Two images come to mind when I think back to the early days of the pandemic in New York. The first is of an eerily empty Times Square in March 2020, noisily revolving billboards presiding over silent streets that would usually have been filled with tourists and busy office workers.
The second is a photograph taken a couple of months later showing a sweeping, bird’s-eye view of Domino Park on the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn. Thirty large white “social distancing circles” had been painted on the grass in chalk, a visual reminder to locals to stay a safe distance away from others as summer drew us from our apartments.
A year and a half on, the circles have gone and the park is full of picnics, children’s parties and exercise groups once more. Life in the city’s residential neighbourhoods feels vibrant and optimistic.
In Times Square it’s a slightly different story. For the past 19 months a patchwork of travel restrictions has prohibited many international tourists from flying to the United States. And with only about a third of workers in the New York region back in their offices by mid-October, Midtown Manhattan — usually frenetic — remains somewhat subdued during the week. At weekends, however, it crackles back to life thanks to the return of Broadway and an influx of domestic tourists.
Case numbers are falling and the number of people fully vaccinated in New York state stands at about 66.8 per cent — well above the national average of approximately 58 per cent and almost on a par with the UK’s 68 per cent. “Does New York feel normal again?” family and friends in the UK ask me — with America finally reopening to fully vaccinated foreign tourists on November 8, some are planning pre-Christmas visits and want to know what to expect — but it’s a tricky question to answer.
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September was supposed to hail a return to normality for New York, but that was before a surge in cases of the Delta variant that prompted companies including Facebook, Apple, Starbucks and Google to delay their office returns until 2022.
● Best things to do in New York
And without international tourists — or the billions of dollars they once pumped into the economy every year — certain corners of the city famous for never sleeping still feel a little dopey. Not that all locals are complaining.
Lifelong New Yorkers rave about spontaneous trips to the American Museum of Natural History and regular afternoons spent with their kids at the Bronx Zoo — activities that, before 2020, required advance planning and the patience to wait hours for admission.
Sure enough, last weekend I walked straight into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, albeit in a mask as face coverings are compulsory in museums, regardless of vaccination status. Although its much-photographed front steps were lined with people eating bagels and snapping selfies, I didn’t queue to show my proof of vaccination and photo ID (both are required to enter the city’s indoor public spaces, including restaurants, theatres and gyms), or to buy a ticket once inside the majestic Great Hall (£18, metmuseum.org).
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As I wandered through the collection of ancient Egyptian art, following a one-way system, some rooms hummed with conversation while others were empty save for a guide. The Costume Institute’s In America collection — a dissection of US fashion from 1940 to the present day through pieces by designers including Ralph Lauren, Gabriela Hearst and Virgil Abloh — felt buzzier, but still not crowded. “Has the museum been busy?” I asked a cheery cashier as I left via the gift shop. She shook her head.
Conversely, in Times Square later that day, I was struck by the number of people. For the first time since the pandemic began I found myself shuffling, frustrated, along a congested pavement, ducking around families taking photos and artists sketching caricatures. On the corner of 43rd Street a man was encouraging passers-by to pay a couple of dollars to pet his 8ft python as it roamed free on the pavement.
Outside the Disney store a woman in a Stars and Stripes bikini offered an impassioned rendition of the national anthem. New York’s most infamous junction was back, at least for the weekend, in all of its hectic, unhinged glory.
Flabbergasted by the high price and low availability of Hamilton tickets online recently (I could buy a single ticket for about £170, but never a pair), I’d planned to drop in to the box office on 46th Street but was put off by the huge queue. I shouldn’t have been surprised: Broadway’s return — the first theatres reopened in September after 18 months — has already been hailed as a success. This has largely been thanks to the patience of theatregoers, who have submitted to new protocols that include preshow tests for children not yet eligible for the vaccine and, for some performances, the loss of intervals in order to prevent crowds in theatre lobbies.
In SoHo, widely considered to be the commercial district hit hardest by the pandemic, chichi boutiques sit alongside empty shopfronts with “for lease” signs in their windows, but new retailers, such as the high-end Brazilian clothing brand Patbo, are beginning to move in, giving local business owners cause for optimism.
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As arduous as the pandemic has been for the city, it has also provided an opportunity for reinvention, and nowhere has that been felt more acutely than in New York’s restaurants, which were last year forced to embrace year-round outdoor dining. The result is more than 10,000 dining sheds scattered across the city on pavements and in parking lots, and heat lamps beaming down on diners for whom, as a mild autumn rolls into winter, dressing for dinner will require a warm coat and gloves.
Despite vocal opposition from those who believe the sheds are eyesores, the city is moving to make them permanent. What began as an emergency measure is now part of the Big Apple’s social fabric: for those of us who were here in spring 2020, when New York became a global epicentre of the pandemic, braving wind and snow to enjoy some tacos has become a symbolic display of resilience and loyalty to our local communities.
A slew of openings in recent months gives foodie tourists a particular reason to return. Sixty Three Clinton on the Lower East Side has won high praise for its seasonal tasting menu (seven courses, £67, 63clinton.com), while Aldama, a cosy basement bar beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, specialises in sophisticated Mexican dishes and mezcal cocktails (plates from £7, aldamarestaurantbk.com). Dame, an English seafood restaurant serving fish and chips and squid skewers in Greenwich Village, proves that America’s obsession with British culture remains in fine fettle; tables are booked up for weeks, unless you take advantage of the walk-in-only policy on Monday evenings (mains from £13, damenewyork.com).
Despite low occupancy rates, new hotels are also springing up across the city. Built from the bones of what was formerly the James Hotel, ModernHaus SoHo is something of an urban oasis with 11,000 sq ft of outdoor space draped in lush vegetation (room-only doubles from £325, modernhaushotel.com).
Across the river, the city’s hipster population has a new focus at Ace Hotel Brooklyn, which offers chic, understated rooms in the trendy Boerum Hill neighbourhood (room-only doubles from £219, acehotel.com).
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There are also additions to the city’s list of attractions. Two recently opened observation decks are battling for supremacy. A platform suspended 100 storeys above the ground, Edge at Hudson Yards boasts of being the highest outdoor sky deck in the western hemisphere, allowing guests to peer across to the top of the Empire State Building (£26, edgenyc.com).
Meanwhile, since last month, one of the city’s newest skyscrapers, Summit at One Vanderbilt, has offered an “immersive experience” across four vertiginous floors, including mirrored hallways (visitors are advised against wearing skirts) and a glass lift that soars higher than 1,200ft up the outside of the building (£29, summitov.com). Tickets for both sell out fast and queues are lengthy, even with a reservation.
As part of a multimillion-dollar campaign to woo back foreign visitors, New York’s tourism agency has, in recent weeks, erected billboards in London and other foreign cities with the message “New York City is ready for you” — and it is. After an enforced hibernation, America’s largest metropolis is finally stirring. It’s not the city it was pre-pandemic, and perhaps it never will be, but that’s no reason to stay away. A little quieter in places, a little rougher around the edges, New York is as chaotic and irresistible as ever.
Three nights’ room-only at the New York Hilton Midtown from £539pp, including flights (ba.com). From November 8, Brits need an ESTA (£10; esta.cbp.dhs.gov) or valid visa; proof of vaccination (the printed or digital NHS Covid Pass); and proof of a negative PCR or antigen test taken no more than 72 hours pre-check-in. See cdc.gov
