Last year’s Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center shone until New Years’, specials lured in storefronts on 5th Avenue, and Manhattan’s ice rinks have been open and well-visited since at least the first snowfall just before Christmas. Some New York traditions have weathered the corona pandemic.
But they can’t hide the fact that there are no crowds in the city’s canyons to admire the winter sights. The pandemic has brought New York to its knees. In the coming year, the city wants to get up again. But the consequences of the crisis will probably be felt for a long time to come.
The pandemic has also highlighted big differences in New York’s multicultural society. The poorer you were, the stronger the existential fear was and the more likely people were to be infected with Covid-19. The rich could leave the city.
What New York City needs again is tourists and the hustle and bustle of business. There are several promising vaccines, two are already in use. Tens of thousands have received them. For example, bans on entry from Europe may be lifted in the spring. On Broadway, a comeback is slated for May. But the New York City Tourism Board expects business relationships with holidaymakers to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
At first, however, Americans fear a “very dark winter” for which President-elect Joe Biden prepared them in view of the growing number of infections. New Yorkers fear renewed isolation. Families are stockpiling again. Loners are looking for an isolation partner. And, like almost everywhere else in the country, the number of infected has now risen to the level of spring.
Hospitals are reporting an increase in the number of intensive care beds occupied, and 200 deaths were recorded in the week leading up to the holidays instead of a few isolated cases. The next few months will also be pivotal for restaurant owner Vincent Lin. “It’s not bad now, but when new restrictions are introduced and dining is banned again, it becomes problematic,” he says. He could hold out until April, at the latest until May.
Are you looking for the best Italian restaurants in New York? Then you’ve come to the right place! Not only in Little Italy there are really good restaurants that bring Italy to the table with everything we love so much. Find out where you can get really delicious antipasti, noodles, pizza, and Co. in my list of the best Italians in New York! And so that you can quickly see which Italian restaurant is near you, you can find all the restaurants on a map.
Cecconi’s Dumbo is an Italian restaurant right on Water Street at Brooklyn Bridge Park with a beautiful view!
The Gelso & Grand is a successful mix of a restaurant (with excellent pizza), a bar, and a small outdoor area. It is not only stylishly furnished but also has typically Italian good espresso. The audience is mixed: from families with children to couples to business espresso guests.
A good address if you want to eat out in a relatively relaxed atmosphere. The food comes from the hands of a real Italian family. The mussels are highly recommended.
La Pecora Bianca, which means “The White Sheep”, is an Italian restaurant that specializes in farm-to-table dishes. Your ingredients are all sourced from the region: very tasty!
2 Bro Pizza is one of the best known and best places in town if you’re looking for pizza slices!
Vincent Lin is one of the few people in New York who is currently swimming against the tide. Although hundreds of restaurants in the city have had to close in recent months, in October 2020 it opened its Blue Willow, serving traditional Chinese cuisine in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.
“Not that we think this is the right time,” Lin says. Actually, the “Blue Willow” was supposed to open before the pandemic. But there were delays, then the city was dominated by the corona crisis and Lin’s team had to improvise as he says. Clients are scarce now because Midtown is short on tourists and office tower staff.
It is unclear when they will return. At least the next few weeks should be bleak, Covid experts say. But the vaccinations started to give hope for the spring.
At first, it looked good for a metropolis. Although some infections were already known on the west coast, the first official case was not confirmed in New York until early March 2019. But it was only a few weeks before images of refrigerated trucks in front of hospitals and mass graves on an island in front of the city caused horror around the world.
Soon, New Yorkers drew a parallel with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which killed about 3,000 people. But the comparison seems to be lopsided. Horror struck with a huge explosion. The virus, on the other hand, sneaked unnoticed through skyscrapers, apartment buildings, and subways in 2020 for weeks. No open panic, no debris, but as with horror, the shock remained.
To date, the city’s website has recorded 20,200 deaths as victims of the corona, as well as about 4,800 people likely to have died as a result of the virus. At least hundreds of thousands of the eight million inhabitants are sick.
Unprecedented Countermeasures Prize: Offices, museums, Broadway, and concert halls closed. “What makes New York has been undermined by the pandemic,” Moody’s economic analyst Mark Zandi told the New York Times recently.
In particular, in the service sector – in restaurants, hotels, arts, transportation, and construction sites – more than a million jobs have been lost. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has risen to more than 20 percent, and the city is struggling with a huge budget deficit of $ 4 billion.
Playgrounds in New York
New York City offers a variety of exciting activities for the little ones too. Of course, the children’s eyes light up when the word playground is mentioned – if the playground is also in New York City, the whole thing has a completely different meaning, right? It is of course super exciting to climb on monkey bars in the middle of Central Park, to swing – or to frolic in the Village between New York’s celebrities on the Bleecker Playground.
Basically, all large and popular parks in New York are equipped with very good playgrounds – many of them even have toilets and stalls for snacks and drinks. Basically, you should know that in New York it is not welcome to take photos in playgrounds. Smoking and alcohol are also not permitted.
The playground on Bleecker Street in the West Village, which opened in 1966, is considered the playground of celebrity children, where Sarah Jessica Parker’s twins and Jessica Alba’s kids regularly play on the climbing frames, swings, and in the large sandpit. The special thing here is that the residents’ unused toys are donated to the playground and the little ones are ready to play there. Just opposite is the famous Magnolia Bakery. When it comes to playgrounds in New York, the Bleecker Playground is always at the top.
Central Park alone offers countless playgrounds in New York. The Heckscher Playground near Fifth Avenue, or west of Columbus Circle, is one of the oldest. Recently renovated, this is a paradise for the little ones. A huge sandpit, several slides, climbing frames in the form of rope harnesses and much more can be discovered here. But the parents will certainly not get bored here either: On the one hand, the wealthy families of Central Park West cavort here, but the view of the skyline is also amazing – you can endure here.
It plays particularly well at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, doesn’t it? After a walkover from New York’s most famous bridge or a tour of beautiful Dumbo, the Pier 1 Playground invites you on a little adventure for the children. Then the world-famous carousel (Jane’s Carousel) in Brooklyn Bridge Park beckons – what an adventure for the little ones. For the parents, the view is again very interesting: The playground is right on the water and the view of Lower Manhattan, as well as the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, is simply beautiful.
For many New York tourists, Long Island City is a destination on the list. Why? Great restaurants attract with great food, the art & culture scene is worth seeing and many are specifically looking for a hotel here in order to grind on their budget. The focal point in Long Island City is Gantry Plaza, State Park. The little ones will find a very modern and newly created playground here. With a view of the skyline, the children have a lot of space here to let off steam. Climbing frames, several swings, a water play area, and a pirate ship make children’s hearts beat faster here. For adults, fresh coffee, snacks, and cold drinks are sold right at the playground. It doesn’t get any better, right?
Address: 4-09 47th Rd on the East River, Hunter’s Point in Queens.
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