anywhere technology are now saying 'we need you in the office'. Some of the same people that support free-market capitalism are now saying 'we need people in offices' instead of allowing the free market to do what it does. Some of the same people who cover their mouths when coughing and teach their kids the same, insist on not wearing a mask. Some of the same people who are against masks try to bully those who wear them and infringe on their right to protect themselves and others. Some of the same people who believe in personal autonomy insist that everyone have a vaccine injection. Some of the same people who benefitted from the polio, measles, tetanus, and flu shots, all of sudden think the Covid vaccine is a some sinister conspiracy. Some of the same people who typically believe in the larger common good feel that the vaxxed can walk around freely with no masks even around vulnerable people. I think I've mentioned at least one thing that everyone can agree and/or disagree with. I'm done now. 😉
59
Working from home may seem like a utopian situation but something is missing when you lose the human interaction. We seem to recognize the sadness in watching children in school yards staring at their phones instead of interacting with each other but we are overlooking the downside of our own isolation.
35
Well, we can't have the commercial real estate market in New York City flat lining, can we? That would deprive multi-millionaires like Trump and Kushner of their profits, and then they might have to give up a yacht (just one) or a third or fourth home. Heaven forbid! And yes, there will be some hardship as the post-covid economy adjusts, but this has happened before- what did the buggy whip manufacturers do when everyone was driving a Model T? In the end, maybe middle class, working people will afford to live in New York again.
54
We are kidding ourselves thinking this virus is going away, e.g. South Korea. It will be seasonal and indoor venues for general public will facilitate spread. In some Asian countries, mask wearing in public places as a sign of respect has been around for years. For people saying they like working from home and will never go back, that spells disaster long term for our society. I for one don’t want to live in the Metaverse. I actually like going to work and interacting with my coworkers, and with over 2 years on Zoom calls, having lunch conversations and a drink with work friends has been awesome, it’s great they opened a deli. Point is, wear the darn mask and be intentional about when and where to go out when there are flare ups.
29
Why do other people have to go into the office just because you happen to like it? You know what I like? 3 extra hours of the day with my family.
57
Perhaps it’s time to admit that the lifestyle of commuting to New York City is far less desirable than it used to be. Real estate and other prices should then reflect that, and the businesses that remain can learn to live on less.
For many of us, the last two years reinforced the idea that life is precious, and spending two hours a day or more traveling to sit in front of the same computer that can be used at home is not the glamorous “grind” we’ve been romanticizing the last one hundred years.
Those that still need to work in-person (I am one of those), will benefit with reduced traffic, demand for resources, and prices. At least it could be that way.
104
I wish them luck, but what everyone seems to forget in these feel-good, comeback stories is that a virus (Covid or not) could upend it all again because, well, it's a virus and the society we've become encourages it to thrive.
54
What they really need to do is change the zoning laws and turn many of these office buildings into affordable housing. The new residents will be your deli patrons. We are more efficient at home and we need to focus more on our local communities. We will reorient our lives around the communities we call home rather than where we work. People don’t have time to provide community care for their neighbors when they spend most of their time away from their homes. Working closer to home, in the home, or from home will strengthen our communities and be better for the environment. This is an opportunity to recalibrate what is most important. Let’s take pride in what we learned and embrace change. We don’t need to go back, we need to move forward toward a better way of living.
94
@jmr It feels like a lot of government officials are still very (Midtown and below) Manhattan-centric. Some businesses are going to simply be no longer needed as much (like dry cleaners), but others may simply have shifted their business out of Manhattan. I personally get lunch out almost as often as I did when I worked in office 5 days a week, but now it’s from restaurants where I live in south Brooklyn rather than in Manhattan. If anything it’s probably better for the city overall now that I’m going to locally owned restaurants more often versus places like Sweetgreen.
33
No way would any building owner turn midtown office buildings into housing. They wouldn’t get enough to pay the taxes
10
My best friend is a creative director for a branding/ad agency for over 20 years.
Once the pandemic got underway, his boss sold their lovely office and determined that everyone would work on individual projects - which is how they usually worked - and now meet up on ZOOM to discuss how work is going and how to pitch new clients.
So far, so good.
I asked my friend if he preferred working at home or going to an office. He said working at home has been wonderful and he hopes never to set foot in an office again.
Many many people feel that way.
Coming up out of the subway and smelling gyros and garbage isn't as great as Ginia thinks it is.
135
@fast/furious
That last sentence has me sitting here laughing out loud.
But you forgot to mention the urine and pot smoke as part of the stench.
15
Were I to go back to my pre-Covid work life I'd spending 20 hours per week just in transit on top of all the wardrobe, food, & transit expenses. The increased rate I could bill for in-person work wound not come close to covering that. I'll stay with my remote work. Thank you very much.
I have to laugh at the pyjamas comment. The impression I've gotten is nobody wears anything at all except for the work-required shirt when they're on camera.
59
Lucky you, @Anton. My husband has just returned to his train commute a few days a week. The halal cart makes it worthwhile. The Zoom shirt still hangs in his home office, near the fugliest shoes he ever purchased, which I designated be his Zoom shoes.
12
I have been working from home since March 12, 2020, the day after my employer closed the office and sent me home to work remotely. During that first spring and summer working from home my project assignment had me working many 60 - 70 hour weeks; that required working many Sundays. I can assure the mayor that at no time on any day including Sunday have I ever logged onto the computer to begin a work assignment in my pajamas. Comments such as these does not brand the mayor as a thoughtful, considered leader. He needs to temper his boosterism with a more rational approach as to what is best for the employers and employees operating in metro NYC.
72
I see that I’m distinctly in the minority here, but I am very much a get-back-out-into-the-world person, so I can only hope that—as I sort of suspected already—the comments on Times articles are not representative of the actual sentiments of most people.
I will concede: living this way—WFH, never go to the office, stay in your house—is more *convenient*. No doubt about it. It is easier, and it is the path of least resistance for a lot of you white-coller people reading this. But surely we all know by now that the path of least resistance is by no means always the best path.
Sometimes you have to endure unpleasantness in service of achieving more satisfaction—having children, for instance, is proven to make parents less happy over the short- to medium-term, but it leads to greater life satisfaction. It’s an imperfect analogy for a commute, no doubt, but you (hopefully) get what I’m trying to say: the easiest thing is not always the best thing! I’ve had too many serendipitous experiences to count while out in the city moving around; I’ve had ZERO of those sitting at home.
This is an article about New York City, and friction is one of the defining forces that shape this wonderful place. Friction generates heat, sure, but it can also generate energy, light, noise, a million other reactive forces that make this place so dynamic. Sure, your WFH cocoon is frictionless and free of sharp edges and challenges and so on—but my god, what a dreadfully dull place that must be.
39
@Edward Ashton, Jr.
My biggest gripe with this article and our mayor, is that I too am very much a "get back out into the world person". But the pandemic has taught us that many of the ways we got out into the world are now passe, inefficient and needlessly draining.
It is unnecessary for millions to crowd onto subways, waste hours of their day, and be less productive, if we can do the same or better job from home. Furthermore, the argument that we have to help the deli-owner in midtown is specious.
Are the deli owners in Queens where I live less deserving of my support? I think not. In my local establishments people actually know my name, ask how I've been and what I'm doing.
I will absolutely go to Manhattan for museums, shows, concerts and some dining. But for a ham sandwich? For a job I can do as efficiently or more efficiently from home? NO! NO! NO!
Somebody needs to give me a reason that makes sense. "Getting back to normal" if normal was stressful and inefficient simply DOES NOT make any sense to me.
Helping out the landlords of midtown's skyscrapers makes sense to our mayor--they give him millions in campaign donations. What do those same landlords give me? Agita.
This article is shockingly narrow in its viewpoint; more chamber of commerce press release than journalistic reporting.
209
We have been mostly out of NYC since 9/2020. Spent a full week there last month and it felt amazing. I missed all the sights and sounds, the good people, good food. I didn't miss the slog of a commute to the office, but I did miss the people who are at the office. Happy for things to loosen up if it's safe.
On the other hand, I think we (or at least I) have learned to live better during the pandemic and we can incorporate that into our lives. I would prefer to spend one week a month in the city and the other three weeks in the woods where we live now. Hoping others can find the balance that works for them that may have been elusive in the BC era.
25
It's a little fun, I have to admit, watching Eric Adams pretend he's in the driver's seat. I wonder if it will ever dawn on him that he's just along for the ride...
But I feel for restaurant owners, and I worry that it's going to take a long while for them to realize and adapt to the true magnitude of change we've undergone in the past two years.
Many of the people that were in my office at the start of the pandemic have moved away. What was an NYC office is now a distributed team. We downsized our physical space when the lease expired. We now have a smaller space (effectively a coworking space) where we occasionally have "meet & greet" events.
My coworkers are not moving back. The office is still usually empty – it will be a long while before we consider upsizing again. I'm content working from home most days even though the office is just a subway ride away, as are many of my peers.
The landscape has changed, and it isn't done changing.
80
@RS You make a point that I have yet to hear expressed anywhere else and clearly Mayor Adams does not understand this point. You could be describing my employer who also downsized when the lease expired last year. I suspect Google and Microsoft growing their footprint in Manhattan will prove to be the outliers while more businesses recognize they could get by with less physical presence.
20
In Los Angeles a commute can take up to 2 hours. And that’s one way. Gas prices are astronomical. Pollution is bad and will get worse with more commuters. Not seeing much upside…
96
Frankly, I can cheerfully forego the smells of the subway. I will continue to work from home, thank you.
86
Anyone using the scents of the New York City commute as a reason to return to the office is deranged or works in real estate. We can smell amazing freshly brewed coffee at home without inhaling subway stank.
65
Yes! Couldn’t agree more.
8
We've all been through a 2 year trauma. I have a relative who died, know people who were hospitalized, and know a couple of people with long covid. People are entitled to recover at their own pace. Sure, we'd love to be in the pre-covid world, but we're not.
I have worked remotely for years, and as a parent, it makes me life MUCH easier to not have to commute. I experience New York City just fine, regardless.
I'm already over Mayor Adams for many reasons, and wish he would get an article about how he's slashing the public school budget--which doesn't seem to concern the media at all.
And why are people wearing masks outdoors? It's been freezing and when you're going in and out of multiple stores, it's just easier. Back off, Ginia. Worry about yourself.
134
So good to see some of these comments. How busy people manage to put on masks indoors and take them off outdoors, has been puzzling me this whole pandemic. Soo much easier to just leave mask in place while going about one's business.
12
"Comeback"?
New York never left. The post-COVID era is just another point on the City's never-ending continuum.
Sorry, but the 20th century model of dragging on mass transit into an office is not the way of the future. And last week when I was in the city I paid $9 for two stale, reheated slices of pizza.
51
It is understandable why many don't want to return to the office, however isn't it up to the employers and what their requirements will be? Is everyone willing to make a mass exodus from the working world when they are told it is mandatory to return to the office? At some point, many will be told return or leave (some are already being given mandatory return dates.) What then?
9
What an awful out of touch article. Plenty of people are more productive and effective at their jobs from home because technology exists. Not to mention quality of life is better because there's an improved work life balance.
If someone prefers to work from the office that's fine, but if they can produce the same or higher quality of work from home why make them waste 2+ hours a day on commuting?
124
Yes. I read this article in disbelief.
41
But we are still not immortal. Dang!
