NYC’s Phase Two of Reopening: Here’s What It Looked Like

(Bloomberg) -- Editor’s Note: No city is more important to America’s economy than New York, and none has been hit harder by the coronavirus. “NYC Reopens” examines life in the capital of capitalism as the city takes its first halting steps toward a new normal.

At Macy’s flagship store in midtown Manhattan, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” blared from loudspeakers and workers lined the aisles, clapping and cheering as shoppers poured in. Mid-morning traffic snarled 57th Street. At Grand Central Terminal, the largely empty main hall was interrupted by short bursts of morning commuters on their way to work.

After months in coronavirus lockdown, New York City took another step forward in its reopening on Monday. Employees were allowed to return to the office for the first time since March. Outdoor dining resumed across the city, as did haircuts. And retailers from Macy’s to Bloomingdale’s once again welcomed customers inside their stores.

Of course, things were still far from normal. Most office buildings were still empty, and the crowds of people were largely absent. Yet “Phase Two” is expected to bring some 150,000 to 300,000 more workers back into the city. While many virus-weary New Yorkers have been bending the rules in recent weeks and drawing the ire of Governor Andrew Cuomo, the second stage bought a little more life — and a few more simple pleasures — into a city devastated by the pandemic.

“It’s been way too long,” said Paul Nemelsky, who snagged the lone outdoor table that Eclair Bakery, a French bakery in Turtle Bay, set out on a muggy Monday morning. He was working on his almond croissant and reading the New York Times. “It’s little things like this that count.”

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Many were eager to see things get back to normal.

Ann-Sophie Richards got up at 6 a.m. to have enough time to get through her Monday to-do list — laundry, a quick run at Central Park, a few work-related calls and emails — before making her way to Bloomingdale’s. She wanted to celebrate the store’s reopening and buy a mascara and some under-eye treatment serum. When she arrived, the windows were decorated with “Safety Is Always In Style” slogans and mannequins wearing scarfs as masks.

“I wanted to come by and say hi in person,” she said. “I think it means a lot.”

Uptown, at a branch of Columbia Barber Shop on Broadway near West 112th Street, seven or eight patrons — all men — sat in chairs on the sidewalk waiting for their turn.

Gridlock, at least in some parts of the city, also returned with its usual frustrations. Farhid Emam waited for an M31 crosstown bus on 57th Street for 10 minutes. When it arrived, Emam decided not to hop on. It was too crowded.

“Since when have buses become packed again?” he said, waving his hands and pointing to his watch — he was running late for a doctor’s appointment.

In many ways though, the city was still a shadow of its old self. Reminders of the pandemic were everywhere.

While the bustle returned to some pockets of the city, many businesses remain shuttered. Companies in midtown and on Wall Street are still slow-walking the return of employees back to the office, despite the go-ahead.

A highly unscientific tally in front of Citigroup Inc.’s headquarters in Tribeca on Monday morning actually showed fewer people entering the building compared with the two prior Mondays. Elsewhere, an L train bound for Manhattan, usually teeming with commuters during rush hour, had only about 25 people onboard at 9 a.m. Everyone was wearing masks.

Yet it was clear many New Yorkers just want to get back to their routines.

In Central Park, personal-fitness trainer Rachel Itaru held her first outdoor session since the pandemic started. She was running her client though a set of push-ups, squats, burpees and side planks in the 90-degree heat.

“There is no Phase Two or Phase Three when it’s 100% safe to be interacting with people,” said Itaru, who brought along about a dozen sanitizers, some wipes and a mini pack of 70% rubbing alcohol inside her gym bag. “But it feels relatively safe compared to three weeks ago.”

At Herald Square, more than three dozen people congregated at the corner of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue — the southwestern entrance to Macy’s — waiting for its doors to open for the first time since March.

Tee Lat came in from Queens, looking for sales for her kids. The coats, she explained, were supposedly selling at steep discounts — as little as $9 for one from Ralph Lauren. One impatient shopper, a young man in a white T-shirt, knocked on a door as the security guard unlocked it. He proceeded to elbow past the guard, who shook his head and mumbled, “People crazy.”

Inside, a woman with “Terri” on her name tag shouted, “Welcome back!”

Seconds later, she walked over to a man waiting in the returns section, where customers had already formed a long line.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.