--Updated12/22: In a good sign, several of the businesses that decided to close this past weekend have reopened. Updating the list below--
In recent days, several establishments either closed because of infection among their staff or due to possible exposure to someone who had tested positive.
For instance, Mister Paradise, the cocktail bar at 105 First Ave., closed for the weekend after positive test results for some employees...
The Brant Foundation, showing a solo exhibition of new works by Julian Schnabel, abruptly closed "out of precaution" on Saturday here at 421 E. Sixth St. ...
Others taking a cautionary approach included Hearth at 403 E. 12th St. ...
Here is a partial list of other East Village businesses that either decided to amend their operating method or close...
• All The Kings Horses at 521 E. 12th St. has closed until further notice. UPDATED: They reopen on 12/21 with limited hours and no indoor dining.
• AuH2O Shop, 84 E. Seventh St., closed yesterday and will not reopen until after Christmas. "We're very sorry to people looking to pick up online orders or last-minute gifts, but we thank you for understanding the need to keep our staff and everyone safe."
• Azaleas, the women's boutique, limited their hours and the number of patrons allowed inside the shop at 140 Second Ave.
• Beauty Bar, 231 E. 14th St., will be closed until at least Dec. 31.
• Bluestockings, the activist bookstore and café at 116 Suffolk St., is now only open for pickup orders and coffee and pastries to go.
• Boris & Horton, the dog-friendly cafe on Avenue A at 12th Street, closed for the weekend, stating on Instagram: "The health of our employees, guests, and community is our number one priority." UPDATED 12/22: They are back open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• The Copper Still, 151 Second Ave., plans to reopen on Dec. 26.
• The Film Anthology Archives, 32 Second Ave., canceled yesterday's screenings and those scheduled for tonight and tomorrow. Per a statement:
"Having already planned to close for the holidays from Dec. 22-Jan. 6, we hope to return as scheduled on Jan. 7."
• Josie's, 520 E. Sixth St., like its sister bars Mona's and Sophie's, will be closed at least until after Dec. 25.
• Kindred, 342 E. Sixth St., is closed to at least Dec. 28.
• The Hard Swallow, 140 First Ave., will reopen on Dec. 27.
• The Immigrant, 341 E. Ninth St., has closed until Dec. 26.
• Metrograph, the cinema at 7 Ludlow St., is closing its theaters and commissary until Dec. 25.
• Mona's, 224 Avenue B, has shut down through Dec. 27.
• Now Yoga at 61 E. Fourth St. has suspended in-person classes, pivoting back to online sessions for the remainder of the year.
• O'Hanlon's, 349 E. 14th St., is shutting down until Dec. 26 to give its staff time off to get tested and to deep clean the bar.
• Otto's Shrunken Head, 538 E. 14th St., closed after service last night. The bar plans to reopen on Jan. 5.
• Phebe's, 361 Bowery, announced it will be closed for the next week.
• Ruffian, 125 E. Seventh St., plans to reopen on Dec. 27.
• SMØR, the Nordic cafe at 441 E. 12th St., suspended indoor dining, serving food and drinks outdoors and for takeaway and delivery.
• Sophie's, 507 E. Fifth St., is closed now with hopes of reopening after this holiday week.
For fatigued owners, employees and residents, the closures have prompted unpleasant flashbacks to March 2020, when businesses announced short-term closures due to the rising cases of coronavirus... only to be shuttered for months after then-Gov. Cuomo ordered all nonessential businesses to close during the PAUSE.
In recent days, both Mayor de Blasio, who has less than two weeks left in office, and Gov. Hochul have reportedly said another NYC lockdown won't be necessary. "Getting vaccinated, getting the booster and wearing a mask are critical to avoiding getting seriously ill from COVID-19, so don't take a chance," Hochul said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the scramble for testing continues. Long lines await people anxious for peace of mind before traveling in the days ahead or attending holiday get-togethers with friends or family. The Mayor has promised more testing sites early this week.
Starting today, the NYC Test & Trace Corps, in partnership with the NYC Health Department and NYC Care, will distribute 500,000 rapid antigen self-testing kits and 1 million KN95 masks through community-based organizations across the city. It's not clear where these might be available in the East Village.
Hearth photo by Lola Sáenz
15 comments:
this sux. i blame Santacon.
Just take your shots and move on with life
yea me too -
Well at least we can take advantage of our beautiful park along the East River during this latest wave of Covid cases.... wait?
More likely than SantaCon is the LCD Soundsystem "Superspreader 2021" Residency at Brooklyn Steel. Plenty of online chatter about 100s getting COVID after - no masks - indoors space - etc. Plenty of those who when to LCD are in hospitality or frequently dine out. The hypocrisy is, while James kept playing shows, he closed his restaurant (Four Horsemen in BK) until Dec. 28 due to COVID.
