Nearly sixty years ago, the activist and urban theorist Jane Jacobs looked out her window and changed the way we think about cities. She described the street life of her West Village neighborhood as an intricate “sidewalk ballet,” with residents, businesses, visitors, and strangers locked in a constant dance around each other. When neighborhoods thrive, she argued, we are the company and the audience—we watch and we are watched. And as New Yorkers, we revel in density, and share our spaces and our experiences.
The very density that electrifies New York is deadly in a pandemic. The streets have mostly been empty for a month, and the city feels drained of its energy. The essential workers, the grocery shoppers, the New Yorkers getting a breath of fresh air and smiling through their masks, are like afterimages of a familiar city. We’re improvising new steps, but the dance continues.
1March 15 | Broadway and W. 4th St.
The liminal weekend before social distancing measures came into effect. NYU closed its physical campus and moved to distance learning the following week.
2March 27 | Mott St. and E. Broadway
3March 27 | Prince Street
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor global virus will stay New Yorkers from forming a line outside of Prince Street Pizza. FaceTiming while a friend picks up a slice.
4March 27 | Coleman Skatepark
The empty streets have been a dream for skateboarders – for weeks, the city’s soundtrack has been sirens, birdsongs, and skateboard wheels. Below, Tyrone Williams, BMX-rider and owner of Dah Shop on the Lower East Side. NYC Skateparks have since been closed.
5April 1 | Baxter Street
Woman (and pigeon) walk past the NYC Courthouses.
6March 31 | Mulberry St.
7March 27 | Chatham Square
8March 27 | Eldridge and Delancey Sts.
This guy had to shut down his family-owned recording studio on the Lower East Side. I can’t remember the name because I declined to take his card (owing to the six-foot rule).
9March 15 | Bleecker St.
Though the City Council has yet to limit street food vendors, many have ceased operations due to low demand. This halal cart on Bleecker was gone in the days after this photo was taken.
10March 15 | LaGuardia Place
11March 27 | Carrying supplies down E. Broadway
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Clockwise from left:
March 22—Socially distanced weekly call with Avi and Jeremiah.
April 1—10:30 a.m. A deliveryman takes a break to eat a burger.
April 2—Man holding a pink bakery box walks down Bond Street. Perspective has zoomed out as the weeks wear on and the virus reached its peak in the city.
13March 27 | Allen and Delancey Sts.
14April 1 | Outside Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station
8:30 a.m.: The new rush hour; this is the sole commuter who emerged from the station after I stood outside of it for 30 minutes.
15April 2 | Lafayette St.
The Sant Ambroeus Soho crew play a socially distanced pick-up game of soccer in the middle of a desolate Lafayette St.
16April 2 | Mulberry Market
Grocery clerks and delivery workers on the front line of the crisis.
17April 1 | Unloading boxes on Hester St.
18March 24 | Mulberry and Spring Sts.
19March 27 | Market and Madison St.
