Big Apple changed dramatically by Covid-19

The onslaught that was the Covid-19 pandemic has changed New York in sweeping ways, some that many agree are for the better and others they probably would say are for the worse.

The virus highlighted the need, or at least the desire, by many for more open spaces, roadway dining, remote work and more. It also illustrated how stressed the city’s emergency system is and how certain industries are faring as more people tighten their purse strings in an ever-changing technological landscape.

More space for play

Open Streets, a program in which a community may advocate to take a street and largely block it off for pedestrian use, expanded rapidly over the past few years. The program was created during the pandemic.

As of 2024 there were 33 open streets in Queens, and the city will finalize its first round of 2025 locations soon, according to the city Department of Transportation.

“You don’t need that much to block it off,” said Dawn Siff, executive director of the Alliance for Paseo Park, the 34th Avenue open street in Jackson Heights. “Sometimes they use police barricades, sometimes they use planters and then that street is given back to the community, for programming, for play, for restaurant seating, for relaxation just so that people can have more open space.”

There are also open street programs next to schools, Siff said, because a lot of city schools, especially in Jackson Heights, do not have space for play outdoors.

“Council District 25 ranks last per capita in park space in all of New York City,” said Siff. “Our closest park is Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and to get to that park we would have to cross a highway ... There are seven to nine public schools within a block of the open street and a lot of these schools are Title I schools.”

Kids flood Paseo Park after school is let out, said Siff.

According to a 2020 report from the city Independent Budget Office, Jackson Heights had as little as 2 square feet of park space per resident. There also is a lack of community centers in the area, said Siff.

“This open street has become a gathering place,” Siff said. “It gave us community, it gave us a place for people to come out and exercise and see one another and it gave us hope in this dark time.”

Dining al fresco

In 2019, there were approximately 1,000 outdoor dining sites, primarily sidewalk cafes, in the city, but most were centralized in Manhattan, according to official data. An Open Restaurants in New York 2022 report said 30 percent of outdoor dining spots were in the four outer boroughs pre-pandemic. By 2023, the figure was 51 percent.

DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced last month that the city’s new program is so popular he is going to cut red tape in the application process for more eateries, ahead of the roadway dining season launching on April 1.

“New Yorkers love outdoor dining and it has made our streets more vibrant and welcoming public spaces,” Rodriguez said in a statement on Feb. 28. “Outdoor dining on our sidewalks and roadways has been a lifeline for many restaurants, and we are cutting through red tape to ensure that thousands of restaurants will be up and running as the weather warms.”

The city estimates that 2,000 sidewalk-based establishments and another 600 roadway setups will be approved by April 1.

Work from home

A lot more people are working remotely or have a hybrid schedule, as noted by Rob MacKay, the community deputy director for Queens Economic Development Corp.

“It’s not necessarily bad for Queens,” said MacKay. “If people are working at home instead of going into Manhattan, they are more apt to spend their money on lunch in Queens.”

The Mayor’s Office said on Monday roughly 25,000 to 30,000 city employees work from home.

Last Tuesday, Mayor Adams and District Council 37 announced a one-year extension of a remote work pilot program previously agreed to by the city and the union May 31, 2023.

“As we continue to settle into our post-pandemic reality, we must ensure that we continue to make city employment an attractive and accessible option for the working-class New Yorkers who serve and run this city every day,” Adams said in a statement last week. “The extension of this successful pilot allows the continuation of flexibility for our workforce and the protection of the core services that New Yorkers rely on every day.”

For those who are not able to work remotely, the city in 2023 also agreed to a compressed work schedule in that would not affect city services. The program extension will run through May 31, 2026.

MacKay also said that video calling platforms such as Zoom may have taken another five to 10 years to become ubiquitous for workplace meetings, but Covid-19 moved up the timeline.

“We were heading that way anyway,” MacKay said. “Without Covid-19, “it would not have happened as fast ... It forced the issue. People started working from home and in the end some were like, ‘I kind of like it.’”

MacKay said he went from probably using Zoom a few times a year to three times a day.

Virtual education

Gone are snow days at New York City public schools.

Before the pandemic, the city Department of Education did not have a formal remote education program, but now it employs remote learning during weather events that prevent students from traveling.

“The pandemic was a time when every member of our school communities stepped up, from the school food service workers feeding the community, to our IT teams distributing devices, to our educators making the quick pivot to remote learning, just to name a few,” said a DOE spokeswoman. “We are grateful to our partners across the city, at the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], and most of all to our school communities for putting the safety and schooling of our youngest New Yorkers first.”

In addition to virtual learning, students can receive online therapy through NYC Teenspace. Offered by the city Health Department, the program connects teens ages 13 to 17 with a licensed therapist.

The DOE also has one fully virtual and one fully hybrid school, and students may sign up for accelerated and advanced courses via the Virtual Learning Classrooms program.

Entertainment options

Despite the recent closure of the College Point and Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas, MacKay said the film industry is bouncing back.

“The Museum of the Moving Image is cranking and the commercial ones like Midway in Forest Hills, Kaufman in Long Island City are still doing fine,” he said.

While MacKay acknowledges that streaming platforms such as Netflix have taken a bite out of the film industry’s profits, he said its real competition are videogames.

“Yes, you can watch a movie on Netflix, but it is a completely different experience than a large screen and people are missing that,” said MacKay.

MacKay, who is also the director of the Queens Tourism Council, said he has noticed less mask wearing since the height of Covid-19 but varied impacts socially.

“It’s fair to say we are back and roaring again,” said MacKay. “You don’t have to show whether or not you are vaccinated anymore. People are even going to small theaters, something they wouldn’t do before.”

MacKay said he is noticing that if people are feeling sick, instead of forcing themselves to go to events out of obligation, they put their health first and simply stay home.

The city Department of Health said it does not have data on mask wearing.

Ambulance strains

Oren Barzilay, the FDNY EMS Local 2507 president, said emergency response times have jumped significantly since the pandemic.

In 2019, response times to life-threatening medical emergencies were four minutes and 38 seconds to six minutes on average, citywide, but in Queens, they are about eight minutes and 19 seconds now.

Barzilay told the Chronicle that EMTs and paramedics are the lowest-paid emergency professionals and after the deaths of several during the pandemic, combined with the low wages and the stress of the job, they are leaving in droves for the FDNY and other city jobs.

“The city is scrambling to take people who have offline positions,” in operations and administration “to staff the ambulance,” said Barzilay. “They are anticipating 1,500 [EMS workers] leaving in the next year. A thousand people will become firefighters, but the rest will just resign.”

“I sit on the state EMS Council,” he added. “We have less and less people interested in joining or becoming an EMT or paramedic.”

Find more Covid remembrance stories tagged “SARS-CoV-2: five years later” in print or at qchron.com throughout March.