Economic morbidity takes Manhattan

 

THE CITY

 Simply put, the rents are too damn high,” said Jason Hairston, explaining on Thursday why he’d closed his popular 14th St. eatery, The Nugget Spot, in September of 2020. 

“I was on the way,” Hairston recalled. “I had spent money on a logo and redesigning my store. I was getting ready to open another location in Columbus Circle [in the new Turnstyle Underground Market] and to be in Citifield for the 2020 season. I’d been open for seven years and I was getting ready, getting my sauce made, my flour made — things were lining up and falling into place and then we had to shut our doors.”

In a business with thin margins to begin with — and uncertainty about how long the pandemic, and the city’s shutdown, would last — “there was no way I was going to make money,” said Hairston, a lifelong New Yorker who’s now living in New Jersey while consulting for a Korean hot dog franchise.

“The only reason I would be there would be to support my landlord,” he added.

 The Nugget Spot was one of the 4,040 private establishments the city lost between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2021, according to a new report from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, as huge losses in Manhattan wiped out gains in Brooklyn. Over the same two-year pandemic stretch, “jobs in New York City fell by approximately 295,000, or 7 percent,” as THE CITY previously reported.

 he rare citywide drop in the number of private establishments since 2019 — including a loss of 2,023 retail locations along with 2,482 private household employers, as families let go of on-the-books nannies and maids during the pandemic — was easily the biggest recorded at least since the feds implemented their current counting system in 1990. 

Since then, the number had steadily gone up except during the recession in the early 1990s and the years just after the 9/11 attacks. 

Manhattan’s share of the city’s private establishments dropped below 50% for the first time, according to Lander’s report, as Brooklyn gained 1,267 over the same period — continuing a 30-year growth trend in which the borough has surged from 17.8% of the city’s total in 1990 to 24.4% in 2021. (The Bronx gained 109 private establishments and Staten Island eight between 2019 and 2021, while Queens lost 158.)

QPL Omicron shutdowns

 Update from Larry, your friendly neighborhood retired federal transit man:

FYI

Add the Douglaston Little Neck Library to the list of closed branches.  They had a sign posted this past Monday that they were closed to further notice.  I wonder how many more branches are also closed in addition to the list you  provided.

During my previous visits, all staff and patrons wore masks.  If you didn't have a mask, one was available at the door staffed by an elderly guard probably being paid a little more than minimum wage.  He probably needed the income to supplement his social security and meager savings.

  

Perhaps they should just publish a list of which branches are still open.

 

A covid case just shut down the Elmhurst branch.-JQ LLC

 

 

Omicron panic shuts down hipster eateries

 

 Gothamist

A new winter COVID-19 surge in New York City has temporarily shuttered more than two dozen restaurants, battering an industry that had only begun to claw its way back from a nearly two-year pandemic ordeal.

Almost all the restaurants that have closed have put up statements on Instagram explaining there are confirmed COVID-19 exposures among their staff, as the delta and omicron variants tear through the city. On Thursday, Eater compiled a list of a dozen of the restaurants, some of which have since reopened and some of which said they won't reopen for several days.

That number ballooned to at least 30 by Friday morning.

"It's a bummer to limp into the holiday break on such a difficult week for everyone," said Chef Dennis Ngo, who runs Greenpoint's Di An Di, which shut down Wednesday after one positive case on their team.

"We take this stuff very seriously," Ngo told Gothamist. "That necessitated us closing, and then we required everyone to go out and get tested. We were asking all of our team members to either get two rapid tests back-to-back on consecutive days, or one PCR test. And based on that, we would have felt comfortable opening if we had all of those results in for today, but we experienced a lot of testing challenges."

He said his 30 employees were met with long lines at testing locations around Greenpoint, and many sites ended up running out of rapid tests.

"Even the ones that got PCRs, they were promised results by the end of the day yesterday, and they still haven't seen results yet," he noted Thursday. Some tried to get home tests, but they "had to go to three or four pharmacies to get it. It became kind of a game yesterday of trying to find what was the fastest place or easiest way to get them rapid tests."

Ngo estimated the restaurant loses around $7,000-$9,000 each night it's closed. On top of that, they were already planning to close for two weeks at the end of the month starting next week to give their team a break from such a challenging year, so it's unclear whether they'll have the chance to reopen before then.

 So far, there are more than ten restaurants in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area that have shut down:Bernie's, Cozy Royale, Di An Di, We Got Company, Winonas, Thief, Frankel's Delicatessen, Pheasant, L'industrie Pizzeria, Misi, Lilia, Five Leaves, Four Horsemen. There were several more in other Brooklyn neighborhoods: LaLou, Love, Nelly, Nite Nite, Oxalis, Rialto Grande, Otway, Bar Meridian. Grand Army Bar and Ugly Baby both announced they would stay closed until the end of the year.