7
Getting sick of articles telling me how I feel. No, I don't like crowds so much that I long to be part of them again. I can get a whiff of delicious foods walking around my neighborhood - I don't need to come to midtown for that, and I resent the fact that the burden of reinvigorating midtown is being put on my shoulders. If I'm going to buy breakfast or lunch, I'd much rather see my own neighborhood reap the benefit. Adams is just indebted to commercial realtors who backed his campaign. Doesn't matter if you're working from home in your pajamas, so long as the work gets done.
160
@Oops Agree and if Adams is so over the boredom, he can do something about all the landlords who keep storefronts empty. Penalize them if they keep the space vacant by turning down reasonable offers and turn them into something interesting!
52
Except for anyone under 5 in daycare, in which case normalcy is untenable. Then you need to mask for the majority of your waking hours and have masked caregivers. And many businesses are closed to you. Despite being one of the lowest risk groups, with a risk comparable to others we’ve routinely accepted pre-Covid.
Shows the true colors of this city. Conservative, liberal, progressive, or not, we couldn’t care less about the well-being of young children and families.
19
@CD So tired of this narrrative. Under 5s will be unmasked when they can be vaccinated. That makes sense. Your plan, which is based on absolutely zero science, does not. Move on and move out.
9
72 people died last week in Connecticut due to Covid in. At a minimum, 72 families in Connecticut were grieving last week. Covid is still around and dangerous. I don't believe there are any accurate numbers regarding Covid because people are either using at home tests and not reporting or they are not testing at all. Please remember, if you get Covid you can pass it to others and they can die. The pandemic is not over.
Source for number of deaths in Connecticut last week:
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/coronavirus/cts-covid-19-positivity-at-2-12-72-deaths-reported-in-last-week/2732681/
82
@Brendan think you. Especially from those that have underlying health conditions. we have to beg to be protected from this pandemic while mayor adams insists we buy a hot dog from a vendor. This is not the type of forward thinking leadership we need.
42
@Brendan
Were they unvaccinated ?
9
I have been working from home for 25 years. Gone are the days of suiting up, putting on in heels to go to the office. On a cold wintery day at the home office, I put on a heavier pair of pajamas over my sleeping pj's.
Not sure how much I've saved in wardrobe, dry cleaning, auto, parking and lunches out, but it's a nice lump of $.
76
Thanks, Anyway. Working from home is spectacular
74
It is a truism that we know only the results of what we did, not what we might have done.
To everyone sucking their thumb over two lost years, I'd remind you that without the pandemic to keep you home, you could have been hit by a bus.
Life will be different, but it will still be life, assuming of course, the morons who aren't vaccinated prove a breeding ground for a super-variant. Pray that we are at herd immunity.
30
Remember that Russia (probably) and China (almost certainly) have biological weapons programs. If Putin decides that he is angry with with the West’s support of Ukraine, he would be able to unleash a new and terrifying pathogen (or multiple pathogens, if he wants to) into Western Europe and North America. Global war / World War III could just as easily (more likely, actually) be biological as thermonuclear.
13
@Josh maybe the unites states will be the culprit you predict.
1
For the time being, I will not be dining indoors, or going to the gym, even though I am vaccinated. While we vaccinated, MAY not experience severe Covid, the risk of being a long hauler is still there. The numbers are excellent in NYC, but now Mayor Adams has welcomed the unvaccinated from all over the country/world to join us. Unmasked. We simply do not know what the virus will do next and by the time we do, many of us will have caught it if we were to follow the new guidelines. It will be too late, and we'll go back to the old guidelines, but not until after some damage has been done.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10574341/UKs-daily-Covid-cases-rise-Infections-jump-17-week-45-656.html
65
I got out of New York instead.
19
Is the New York Times so woefully out of touch that they don't recognize that there are vibrant local economies in the outer boroughs, where city workers can now spend more $$ and time while not commuting? This city doesn't need to revolve around Manhattan.
84
One of the more uplifting yet still realistic articles on this topic, one that I search out.
3
The pandemic is over in NYC as far as normal people are concerned. The vax-checking mandate was designed by deBlasio to further cripple the restaurant industry in NYC, which he claimed was a 'luxury'. Adams should have eliminated the mandate on 01/02/2022, but I guess better late than never. But restaurant owners need know that the city will never give up this power over them and now is the time to recoup their losses and bail out of NYC.
6
@NYC Taxpayer
I agree. Time for restaurants to bail out of NYC. What is with this reverence to restaurants? We desperately need neighborhood grocery stores, places to buy fresh produce and baked goods. Remember the days not long ago there was a grocer, often Korean owned, every couple of blocks where you could pick up all the essentials? I’ll take that over yet another new, mediocre, over priced restaurant any day. Same goes for coffee shops. Enough already.
34
@NYC Taxpayer still be mandated to be boostered though
If the trains weren’t so dangerous (broad daylight random violence!) and dirty, maybe more (not everyone, I get it) people wouldn’t mind commuting as much. Trains that go way to the outer boroughs get more empty as they reach their destinations, which makes them risky and stressful, especially on a daily basis. Fix that and then we’ll talk (provided we also have a proper handle on Covid).
34
We commute every day…from the bedroom to the bathroom to the kitchen to the living room.
In the evening…same thing…in reverse.
Dress code: Pajamas.
42
I worked from home, part of the time, before the pandemic. I was made to sign a very specific agreement with my company that stipulated my hours, the set up of my home work area, and expectations. Doing this helped me to develop good work at home habits that benefited both me and my company. I'm not sure that those who began working at home during the pandemic were able to do this. It seems, from all I've been reading, that home workers were thrown into the situation without having to think about these things, let alone sign an agreement. It may be time for companies to make or revisit their work from home guidelines and make them known to their workers.
17
Come on NYC… get out there and consume, consume, consume? What? The experience of the pandemic has enabled us to reflect and prioritize different things in our lives. Our ‘job’ Mr. Mayor is not to engage with our city in the same old ways of unbridled consumption. Get used to it.
78
I think what Mr Mayor needs to understand is that in the future much more of the consuming is going to have to be done by tourists -- shopping, restaurants, theaters ad concert halls. It will be up to tourists to fill those.
11
@ellienyc
Ugh. Yet another reason for the rest of us to want to stay home!
4
I've worn a mask outside because it's cold and the mask gives some protection from the cold. I wouldn't carry a mask just for that purpose though.
14
I was hurled into an early retirement due to Covid and my husband’s poor health, and I truly miss my classroom, students, colleagues professional life. I returned to work substituting for a friend with long Covid and volunteer teaching in my parish, and observe that students truly need classroom interaction - and parents need teachers who prepare their kids for life in a culture and community. The academic and behavioral deficits students suffer are causing many teachers to burn out and finally abandon the profession they love. As a society we need to assess the costs of the past two years and help those dealing with long term effects to adjust and heal. Now we have a war to face as well.
22
Restaurants: if you want us to come back, please don’t treat diners like takeout customers who decided whimsically to grab a table.
Bellafonte mentions QR menus, the worst restaurant industry innovation of the pandemic. We don’t go to restaurants to have yet another screen experience - QR menus undermine socializing, connection, the serendipity of ordering something other than a standby, because who wants to keep scrolling after they find what they’ll settle for? QR code menus telegraph that the restaurant either isn’t trying hard or hasn’t read public guidance since May 2020. Bring back paper!
80
I'm a little curious how this "pajama set" who defected from the city (in my case, Boston) bought suburban houses during the pandemic probably further from the city than they may have anticipated during rush hour is going to fare in this post-covid world. I've seen some panicked posts about train schedules and commute times on my local Facebook groups. I get the sense folks thought virtual was going to be forever.
31
Someone from another department at my job moved from a 1 hour Metro North commute to a 2.5 hour, one way bus ride to rural Pennsylvania because of Covid panic.
She was shocked when boss told her that working from home was going to end and she had to come back to the office.
6
The entitled folks who work from home have little compassion or understanding for those making less, doing more and providing the services they desire.
35
@Pj Unfortunately I think that's true.
10
@Pj
Nice try. I grew up in a single-parent household and was poor enough to get Pell Grants for my (public) college education.
8
@Pj: Many of us are quite grateful that we can work at home and grateful to those who keep things running out in the world. At least you benefit a little from our staying home in that you have less traffic and transit congestion to deal with.
15
Right, it is the hope that the pandemic is over but current Covid data is no longer reliable. So many of us are self-testing and the positive results largely go unreported so the real numbers are much higher. During February I was aware of more positive cases among friends and family than ever before. But ultimately, hospitalizations are way down and I suppose that's the important thing.
24
@Kathryn I've gotten the both doses as well as the booster (in November). In January, I tested positive. The actual illness was minimal. Though I stayed home, I've gone to work feeling worse. There are no guarantees a strain worse than omicron will emerge, but who knows what other diseases are lurking out there. Each year, forty thousand (plus or minus) Americans die from the flu. Prior to Covid, we accepted that total without blinking an eye. It's time to move on.
18
@Gary unless you get long covid or other complications-
16
@Gary
And that was OK? His move on letting the up to 40,00 annually die almost in secret again?
Flu vaccines have a less than optimal uptake. Maybe if we push flu vaccines the way we are doing for COVID vaccines, we shall see a drop in morbidity and mortality from the flu.
11
"You may not enter the Javits Center without a mask" - big signs to that effect posted at the door. Zero enforcement. Tell Mr. Steel that I travelled to Javits on Friday to attend a convention/exhibition, assured by the convention promoters and the facility, that Covid protocols were in place. At the door, vaccination cards were checked for masked and unmasked, but nothing was said to the unmasked. At the entrance to the exhibit hall, the masked people checking badges said they had also heard complaints. I saw unmasked exhibitors, and some 50% of attendees unmasked. I turned around and fled. "Running hard"? Away.
40
@Be-Anon We have to trust the vaccines and the boosters.
They have been holding.
Just about everyone I know caught a breakthrough Covid case btw Thanksgiving and mid-Jan. They (we) suffered only the symptoms of a little cold for 36 hours.
I'm sorry for the immunocompromised. They'll have to continue with other mitigation measures, as will the rest of us should things take a turn.
12
@dickeyfuller Well yes, except… long covid. I really hope that everyone who caught omicron over the holidays have a lower rate of long covid than with prior variants because many of us are living a radically changed life after contracting relatively light cases of the damnable thing. I caught original covid in December 2020 from my optometrist. Symptoms were like a case of flu and I recovered fast. However, 14 months later I am barely hanging onto my job and still unable to resume my previously very active outdoor life. It isn’t just worry about the immunocompromised. It is a risk for everyone. Studies find estimates of a quarter to a third of the infected ended up with some form of long covid. A one in three or four chance that your life will be affected for so long makes it not at all like a light cold where you recover and never look back. Many in my study have lost jobs, partners and homes because of the lingering health issues. I am all for returning to getting out and about, and I doing so as well, but I am terrified of getting another active infection so I will be wearing a mask indoors.
65
@CooperC
Right there with you. The mask stays on.
40
If NYC wants all the office workers back in their seats, what are they giving them in exchange for enduring long commutes into the city? What they should be getting is affordable housing so that they can walk to work. Ditto for San Francisco.
82
@BBB
Why go back into an office at all? White collar workers have proved beyond a doubt that work from home is more productive than dragging us on soul-sucking mass transit into a counter-productive open office.
32
Why Adams thought this is a good moment to end the vaccine requirement for restaurants, gyms and theaters really comes down to one thing: He wants to make it easier for the unvaccinated to go out and spend money in NYC. The requirements weren't stopping anyone else and probably encouraged a large percentage of New Yorkers to at least dip their toes in the water.
