America’s Economy Can’t Thrive Without New York City
The country’s Covid-19 epicenter starts to reopen today, a much-needed step for the U.S. comeback to begin in earnest.
The Big Kahuna.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Everyone has seen the map by now. The one of the United States, overlaid with cases of Covid-19 or deaths because of it. Clearly, New York City is the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for at least 21,000 of the more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths across the country.
The high concentration in one small part of the East Coast creates the temptation to label the coronavirus as a distinctly New York problem, especially as the City That Never Sleeps remained shut down while the rest of the state and country started the gradual process of reopening. Last week, its residents were also subjected to a curfew as protesters marched across boroughs to speak out against systemic racism and police brutality after the killings of George Floyd and other black Americans.