"Oh, before a year and a half, I think it wasn’t much better, well not like now after COVID-19 you know, everything is going down. I have to work more harder for a little more money, but it’s OK you know, I got no choice I have to work, I have to support my family, I have to pay my rent, I have to pay all my taxes, plus I have to support my child. My child right now is in college, in their first year.  I have to pay, you know not everything but I have to pay half, it’s hard for me but I can do."

"I think right now it’s a little bit better, like maybe five more percent. If you see a little more people, is good for me, for everyone, everybody. For example, if you make today an extra $25, then every day its gonna be more. For five days it’s gonna be $125, so for me this is good. You know because it’s going to be like an extra $500 more and a month. 

So, It’s a little bit better day by day. One day is good, one day is not but little by little, we can work! "

"I did OK except for a couple of members of my family got Covid, but we pulled through. 

Business is not good anymore, I used to have 6 employees, now it’s just me and a part time gentleman that comes in to help me. I’m trying to do my best to keep it going. I’m maybe doing 30 – 40 percent of what I used to do.

Hopefully the fall will bring better things, from what I’m hearing.

I’m just going to try to survive and pull through!"

I’ve been in this location for 20 years, but in the business for 30 years and have two other locations. Both closed right now as we don’t have enough business to pay the employees. 

Back in the 80’s things were great, I’ll never forget those days, business was good, and I met a lot of people back then. The economy was good, and even though we had a couple of crashes it came back in the 90’s and the markets were doing great. Business was good back then!

"I think this made me a little stronger and a little wiser too. Your outlook on life changes after a pandemic like this. I thank God for what I have.

My only goal is to hopefully get this business back on track somehow. If I could get it back to 50 – 60 percent of what I used to do then I’ll be happy.

I’ll just continue to pay my bills and keep moving forward!"

"That’s a good question. Last year I did work in Times square because I didn’t have to wear a mask and I think Covid is a big Hoax! I never believed it, I still don’t, I think it’s just bullshit. I blame Donald Trump because ever since he became president things were full of hate, even though I used to like him.

What got me through it? Well, I think it’s a hoax first of all, I think the masks are ridiculous, you can’t breathe, I like breathing. I think they are unhealthy!

Thank you, Governor Cuomo, for lifting it up, and I hope we can go to food emporium and not wear a fucking mask. But they will probably say “You gotta wear a mask”.

What brought me through it, well time heals. What hurt me was that I couldn’t take my dance classes, all my gyms closed. 

I couldn’t go to LA, so I went to Miami instead, which I loved, I was sitting on the beach, and I was taking class.

"You know today was a very special day Phil, because I read in the paper that Cuomo lifted everything. Thank you, Governor Cuomo, even though you killed 15,000 people in nursing homes, and you molested your women. Thank you for lifting it, but I think a lot of stores will still make you wear a mask.

How am I moving forward? I’m happy I’m working! and God bless Times Square, God bless phil and his wonderful camera, and all the people in Times Square, and all the people in America coming to visit Times Square. I met some Australian people today, I miss the UK people like you Phil. I thank all the people from Florida, from Texas, from California visiting Times Square and supporting the crossroads of the world.

And let me tell you, I worked last winter during the Covid Bullshit, and I made some money here, so God bless Times Square. I’ve worked here all my life, when things were tough, I came back here and showed my big titties and made a living and God bless times Square. 

We are still here keeping it sleazy! They say they cleaned Times Square; they say they cleaned New York up? You’ll never clean New York up!"

"I  think, personally for me, Covid was a nice reset and a reassessment of a lot of values and things that led to a better focus during this downtime.

The time we spent at home for some people, they got lost in it, and didn’t utilize it well. And for others, they really assessed what is important and created some good routines, and for others some bad habits.

For me it was a lot of bad habits that led to a rejection of things that I don’t want in my life, and that led to a better focus on work. Four months later once the market re-opened, I’ve seen business almost 4x.

Having the bike was nice and family and friends, a little bit of travelling which I know there is a little bit of negative thoughts on, regarding people who were moving around during Covid, but I think that we all had to make really hard decisions based on things that we want.

"I think my faith and belief for this city is even stronger now!

As a New Yorker for all those people that left the city, I feel like the jokes on them now. For the people that stayed and toughed it out, and saw this city become desolate and boarded up, we are now seeing it flourish again, which makes you feel pretty amazing!

New York feels like the phoenix rising from the ashes but seems even better. It’s like New York 2.0,  and the first one was amazing before."

"During the pandemic it was very difficult, both financially and mentally. It was hard because it just hit us out of nowhere. You do have your savings just for back up, but I got scared because I did not know how I was going to get through.