Yup 100% should not have happened.
The Starbucks in Peter Cooper on 23rd St and on St Marks and Avenue were also closed (again) for almost a week, supposedly due to Covid breakouts. Starbucks uses the same generic sign that says “Our store is temporarily closed” without disclosing the reason why. I prefer it when retail stores are more transparent about the reason for being closed. I’m almost old enough to remember when Starbucks claimed to be a responsible corporate citizen.
And yes, SantaCon was a superspreader event. There are scores of videos on TikTok with sick kids complaining that they shouldn’t have gone to SantaCon. It’s too bad that no one told them that drinking in crowded bars and marching around with thousands of drunk people would lead to this. But the city wanted us all to get back to normal and allowed an event that should have been cancelled years ago to go on. I’m surprised that most of the bars where it took place are still open, but I doubt that they care about their employees either.
Santacon is definitely responsible for a big chunk of the enormous surge in Covid in NYC. And all b/c young people who "want to have fun" just had to have their way. Well, I hope they didn't infect anyone very vulnerable.
My sympathy level for the those young people who didn't have the sense to stay home from a many-thousands-of-participants bar-crawl during a pandemic is ZERO.
I think we can all agree, the Omicron outbreak is 100% attributable to SantaCon. Oh, and to LCD Soundsystem, they were the culprits! These were the only events in the past 10 days where people were in close proximity to others. There certainly weren't any holiday parties/gatherings/etc.
EVGrumps always need someone to blame! This is just the virus running its course people. Stay masked, get a booster, be safe.
Yes, SantaCon is partly to blame for what the surge we are seeing today. Omicron was on the rise just as the biggest bar crawl in the country was underway. I guarantee that almost none of the attendees had gotten a booster shot (it was not required, and most vaccinated people in the city are not yet boosted anyway) and no one was wearing a mask while guzzling boilermakers inside The 13th Step. Omicron went from 13% of cases last week to 73% this week. City officials also say SantaCon is partly to blame, Obviously there were other gatherings last week, but this was by far the largest in the entire nation. Omicron was coming fast anyway; SantaCon made sure it came as fast as possible. So thanks SantaCon for giving us another reason to hate you.
Via The Daily Mail:
The SantaCon surge: Covid cases in Manhattan QUADRUPLED in the six days since notorious costumed bar crawl and New York state reports a record 22,478 positive tests
The biggest SantaCon in the country was held on December 11 in New York City, with thousands of costumed revelers staggering from bar to bar
A week after the gathering - which was cancelled last year - Manhattan was the worst of the five boroughs for COVID cases
New York City as a whole on Saturday recorded its highest ever total of new COVID cases, breaking records set in January 2021
On the day of SantaCon, Manhattan had 56.7 cases per 100,000: by a week later, on December 17, the rate had quadrupled to 231.4 per 100,000
Now residents are facing waits of over five hours to get tested for COVID as the city struggles to cope with the demand
Mark Levin, the chair of the city's health committee, said 'SantaCon may partly be to blame'
That is not a scientific evidence, just a speculation.
Would you blame next week's numbers on Billy Joel playing the Garden tonight?
Brandt Foundation website says exhibition is reopening on Wednesday
@2:01AM: "Would you blame next week's numbers on Billy Joel playing the Garden tonight?"
YES, I actually would. The Radio City Christmas Show is closed, a lot of Broadway is closed, many events at Carnegie Hall have been cancelled or postponed. But MSG has a capacity of about 21,000 people for a concert, and last night's show was also for those who had tickets for 2*previous* Billy Joel concerts at MSG that got cancelled due to the pandemic. So, yeah, if anywhere over 10,000 people were in MSG last night for a concert, I totally expect that to influence the numbers next week.
That said, Santacon was definitely FAR WORSE (and that is NOT speculation, thanks!) b/c there were many thousands of people going to MULTIPLE indoor spaces, where they didn't bother to mask up. And if you think all those young people were fully vaxxed, then I have a slightly-used bridge to sell you. BTW, fake vax ID's are just part of "having fun" apparently.
Thanks for this round up and solidarity with everyone in our position! I would feel terrible if one of my employees got covid from working the shop right now, and I also don't want to work it myself! Stay safe everyone!
Santacon is absolutely a superspreader. however...
i also think as people are worn out by this pandemic they are all loosening precautions. at the height of 2020 pandemic times, places were being cleaned/disinfected regularly, masks were up in stories and indoor public spaces, and people observed distancing. now everyone is one inch away, mask below the nose, going to huge events where someone inevitably tests positive. And let's not forget the lack of transparency with employers-they don't tell you when someone test positive and who it is.
and don't forget the subway & airports. can't tell you how many people have masks down and doing revolting things like eating on the train. ugh.
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