That said, I am happy to see that a few of my favorite places, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, are continuing (for now at least) to require vaccinations and masks for entry. Sitting amid 2000+ people in a pandemic should be made as safe as possible.
92
Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center have to keep those rules because their audiences skew older & more local and they would lose a lot of people-- esp subscribers -- if they lifted the rules. Far more tourists go to Bway shows than go to Carnegie Hall/Lincoln Center, so even if locals stop going when they lift restrictions, Bway would still be okay.
3
I am lifelong liberal New Yorker.
But…explain to me how Eric Adams insisting we go back to the office to save the jobs of deli workers is any different than Joe Manchin extolling the virtues of coal?
Capitalism is a rough game, there is no reverse option.
103
@College Dad Adams heart is in the right place. He's not a bad guy like deBlasio was. What Adams (and Hochul) don't understand is that WFH is here to stay especially for the higher paid white-collar workers that the city really needs. Suburban employees are quite happy to work from their comfortable homes and not have to spend $100s a month on the MTA or NJT.
35
@NYC Taxpayer
I pay MORE for the George Washington Bridge and parking for the days I'm required to be in the office. And I'm happy to do it.
Life is too short to waste 15 hours a week - 10 % of our lives, on mass transit.
14
Ive always had a mixture of WFH and WFO. I’ve been physically back at work part time since Fall 2020, and my usual distribution of WFH/WFO since Fall 2021, and all I can say is that once again I am exhausted from the commute, only seeing marginal benefit from being in person and totally missing the opportunities to “zoom” visit with people from all over the world as our physical obligations to the organizations that sign our digital paychecks ramp up again. In addition, it’s getting harder to eat as well as I had been.
In other words, for me it’s a mixed blessing.
41
The CDC just published data on people 50 to 65 (they won't release days for younger people lest we see that boosters are totally unnecessary for them!): For the fully vaccinated, the booster reduces the risk of COVID death from 4 per million to 1 per million. Who are those three helped by a booster? They’re not healthy people. One study of breakthrough hospitalizations found 75% had at least four comorbidities. If you are vaccinated, and especially if boosted, you are just about bulletproof. Who said? The CDC!
9
@MJG
To avoid health conditions that land people in hospital with severe Covid, Americans in general need to change our habits: more healthy food, more exercise, less stress, less sugar, less alcohol. Unfortunately, the rush of going back to the office or normal will just reinforce these bad habits.
10
@MJG That’s not how data works
12
I live in east midtown Manhattan a couple blocks from Grand Central Terminal. Parts of this area were rezoned a couple years ago to allow for more development (esp more big office buildings). I guess to remain competitive, some existing buildings have been undergoing extensive renovations that now include things like espresso bars, cafes, gyms, sundecks, conference rooms, spas and the like for tenants. Currently, commuters from Connecticut and Westchester & other suburban NY counties use GCT. However, that will change in a year or two when some commuter trains from Long Island will also stop there. While many NYC office buildings have a lot of vacancy currently, I can see how buildings like these new and retrofitted ones will appeal a year or two down the line as work schedules get sorted out and people who DO come into the office a couple days a week will be attracted by offices an easy walk from the train station (no subway taking required) and that don't require you to go out for coffee or lunch or the gym.
4
If vaccine cards and tests are not used, I won't be going anywhere indoors. Luckily I'm retired. As long as concert venues keep up with vaccine cards and negative tests, I will continue to go to them in the City of NY.
50
@Angel You have every right to stay home and hie under your bed or wherever. It's over for the rest of us.
4
Yes, I think I may now know more people than before who refuse to eat indoors at restaurants.
11
@NYC Taxpayer Everyone has a different health status. I've traveled and will travel all over the country for rock music. But I will be careful with indoor venues of all kinds. It's my right to wear a mask if I want and you don't have a right to say anything about it other than here in a comments section, as your opinion. I get to protect my health, regardless of your opinion. Also a taxpayer.
26
The pandemic has taught me that I am fortunate to have a career where I can work remotely as long as I have a reliable internet connection. Isn’t this the point of technology? By not commuting in total 2 hours at least every day between home and work I reduce my carbon footprint and help the environment. I love staying home and ordering in and connecting with my real family not work colleagues.
104
Yes, years ago, like 20 or 30 years ago, there were predictions that city work would decline and remote work would rise thanks to computers. But that never quite happened as urban "lifestyles" became very trendy.
7
today in Sydney our local shopping centre was abuzz with crowds of happy families unmasked with kids skipping and playing happily - a reminder of former times but with a special sauce - we have not enjoyed this for 2 years !
so yeah - something is special by its rarity - and after weeks of rain (la nina) a patch of blue sky and happy daze are here again !
9
Just thinking about all those healthcare workers who have been masking, and commuting to work almost every day during the entire pandemic. Helps me keep perspective.
80
@duanna As for me, thinking about healthcare workers reinforces my conviction that wearing a mask to go to the grocery store is not onerous.
58
My wife and I, who are 76 and 77, occupy the front part of our house. Yesterday I got a call from my son informing me that his wife and daughter had tested positive for covid. My son and his son tested negative. My wife tested negative from a rapid test after she learned the test results for my son's family. I am waiting for the results of a pcr test. All 4 adults have been boosted and the 7-year-old has been vaccinated. Vaccines greatly reduce fear of a bad outcome, and the two who have covid are not seriously ill, but covid can produce nasty surprises so it is not over yet.
70
A quick calculation: this year, I'm living (temporarily) in the Chicago metro area, where the case rate reported today was 12.3 per 100k per day. That means the average time between cases for an individual at the current rate of community transmission is 8130 days, which is 22 years. But vaccinated people have about half the probability of infection with Omicron compared with the average, so make that 44 years for me. I'm a 46 year old male, so my remaining life expectancy is about 33 years. Therefore, under the current conditions, I would expect to get Covid less than one time in my remaining life. There are many other things to worry about more at the moment.
11
Yawn. Maybe it’s over, maybe it’s not. Certainly have read this sort of cheerleading before.
But regardless, if you want to delude yourself into thinking that riding the subway these days is some kind of sensory pleasure, or worse yet, you actually believe that, by all means enjoy, but don’t universalize. Breaking the unhealthy, unsustainable rhythm of life in a FiDi office was the silver lining of the pandemic for me. I’ll never go back full time, nor will most people I work with. Would be a shame if the best we can do following the pandemic is desperately try to turn back the clock.
145
Obviously it's not quite safe yet in NYC according to The Science; I will be holding off on going to the city for dinner and a show with my extended family (my wife's mother is morbidly obese and very old) for now. When The Science changes we will be there!
20
Honestly, I dont want to wear shoes for 12 hours a day, and be dressed sitting at my desk. I want my skin to breath and be easy. I love my PJs. Offices should allow PJs and slippers casual clothes wear to offices . Give the employees a break!
56
I will never be returning to the office. This has nothing to do with Covid and everything to do with the vast improvement in my quality of life from remote work. Eric Adams' idiotic political babbling makes no difference to me.
185
This pandemic in the US was handled poorly. Starting with the former guy. Our current president advocates for the path of least resistance. Vaccines, vaccines ,vaccines. N95 masks, home tests and maybe hand sanitizer.
No PSA's on how germs are spread, just wash your hands...after going to the bathroom ? after blowing your nose ? after touching a high touch surface ? what? what ?..If you are not in healthcare, and don't research how viruses, and germs are spread, you are totally clueless. Meanwhile there are some that called sanitizing high touch surfaces, "hygiene theater". those high touch surfaces are what we call vectors and or/ fomites.
955,000 deaths and counting prove the US did a horrible job of informing it's citizens. Did anyone ever wonder why our nurses and doctors on Covid units dressed as if they were going to the moon ? To PREVENT getting the virus !! and even then those healthcare workers were afraid they might bring the virus home to their families...sigh..
Throw caution to the wind. No masks in public settings,no proof of vaccination and no mitigation strategies doesn't mean the pandemic is over and It doesn't mean you will NOT catch Covid.
Waiting to see how this behaving as if the pandemic is over shakes out...
65
If more people had gotten vaccinated, then maybe I'd be buying tickets to a concert or going to a movie.
I don't need to eat out in order to live.
Mayor Adams, I happen to like my pajamas even though they are not my daytime wardrobe.
Too many new stories of fake vaccine cards for me to trust the people sitting around me.
Some of us may be over Covid but Covid is not over us.
Can truss it!
61
@Me in here
Can't trust it!
13
I have been returning to the office a day or two a week. I am actively trying not to spend any money while there. It is painful to see what dining out daily costs when you haven’t done it in two years.
109
@Jason - not only eating out- everything is going sky high. I cut back to buying nothing but the bare essentials. It is a different world.
32
@Jason
So, stop wasting your hard earned money by eating out. Surely, you have better things to blow money on than buying overpriced restaurant meals.
18
@Jason My wife and I love going out to eat. To us it’s one of the joys in life. I think we are seeing an adjustment in restaurant prices that more closely reflect the cost of operating a restaurant. (We just moved away from NYC for a couple years but have lived there for 25 years).
7
The pandemic isn’t over…and I’m not getting out of my pajamas.
Getting dressed is so passé.
79
@Susanna How does this work? Do you shower then get back into different clean pajamas?
@Susanna. Hmm, really? It’s a medicated slacker attitude that’ll attract the manager, soon enough, whose main talent has always been to motivate people to properly experience their new reality and what is expected going forward- from them. The carefree days of “free” government money to buy weed after sleeping in have ended!
3
My old gym sent an email promoting the end of vaccine requirements— this may be an enticement at a few select locations but i think many other former members will be less eager to go back because of this.
63
How is the pandemic over -- even with an asterisk -- when close to 2,000 Americans are dying daily? We know this statistic because it is updated and reported every day. In The Times.
Acting as if the pandemic is over doesn't make it magically cease.
Conforming to what medical experts are advising -- masking and getting vaxxed -- would be a start towards ending this.
In the meantime, significant portions of the population, such as the immunocompromised and seniors may be subjected to needless health risks when masks and vaccines are abandoned.
114
@Rambo - The virus certainly didn’t go anywhere, and most people will catch it if they haven’t already. It’s really kind of sad after all the effort put toward stopping the spread. Getting vaccinated is a definite must, but enforcing this and other controls over the long haul has shown itself possible only in China. Even the authoritarian Vietnam and the isolated New Zealand have given up on it. Fortunately, our immunocompromised and very elderly populations still gain some protection from mRNA Covid vaccines, although not as much as those in better health do.
8
@Rambo
those are largely unvaccinated people. I think That’s all that needs to be said
10
"Pessimists"? How quick to label. New York more than any place in the country took a devastating hit of death and loss and many people are traumatized. That should be respected instead of ridiculed.
And I had hoped Adams had some wisdom but he does not appear to. By removing the vaccine mandate for indoor dining, any prospective "customers" these businesses hope to attract will be counteracted by New Yorkers that exercise caution and are not comfortable sharing breathing space with thoughtless rubes who refused to take a mimimim of care for themselves and their community.
93
In NYC, some distinction needs to be made between 1) suburban residents who work from home and 2) city residents who work from home.
Suburban residents, many with families, typically have long commutes which is a key issue.
On the other hand, city residents tend to be young and affluent - and like work from home because it allows flexibility such as ability to go out to lunch, travel etc.
14
@A I live in NYC and my commute takes an hour. I’m not going back to full time office useless commuting. I’ll use those 8 hours a week for exercise or reading. Eric Adams can yell all he wants. Looking forward to voting him out next election.
And plenty of older people live in NYC.