Come March, we were all out of work. We had to tell our landlord just to give us a few months in advance to keep up with the rent, just so we could get through.

Depression was a big factor; I live with my family, so we were all trying to deal with it. You see each other before work but now living all living together again, you just fight and argue but its good because you get to spend time together.

It’s the first time you get to know your family a little further, and it makes you appreciate them more as lots of people did not survive the pandemic.

"It’s tough because a lot of places have been closing. Times Square is not the same, I’m amazed because it’s such a big tourist place and now it’s all quiet.

Madison Square Garden, Jacob Javits center, they were now all quiet. We used to be busy because their were always the conventions like comic con. Now it’s been turned into where you go to get your vaccinations.

As a New Yorker though, I can say, I’m Ok, I’m good!"

"I think the vaccinations. I was worried about it at first, and pretty skeptical because it came out so fast, but I think it’s working for everyone.

We are going to move forward little by little, it just takes a bit of patience, hope, faith and just try to take care of each other.

The money will hopefully go back up, but we have been through a year of this and maybe we have two or three more years before its back to normal. 

The money and everything is good, but you have your health and you survived it. Let’s just try to look on the bright side rather than the money side. Money ain’t everything!"

"Early on in March we had to close the museum due to what was happening with the pandemic. As a result, we lost 50-60 percent of the organization who were either laid off or terminated. For the staff that directly report to me, we went from 50 to about 9 people. We are now back to about 30 which gives you the hope to move on, rebuild and come back to where we once were.

The site is so meaningful for so many people, and just about anyone that visits here. From when we closed in March of 2020 till today, we still maintained it like it was open every day. It had to be taken care of meticulously, from the stone, the tree’s, the inside, to the pools. With the reduction in our budget, we were not able to run the pools as much, so it was a little bit more demanding for the engineers to keep it maintained.

We did everything we could to have it ready to open as soon as we were given the opportunity."

"Working here at the 9/11 memorial and what we made of it, and how we are representing that tragic day. I think that, in itself, gives you hope.

Even with the pandemic, we fell to our knees! we had to close for months but we are building it back. We are seeing visitors increase on a regular basis. 

New York is coming back to life and its hopeful to know that it will be, what it once was!"

"I didn’t know if I was going to have a job once the pandemic was over. When Broadway shut down, I knew we were going to be in this for the long haul.

If theater shuts down, and this is all I have been doing since I was 7 years old, then what the hell am I going to do with my life!

What got me through it, was my mum, my stepdad and all my family doing a lot of zoom calls and facetime. That was tough not being able to see them because everyone was under quarantine. My parents are all in Vegas and I’m here.

Having my mum as my cheerleader helped, she has always known how to talk to me and that helped get me through it.

I’m looking forward to things a starting back up, and restarting a career that I’m going to do my hardest to stay in.

"I don’t know if I have a future here!

In a perfect world I would love to live back and forth. I would like to work in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York.

One of the goals is to own property, and I don’t know if that means going back to Vegas, as I want to be close to my parents as they get older.

One thing I’ve seen about the pandemic, which was a positive thing, and changed my thinking was, you don’t have to be in New York or LA to act and pursue your dream. The pandemic has shown that you could live in Ohio and send in a self tape, and still work in some way. Projects are shooting all over the place now. A lot of shooting in Atlanta and Texas.

I see myself having a place in New York, but I can also see myself having a home outside of New York."

"Unfortunately, the entire hospitality industry across the world got hit hard and in New York that was no different. In the middle of the pandemic, we were down to 5-10 percent occupancy levels in contrast to normal times when we are running over 90 percent.

We took a big hit.  Unfortunately we had to lay off quite a lot of staff, now its recovering slowly but surely. Every month it is getting better. This year we are running at about 40 percent.

The projections really don’t see us recovering until 2025. That would be on par with our 2019 levels.

The tourism and hospitality industry has taken a massive hit, and many have lost their jobs. Some went into other industries and will never come back. 

In New York we have about 500 hotels of which over half closed, many of which will be closed permanently.

For me personally, I was fortunate enough that I kept my job during Covid. I was on a limited schedule, maybe 3 days a week at the start and as business demanded slowly it came back.

It was difficult, but it was also an opportunity to reset and rethink how we work in the hospitality industry. Hotels in general are very set in their ways! Very old school.

Covid gave us an opportunity to see how we could make some advances, reset, and just update everything."

"I think during Covid, New York obviously took a huge hit and we were down in the dumps for a while, but it’s been amazing to see how people have come together.

My experience in the hotel industry, was how all the employees all came together, and everyone was still smiling. We kept that good energy. That’s what gives me the most hope that New York will bounce back stronger than ever!

New Yorkers are tough people and they won’t let this get the better of them!"