The surge has also hit places in Ridgewood, including The Acre (who recommended that anyone who went there this week get tested), Porcelain, and I Like Food (who said they would remain closed until after Christmas). Other restaurants that have shut down in various parts of the city include Temperance Wine Bar in the West Village, Bessou in the Lower East Side and Top Quality in Long Island City.

Bill de Blasio hates your children and your parks

 

CBS New York 

 After a Queens park playground appeared to be open for a weekend and then abruptly closed, parents want to know what’s going on.

CBS2’s Jenna DeAngelis went to the city for answers, and spoke to eager Astoria residents.

“Please open the playground soon!” two young boys said.

It’s a plea to the city Parks Department from friends Archer and Arlo, who don’t like seeing the Astoria Park playground closed.

“There’s a lot of stuff to climb,” Arlo Pignataro said.

Arlo got a chance to climb and swing in the park when it was open on July 31.

“Kids were playing, and the sun was shining, so he got to go in the new splash pad, and swing and climb, and it was great. And then the next day I had to tell him that it wasn’t actually open,” said mother Amybeth Whissel.

That’s because the next day, parents like Marianna Scantlebury were asked by Parks staff to leave.

“It was like a mixed message because some of the Parks Department was saying it was unsafe and that there were tests that needed to be done and there were other people saying, oh, it had something to do with the sprinkler system,” Scantlebury said.

 THE CITY

 A major undertaking to remediate contaminated soil under several baseball and soccer fields in Brooklyn has dragged on for nearly a decade, testing the resolve of a local community still recovering from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

And it’s getting worse before getting better: In late July, a chain-linked fence emerged around one of the few remaining open spaces at the Red Hook Recreation Area on Bay Street, sealing off the public for at least the next 18 months.

Until recently, locals and athletes enjoyed the space’s track, basketball and handball courts, and four baseball and three soccer fields — especially after the state’s COVID-19 lockdown order was lifted and outdoor activities resumed last year.

“It’s supposed to be done,” Tony Harrison, 58, a Red Hook resident, said of the park overhaul work.

But, he added, “It’s going on and going on.”

 

Admin note: I will no longer be referring Bill de Blasio as the mayor of New York City. I don't care how many days he has left. He's abdicated his position and sold out his constituents for the last time and doesn't deserve the title anymore. Like Louis Grossman said the other day, it's time to say no more.

3 is the magic number; schools are closed

 

Gothamist

The city’s public school buildings are slated to temporarily close Thursday, November 19th, and students will be shifted to full remote learning after the seven-day positivity rate reached 3% Wednesday, the threshold Mayor Bill de Blasio has long said would trigger a systemwide closure.

It was not immediately clear how long schools will stay closed.

De Blasio has repeatedly promised schools would close the day the rate got to the 3% seven-day average, calling it part of a “social contract” forged with students, parents and school staff in order to reopen back in September. Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza sent an email Wednesday afternoon to school principals and later families announcing the closure.

In the letter to families, Carranza wrote, "Given recent increases in transmission, we have reached a point in our City’s infection rate that requires all students to transition to remote learning. Beginning Thursday, November 19, all school buildings will be closed, and all learning will proceed remotely for all students, until further notice. You will hear from your principal shortly about next steps for you and your student. Please note that this is a temporary closure, and school buildings will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so."

You all have just 72 hours, parents

 

 

CBS New York 

Might as well stay home even after the positive cases go down too. Boy are you stupid, Mayor de Blasio...

School's out

NY Post

Mayor Bill de Blasio — facing a coup from parents and teachers over his refusal to close city schools amid the coronavirus –has finally succumbed to the mounting pressure and agreed to shut them down, well-placed sources told The Post on Sunday.
 
The closure will occur early in the week, a source added. Gov. Cuomo told 1010 WINS radio that “all schools in downstate New York will be closing,” specifically adding Tuesday or Wednesday.
 
Hizzoner had been stubbornly repeating his opposition to the move, insisting he was “very reticent” because of such things as leaving healthcare workers to scramble for childcare amid the spread of the coronavirus.
 
The about-face came soon after The Post published an online editorial Sunday urging him to “close the schools!” — reflecting increasingly harsh criticism over de Blasio’s failure to do what scores of other districts around the metro area, state and country have done to contain the deadly and particularly contagious coronavirus.
 
The city teachers union had vowed to file a complaint with the state Department of Labor on Monday arguing that the schools were “unsafe” to be in, while Queens Borough President Sharon Lee urged parents to keep their kids home from school even before de Blasio finally made his announcement.
 
De Blasio was expected to make the announcement at an evening press conference.
The move also came shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed course on the issue, too, and said it is now time to close down the city public-school system.

All schools will be closed in Nassau County tommorow

 

  NY Post

 All private and public schools in Nassau County are closing for two weeks because of the coronavirus, officials said Sunday.

The shutdown starts Monday.

Nassau County Executive Lauren Curran made the announcement, saying she had discussed the matter with Gov. Cuomo and that that state was trying to address the issue of health-care employees with school-age children being able to continue to work while schools are shut, Newsday reported.

Your move Mayor de Blasio and Richard Carranza