Obviously only time will tell, but I have a very strong feeling that years in the future, everyone will look back on this whole situation and realize how ridiculous the response was.
Humans have an incredible ability to believe that at the current time, they know everything about everything. Not that long ago, relatively speaking, the “smartest” minds in the world believed the earth was flat, the sun revolved around the world, witches were real, and the answer to disease was bloodletting. Look at how all that turned out.
Herd mentality has been proven to be dangerous many times before
I will never claim to KNOW what exactly is the ‘correct’ response to this virus in NYC: but I have now gleaned enough ‘hard science’ to have an informed opinion - and that is ‘Herd Immunity’ would have cost less lives AND less loss of ‘livelihoods’.
Now here is the joke, the Irony: due to the foolishness of “Herd Mentality” we perhaps failed to see the best approach was ‘Herd Immunity’. Quite an interesting conundrum I would say.
You don’t have to predict the future, just read about the history of Spanish Flu. Probably the biggest indictment from the future will be the failure to supply and require simple masks in public early, especially when physical distancing is impossible in a place like NYC. We could have avoided a lot of deaths and businesses could have continued operating. Now temperatures and humidity will rise, the virus will behave like any other seasonal virus, people will become complacent or triumphalist, and we’ll be right back where we started in a few months.
Has anyone noticed that our local officials insist that NYC will not be ready for phase 1 “construction and manufacturing” on May 15— when in reality the DOB has been opening literally hundreds of construction sites every single day for the last couple weeks? Almost every major project in Manhattan is moving forward in some capacity.
Seems like the “reopening” plan is basically posturing to the press and does not reflect reality on the ground here.
That has confused me as well, but I’m glad sanity is prevailing at DOB. Residential construction is broadly deemed essential by the CDC, and outdoor construction is one of the lower-risk occupations for virus transmission.
I noticed that 50 Hudson Yards, Steinway and Skyline Tower are the only high-profile projects that haven’t been approved for resumption. I’m not sure why.
Hopefully, 50 Hudson will resume soon. I read somewhere that they were given approval to resume, but then their permit was revoked. It all seems rather arbitrary.
I think the current packed-in open offices with thousands of low level employees riding in from Brooklyn and stuff was a bubble. We will see the re-decentralization of big companies in coordination with work-from-home adaptations. Headquarters on 6th and Park ave should be headquarters, not the entire company under one roof
I don’t buy it. Suburban office parks were supposed to be the future not long ago and those have mostly gone the way of the dodo. Working from home is too impersonal for business. It seems like a devolution than an evolution.
I agree. Humans are social animals. Also, it’s hard to believe that productivity is just as high with all employees working from home as it is in an office setting.
“ Times Square has no tourists right now, but it will soon have TikTok“
“ The insanely popular video-sharing app’s parent company has signed a 10-year lease for 232,000 square feet at the Durst Organization ’s One Five One, the 48-story tower formerly known as Four Times Square, Commercial Observer has learned.”
“ Although TikTok and Durst signed the lease last week, according to sources, the transaction isn’t complete until a sign-off by lenders – a technicality that’s expected to be done in a week or two. Credit won’t likely be an issue as TikTok’s parent, Beijing-based digital conglomerate Byte Dance, has an estimated market value of $78 billion.
TikTok will have seven floors – five at the tower’s top that were previously leased to Skadden Arps and two in the base that were previously for Condé Nast. The new lease leaves about 326,000 square feet of the tower’s 1.8 million square feet available.”
