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When New York was only ours

2021-07-23T10:04:02.688Z


The city was glorious without tourists. But that time must come to an end.


Adam sternbergh

07/21/2021 15:01

  • Clarín.com

  • The New York Times International Weekly

Updated 07/21/2021 3:01 PM

For those who remained in New York during the pandemic, last year it unfolded in chapters.

There was the chapter of the "Incessant Sirens", the one of the "Knocking of the Pots and Pans Through the Window at 19" and the one of "Fireworks Every Night".

There is also a magical and surprising chapter that began last summer.

When New York began to reopen last year, residents were able to enjoy Coney Island without the usual tourist crowds.

Photo Karsten Moran for The New York Times.

New York was strangely quiet,

almost empty of tourists

, and the re-emerging residents were able to experience the city in a way that most of us had never been able to do.

For a very brief moment, New York

belonged to New Yorkers.

This chapter is also coming to an end.

In June,

NYC & Company

, the city's tourism promotion agency, announced a $ 30 million ad campaign to attract tourists.

The economic imperative for the return of tourism is obvious.

At its peak, the industry employed 280,000 people and generated $ 80.3 billion.

But since a city of 8 million people absorbed more than

60 million visitors

a year, New York had become a city of, and for, tourists.

Last year, the locals had the opportunity to experience a completely different version of their home.

First came the return to outdoor activities:

a cautious trip to

Coney Island

with only a few dozen people wandering the boardwalk.

The

Bronx Zoo

reopened last July, with limited-time and reduced-capacity tickets.

As fall approached, many of the museums removed the locks from their massive doors.

The crowds were small and the traffic almost non-existent.

And it was

glorious.

You could enjoy browsing world-class galleries with just a few hundred other people.

Before they attracted 25 thousand people a day.

A basic irony of living in New York is that one's closeness to world-famous cultural institutions is largely negated by how arduous it is to enter them.

After all, this is the city where people would wait eight hours to see

Marina Abramovic

at the

Museum of Modern Art.

Maybe that's why last year felt so revealing.

The city was experiencing a soft reopening, and only New Yorkers were invited.

The

High Line

- a free ride that at peak times feels like you're stepping out of a sold-out concert - became the subject of videos about how enchanting it is to experience just the linear park.

It's extraordinary to live in a New York City where you can ask your daughter, "What do you want to do today?" And when she says, "Go to the Museum of Natural History," you really can.

Of course, none of this is sustainable.

The local economy has become so dependent on tourism that its return is

essential.

Also, when exploring this unknown empty city, we realized that the city was not itself.

Not having been born and raised in New York, I used to visit it frequently as a tourist and once I moved here I liked to tell people that all the things that make you come as a visitor - the excitement, the attractions, the crowds, the noise, the feeling of being in the center of it all — can make living here

unnerving.

But that madness is inherent to the city.

It's part of what attracted you and what keeps you here.

It's what makes New York, New York.

As this chapter ends - and tourism is already beginning to rebound, with 36 million visitors expected for this year and a return to the more than 60 million visits scheduled for 2024 - we could take a moment to appreciate this fleeting version. from the city:

one that was briefly solely ours to enjoy.

"It's nice to be without so many people," one first-time visitor told a reporter documenting the slow return of tourists to New York in May.

Tell me about it.

© 2021 The New York Times

Look also

Why the charms of the Uruguayan coast attract foreigners

The pleasure of visiting the world's most famous museums gloriously empty

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-07-23

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