SPRING IN NEW YORK- EMPTY during a virus pandemic




It's Spring in New York...April & May-- normally the city is full of massive numbers of tourists visiting all the famous spots from the Statue of Liberty to the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Wall street, etc. This is the TOP time of year to visit New York...Spring & Summer.
Central Park is blooming and it's GORGEOUS.

But New York is empty.

New York looks like one of those 1950's disaster movies when somebody drops a bomb that kills all the people and leaves behind empty city streets. We are living thru the virus PANDEMIC of 2020, a gift from Wuhan, China to the rest of the world. 184 countries are dealing with it including the United States and New York City is EMPTY of the usual crowds. Hotels are closed, restaurants are closed, also Broadway theatres, movies, concerts, opera, ballet and everything else that makes New York unique. And of course, that means NO SIGHTSEEING TOURS, which is what I do for a living. 

Over the last 25 years I've built up a nice little tour business showing people New York. So now what?  No one is travelling...no cruise ships and certainly no bus tours or walking tours. Hotels are empty, dozens of Broadway theatres are closed, restaurants are only doing take-out. TOURISM IS DEAD for the forseeable future and it just happened in the snap of a finger. I had a full calendar last month of sightseeing tour groups booked and as soon as a "National Emergency" was declared, everything CANCELLED. Even though I have a strict "no cancellation" policy, the government stabbed me in the groin with this "National Emergency" and I was forced to write checks refunding thousands of dollars in tour deposit fees and prepayments.

On top of this, our nervous-Nellie Mayor DiBlasio who was a terrible, over-spending Mayor in good times, has proven to be a total disorganized mess during a real emergency. Same for the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. In the last couple years New York (and New Jersey across the river) lead the country in people LEAVING and moving to lower-tax states. High taxes, high regulation, rampant over-spending and poor budgeting has made New York State and New York City a MESS. And then we get hit with a virus epidemic that nobody expected. Every day during this pandemic mess, Cuomo and DiBlasio do their respective press conferences like Merchants of Doom, listing the dead and the dying all over New York. No talk of opening up New York and getting back to normal, even though more people die in a typical FLU season. These guys are NOT exactly good P.R. people for the Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Phil says "thousands of people die every year in swimming accidents and over 400,000 people die from smoking every year but we don't close swimming pools and stop selling cigarettes."

All the talk of "social distancing" which assumes that everyone on the street has this virus has killed industries and tourism is at the top of the list. People are terrified into staying home even though the vast majority of people survive this virus like a bad flu.  As I type this blog item, New York state has suffered over 25,000 deaths...the vast majority are senior citizens and people with "underlying conditions" such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart & lung issues, etc. Apparently approx. one million Americans have supposedly contracted this virus and 99.9% have recovered but the media is still at work sensationalizing the poor souls who died from it. And the economy suffers. 

Politicians don't mind the "stay at home" policy because they're still getting paid as well as teachers, medical employees, and "essential" employees like emergency workers. Also the media is working from home...it takes an emergency to let everybody like me know that anybody who works in tourism is NOT ESSENTIAL.

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