Happy Monday. In the UK it’s a holiday — May Day — and around the world, today is World Press Freedom Day.
In New York, there are two significant pandemic milestones today. The Governor says we can sit at a bar again and Mayor Bill De Blasio is sending 80,000 New York City workers back to the office (not without controversy).
We’re taking a three-question survey about how you are feeling about returning to “normalcy”. We ask about sitting at bars, returning to work — and your attitude towards not wearing masks outdoors. Gregg messaged us, saying: “How comfortable are vaccinated people with being outdoors unmasked, as the new CDC guidance allows? I was expecting to see more people shedding their masks outdoors, but most people aren’t, and I’m curious why.”
He may have only recently arrived in Hell’s Kitchen, but Michael William G has really taken the neighborhood to his heart. And pandemic living has inspired a pivot that’s led to him creating his own luxury candle brand. This is Michael’s West Side Story.
What we’ve been reading
Friends are falling out over the future of Governors Island. (Gotham Gazette)
Small retailers are struggling as office workers and tourists slowly return. (New York Times)
Long Beach faces bankruptcy. (Bloomberg)
New York is reopening — but where do you find staff? (Fortune)
How introverts and extroverts feel about the end of the pandemic. (The Atlantic)
Freeze Frame
We love this freeze frame from Ikebana Artist, Eugenia Gonzalez Ferreiro in Chile. Eugenia sent us this picture saying: “I finally got to frame them! These are most of the W42ST covers that I saved from our time on 42nd Street. Fantastic memories. My husband’s job brought us to Santiago de Chile for now! I miss New York.”