Public health experts and local officials are sounding the alarm that New York City is on the brink of an Italy-level COVID-19 crisis unless immediate action is taken to ban non-essential social gatherings. But despite widespread guidance to self-isolate — and mounting evidence that many New Yorkers are ignoring those dire warnings — Mayor Bill de Blasio has so far resisted calls to lock down the city’s nightlife.
“I am not ready today at this hour to say, let's have a city with no bars, no restaurants, no rec centers, no libraries,” the mayor told reporters on Saturday afternoon. “I'm not there.”
Without any formal ban on going out, many locals and tourists went about their lives this weekend as normal, opting to celebrate birthdays in packed bars, dance with sweaty strangers at punk shows, and even host a virus-themed party.
“It’s about the same as usual,” a bouncer at Cobra Club in Bushwick said on Saturday night, as a band from Barcelona played to a densely-packed backroom. “The corona thing doesn’t seem to have really hit anyone yet.”
Earlier in the day, an 82-year-old woman was pronounced dead at a hospital just a few blocks from the bar, the city’s first recorded fatality linked to the virus. There were 269 confirmed infections in New York City as of Saturday night, and 613 cases statewide.
Some bar-goers said they weren’t concerned about partying during the pandemic, since they didn’t believe that healthy people posed a significant threat of spreading it to others. “I’m not worried because I’m not immunocompromised,” said Rebecca Z, a 26-year-old Brighton Beach native, as she and five friends walked into Marco’s on the border of Bed Stuy and Bushwick. “It makes sense that older or vulnerable people should stay home.”
Though federal officials have downplayed the role of asymptomatic transmission for weeks, recent studies suggest that unknown infections may be playing a much more substantial role in the spread. European countries such as Spain and France imposed nationwide lockdowns this weekend, as infections continue to skyrocket.
One projection being passed around city government suggested New York City could face overwhelmed hospitals and a surging death rate on par with Italy if drastic quarantine measures aren’t put in place within ten days. Manhattan Councilmember Mark Levine told Gothamist that calls for a shutdown on nightlife “reached a fever pitch among elected officials, agencies, epidemiologists, and hospital executives” on Saturday.
“It’s now clear that voluntary measures aren’t going to work,” Levine said. “The advice of every single public health expert that I’ve spoken to today is that we need to shutdown bars and nightclubs, probably restaurants too.”
On Sunday morning, a spokesperson for City Hall, Freddi Goldstein, told Gothamist that on the question of shutting down nightlife, “Nothing has changed in the mayor’s view.”
After prohibiting gatherings of more than 500 people, Governor Andrew Cuomo mandated on Friday that all other venues reduce their capacity by 50 percent. On Saturday night, the city’s “night mayor,” Ariel Palitz, surveyed bars with FDNY officials to ensure they were following the rules. A mayoral spokesperson confirmed that businesses caught over capacity would not receive tickets on the first night of enforcement.
Inside a small Brooklyn shop specializing in kava, an herbal remedy believed to reduce anxiety, the bartender said she was only made aware of the occupancy requirements from another customer earlier in the day. “Honestly, it’s been busier than normal,” she noted.
A bouncer at Three Diamond Door in Bushwick said he’d counted 72 people inside the bar, and planned to turn people away when the total reached 100, rather than their normal threshold of 200. Employees at popular dance spots such as Bossa Nova Civic Club, Mood Ring, and Mad Tropical all said they were heeding the new rules.
A bouncer at Three Diamond Door in Bushwick said they were obeying the reduced capacity requirements
In Manhattan, around the trendy triangle of East Broadway, Division, and Canal Streets, several restaurants were shuttered completely. “We believe, as others believe, that closing in the best interest of the public health at this time,” read the note at the door of Cervo’s, where a half chicken and fries costs $29. Clandestino, usually jam-packed on a Saturday night, had a handful of patrons, while 169 Bar was humming but well below their usual elbow-room-only capacity.
There was a brief wait to get into Pianos on Ludlow Street, which normally has a capacity of 300. A sign out front alerted patrons to the new capacity restrictions and noted that the bar has ramped up “our cleaning and hygiene practice, we will spread our customers, and will keep it as fun and delicious as always.”
Asked if she was worried about contracting the virus, one woman waiting to get inside, Jade Diaz, responded: "I'm a teacher, so yes.”
“I have to go to school anyway so, it's not that different from me having to go to class and being around a bunch of sick kids,” she explained, when asked why she was headed into a crowded bar anyway. “I have to go to work."
Mayor de Blasio has also refused to close New York City public schools, prompting threats of a sickout from the city’s largest teacher’s union. While Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted Sunday that everyone should "STAY HOME," he said the decision to shutter schools would be left to municipalities.
"Hundo! Hundo. We're 100 percent concerned. Definitely,” a woman who works in strategy and branding told Gothamist outside Pianos. We asked why she was going in the bar with her friends anyway. “Because I'm drunk! It's my friend's 25th birthday.” She paused, then added, “I'm waiting for the government to tell me I should be more concerned, if I'm being honest.”
The third member of the group, a man who said he was an investment banker, attempted to put things into perspective. “There's been multiple pandemics in the history of human beings. This is the first one in the technological era that allows us to be worried all the time.”
Many of those working service jobs this weekend said that while they feared contracting the virus from patrons, they didn’t know how they'd make ends meet if the nightlife industry were to suddenly disappear
"I'm taking precautions,” said Steve V. the bouncer at Pianos. “I'm wearing gloves. I'm keeping my distance. But I gotta work. I can't take off three months and still pay my bills. It's a Catch-22. You gotta live your life."
At the Irish bar Donnybrook on Clinton and Stanton Streets, the crowd had thinned out from the St. Patricks Day crush at around 11 p.m. Bouncer Kenny Brown said he was still worried. “Because I’m an older guy, you know, I don’t want to catch nothing because it’ll take me longer to recover. I’m 58.”
Asked if he thought it was safe to go out to a reasonably crowded bar, he replied, “Not really, but you know, a lotta people don’t wanna be cooped up in their house, they’ve been cooped up in their house all week. So they’re gonna want to come outside you know. But it’s not safe. It’s definitely not safe.”
Awareness of the threat wasn’t enough to keep some people inside. On Saturday, Kumzits Everywhere, a group that organizes Jewish singalongs, circulated invites for a party at a Crown Heights Chabad House, Aliya, explicitly urging attendees to ignore the risk of possible infection.
"Do you have what it takes to risk everything for a rockin’ night of your favorite music?” read the Facebook invite. “Would you take a chance at contracting the dreaded virus just to experience a fun night of socializing with new friends? Are you willing to stay home all alone while everyone you know will be out at Aliya singing, dancing, and having the time of their lives?"
Hours before the party was set to begin, the festivities were abruptly cancelled. According to organizers, the director of the Chabad House has come down with flu-like symptoms.