45
@A —agree with Dagwood. Some NYC commutes take a long time! Sure some people have the ideal 15 minute walk commute but most have the walk, plus a subway ride and another walk once they get near their office. This time adds up.
35
PS:
Omitted in error the many NYC residents who also have lengthy commutes, particularly from SI, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx.
For example, my cousin, 1.5 hours each way City Island-Manhattan commute.
18
I love getting rid of the masks, but hate the idea of restaurants, etc. not requiring proof of vaccination. Oh, the dichotomy.
50
@Lissette Rodriguez
I'm vaxxed and boosted and could care less what the rest of them do. Why do you?
5
@Lissette Rodriguez What do you think proof of vaccination provides? All of NYC got Omnicron in December, so what did the proof of vaccination really do? Being vaccinated cleared didn't stop the spread of Omnicron. Vaccination proof is that same as masks. If they make you feel more comfortable, wear/have one, if it doesn't, don't worry about it. Live and let live.
13
@Lissette Rodriguez. There’s never been “proof” of vaccination because photocopying exists.
2
Will we forever be running into burning buildings declaring the fire is out just because the flames are no longer visible from the front? I swear, there is clearly some profit-minded people running headlong in and dragging their shell-shocked, kicking and screaming employees in with them.
97
@HLM
Absolutely.
The lease on these empty buildings is driving the management class insane.
The only “solution” they have is put to people back in the seats.
The fact that *before* the pandemic their employees were commuting hours per day only to email people not even in that office, does not register at all.
27
@HLM. Exactly, there’s a reason why America is #1. Feared and fearless all the way.
Well, as long as everyone's happy staying home and cooking their own meals, can we please get rid of the dining sheds?
Mold-blackened plywood's not my idea of scenic.
69
@B.
The NYC restaurant sector is actually doing pretty well - certainly well enough so that new restaurants opened in 2021 and, as mentioned in this article, continuing to open in 2022.
Restaurants got the free street shacks from NYC. restaurants also got federal aid.
The street shacks, which generate garbage and rats, need to go.
30
@B.
The sheds are wildly popular outside New York. People in Florida love to see them on TV, especially in the winter months!
4
@B. Nope. I like outdoor dining.
4
The Pandemic isn't over. Covid is going to be with us for a long time to come.
61
@Sharon5101 Hopefully those of us that realize this will be further ahead those with their head in the clouds.
9
@Sharon5101 - Forget Covid. If this Ukraine war gets out of hand, Covid is going to be the least of our problems.
27
@JC “in the clouds” or perhaps somewhere else far darker and stinkier
1
Too much here about smells.
And 'endured' sensory deprivation? Pretty dramatic!
..... she had endured a long stretch of sensory deprivation; she had missed the smell of a gyro cart, the smell of coffee bought from a vendor on the sidewalk.
or
inhaling the aromatics of someone else’s piping-hot Guatemalan blend"
I never noticed any such things around NYC. It's silly, that anyone would notice or care about it.
Can't you think of a better way to dramatize your article?
This is for TV or fashion writing, that was the writer's background.
41
@Meredith same thought: no smells where she’s lives? Or no enjoyable smells? Odd.
18
@Meredith - I lost my sense of taste and smell years ago from a bad virus as a matter of fact. You have no idea unless it has happened to you, how deprived you feel. It took about seven awful months to regain it. I know this wasn’t the exact case with the woman described - she had just been locked up inside which also deprives a person of the bombardment of smells that is New York. But she was re-experiencing all those many smells. When I couldn’t smell anything, I longed to smell the exhaust from a bus! My whole world felt out of kilter.
Maybe, if you’re curious about this, pay attention! Smelling things, some good, some not-so-good is a very important part of life. Not silly. Part of being alive!
15
@Meredith I also thought it was bizarre. Like this person hadn't left their apartment in two years?
21
Back to the rat race. Oh joy. I guess we learned nothing during our extended retreat.
67
@Shelby Swayze. We learned the world is full of lazy complaining victims.
4
Ginia, the average subway train can hold 2000 people. The next time your out and about and see one whiz by, please look at each face inside and consider that so many people died today because they took your advice here. There will be another train tomorrow. There will be even more trains after that. Please be sure to send me your opinion column once it's your family riding those trains and let me know how fast you get out of your pajamas that day.
53
@Matt , I've ridden the subway every day throughout all of this. The N, L, A, and G. No one died. Come outside, it's ok.
15
Famous last words.
23
The New York Times has definitely been on the Corporate and Real Estate propaganda trail lately. I recognize that you have to be NYC boosters (as I am) but a little more objectivity regarding where people work and why would be welcome and in tune with the (supposed) role of the media
70
never giving up thre fleece life...
20
Funny how often you mention smells being worth leaving home for when COVID-19 patients cannot smell. Should they keep their jammies on?
26
How about fixing rampant crime on trains and in streets (but mostly trains that most people take) - so that those who have the choice of coming in actually come in?
It’s not the pandemic that worries me as much as possibly getting attacked (which yes, I know two people who’ve been attacked).
53
@Concerned My company brought us back in 2020 UNVACCINATED. I've been back. And a homeless man stole my metro card in an near empty subway station. Honestly, the "smells" of the city are gross -- walk onto a subway and tell me how it smells. I miss the bleached, clean cars of the height of the pandemic. The homeless are now EVERYWHERE, unmasked and unruly. Maybe people were only in the city for the jobs/salary....if remote work is possible why wouldn't we all want to live NOT in a city and have space and clean air and no commutes?
29
@Lexi —agree. “Hygiene theater” or not, things were actually clean the way they should ALWAYS be.
16
Sitting in traffic, spending hours catching up on what your co-workers, their families, your family did last night, last weekend running down to the deli, local restaurant to spend a half-hour to get food, another half-hour to eat it, then spend hours in meetings making decisions that we learned can simply be made by sending an email to take care of. Yes, let’s go back to the office, so we can get less work done. Long as everyone can see us, right?
104
@solutiondriven As long as the real estate industry makes that coin. That is ALL that matters.
42
@solutiondriven. Sounds like you need to experience micro managing until your attitude changes and you desire nothing else but being a winning team player!
3
I love this article. Finally a little (very appropriate!) optimism. I know it will upset so many of your readers, and inspire doom-drenched comments, but it is now abundantly clear that these folks are a small and ever-shrinking minority. The world will get along just as well without their participation.
24
@JenGeneva
Spot on with the upset many of the readers. For some bizarre reason they want things to continue the way they have been. It’s very strange.
14
@GHM Illuminating that neither of you live in NYC and don't have to commute.
8
And thus the gods of the market decided when disease faded. Money has eclipsed all else.
117
Sorry for being Debbie Downer -ok, cue the music now, wah, wah wah - but the pandemic is not over. Yes, the numbers continue to move in the right direction. But approximately 1700 people are dying daily from Covid. And since the start of the pandemic, even with vaccines, masks and other common-sense restrictions, there is usually a 2-3 month Covid wave of high daily cases and deaths, followed by a 2-month drop and lull period.
We had a tough December and January, with a much better February and likely March. But I’m concerned what comes next.
We shouldn’t let our guard down yet. I’m not.
152
@Eugene Gorrin - I'd like to say with some (misplaced, selfish) glee that the people dying are the unvaccinated. But there are others, too.
I agree that this thing ain't over yet. May we all continue to be a bit more cautious than we "ought" to be. I'm ok with restaurants continuing to have contactless menus, etc.
21
@Eugene Gorrin I agree. It's silly how many people are declaring victory. Remember last summer, NYC tried to celebrate and the concert was ruined by a thunderstorm - nature was sending a message but people still haven't learned. Politics and economics.
29
Going out to eat, movies, museums, even opera, are luxuries. Luxuries we will continue to avoid. For now.
53
@Ryan Bobo 25 and just moved here?
9
Sure, it’s nice to support your local businesses, but for many of us, that’s just now going to be in our neighborhood and not “downtown.” Is it our civic duty to come downtown to support commercial real estate, or the bigger restaurants and cafe chains? I’d rather support mom-and-pop cafes, stores and food carts in my neighborhood while happily working from home. (Portland, not NYC but same idea).
95
@PDXNYTreader I agree that communities should support the local businesses. However, i would rather someone wear a mask when preparing my food.....
12
Of all the terrible things over the past two years, having to wear a mask is at the bottom of the list. The fact that people find this to be in any way a hardship boggles my mind. Do people just need to complain all the time that they have to find problems where there are none?
283
@Maryjane I am confused why adults want to constantly find something to whine about. First it was the mask and then the vaccine. I will never understand how these simple things are such a violation of their freedoms. In the South we say, "for crying out loud", and always finding issues where there are none. Whatever, I am retired and I am fine with continuing to wear a mask in public and if I need a booster, I will get that too. I have survived cancer x 2. When you have been through that, a mask and vaccine sure beats surgery and chemo.
78
@Maryjane. Frankly, after two years plus of masking, social distancing, social justice and getting admonished by strangers comments on my and others supposed selfishness and reckless behaviors I’m not interested in doing good for the ingrates for too much longer.
I choose shortly not to spend every moment considering, adjusting and helping vulnerable people that could lead ultimately to saving their lives instead of thoughtlessly taking them.
3
@Jenifer Greene. Try working wearing a mask for a 12 hour shift instead of being retired and confused with how people who don’t have coworkers in a hot environment might complain about wearing a mask.
4
In my local newspaper, I read today that a 75-year-old man had died of Covid complications.
16
@John Corr
I don't understand your comment. More than 1700 people died from covid YESTERDAY.
24
I teach HS in NYC. On Monday I can’t stop any of the 34 kids in my poorly ventilated 100-year-old classroom from unmasking. I’m on the subway and busses for 2-3 hours a day. I’m pretty sure I had COVID in December. Then I had a mild heart attack in January. And I just turned 50. I’m 3x vaccinated.
We’ve got all summer for people to let their guards down.
Next winter is going to be horrifying.
Just because capitalism decided it was hungry doesn’t make the pandemic over.
499
@TextualHealing As an educator, myself, who suffered a stroke during the pandemic, I am genuinely sorry to hear about your situation. Please put yourself first as you push ahead to get through these extraordinary times. Teaching was tough enough before the pandemic, but now the sheer physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion are understandably driving more out of the field.
114
@Gina
Thank you and take care.
29
@TextualHealing
"Just because capitalism decided it was hungry doesn’t make the pandemic over."
You have won the comments section for the day!
70
Others may do as they like but I personally will continue to mask in crowded situations and follow other Covid protocols. Masking and vaccination have put Covid on the run and now is not the time to relax our vigil.
160
There is a valid argument to be made that The Pandemic has declined because people have been vaccinated and have worn masks.
Keep doing it.
COVID has not faded spontaneously.
213
@MIKEinNYC. It’s another valid argument that enough people got it, recovered or die from it along with vaccinations adding up to it go away shortly.
1
RTO articles miss the point that many jobs do not need to be done in an office, Covid or not. There are many reasons for this that we are all aware of by now. For these jobs, full time offices, commuting etc. are a waste of time, money and quality of life. That cat is out of the bag and can't be forced back in. This is likely a paradigm shift and society will have to adjust. I'd like to see a pro WFH article in the times for once.
146
@Matt Part of that adjustment is replacing local workers with cheaper counterparts in other parts of the country or much cheaper counterparts around the world. That's already been happening, and it will accelerate as more industries take notice.
You're signaling to your employer that they're overpaying for you in NY if the work can readily be performed anywhere. People better be ready to take responsibility for that part, too.
