In the span of a week, the city's ceaseless clamor has ground to a halt, as New Yorkers stay inside to slow the spread of COVID-19 and try to prevent the health care system from collapsing under an avalanche of coronavirus patients. The catastrophe-induced stillness isn't all encompassing yet — park-goers were reprimanded this weekend by Governor Andrew Cuomo and essential workers are still going to and from their jobs. But the situation on the ground has thinned significantly. Every day is Empty NYC Day, and it's important to remember that this barrenness is, more than anything, a reassuring sign that people are taking the threat seriously.
Nowhere is this haunting-yet-heartening emptiness so apparent as Midtown, Manhattan. The neighborhood of 300,000 people, which sees its population swell more than twofold on the average weekday, has been all but abandoned. That much was evident in the photos we published on Monday, and also in the below video that I took while biking around the neighborhood at around 5 p.m. this past Saturday.
As you can see, it's quite still out there. I will admit that it is pretty fun to cruise up the middle of Sixth Avenue without a worry in the world about honking, careless drivers (putting aside, for the moment, the other bone-shaking worries we are all moving around with constantly now). It is equally bizarre to walk through Times Square, which was primarily inhabited by other photographers remarking on how empty it is, and a handful of tourists, who I'm choosing to believe just think this is what Times Square is like all the time.
According to Jahlil P., a sanitation worker with the Times Square Alliance, the crowds around the area started disappearing early last week, reaching "ghost town" levels by this weekend. "Never seen anything like it before," said the 29-year-old, who's classified as an essential worker.
Despite the unprecedented exodus, a few constants remain: trash that needs to be swept up, rats that swarm the piles that weren't, and a handful of costume characters still hustling for tourists.
"Incredible Hulk was here earlier," Jahlil said. "That guy can stand anything."
Jahlil, 29 (left) and Nicholas, 20 (right), two essential workers with the Times Square Alliance
If watching bike rides through empty city streets soothes your anxious soul, try these other (less shaky) videos below — from cyclist Anthony Clune and our friends at Street Films.
