Memorial Day weekend in New York City usually marks the beginning of a vibrant summer to come. But this year traditions have been altered under the shadow of the coronavirus.
Amber Oilett and her daughter Kayla Jay, 9, walked around Rockaway Beach.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York Times
Memorial Day weekend in New York City usually marks the beginning of a vibrant summer to come.
We set up smoky barbecue grills on stoops and in parks. We rush to the city’s sandy shores when beaches open. We wait on line — no, not “in line” — to ride the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. We ride our bicycles up and down bike paths across the city. We collect the neighborhood kids and head to the public pools.
The weekend serves as a peek into what the city will look like in the coming months. A taste of summer that keeps New Yorkers looking forward. But this year Memorial Day weekend occurs under the shadow of the coronavirus. For nearly three months, the city has been a shell of itself. The virus has hit New York especially hard, quickly turning this dense, energetic city into the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Bronx was open for private prayer this weekend.Credit…Desiree Rios for The New York Times
Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs on Coney Island closed off the seating area but remained open for takeout business.Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York Times
A group of friends playing dominoes in the picnic area of Orchard Beach in the Bronx.Credit…James Estrin/The New York Times
Freda Nurse, 51 distributing food at Bethesda Healing Center in the Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn.Credit…Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times
Ariella Kolesnik, 5, played at Brighton Beach on Friday.Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York Times
There have been more than 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the city and more than 20,000 New Yorkers have died. The virus, shining a bright light on pre-existing inequities, has been especially devastating in black and Latino communities, making them home to the highest rates of virus deaths in the city, according to the New York City Health Department.
The pandemic has also created a hunger crisis. Nearly one in four New Yorkers needs food, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. New Yorkers also need money: Unemployment claims have spiked 2,637 percent in the city since March.
Wealthier areas of the city haven’t experienced the same level of devastation. They have not seen it either; many residents of the wealthiest neighborhoods have flocked to vacation homes in the Hamptons or other beach towns and upstate hamlets.
The New Yorkers who remained were the same New Yorkers who would normally host those stoop barbecues, starting on Friday afternoon and through dusk on Memorial Day.
Jeannie Diaz Alberts, 55, placing American flags alongside the graves of veterans at Ocean View Cemetery in Staten Island.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
In the Lower East Side, a makeshift memorial bears the names of individuals who have died of Covid-19.Credit…Kholood Eid for The New York Times
Jose Hernandez, right, selling produce out of a van on Nagle Street in the Inwood neighborhood in Manhattan.Credit…Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
A volunteer carrying bags of donated food to distribute at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Bronx.Credit…Desiree Rios for The New York Times
Angelli Gonzalez, 23, along with her family, mourned her mother Maria Gonzalez at St. Peter’s Cemetery on Staten Island. She died from Covid-19 on April 28.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
They are the ones who sell the hot dogs, drive the ice cream trucks, staff the lifeguard stands, drive the city buses, care for our elderly and clean the boardwalks. They hold jobs that were essential before this crisis and that continued to be instrumental in keeping New York City humming.
These are also the New Yorkers who have lost their lives.
People like Ferdi German, a subway car inspector for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Nita Lee, a Florida transplant who helped care for a generation of AIDS patients in the 1980s. Raymond Copeland, a sanitation worker from the South Bronx. Dr. Julie Butler, a Harlem veterinarian who never turned a patient away. Idris Bey, a former Marine and an emergency worker who responded to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. The Bronx’s own Fred the Godson, an incisive rapper with a big heart.
The Kirkland family celebrated a birthday and a graduation on their stoop in Brooklyn on Friday.Credit…Calla Kessler/The New York Times
Nurses from Mount Sinai Hospital cheered on Friday during the 7 p.m. clap for essential workers while they shared a bucket of fried chicken.Credit…Brittainy Newman/The New York Times
Health care workers from Northwell Health testing a woman for coronavirus antibodies at the First Baptist Church in the East Elmhurst neighborhood in Queens.Credit…Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
Mounted park rangers patrolling South Beach on Staten Island. Both the rangers and their horses wore face masks.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Anna Lipinski and her daughter Lucy buying an ice cream cone at Domino Park on the Brooklyn waterfront.Credit…Calla Kessler/The New York Times
Memorial Day was established as a national holiday by Congress in 1971 as a way to honor the fallen soldiers of all wars. But before then, the city celebrated Decoration Day, which began three years after the end of the Civil War in Waterloo, N.Y. Businesses would close and flags flew at half-staff to remember the lost soldiers of that war. By the end of the century, people across several states would spend the end of May decorating the graves of the dead with flowers.
This Memorial Day, New Yorkers might not be able to strike a match and light their grills. Children would have to stand six feet apart from one another for the ice cream truck. Beachgoers might only dip their toes in the sand instead of jumping into the first waves of summer. The raucous laughter of city children playing at public pools would not be echoing from blocks away.
We won’t be able to enjoy the delicious homemade burgers by the neighborhood cook, our stoops would be emptier than normal and those of us venturing out would have our faces covered.
Bela Zeldovich, right, turned 6 this past weekend. Her family celebrated at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City on Sunday.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Mike Waynn, center, and Michelle Kalil cooked food on Sunday for their neighborhood in Williamsburg, as part of a fund-raiser for students in Haiti.Credit…Sarah Blesener for The New York Times
A woman dressed up for Eid al-Fitr waiting for the bus across from Claremont Park in the Bronx.Credit…Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times
Chriseale Drumgold, 24, and his daughter, Sarah Brown, 9, tried to grill in Claremont Park on Sunday, but park officials stopped them because of coronavirus restrictions.Credit…Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times
Polly Uyaroglu, 7, left, and Dulcie Crawford, 6, playing on a street in Fort Greene that was closed to car traffic.Credit…Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
But New Yorkers have a reputation to uphold. We take care of one another. We can be shaken but not broken. We don’t give up and we do not run. We know that better days will arrive. Bars, restaurants and stores will reopen. Being New York tough is about being ready for the new tomorrow, whatever that tomorrow looks like. And being safe and protecting one another is how we can honor those New Yorkers we have lost.
Visitors walking along the jetty of the Throgs Neck Bridge at Fort Totten Park in Queens.Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
The Joiner family celebrated Memorial Day with a picnic at Herbert Von King Park in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.Credit…Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times
Mishell Coronel, 25, and Henry Le, 28, celebrated during their gender reveal party at Crotona Park in the Bronx. The couple are expecting a child in November.Credit…Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times
Empty chairs were positioned at a safe distance in Snug Harbor, Staten Island.Credit…Andrew Seng for The New York Times
A bagpipe player performed at a Memorial Day parade hosted by Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 72 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.Credit…Brittainy Newman/The New York Times