39
@Ska
Agreed. New York and Bay Area were expensive because everyone wanted to be there, and employers had to pay more to compensate for the higher cost of living. If people are going to work remotely then there is less reason for employers to pay that part of the premium.
22
Ska, your comment is too rational and perceptive, and therefore it won't get those 79 or so "recommends" that others do.
11
Reading this as we plan a move out the city at the end of this month. NYC is forever changed by the pandemic, and by that I mean dead. A former cultural center that is now a shopping mall. The entire culture turned over and the whole thing feels like a sad charade. Visitors I've had have described it as "one big Gossip Girl set." Livability has never been worse, the subway remains dangerous. Everything is more expensive. For those over 30, get out while you can and enjoy life somewhere else, being here into your late 30s is not a good look. For those in their 20s, I'm sorry this is the New York you ended up with. Bye bye!
29
I guess those who call New York City a "Gossip Girl" set and a giant shopping mall don't go to our museums, theaters, or botanical gardens, or visit Lincoln Center or our parks or stand at our enormous harbor or walk our beaches, or do the things that we New Yorkers have been doing for generations.
I don't know what you expect or where you live in Queens, but New York City is home to eight million people, most of whom actually go to work and support their families.
Hardly a second-rate TV show. If that's what your friends are calling our city, their cultural references and experiences are sadly lacking.
Worse, they don't know who we are.
46
@queen
Quitter. This is what separates New Yorkers from the weak.
20
@queen Could I actually find a parking place? That actually sounds like a great reason to visit. No crowds.
Have they turned Carnegie Hall into a hot dog stand yet?
Face it, NY will never be the same without Trump and his entourage.
I truly can't believe what a bunch of soft, weak, whining crybabies our country has turned into—absolute spoiled toddlers who refuse to make even the smallest sacrifice or lifestyle change (wearing a mask) to help others and keep the nation afloat, who are so utterly helpless and selfish they can't live without going out to eat at restaurants or going on vacation.
132
I have no intention of ever traveling to New York again. The idea of using public transit there makes my skin crawl.
25
I took the subway this week. It was the first time in years that I didn't have to change cars: no vagrants sleeping in their urine, no smokers, no psychotics.
Yes, there was the recent incident of the homeless man pushing his excrement, which he had been carrying in a bag for the purpose, into the face of a woman sitting on a bench waiting for a train. He was arrested and released shortly thereafter.
If that doesn't get people exercised enough to boot out the politicians who brought us to this state, I do not know what will.
But do come back. New York City is still New York City.
12
@Federalist I'm pretty sure your fellow riders may harbor the same feelings about you...
16
The high end food industry, which includes restaurant reviewers, has suffered grievously, so it's nice to see them declare the pandemic over, even with an asterisk. Still, the current death rate of 2,000+ Americans per day makes you think, doesn't it?
43
Now that they have declared it over I believe they will be depending more on tourists -- whether from Florida or France -- as many City residents will want to wait 6 months to a year before they dine indoors with a bunch of strangers who may or may not be vaccinated, infectious, etc.
3
This article just underscores what a mental and political bubble NYC and the NYTimes is in. Many places in the world and this country got out of their pajamas months and months ago. And those places are not just populated by MAGA hat wearing, bleach drinking zealots. Normal places with normal people who were not overly hysterical and have been living largely normally for a long time
28
@P Exactly! In Europe people were showered, dressed and back at work. My friends and family there were shocked I was still WFH post vaccination. And I can assure you there aren’t too many MAGAs in Paris.
10
@P Hysteria and population density are not the same thing.
10
Who wants to live in NJ? No thanks.
What a piece of corporate garbage propaganda. What is life without the hustle? Enjoyable, that’s what. Mayor Adams needs to calm down. Pajamas are comfortable and better than sitting in a crowded subway full of germs any day of the week.
We should NEVER go back to office work 5 days/week. It’s corporate enslavement and it’s soul-crushing and pointless.
258
@ComeAtTheKing "...better than sitting in a crowded subway full of germs any day of the week."
Oh, the over the top drama and hysteria is too much. Tell me, do you own/operate a 2-ton form of personal transit? I find it supremely interesting how some folks cherry pick the 'dangers' out there. So (for NYCers) to be around their fellow humans of all stripes, on the subway system, and to get from Point A to B for a $3 fare (or whatever it costs now) is 'too crowded' and 'full of germs' and otherwise unpleasant, while sitting behind the wheel of a hermetically-sealed 2-ton personal mode of transit is ....'preferable'? 'Normal'? 'Safer' than public transit?
The problems of private-car ownership and use are myriad: car owners become overweight and unhealthy, due to habitual, needless use of their vehicles to go anywhere and everywhere. This is all the more perverted in places such as NYC, and where even in the most 'transit-rich', commercial-rich parts of NYC, some still insist on driving everywhere (and then double-parking). Cars create noise and air pollution, increased rates of asthma and other cardioV disease within the community, and they are mowing down pedestrians and cyclists at alarming rates within NYC and other dense cities.
How is going to the office for a job/work that you previously agreed to and accepted...how did it suddenly become 'corporate enslavement'?? Next we'll have people complaining that they have to work at all, in order to get paid.
18
@Lisa
Puzzled that you’d make so many assumptions about a total stranger? Plus the individual’s comment made no mention of car use.
For the record, there are many people (especially tech) in upscale Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods who do not have cars - and they are working remotely and want work from home to continue.
51
@Lisa —it always was corporate enslavement. It’s simply now people had the opportunity to imagine a somewhat different way of working. Thus is somewhat different but in fact related: why do you think some Amazon warehouses, Starbucks, and now REI have had union votes recently? Because the workers have realized that employers don’t have to, and shouldn’t have to control all the shorts.
21
My pajamas are none of Eric Adams's business.
86
The pandemic is NOT over. Dropping mask, vaccine and distancing mandates does not mean the pandemic is over. Stay safe people.
119
I love how he says 'sitting in your pajamas is not who we are as a city.' Does he not realize a large chunk of the people who populate the business districts come from outside the city? And the thought of sitting on delayed trains creaking through crumbling tunnels isn't one they're in any hurry to revive?
Anyone been through Penn Station lately? It's literally 10x seedier and off-putting than it was when the pandemic began.
81
@Peter I went through the new side of Penn Station, in the old Post Office building, and was amazed and pleasantly surprised how new and clean it was. The Subway too has never been cleaner. Its still nowhere near London or Tokyo quality, but far more pleasant ride than pre-pandemic. Public transport will never be to everybody's liking, particularly people who don't have access to it everyday.
7
@TJ
The new side of Penn Station is gorgeous but I thought that’s just for Amtrak.
I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to go back to commuting. I’ve worked remotely for years now and love it. Besides, working in PJs is very comfortable.
27
Eric Adams equilvalency of mask and vaccine mandates is invalid. I will stop going to restaurants and theaters if they stop checking, and I suspect others will too.
So this may be counterproductive.
53
@Dennis The checking of vax status was never really about ensuring non-vaxed people weren't getting access. It was more about introducing friction to the experience that would motivate people to get vaccinated. The vaccination levels are very high now in NYC, so really that assumption is at least 90%+ of the people around you are vaxed - probably even higher than that. And if you are vaxed yourself (and are not immunocompromised), you have little to no chance of becoming seriously ill or hospitalized. Also, single way masking is effective so keep wearing a mask if you want, but to not go to restaurants because they're not checking vax status now seems like a fairly significant over-reaction
3
@TJ If you look at the vaccine rates (available in this paper), you can see that what you are assuming is not the case. In NYC, the rates for fully vaxed (2 shots) vary from 71% in Brooklyn to 85% in Queens.
4
@Dennis Yep. A LOT of NY'ers with deep pockets are high risk and they will not see this as a positive.
2
Understandably the mayor wants to save a certain spirit of NYC. I think all of this is way too premature.
Immunocompromised aren’t the only ones who must worry: even if you’re boosted and maybe had Covid a new variant can do you in. The only way to leave your mask behind and be safe is to stay home. A crowd of unmasked people makes me shiver.
This is a pandemic as long as other countries are not vaccinating their people and new variants emerge.
43
My colleagues and I will probably work from home permanently. It won't cause lower productivity in our department, and the higher-ups may be able to give up an entire floor of an expensive midtown building. I'll be clocking in for work later, in sweatpants, a t-shirt, a ratty old sweater, and some really nice warm socks. I went out earlier, properly dressed, but only because I felt like looking good. I do that maybe 3-5 times a month. I just bought some more pajamas, from the Vermont Country Store. We love their catalogs: just the thing to help one get to sleep.
69
In my neighborhood, it’s not just the older folks who are still wearing a mask outdoors. It’s the young mothers pushing her baby in a stroller, the young couples out for a walk, and the uber delivery drivers.
I’ll continue to mask up for the families who have young kids not yet eligible for a vaccine. I’ll keep wearing a mask at least until those antiviral pills are in stock at my pharmacy. And with Spring busting out all over, a mask may help with my allergies too.
122
@Vicki Great, one way masking is effective especially if you wear a KN95.
8
Sad to hear of people wearing masks outside.
8
@Vicki
A mask outdoors?? At this point that has been proven completely unnecessary. Hygiene theatre.
14
Commuting to my NYC office from northern Westchester cost $3500 per year, and that was with the pre-tax metro card program in which my employer participated. Now I work from home and, in addition to saving the money, I save the time and stress associated with commuting and have time to exercise, take care of my home, have dinner with my spouse, and so on.
I am not going back to the office. If I want to “cross-pollinate,” I’ll go to a local park, shop in town, or have coffee at Starbucks. Adams has economic worries; I get that. But many of those who can choose to stay home, will stay home.
In addition to working from home, I continue to wear a mask when indoors with people who I don’t know are vaccinated. Adams new policy means that I will no longer eat in restaurants when in NYC or, if our local mask ordinance is lifted, in my town restaurants. Many friends, particularly older folks, have said the same.
Adams is worried about money; we are worried about lives and health. A new variant is inevitable, and I don’t want to be the canary in the coal mine.
247
Your New York City job probably pays you big bucks. I hope you're amenable to a decrease in salary since you're saving so much money.
And clearly you are. No commuting, no deli sandwiches, no dry cleaning bills, no meeting people for dinner after work.
That's why salaries elsewhere in the country are often so much lower.
11
@B. So wrong. I’m in not-for-profit - little bucks. I take my lunch from home, do not meet people for dinner, and instead go, via subway, to my second job, p/t college teaching (now also online). No dry cleaning bills, either; not-for-profit is informal; everything I wear to work is washable.
The $3,500? $325 for the Metro North monthly pass, discounted due to the employer plan, plus the MetroCard to get from Grand Central to my job via the subway.
See? Never assume - and why so nasty? If I stay online, that will be because my employer understands that its overhead as well as mine is lower when people work from home.
59
@B.
That is false. Salaries in NYC are not higher. When I moved to Boston, it seemed to me I suddenly became rich - with the same salary. And Boston is not a cheap city.
NYC is a Third World City: garbage, rats, dirty subways. I lived before in twi cities that were just as big (Paris, London) and they were clean, rat-free and with clean subways. NYC just has excuses why it “has to” be so terrible and have a Third World quality of life.
30
Commuting to my NYC office from northern Westchester cost $3500 per year, and that was with the pre-tax metro card program in which my employer participated. Now I work from home and, in addition to saving the money, I save the time and stress associated with commuting and have time to exercise, take care of my home, have dinner with my spouse, and so on.
I am not going back to the office. If I want to “cross-pollinate,” I’ll go to a local park, shop in town, or have coffee at Starbucks. Adams has economic worries; I get that. But many of those who can choose to stay home, will stay home.
