Striking Differences in New York City Amid Coronavirus
"42nd Street on a Saturday Night during COVID-19" by Vladislav Grubman
New York City has been an epicenter for coronavirus infections, and the entire state of New York is on lockdown until at least May 15th. Changes in the city have been drastic, and there have been interesting statistics to arise out of these strange times. The total amount of COVID-19 cases that have emerged in New York City has been 134,436, which is more than half of New York state’s total amount of cases being 242,786. For New York City, there have been 18,018 patients that have recovered from COVID-19, however, there has also been 10,022 deaths.
Due to the pandemic, the landscape of New York City society has drastically changed. Most shops have closed, and barely anyone is riding the subway. There have been a 2,637% increase in unemployment claims. Around this time last year in 2019, there were about 5,300 unemployment claims filed in New York City. This year during the week of March 22nd, there were almost 144,000 unemployment claims filed.
Another difficulty has arisen for New York City, which has been collecting garbage. Data collected from the city’s Department of Sanitation reflects the amount of garbage collected from Manhattan residences went down by about 7% when compared to the borough average for March over the past five years.
On the upside, the amount of applications to foster dogs has skyrocketed. A nonprofit called Foster Dogs that works with around 30 shelters and rescue organizations in the New York City area received over 3,000 applications for fostering dogs in the month of March. The traffic to its website increased by an astonishing 250%.
Another fascinating statistic for New York City is that the subway has seen a 90% decrease in ridership. Last year in mid-April, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority recorded 34 million swipes at their locations. This year, the number of rides recorded was down to 2.5 million during the week that ended on April 11th. The sharpest decline in amount of rides was in Manhattan, while the Bronx had the least amount of drops in ridership, even though the Bronx has the highest rate of poverty in all the boroughs.
As more people have been contained in their homes, crime has also been contained more. During the month of March, the amount of murders decreased by 25% when compared to the same time as last year. Rape and grand larceny declined in addition, and domestic violence reports fell by 15% as well (however victims may find themselves less able to report domestic violence during these times).
In other positive news that is happening in New York City, traffic at the busiest bridges and tunnels has decreased by 60%, and an amazing 288% more people have signed up to volunteer.