I was not going to let this thing get to me!

However, you did not know if you were going to get through. The next day you could wake up and be sick even though I would double mask when I went out.

I had to keep myself alert because you are not keeping your brain active. I understand why people would get depressed or drink. I said to myself the only business that made money during lockdown were liquor stores."

"The people who stayed in New York!  those who stick it out and say “This is my city and it’s going to come back and I’m hanging in with it.

I walk this city. That was one of the biggest things I missed during the pandemic, not being able to walk around it. 

I tell my students, when you don’t have ideas, just walk around the city and you will find inspiration from the people and the buildings. All the big designers used to come downtown just to see how people dressed.

You can get inspiration as soon as you leave your door in the morning!"

"We were really affected because we are a small community restaurant. Lockdown turned our lives upside down, we had to hit the stop button on everything.

However, we were lucky, because we care about our neighbors and our crew who we’ve been working with us for some of whom, over 30 years. We were lucky to have both internal and both external support from the neighborhood. 

Because there was no delivery, we had a bunch of pies we had made, we handed them out to people in the neighborhood that didn’t have food or were going to struggle.

When we were shut down, we did a lot of what we could to help our staff members. We started a gofundme page, and were blown away with the outpouring of love we had received from some people that had nothing, but wanted to share what little they had, and some super wealthy people that were super generous. 

My wife was in tears when a little old Irish lady who has been coming for years, walked up one Saturday and said, “I’ve got a little something for you” and gave my wife a check for $10,000. She said I love you guys and I know you look after your staff so do what you can to help people with this.

"Hour to hour New York changes so much. We had a crazy weekend with Pride,  everyone said it was going to be a virtual parade this year. I think there was as many people as their ever was. 

We are by our nature, herd creatures, and I think people just wanted to be out there. We are supposed to interact with other human beings, so I think a lot of people were feeling that.

I think this year with what’s going on, I’ve seen such a great sense of community with Pride, than at any other time. Its emblematic of what’s going on. There are so many people in the neighborhood now, that stuck it out even though there are a lot of empty apartments."

"It effected in my job as a bike messenger. I had to switch from Pharmacy deliveries to food deliveries from April 2020 till today. Before that I was doing modeling, but the pandemic shut that down. I also teach children how to roller blade,  that also got shut down. 

On the first day of lockdown, I was scheduled to teach kids to roller blade, but the school were testing the children for Covid. I was scared as I did not want to get Covid. My agent called and told me that the event was going  to be rescheduled.

During the lockdown I was just trying to maintain myself, I had saved up some money, and was quarantining myself regularly just to make sure I wasn’t getting sick. 

"As a New Yorker, the creepiest thing I’ve seen, is that, I’ve actually seen the City Sleep! 

Now the City has woken up again, and once it wakes up it doesn’t stop moving. I just want to get back with the pace of things, and keep going!"

"Initially, it was frightening to know that I could go out of business! 

But having that time at home to evaluate things, it gave me a different perspective on my life. I was working 7 days a week from very early in the morning till very late at night, it was just too much.

It wasn’t a good way of living! So, I made a lot of changes. I got my website going which had been neglected and really enjoyed doing it.

I used to do classes which I was now unable to do because of the pandemic and I decided, I did not want to go back to that morning till night routine.

I changed my hours. I start late in the day, I take Mondays off, and perhaps eventually take Sundays off. I’m now enjoying myself more, and I’m enjoying my work.

"I always have hope! and that’s why I’m still here. I’ve always tried to see into the future, having my own visions of the future.

I have grandchildren now, so I think about them and their futures. A lot of my priorities are there, more so for my family than myself. 

If they are doing great then I’m happy!"

"Wanting to be strong, and a healthier life for my family was the one thing that I knew I had to get through because I’m the head of the household.

Unfortunately, I got covid with my son and my wife. My son has sickle cell anemia, and had to be hospitalized for a week. Myself and my wife had to take care of my daughter. 

But we’re strong, and from New York, to the grace of God we got through it, and things are looking brighter, and we’re healthy.

We’re just pushing through this thing. I’m just happy to see this city opening back up. People are smiling again. 

Most importantly, I can see people smiles in their faces instead of just seeing a mask and not really know what’s going on. But things are definitely looking up."

"Another breath ! Another breath of life, even though we’re going through challenging times here in New York City and in the United States, we’re bouncing back from the last four years.

But there are places that things are worse. So even with the blessings and luxuries that we do have, and I’m extremely grateful for what we do have here. 

Nothing is perfect, things will definitely turn around. I’d rather be optimistic than be you know negative, but things are turning around, and I just hope that it will get back to the way it used to be with less hate and more love!"