In addition to working from home, I continue to wear a mask when indoors with people whom I don’t know are vaccinated. Adams new policy means that I will no longer eat in restaurants when in NYC or, if our local mask ordinance is lifted, in my town restaurants. Many friends, particularly older folks, have said the same.
Adams is worried about money; we are worried about lives and health. A new variant is inevitable, and I don’t want to be the canary in the coal mine.
22
It’s pretty much back to business as usual here in Japan. However, one caveat is that hygiene is much better here overall and people still do the socially responsible thing when indoors by masking up (without being told or mandated) when we’re not eating. This puts my mind at ease when at the gym, or in a packed train or elevator. (We have no vaccine card requirements, which is fine since the vaccination rate is so high.)
In any case, the biggest takeaway for me watching from overseas has been the pure shock at how a public health issue can end up becoming so politically polarized. Even with the pandemic out of the way, you guys have so much work and introspection to be done in terms of social cohesion, and I always hope things will turn out for the better for my friends and family back in the States.
116
@JP
Thank you, and hopefully we’ve all learned something. Our nations’ flags illustrate your point: Japan’s has one big dot and the USA’s has 50 individual stars and thirteen stripes.
18
@Vicki
One big dot, and apparently superior hygiene.
18
It won’t, half the country is too self-centered
13
Where is the fairness in keeping toddlers masked in school - who are not even eligible for a vaccine - whereas older kids can go maskless - vaccinated or not?
Would love to move on from the pandemic. But we are still obligated to mask our 3-year old every day.
Feels like unwarranted age discrimination for 2-4 year olds.... and their parents who have done nothing but mask, get vaccinated and boosted, and lived by all possible rules.
6
@Marie
Who's telling you that toddlers must mask? They have been exempt in every thing I've read, acknowledging that it is not practical to try to mask such little ones.
Epidemiologists don't do "age discrimination" ... they study and report on viruses. If there are age differences in recommendations or in reactions to virus, etc., then age is relevant. If it is relevant to the disease, it has relevance. It is not age discrimination.
16
@Marie - Find another day care.
5
@Marie
Are you joking? The ONLY thing protecting a 3 year old (unless they are one of the few in the trial) now is their own mask. The age-discrimination here is that people have forgotten that those under 5 are the only group not able to be vaccinated and protect themselves. That's the tragedy.
17
I'm curious how this messaging would be if office tenants were able to exit their leases back during COVID-19. These is all suits making up for lost time.
18
Two totally unrelated things:
1. We will unlikely see a return to actual menus because it's faster, easier, and cheaper to change a menu online than it is to get one printed, and maybe laminated. As a designer I am sad about this. As a patron, I am sad about this. But bookkeeping doesn't lie…
2. Why would the mayor lift the vaccine mandate? Why are mask and shot mandates lumped together? And why on earth are movie theaters going mask-free, but in Broadway theaters they are still required? That makes no sense.
Here's what makes sense to me: require proof of vaccine and then no masks. No vaccine? Mask.
38
@Myasara
Broadway stage actors are singing and shouting, spewing aerosols into the air, while movie audiences typically are quiet. Tourists from all over the country and the world are coming back to see the Broadway shows, so if Broadway decides to continue their restrictions for a while longer, or indefinitely, that’s their decision and that makes sense to me.
Those who are not vaccinated, even though eligible, are likely not going to mask up anyway. That’s been true from the beginning of the pandemic.
17
@Myasara - Very little about covid makes sense.
4
Different places will have different policies, and that's fine. However, in my field, those who don't come to the office will get surpassed because part of leadership is presence. Part of development and growth is seeing people in action, not just on scheduled Zoom meetings. Part of developing business is building relationships and organic interactions with people. Going to lunch. Going to dinner. Going to other people's offices. You can't make important new connections (at least in my field) from your apartment.
Staying in your living room means staying put. There can be consequences to that as well.
18
@Ska
This is the part that many people don't appreciate. While some jobs can be done well remotely, that's not true of all jobs. And young people lose out on growth without the personal interaction with others.
11
@PB While I value face-to-face interactions, young people have grown up in a different world where there are many kinds of interactions. An online presence might prove far more powerful for a young person than a face-to-face one.
10
@Gina
A face-to-face interaction is qualitatively different from an online interaction.
My kids, nephews/nieces, kids of friends, young colleagues at work - I am hard pressed to think of anyone who isn't looking forward to working from the office, at least in a hybrid mode.
7
The cash price for gas at our "cheaper" station is about to hit $5.
Our favorite Bahn Mi shop just hiked up prices to over $12 for a vegan sandwich. Our favorite taqueria? Over $10 for beans, rice, and salsa.
If SF is expensive, I am assuming NYC is the same.
Commuting is much, much more expensive than it was 2 years ago, so there's a big fat NO to in-office work.
Our family has stopped eating out as well. We used to pick up sandwiches a few times a month. No more.
If not for the pandemic, for the cost.
50
This article really captures the mood of the city right now. Those many commenters who are still not leaving their homes wouldn't know that, but the rest of us have kind of moved on. I'm vaccinated and boosted. If I get COVID I'll get over it. For all I know, I may have already had it without any symptoms. I'm actually more worried about flu at this point because I never got a flu shot this year.
21
@Jack (NYC)
I think public health is still recommending getting a flu shot even though it's March. Go get one if that is the case.
7
@Jack (NYC) Ever heard of Long Covid? Even infected asymptomatic people can get it, and from all accounts it can be quite horrible and disruptive of people’s lives.
17
@Jack (NYC) —this is anecdotal but I have hear that flu is very bad in NYC this winter.
1
Ending the mask mandates and vaccine requirements is a mistake that will come back to bite.
I have enjoyed going to restaurants, the gym and theaters since proof of vaccination was required. As of this Monday, I will no longer eat inside restaurants, I will workout at home or outdoors, and I will once again avoid theaters. I don’t think I’ll be the only one.
As far as going to the office is concerned, I will probably stay remote for the rest of career. And I will avoid using public transportation whenever possible. As far as the office goes, my boss has told his remote employees that remote works better and anyone who wishes to stay remote may do so. He said you can be anywhere you want as long as your work day overlaps for at least one hour of the business day with Eastern time.
193
I am not going back to the office and, my employer, as many employers did, realized productivity went up during WFH. Maybe signing in earlier and staying later, rarely taking a full lunch or any breaks except to do quick a vacuum, load of laundry or throw dinner together, might have something to do with it? They are shrinking our offices by an entire floor so pretty sure they are happy, enough, with the arrangement . . .
54
@Mary Richardson That's perfect, we don't want or need to go back to the office when working from home is more productive and healthier. Great to do productive tasks at home such as laundry while working.
32
The main game changer is the availability of highly effective antiviral medications that, according to basic immunology, will also work for the immunocompromised. According to Biden, these medicines will soon be available without a prescription, requiring only a positive test done at the pharmacy. Just get vaccinated, get tested if you have symptoms and then take the antiviral medication if you are positive. If you are still scared, wear an N95 mask, which is widely available at this time. No need to police the behavior of others anymore.
14
@Dr. Z The entire problem with this country is those who won't do what is right and therefore we need to "police" the behavior of others and every intelligent person sees right thru the economically and politically motivated premature dropping of restrictions.
54
@JC That used to make sense when highly effective antiviral therapies and vaccines were not available. The medical reality has changed because of these innovations. Is there still a non-zero risk of death? Sure. But if that bothers you, then maybe it is better to avoid driving a car.
7
@Dr. Z Do you wear a seatbelt when you drive?
8
Ask the residents of New Zealand what they think of Covid.
15
@Cici - New Zealand is proof positive of the folly of believing that covid can be eliminated.
13
The one thing Brooklyn DOESN'T need is another restaurant.
What' s wrong with you two? (Maybe lack of creativity and imagination?). And by the way, the "covid pandemic" is most definitely not over, not close. May I suggest you two submit to
counseling and seeking out the best business minds in NYC. A restaurant in Brooklyn or anywhere else in the boroughs is doomed.
22
@Andreadakis People like lighting money on fire here in NY, its a pastime.
4
"Pessimists will say that we have been here before."
Two words: new variants.
It's not pessimism. It's realism. As Dr. Michael Osterholm says in the excellent podcast Osterholm Update: COVID19, hope is not a strategy. I yearn as much as the next person for a world in which covid is not a dominant force, but it is. Not just for the immuno-compromised or elderly or or or.....but for us all, especially becaue much of the world is not yet vaccinated. We are in a lull, and long may it last, but it's just wishful thinking to act as if it will.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts-webinars
And, BTW, the 7-day average of covid deaths in the US is still at a sobering 1700. We are closing in on a million.
158
the life of the privileged ... many of us did not have that choice and have been back to work or working at our place of employment the entire time!
67
@xyx
Thank you! And yet they continue to whine! Working in person is for peasants apparently
9
Working in person is not for “peasants.” It’s for people whose jobs can’t be done as well or better from home.
You can’t draw blood, take X-rays or MRIs, cook food, make beds, care for sick pets and animals, be a member of the cast or crew of a film or TV show or live theater, build or repair cars, make microchips, fly or crew an airplane, drive an ambulance, build bridges, run trains and subways or give walking tours from home.
But what we’ve learned is that a lot of us who work in offices can work at least as well from home as from those buildings. We can do accounting, finance and legal work, prepare and send invoices, settle insurance claims, create advertising campaigns, edit books and other publications or transcribe medical or court records and proceedings.
Some people’s work is driven primarily by relationships. People who think they benefit from “in-person” interaction may do so because those interactions allow them to leverage advantages. Other work is more analytical and frankly, may be less subject to bias if performed with less “connection.” I wish we could accept that different jobs are different. Why do people with jobs that are better performed in person want to turn this into some moral argument?
4
Sorry, not risking long Covid going back to an office or a restaurant or a theatre where there is no proof of vaccination, just so Adams and his real estate buddies can maintain their holdings' value.
267
but be careful when you walk outside into our new "no bail and no jail" NYC. where there are few consequences for lawlessness
37
@Zenster
... or, are they trying to make sure the "consequences for lawlessness" are the same for young Black Americans and other non-white/males as it is for rich, white guys? I'm sorry you're worried about "no bail" for some of your scofflaws. I felt the same when they let Bannon out after a few hours. I feel the same about the fact that TFG is still walking around Florida with zero "consequence for lawlessness".
16
@Zenster Bail was never intended to let only the wealthy walk free before trial. It was intended to let nearly EVERYBODY go home before trial except those accused of the most heinous crimes.
If the system is built around the assumption that anybody accused of a crime is guilty and should be locked up indefinitely pre-trial, then the system is fundamentally broken.
Imprisonment should only be for thsoe CONVICTED of crimes. Those people have been proven guilty.
10
@teresa here are the REAL results:
"In a recent revolting incident, Frank Abrokwa, 37, allegedly smeared feces in a 43-year-old woman’s face as she sat on a bench at the Wakefield-241st Street subway station in the Bronx.
A judge released Abrokwa this week — because the charges against him were not bail-eligible under the state’s soft-on-crime bail reform laws — sparking outrage from Mayor Eric Adams and MTA chairman Janno Lieber.
4
Tell that to my husband, shut in our bedroom with COVID as I type.
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@Emily - I hope he is completely recovered soon!
16
@Emily, Wishing you and your husband the very best, and a speedy recovery to him.
8
How irresponsible to state the pandemic is over. Economic and politically motivated premature removal of masking and proof of vaccination is likely to be evident soon. Even the corruptible and easily influenced CDC will be eating their words again and reversing course in coming month or two.
