3:32
- ABC News
- May 22, 2021
How New York is rebounding from COVID-19
Experts say the city is slowly showing signs of strengthening.
3:32
However, Miller noted that New York has previously adapted to changes from crises, such as 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy.
Miller said after both of those events, there were concerns that downtown Manhattan wouldn’t be seen as a viable location for future businesses and development, but the area boomed with business in the years that followed.
\"Each of those crises were different, and we had to approach it differently,\" Miller told ABC News.
She noted that real estate managers were already coming up with ideas on how to maximize the unused office space. Some buildings are offering tenants open floor plans that emphasize shared spaces and multiple startups on one floor, Miller said.
Mixed-use developments such as Chelsea Market have already shown success renting out floors for store space while also leasing offices, she said. She predicted that the city will see more of these ideas going forward, even as work-from-home options stay popular.
'What I think needs to happen is that businesses allow for that office traffic,\" Miller told ABC News. \"We need them to be open to opening up more stores and restaurants on the ground level that gets people on the streets and want to get back into the city even if they have the option to work from home.\"
Signs of rebound underground
Experts said initial mobility trends are showing that New Yorkers are starting to get out of their homes.
Robert E. Paaswell, a professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York, has been studying New York's mass transit trends and told ABC News they are a key indicator of the city's viability.
Data from the New York City Transit Authority shows that the seven-day average of subway ridership has been steadily increasing since February and reached an annual peak of nearly 2.7 million riders on May 14. Although this number represents a 60% drop from the pre-pandemic equivalent of the same day, it is a far cry from the six-figure spring 2020 ridership numbers.
![\"MTA](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Health/MTARidership_v02_KA_1621444056524_hpEmbed_1x1_384.jpg\")
At the same time, Citi Bike, New York's bike share program, recorded 631,314 rides during the week of May 9 to May 15, the highest number in its eight years of operation, according to officials.
\"This to me shows New Yorkers want to be where things are happening,\" Paaswell told ABC News. \"They don’t want to be at home.\"
Paaswell, who used to run Chicago's transit system, predicted that subway ridership will continue to increase as New Yorkers feel safer.
He added that the urge to go out will also be strong whenever offices allow their employees to come back.
\"They want to be back in their offices. It’ll be slow at first, but generally people don't want to be at home working all day, especially if they have children and [in-person] school resumes,\" he said.
Paaswell and other experts said the key trigger for getting people out of their homes and boosting the economy is the rebound of its arts and culture scene.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/nyc-subway-gty-ps-210517_1621276626881_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
The warmer weather and early reopenings have spurred people to re-explore the arts, restaurants and other attractions that the city has to offer.
\"It’s like putting your toe in the water,\" Paaswell said.
Broadway boost
In September, Broadway shows are scheduled to reopen at full capacity. Smaller concert halls and theaters are predicted to open earlier.
Large-scale events are also scheduled to return later in the fall, including the New York City Marathon in November.
Paaswell said the return of such events is important for New York's tourism industry, which pre-pandemic covered over 291,000 direct jobs and more than $47 billion in economic spending, according to the Office of the New York State Comptroller.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/nyc-broadway-rt-ps-210517_1621276626892_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
\"We're already starting to see hotels get booked up and people in Times Square and other tourist spots again,\" he said.
Miller said these reopenings will do more than just restart the critical parts of the city's economy. Having the lights on in Broadway and other hotspots sends a message to the world that New York City is past its worst days of the pandemic, when hospitals were filled to the brim and the daily death count was in the hundreds, according to Miller.
This in turn could help bring back the estimated 70,000 people who left the city in 2020, she said.
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