"My heart is filled with joy! I’m seeing stores opening, and everyone’s getting vaccinated. Masks aren’t required indoors at most places, I’m super hopeful and very excited to be in the city."

"Covid was a very shocking and traumatic experience, right from the very beginning when I got the news that my gym friend had passed away from covid. 

The building I had just moved from, I lost 5 friends to Covid, and the building I moved to, I lost two friends as well as a couple of friends outside the building in the neighborhood. This all happened with a few months. 

I stopped counting at 21 friends lost when the 21st person was my cousin who passed away in Arizona.

At one point I was afraid to pick up my phone because I was afraid to learn of someone else passing.

My business doing commercials and film work shut down for a couple of months and the silence of New York was eerie.  Not working, and not knowing what was going to happen with my life financially was another traumatic experience outside of Covid.

"I’ve been here since December of 1976, and it’s taken me since then to become a citizen.

There is still an energy in New York. I love the pace and energy of New York as well as the four seasons.

I’m looking to push my podcast so the joy and living can come from that. And to help my friends, and just have fun in life!"

"Well, I had to close. When the governor shut everything down, I had to stop. I wasn’t on the street, from I guess March or was it April/ May through till September,  this was when I felt I could maybe come out again. 

Business was not great then, but I made a few sales, I just wanted to get out of the house.

I did get out and shoot pictures, which was good. It’s good for the sanity. I also had some savings."

"The city is really alive again! business has been good, and as soon as the European tourists come back it will be great!"

"I feel selfish because you know why? I’m not back in New Jersey city, so I feel selfish that I’m over here in a good spot now."

"God!

And I go to church every Sunday."

But then a couple of weeks went by, and we were slow. Everyone came for a haircut that first week then you didn’t see them anymore. Then it got slower and slower, and then the schools didn’t open. Schools were closed, and all the businesses were closed. 

Nobody was on the streets, not a single car coming down Broadway and all the trains were empty. The guys were coming to work from the Bronx saying, “their, was nobody on the trains”. We were just sitting here doing about 10 percent of our business, but that wasn’t going to make it.

I was thinking maybe the owners were going to stick around and put some money into the place, maybe for another year. The owners decided they just didn’t want to do it anymore. They were bleeding cash and couldn’t afford to put all the money into the place,  and we have a lot of employees. 

They announced, “we are going to close”. We were thinking that it was for a month or two. But they were closing for good."

I’m thinking, what the hell am I going to do now? 

All the barbers were freaking out, we had all started working around the same time, which was about 30 – 35 years ago. Back then, Astor Place went from 15 barbers to 30 then to 75, 

The barbers started taking customers names, they were going to work from their homes but, who is going to go to the Bronx for a haircut, maybe a very loyal customer. A couple of barbers were looking for a new shop, but even the small ones were closing, their, were none to go to.

Then I just put a thing in motion, in my head I was like, who is going to get this done in three weeks, just before thanksgiving, so I talked to a friend that I knew from Astor. We were friends because we went to Mets games together. 

He had invited me to a game, and the next thing you knew we were sitting behind the dugout right behind home plate.  I’m realizing this is a New York guy.

He asked, “do you think they will sell the place?”  I was sure they would not want to sell it.

I called him and said “do you want to buy it? you don’t have to worry; I know the place and will run it. Let’s just get the finances down, talk to the landlord and put things together.

"In the beginning when it happened, it was a shock for all the musicians in terms of work. As a performer, we can play and put our sorrow or sadness and all the emotions into playing music for people. As a composer, it was difficult to be inspired or create right away. When you are watching the world falling apart and people were dying, It took a little while to reflect and be creative again.

My concerts have all been cancelled but I’m grateful I can still teach.

It’s been tough to see Lincoln Center, the Met, Carnegie Hall, and The New York Ballet all shut down.

Some of the famous Broadway singers have had to take to baby sitting or side jobs just to pay rent and survive. 

"That’s a really difficult question for me at the moment because I’m also a mum.

I think most New Yorkers are strong, most people want to be on the same page and have a positive vibe, and support each other.

It’s been very hard to see so many stores shutdown.

Most of our friends who have kids actually moved away. It’s made me think, what should I do? Living in New York is not easy, the rents are so expensive especially when you have kids and you want to find the best place to support your family.

I love New York and it’s my home. I moved here from China when I was 17. I remember taking the train and crossing Brooklyn, seeing Manhattan and thinking, I’m really here, it feels like a dream!

You say to yourself, one day I’m going to feel like I belong here, and years later I did.

You work so hard for your career; the city drives you in that way. 

I came here because I was accepted to Julliard precollege, this was a dream for a 17-year-old. 

It’s a really sad question, especially because if you feel you belong here, but like my friends who moved away, they think it’s better for their family."