58
I wish. No signs of this reality from my current employer. We've been told we may apply "no pressure - spoken or unspoken" to our coworkers who do not want to get out of their pajamas and meet in person. Our company is getting soft, mandating mediocrity.
When I moved across the country for this job 5+ year ago, I knew I had little choice in the matter. I didn't act as though I was a refugee and my human rights had been violated. My story is not unusual, of course, millions of other Americans have done the same thing. My, how we have changed!
18
@Justin So find another job. Maybe your company has people who want to 'live'.
21
@Justin
You had plenty of "choice in the matter", especially if you're a white man, Justin. There are jobs available in every city in the country. This was also true "5+ year ago".
The fact that you compare your trip to another state to take a job YOU applied for and got ... to being a refugee whose human rights had been violated, is just mind bogglingly, stunningly out of touch with the suffering of others. You have a compassion problem, not an employment problem, my friend.
32
Maybe some people have more of a soul than you do and aren’t defined by their job.
18
WFH is a very effective and immediate way to help our planet. We each have to recognize that past behaviors and corporate practices are destroying the very place we call home. COVID is a terrible scourge, but it is nothing compared to what is about to happen if we do not begin to live in a manner that protects the Earth.
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The push to return to conventional office staffing is coming from those businesses that rely on commuter and office traffic, management stick with lots of square footage of office space and commercial real estate interests. As soon as those leases start to expire all management support for the typical office structure will evaporate as they embrace the savings created by having their employees pick up the cost of office equipment and the associated utilities.
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@What Is This Employees are mostly happy to use home utilities and stay working from home. And no concern for commercial real estate. Not our problem. Yet Adams thinks he can make people care about real estate and overpriced restaurants.
33
All of the previous precautions—masking, vaccine mandates, etc. helped immunocompromised people by making it safer for us to be a part of public life. There was a brief window in the pandemic when I was able to go to a well ventilated bar bc even in the outside area, everyone was vaccinated. But the vaccine mandates remind everyone that the virus exists and so go they must. We mustn’t get in the way of everyone’s urgent pretending. It just *feels more real* if you banish the vaccine mandates. Never mind that it makes it less safe for everyone. When the vaccine mandates vanish, I stay home. Enjoy your long-Covid.
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@C, SF Yes, I felt safer two years ago. I am retired, almost 75, but never stayed inside or had my groceries delivered from the beginning. Was out every day from beginning of lockdown, shopping, going to bank and post office, walking, etc. Just wore a mask, kept my distance, washed my hands. But now, with thousands of tourists, often drunken, shouting tourists, not to mention drunken, shouting 20 somethings celebrating their "freedom," descending on midtown Manhattan, where I live, I don't feel safe at all.
7
I never once worked in my pajamas. Weird title. I got up, got dressed, and went to work at my computer in my home instead of at my computer in the city after a two-hour commute. What is so difficult to understand about "WORK" from home?
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the quotation marks succinctly describe the work done while working from home
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@Ace LOL. As soon as I posted this I thought, I think I should not have put WORK in quotations. I meant if for emphasis, which people around me often do, but I realize that quotations are often read as ironic.
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@betterangels I agree - I work more when I WFH than when I go to the office. For one thing, I'm not tied to a train schedule - I can do 10 more minutes of work without having to wait an hour for my next train. We're currently hybrid - M/F at home, T/W/Th in office - and I love it.
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I wish people wouldn't say it's "over". The numbers are low right now, but how much of that is because people aren't testing anymore or using home tests? Let's give it a couple of weeks after mandates have ended to see where we are.
We still have to worry about the elderly, immunocompromised and children under 5.
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@Anon It’s not over, but it appears hospitalizations are reduced, thankfully. My spouse had Covid within the past two weeks confirmed by self testing, as have other family and friends. None of them reported their positive tests to any authorities counting cases. I’m sure this is true for many others. Given that, I am cautiously optimistic, but I’m still wearing my mask everywhere and do not plan to dine indoors at this time.
26
Small quibble with title:
Please add the words "until next winter."
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Bookmark and reread this article next December to test it's verity.
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My husband has COVID right now. The pandemic is definitely not over for us.
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The link for chef Sean Rembold is much more interesting than this meandering article and I just bought his favorite knife. Good luck to the talented couple.
https://chefsroll.com/features/featured-chefs/chef-sean-rembold/
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If you are over 70 you are being sacrificed. If you have a heart condition you will be sacrificed. If you have type 2 diabetes, sacrificed. Have hypertension, sacrificed, In cancer treatment, sacrificed. Overweight, sacrificed, The list goes on.
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@Federalist
See my earlier post in agreement but what are advocacy groups doing to protect the most vulnerable. The groups you describe, I am one of them, have no voice -why are we so silent ? Reach out to AARP, medical advocates, disability advocates. Remember how effective the disability groups were when they used sit ins, etc. during the fight to keep the ACA? 3/4 of the dead are elderly/vulnerable. Do something.
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@Federalist - All of these groups can still wear a mask, and can still get vaccinated for free.
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@Henry According to the data and my doctor, the booster's effectiveness has faded for me six months later, since I am elderly with a couple of risk factors that I am managing with diet exercise and medication. However I, like 1/3 of the population in the high risk category, are NOT eligible for the fourth booster. Only extremely high risk transplant and some cancer patients. While doses of vaccine are expiring and being thrown out, I and millions of people like me are not allowed to get a fourth booster.
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Introverts of the world would rather not.
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@Sionnach the sensory overload is real. I get home after a 50 minute commute (from brooklyn) so exhausted I really can't manage much but a bath and bed. I'm angry.
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@Sionnach Or people just realized how much they gained by not commuting and by cooking healthier foods for themselves and their family members. Why force people to commute just to spend money.
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@L
Angry at what or whom?
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A lot of vulnerable and immunocompromised people feel a bit sidelined. Ah well nothing compared to the 'tyrrany' of having a wear a mask. Eric Adams is looking a bit GOP lite to me!
Whatever; something to put in our back pockets when the next opportunity to push Medicare for all comes along regarding 'death panels' and other PR tropes. 'we have to have a balance' I will say.
I been out of my pyjamas for some time Eric, as have many doctors, teachers and so on, I know you make a sort of snide side swipe at the 'champagne' socialists who work from home while minorities struggle in the front line. I am not out of agreement with you.
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The virus will decide when it's done.
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Um, because masks protect those who are immunocompromised. I know that I take care of my own health, but I don’t know if the person crammed into an elevator next to me is vaccinated, healthy, taking their own precautions. Why does it bother you so much if I choose to protect myself in this way from your ignorance?
And as for the menus, why would anyone want to add even more bacteria, viruses, and other schmutz into their systems when there is a simple, easy, and convenient way to avoid it? Seems like we are reverting to the pre-Covid attitude that we are all such special individuals that nothing can ever get to us. Haven’t we learned anything from the last two years—and almost 1 million dead in this country?
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@Suburban Mom The immunocompromised can take highly effective antiviral medications that will work very well for them, as they don't require an intact immune system. They will soon be freely available without a prescription in all pharmacies, requiring only a positive COVID test.
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@Dr. Z “Soon” is not “now.” Paxlovid is still thin on the ground.
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"Get Out of Your Pajamas" is a bit condescending; the last two years were for lounging? Funny, I thought the W in WFH stood for Work.
That aside, I wait with bated breath for the release of the longitudinal study (funded by those insisting WFH is less productive - also commute time should be factored in), which PROVES in-office > WFH.
If the management will try to get away with 'but the numbers say so,' they better have shown their Work. I feel several execs are going to learn the difference between qualitative and quantitative.
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@Timothy Johnston
Management will find a way to get away with 'but the numbers say so' - the same way they always employ to get away with their ridiculous decisions: They will hire a management consulting firm for an obscene amount of money to justify their decisions. A
And the people with real expertise will all wait for the consultants' engagement to be over in 6 months and for things to go back to normal. The new "normal" in this case being the productivity gains and cost savings from WFH.
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Dropping vaccine requirements for indoor dining seems risky. Given the goal is to lure tourists back, who may or may not have the same high percentage of vaccination rates as New Yorkers, this could be costly. I can choose to mask in other public places with crowds (shops, subway, etc), but it's not something I can do in a restaurant.
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@ben Yup. We have been kinda joking that we can only go to places we can be assured tourists won't go.
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@ben Hopefully more people will eat at home since they will see restaurants as even riskier with no vaccinate mandate in place. This was poor decision making.
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How many times are we going to declare Covid over? Of course I want to, but it’s just wishful thinking. This is a lull between surges—I’m sorry to say it, but the rest of human history will be surges and lulls, new variants, next boosters. It’s doable to enjoy crowded city life safely during these lulls, but only if we stop deluding ourselves that “normal” is just around the corner. The adage “covid is here to stay” bugs me because it seems to mean “so we should pretend it’s 2019,” when what it should really mean is coming to terms with and planning for surges and lulls long-term. Covid will surge EVERY WINTER, FOREVER—as many other respiratory viruses do—if not at other times per year as well. We need to expand hospital capacity, access to Paxlovid, and updated boosters long-term so that every winter isn’t a crisis like the past two, and every spring we don’t throw out all our masks again in hopeful delusion.
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@Anne that. I’m so tired of people saying Covid isn’t over.
We don’t know that.
I’m tired. I’m immune compromised and they don’t care about us disabled people.
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The pandemic led to huge gains in teleworking—the kind of gains people with disabilities have been demanding for decades. We must not roll back the clock and make work inaccessible again, no matter how much REBNY pressures our politicians to do it.
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The most vulnerable are continuing to be isolated and sacrificed by premature removal of mandates. By now this is an old story. Where are the advocates for these groups ?
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@Mary I live with a transplant patient, so I understand your concerns. But my family member had to take more health precautions then an average person does way, way before the pandemic. I am sure you did too. I believe the summer will be the same, with immune compromised individuals being extra vigilant and individuals at low risk pretty much living as usual.
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Personally, I hope to never go back into an office to work, as long as I live. Happy to dine out with friends; love theater and the arts; glad to meet friend or foe for a drink, anywhere, anytime.
But shlep on filthy, crowded mass transit when I don't have to; when I could be more productive at home? Why? To support an overpriced midtown deli that is charging $16 for a poke bowl and $2 for a water? $4.50 for a bagel with cream cheese?
Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. Mayor.
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@Laurence Bachmann. Personally, I never want to hear about the drama of being made to work in an office from office workers ever again. Colbert called it, remote workers are day drinking and it’s going to be ending shortly.
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@Jon Banning
Stephen Colbert doesn't know squat about working in an office or working from home. So who cares what he says about either? I've done both. And it's not ending for me any time soon. And that's GRRRRRREAT!.
And if you don't want to hear about the drama of being made to work in an office ever again, Jon Banning, all you have to do is not read the articles about it, ever again. A very simple fix.
Best of luck to you, wherever you work...
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@Jon Banning You are not going to get what you want. In fact, you're going to get a lot of what you don't want. Change your tune or deal with it.
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Masking in and around restaurants has long been illogical. You wear the mask going in, but remove it to eat and drink and socialize. Why bother with it at all?
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@Passion for Peaches But insisting on vaccinated only inside restaurants IS a good policy to keep workers and patrons safer, particularly is small crowded NYC restaurants. Note I that is "safer" - reduces risk. I am not happy that now unvaccinated tourists will be inside again.
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@Passion for Peaches I agree that it's nonsensical to wear a mask into a restaurant only to take it off while you're eating. That's why I just don't go out to eat indoors.
