March, April, May: City mood gets darker as crisis feels endless

There is no clue as to when the pandemic will subside, and short-term discomfort is becoming a long-term despair. “I feel like giving up and giving up.”

April 25, 2020

Taking a walk in the park increases tension. When it retreats, it is too close. Oh really? Then I’m at home. Loud neighbors, once a temporary annoyance of city life, are the cause of frustration with the city. I got up at noon and I’m still tired. The city’s supple resilience gave way to resignation and random tears.

In Queens, Nicole Rodelka, 28, knows she needs to wear a mask outside and puts her aside for fear that the mask might bring. In Brooklyn, Lauren Cellars brush their teeth at night. My mouth hurts due to stress. Eli McKay, a three-year-old boy in the Inwood section of Manhattan, looked around and declared, “Today the virus is gone, we can go to meet friends,” his mother told his picture book. Replied as from one of the illusions of. “Maybe tomorrow.”

The outbreak of coronaviruses in epicenters around the world was dragged until the 6th week, and the end is still too far to see, so the feeling of sorrow depressed by frayed nerves is felt in the conversation between the city and its surroundings. It was.

“This week, I’ve embraced this and feel like giving up,” Euna Chi of Brooklyn wrote in an email. “I feel that my daily commute to the sofa is“ normal ”. “

A journey that started in March with unity with the United States Homemade mask And Do-it-yourself haircut And Happy hour zoom, Has become a tough slogan for many. It felt as if the city had a promising bend in the road, carefully approaching the new page of the calendar.

Evidence of a change could be seen in a small spike in the electrocardiogram of the data edited by the city.

Communicating the categories has significantly increased complaints about 311. Loud TV reports from the last five weeks are about twice as high as last year’s 400-794, indicating that the lines are well drawn. There were 16,901 calls of gentle social distance, a whole new category.

Elsewhere, another line flattened out: traffic to news sites spiked with the arrival of the virus Data from the website Chartbeat, A powerful indicator of news fatigue.

The latest weekly survey of 1,000 New York residents, CUNY Graduate School of Health Policy Asked how the socially connected people feel. Just over two in five replied, “No at all.” That was about twice the number we answered that way four weeks ago.

Forty percent of respondents to a recent poll said they were concerned about more than half the time in the last two weeks. 32% said they felt depressed.

Greg Kushnik, a Manhattan psychologist, said: “I’ve seen it in my practice all the time. People are really depressed, and people who are prone to depression are starting it now.”

New York City is something that is always different for everyone who calls it home, and remains out of reach in a way that stops the temporary feeling. City and state leaders ask for a passing explanation of their timeline towards normality or what it looks like each day, shrug, answer, and talk about tests and curves. The city may be snow gloves on high ledges. Its many wealth — art collections, jazz clubs, athletes and chefs, their high C tenors and Brooklyn DJs — are not available.

The band’s three friends agreed that they are not feeling the energy to make music now.

“I think my” wall “is that I finally got out of the” denied “phase earlier this week … it’s no longer a” fun mood, “” one of them, Annalisa Loeffler, said With the New York Times I wrote to a friend I shared. “It may be physically impossible for a very long time to be so important to me and to bear the rest of my life. I try to be” not troubled ” Accepting sorrow for what is lost, is definitely justified. “

The virus also changed the natural season, effectively canceling summer like any other public gathering. There are no city pools and some beaches are closed.

The park is still open as a respit, but also as a stage of conflict.

Kathy Altman, on the upper west side of Manhattan, said, “The person jogging in the park is breathing out and thinking no more than two feet away from me. Over the age of, I’m a survivor of cancer. “When I say” 6 feet! “, I’m told to stay at home if I don’t like it. A woman in her 30s gave me a finger.”

To communicate with the outside world, Elizabeth Matthews, two mothers living in the Bedford-Steyvesant district of Brooklyn, have come to rely on electronics, much like many parents.

“One of the things that makes up New York is New York. It’s a public place. It’s like interacting with people you know, but interacting with people you don’t know.” “Lost it is one of the reasons that makes New York a great home.”

Others have significantly lowered the bar of amazing things they miss.

“Those who are playing dominoes around the corner, including the elderly and those playing basketball,” said Eddie Gomez, 37, who works at a hospital in Manhattan.

“To be relaxed,” said Kishajack, 39, who buys groceries with two young children in Elmhurst, Queens. Also, “yellow school bus”.

Yet, around the city, many were looking forward to the good news in the loss of light, as they were facing the catastrophes of the past.

For Adriana Villari, 28, who works at a hospital in the city, the death toll was reduced.

“Watching people leave and see people recover, makes me feel more positive,” she said. “I see lights at the end of the tunnel, with things going on, at least in my hospital.”

Gomez said he was infected with a virus and his complaints were insignificant compared to the gift of life. It was worse than boring, he said: “You are just learning a lot about yourself and just trying to kill time.”

At Hackensack, his mother, Amina Montoya, 35, was delighted with the new routine. “I always wanted to be a home school,” she said. “So this seemed like a really good opportunity to try, and they’re really prosperous.”

And Joshua MacKay, the optimistic three-year-old Eli’s father in Inwood, looks forward to spending most of the night looking for a new restaurant offering takeaways.

“We are just trying to get the most out of it, and during all this, food was our true joy,” he said. “New food and liquor for us, and hot wheel cars and toys for him”

Wesley Cook, 55, a retired bus driver in the Fort Green area of ​​Brooklyn, has suffered losses over the last few weeks. He may be excused for being in despair.

Still, he found a particular moment that he treasured every night—the moment his son, a firefighter, went home.

“I said,” Did you have a nice day? “, Said Cook. “He says“ yes, dad ”and I hug him. It’s a good day for me. “

The report was contributed by Jo Corona, Lauren Hard, Derek M. Norman, Azi Paybarah, and Nate Schweber.