"Don't make me come down there..." Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted on Saturday, after seeing a video taken by EV Grieve, showing a block of the East Village on Friday night flooded with unmasked revelers. Jazz in the air, drinks in hand, the scene resembled Bourbon Street, and in a happier timeline would have seemed wholly unremarkable. Of course, in our current timeline, there's still that deadly virus running rampant throughout America and the world. Sorry to be a bummer, bros.
While some New Yorkers have been gingerly emerging from hibernation over the past month — we've seen it in parks, on the open streets — this weekend seemed to be a tipping point. When we spoke with some people out on Friday night, the overarching attitude was summed up by Jamie from Astoria, who told us, "For three months I followed every rule, did everything they said, but now I'm just like, I'm done." The virus, however, is not done, and putting cocktails above the health of the city is frustrating not only to Cuomo, but to those New Yorkers who are still staying home whenever possible.
On Saturday night, things weren't much different. St. Marks Place was the most bustling area once again, with people all over the sidewalks. “It looks like Ohio State decided to have Spring Break tonight,” one local told the NY Post. By 10 p.m., hardly anyone was out; there seems to be a recent shift to day drinking during the pandemic. The East Village isn't alone; other parts of town saw social cozying — on the Upper East Side, sidewalks and streets outside of bars were similarly packed, and in Greenpoint there was a waterfront dance party.
Cuomo wasn't the only one finger-wagging after seeing the scene from Friday night, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer headed there herself on Saturday, and noted that while many police officers were around, they were taking a non-confrontational approach. "They were handing out masks, as we were, we had boxes of masks... And they were just asking people to disperse and be socially distant," Brewer told Gothamist/WNYC.
Brewer also made it clear she is sympathetic to the businesses which have suffered throughout the pandemic. While the state does have the authority to revoke liquor licenses when an establishment is not following public heath protocols, she does not support that approach. "As community residents we prefer not to do that because we know these small businesses have been closed or just doing takeout at 20 percent of their normal revenue for 3 months," she said following her tour. "We don't want to close them down."
While the outdoor drinking violates the city's open container laws, Brewer said she does not support sending in the NYPD to break up people gatherings around bars. In addition to cops handing out masks, NYPD vehicles were present on the streets, playing their pre-recorded social distance messages. No matter what approach they took, photographer Gretchen Robinette reports back that "it didn't make anyone change anything or move during the 7-9 p.m. hours."
Brewer said she would like to see the closing off of streets to allow for more space for each establishment, which is part of the Phase 2 outdoor dining plan.
New York began to reopen last Monday, June 8th, entering Phase 1 of the four phase reopening plan. As of Saturday, over 22,000 people have been reported dead from COVID-19 in NYC, with over 200,000 confirmed cases.
While outdoor dining isn't set to happen until Phase 2 (expected at the end of June), bars and restaurants all over the city have prematurely put tables out, signaling some normalcy and leading to scenes like we saw this weekend.
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said in a statement on Saturday, "Covid-19 has financially devastated restaurants and bars, and New Yorkers have been cooped up indoors for months due to the pandemic, so we understand the dire need of small businesses to generate revenue and people’s desire to socialize. But the videos on the news and social media of outdoor dining and drinking sets our industry back. Serving customers who hang out on the sidewalks and streets violating open container laws, and setting up tables before we are permitted, jeopardizes the progress we’ve made to flatten the curve. And serving patrons not wearing masks does not help either." In the Phase 2 outdoor dining plan, it is not required that patrons wear masks while seated.
Rigie added that this behavior risks "government postponing our reopening, which will deepen the crisis our industry is already in."
Additional reporting by Sean Carlson.
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June 15, 2020 at 01:12AM
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