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@Passion for Peaches: Yes, removing a mask at anytime increases risk. However, if you remove it only to eat/drink but keep it on rest of the times, it still reduces the window of time the virus can enter your body and infect you. It is a compromise that
allows people to dine in restaurants if they have to, but still reduces the risk of infection and transmission. Then there are some people like me who think removing masks at anytime is too risky. These people have not started dining in crowded restaurants just yet regardless of what the politicians say.
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People are different; we vary vastly in almost every respect. Do what you feel like doing, what your inner voice (your intuition and conscience) tells you to do. Everybody doesn't have to do the same thing. We didn't before, and we don't need to now.
Respect science and good sense, and be yourself. If you wonder about what you're doing, ask five or six of your closest friends what they think, and consider their opinions; but you don't have to agree with them.
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@Mark A. Thomas
Do what we feel like doing? And close to one million (yes, 1,000,000) Americans have died from Covid in the past two years. Is that what we feel like doing??
7
These exhortations aren't about encouraging people to do what's best for them, it's about forcing them to go back to their offices, even if they have proven they can work effectively from home,so that the owners of commercial real estate and downtown businesses can make more money. And as for those who continue to be at high risk, like the immunocompromised, the message is "too bad." No more mask or vaccine requirements, they will just have to take their chances. The U.S. has made abundantly clear over the last two years that profits trump public health, which is why we have more deaths than any other country.
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@lydgate I am sensitive to the plight of the immune compromised, but their condition ensures that they will always be at higher risk than non-compromised individuals. I am not sure it is reasonable to expect everyone to follow the same protocols as they do for the foreseeable future.
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@Sue I would agree with you if covid were no more dangerous than the flu, but it is much more dangerous right now. The CDC estimates that from 2010 to 2020, the flu caused between 12,000 and 52,000 deaths a year. Covid has caused almost 500,000 deaths a year, even though vaccines have been widely available since at least last May. Tens of millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and thus more likely to catch and spread the disease. And long covid is a serious problem, although the precise extent of it is still being debated. So it is still too soon to say that we're back to "normal" and that immunocompromised people will just have to cope with covid in the way that they coped with other diseases before the pandemic.
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@lydgate Funny how "capitalism" and the "free market" is hell-bent on protecting real estate investment at all cost. Isn't it the real estate player's job to adapt to the changing times/market? Isn't that capitalism? I don't see why my life should be worse because no one's interested in their investment anymore.
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It seems that many of the things we've been doing for the last 2 years have proven to be largely ineffective. If you need evidence, take a look for example at the Queen of England, recently diagnosed with Covid. Also, the US Surgeon General and family, also testing positive. These two people have access to the absolute finest health care and latest information concerning covid, they certainly follow all protocols, and yet they contracted it. It's time to tell it like it is; covid has become much less serious, and it's time to return to normal. Let those who want to wear masks do so, but don't force it on anybody.
If you insist on working from home, that's also your choice, but remember your company may exercise their prerogative to choose also, and find a more cooperative employee.
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@Henry The Queens was hosting events with a high number of attendees while those around her were not wearing masks, so risks were taken that are not aligned with the appropriate cautions owed to her age. She was trying to balance the demands of her position with health considerations, not following the best guidance for a 96- year-old. Mr. Murtha's children are of school age, need we say more, parents will know the risks for those houseolds of the virus is still prevalent. The difference is that now (as of March 4) it is less prevalent.
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@Henry If masks and social distancing don't work, then why have flu numbers been so low?
The truth is COVID is more contagious and virulent than the flu. Without social distancing and mask measures, many more, perhaps millions, would be dead.
Other countries that followed stricter measures have had far fewer deaths than the US. How do you explain that?
35
@Emily - If masks and social distancing do work, then why are covid numbers so high?
3
I must really be getting old, because I'm still not really ready to get out of my pajamas and into the once-thriving nightlife of my city. Aside from COVID risks, things just don't feel right to me, what with the continued disorder gripping the world and pockets of crime that go unchecked. Yes, we're starting to venture out a bit more to restaurants, but shows or concerts or bars or nightclubs? Sorry, I'm just not feeling it yet (although I do have my eye on international travel once all restrictions are lifted).
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@ManhattanWilliam - I've been travelling internationally throughout the pandemic.
9
@Henry I'm old and so have I. My sister is also old, asthmatic and hypertensive and she traveled with me. Italians were slightly more cautious, but the Parisians not so much. And until our last day in Barcelona, the Spanish government never required proof of vaccination in (crowded) restaurants. Of course, vaccination rates were in the 90's. Not once did we test positive. Go figure.
5
@ManhattanWilliam
Good, Stay home . Leaves more space for the rest of us to travel. If living without any risk is your life goal sounds like you’re on the perfect path!
3
I have no problem with the move back into ‘normal’ life, but seems like dropping vaccine requirements for restaurants, workplaces and other similar indoor spaces works to impede rather than encourage progress in this direction.
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@Dan Herman - I suppose it's because we now know vaccines and masks really don't slow the spread. Just ask the Queen of England, or the entire family of the US Surgeon General.
6
@Henry
Vaccines have absolutely, unequivocably lessened severe illness and death. The vaccine requirement should be kept in order for us to be mask-free. This is a stupid decision on the part of the mayor and one that makes zero sense.
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@Henry
The vaccines have slowed deaths from Covid.
18
How many times are we going to go through this cycle? Covid is over. Really? Sure, cases are dropping, but we’ve still got 51k new cases and 1700 death sentences reported a day. I’m one of those immuno-compromised people who are, what, supposed to just stay home because the rest of the world wants to pretend we can go back to a pre-Covid normal? No one is quite sure how long our boosters will give protection, and a study released just last week showed that vaccine efficacy for kids 5-11 is almost nil after a month. Why are we dropping masks again?
No one I know wants to return to their offices. Commuting in St. Louis isn’t even remotely like what it is in NYC, but it still eats up 2-3 hours of your day. Exhorting people to do so just for the experience of eating lunch out doesn’t seem nearly enough to compensate for the downsides.
We’ve done this before and have been smacked back down by the virus multiple times now. Even if I weren’t immuno-compromised there’s no way I’d be dropping my mask any time soon.
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@Amy Barrett: Get Evusheld, and get out there with your mask on. Wear the good ones, and have a lifetime supply of them.
You were an at-risk person long before this. You knew that, right? You knew that flu could flatten you. That a gut infection could take you.
Every person who is immune-compromised should know that they were vulnerable, are vulnerable, and will remain vulnerable going forward.
18
@Amy Barrett I'm not immunocompromised, and I still wear a mask. You are spot on with your analysis. I decided a while back if I took heat for wearing a mask, I would say I was immunocompromised. I'm old, and my immune system does not handle idiocy well.
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@Amy Barrett If commuting in St. Louis takes 2-3 hours of your day, you might want to look at your life/work location choices, rather than blaming the concept of going to an office.
19
Apart from the appeal to the lazy and less intrepid to begin with, the economics of working from home for information management cohort is compelling in a wired world. Still, I would exhort "get out of the pajamas !". It's a lame look when strolling in your suburban Main St when you do emerge from the nest.
6
The WHO called the pandemic and they will call its end. Until then it is still a pandemic and anyone who argues otherwise is deluding him/herself.
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@The View From Steeltown Short, sweet, and to the point. Thank you.
27
Have been back at the office full-time since September.
It is fine.
Don't love being back on the subway- but actually the subway has been faster and less crowded than pre-Covid.
And the MTA has added friendly staff (station controllers) at some stations to assist riders.
It has been good to see colleagues, long-time site staff such as security and maintenance, local stores, etc.
In the meantime, back in the my neighborhood, the "work from home" folks continue to enjoy going to restaurants for lunch, going to the park - and get a steady stream of food delivery, Amazon, artisanal dog food and other ecommerce deliveries, all schlepped by hard-working low-paid workers who cannot work from home.
76
This is so true. My stepfather is in hospice care and those workers are not making the income they should. They change the diapers of our sick and elderly. They have no choice- while we depend on them.
I have seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The pandemic has been a filter- i can see jt all around me- who has suffered the most and worked the hardest- it is not the people with the six figure incomes: It never has been.
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@Elisa
Another concerning aspect...
Just anecdotal but in various conversations with family and friends who are continuing to work from home, there seems to be growing disinclination to "pay taxes" for public services (such as mass transit) that they no longer use regularly - even though others depend on those services.
The more stratified we become, the worse things become.
35
Many of those still wearing their pj's are making six-figure salaries and more. They're determined to put in half the effort that doctors, nurses, delivery people, deli workers, and the like, are doing.
These youngsters are part of the everyone-gets-a-prize generation. And, in Park Slope at least, those who ran their trikes into elderly women, to which their mothers snapped (to the elderly women), "Watch where you're going."
New York City became great because people hustled and worked hard. There's no mystery, either, to why we've been dying even pre-Covid. Even our mayor, Bill de Blasio, struck me as the laziest man alive.
A far cry from, say, my aunt, who when snow was three feet high flagged down a passing Sanitation truck to give her a lift to the nearest working subway.
19
Quit trying to make “fetch” (or in this case RTO) happen. Life will recalibrate to a better balance without the empty boosterism for the former status quo. I wouldn’t go back to daily commute and office grind, even if it paid extra!
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@A It makes me worry, though, for how this will affect NYC. All those concentrated office jobs seemed to be the driver for such a concentration of people and culture.
Can the people and culture concentration maintain itself without the office concentration?
7
@Matt
Yes. I would think this would be more of a worry in cities that have fewer people living in the downtown areas. NYC has so many residents living right in the thick of the urban environment, it seems that there will always be lots of potential customers downtown even with fewer commuters.
I lived in a downtown part of Portland for awhile. On the weekends, my neighborhood absolutely shut down ... the delis and such were there for the commuters and closed when the offices closed. I can see that continued WFH would threaten some of these areas.
9
@A
Except for in this case “fetch “is working from home to the excess that it has happened in the last two years. That’s what is not normal
2
I don't want to hear any complaints about people continuing to wear masks; they may do as they want. Also digital menus are an excellent way to avoid greasy and dog-eared plastic or paper menus and allow the kitchen to update in practically real time. Making reservations online is a snap compared to calling, waiting in a hold queue, call being dropped. I, too, love the "theater" of the NYC streets but sometimes it's just too hard.
81
As long as NYC insists on a mask mandate, my pajama mandate will stay in effect. With a computer, WiFi, and Amazon Prime, I can stay like this forever.
47
And the help of all those delivery people keeping up your lifestyle!
18
The entitled folks who work from home have little understanding or compassion for those making less, doing more and providing the services they desire.
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@Philip
Glad the amazon drivers can bring you your toilet paper! Why should only low income workers have to leave their house? Why are certain people so precious they can’t ?
7
Except, I know of no one who wants to resume the commute to NYC and return to "the office." I'm sure there are some, but the majority of those who have to commute would prefer not to.
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@Susan I get at least 10 more hours of work done per week, maybe more, not commuting. Our trains and subways are expensive and not very clean, and often not safe. Lunch is expensive. Coffee is expensive. I'd rather save my pennies for dinner out with my friends rather than a soup and and a sandwich from Pret.
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@Meighan Corbett
You could pack lunch and bring it from home. I work on UWS and buying lunch every day is just too expensive...
27
@Susan If it's been proven that we can effectively work from home, there really is no need to push to go back to the office. Personally, I prefer a hybrid. I don't want to sit at my house all day every day, but it's nice to have the option when I'm waiting on contractors or have to take care of my grandson.
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