The Daily - New York City Grinds to a Halt

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

Across America, businesses are scaling back, firing workers and shutting their doors because of the coronavirus. New York’s Chinatown has been experiencing a downturn for weeks as anxiety and discrimination affected business. Now, the state government has mandated nonessential businesses in the city keep 75 percent of their workers home. So what did it sound like as one of the busiest cities in the world ground to a halt? Five producers at “The Daily,” Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Jessica Cheung, Daniel Guillemette and Andy Mills, spoke to small business owners to find out. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: With so many businesses being forced to close, some indefinitely, claims for jobless benefits surged 33 percent last week. Here are the latest updates on the crisis and its impact on daily life across America.As so much of life begins to shift, we have answers to some common questions about the coronavirus crisis.

Hi, yes, we're reporters. We're asking how businesses are doing in Chinatown right now. You're smiling. I think you know the answer to that question. It's down. You know, it's down. It's been down for over a month and a half. It's going to go down more.

This is not the bottom. From The New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is The Daily. Everything is running slow. We're doing half of what we used to do last Friday. 50% less than before. Easily 60%. Across America, businesses are scaling back, firing workers, and shutting their doors because of the coronavirus. Have you ever seen it like this before? No, I've never seen it before. Never, never in my life. That is a serious epidemic. In New York City, that started in Chinatown. Stories of economic downturn, even discrimination against Chinese communities are coming to light across the country. Fueled by anxiety.

Here in New York City, business owners in Chinatown say sales are down because of widespread fear. City, business owners in Chinatown say sales are down because of widespread fear. Within days, it had expanded to the entire city by order of the government. And earlier today, Governor Andrew Cuomo explained the extraordinary measure that he is taking to protect New Yorkers and limit the spread of the coronavirus. Today, what it sounded like as New York City's economy ground to a halt. Life as we know it for tourists and New Yorkers will be quite different for the time being. It's Friday, March 20th. Hello.

Hi. What channel is this? The New York Times. New York Times? Podcast. Hey, what's up guys? Good morning guys! Good morning, how are you? You're cleaning, cleaning? Yeah.

So this is Stella Tan. It's Sunday, March 15th, and I am in Manhattan's Chinatown. There are some souvenir shops open, a few bakeries and restaurants open, but also a fair number of places are closed with their gates pulled down in front or with cardboard over their windows. I'm about to meet the owner of this restaurant, Amazing 66, and I am just getting to the front of the restaurant right now. Hello. Hello. Hello.

Hi, Helen. Hi. Nice to meet you. Hi, Stella. Nice to meet you. We just did an elbow bump. Yeah. Actually, it's still a little early, but 12 o'clock usually is lunch crowd should be coming in.

But now, see, we only have one person at one table. That's an empty restaurant. My name is Helen Ng, and I am the restaurant owner of Amazing 66 on March Street in Manhattan. I was actually born in Hong Kong, and I came over to the United States with my family and four other siblings in 1969. I'm 12 years old at the time. My parents started working on the garment manufacturing. I honestly say that I started working here underage, the third day that I got to the United States. I go to school, and then I go to the garment manufacturing to work after school. And how long have you been running this restaurant?

This is my 14 years. And how long have you been running this restaurant? This is my 14th year. Since the business keeps going down, and my staff is worried about the transportation when they're traveling, and I guess I have no choice, but they decided to close up the restaurant as of tomorrow, the 16th. And of course I don't really like it or don't want to but I have no choice it's sad you know I mean I always I told my staff, I say they're family, I mean like a family to me, so

if I don't see them, I feel that I'm not, I can't, I'm not home, you know, but I hope this virus will go away soon and everybody be healthy. And what's the food that you're going to miss the most from your restaurant? From my restaurant? So many of them, you know. I have the pumpkin with the short rib, I have the chicken with garlic sauce, I have the lobster that cooked with cheese, and so many, so many. Well, I hope you can reopen

and eat all those foods again soon with your staff and your family. Thank you. I hope everybody can reopen so make the Chinatown be, you know, blossom again, you know, more people come back here. I just want to see the street that full of people instead of empty. That's the most important. All right, well, nice meeting you. Very nice to meet you. Good luck. And I'll definitely come back and reopen.

Elbow. Elbow. Okay. I nice to meet you. Good luck. And I'll definitely come back and do the office. Elbow. Okay. I hope I see you again soon, okay? Yeah, sure. Bye. Well, there are closures and cancellations throughout New York City. There are big crowds outside grocery stores. They are lined up around the block on the Upper West Side. The most happening spot in any neighborhood right now, the grocery store. Long lines of anxious shoppers have left shelves bare everywhere.

Okay, so this is Alex. It's about 2.30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, and I'm standing in front of this market in my neighborhood called Halsey Traders Market and it's kind of like a cross between a small grocery store and what we call a bodega. It's not a full-service grocery store but you can come here to get you know a few toiletries or some vegetables whatever you need for the night. Yeah I'm gonna going to go in and I'm going to see what's going on there. So I just walked in the front door and there's a lot of people here right now.

So there's about three little counters where people are checking out. Each one is pretty busy right now. There's a line behind each one of them. I see this one woman right here at the counter. She's buying a lot of cleaning products like Lysol wipes and sprays. Okay, I'm going to go. $1.25. Hey, are you Juju? Nice to meet you. I'm not going to shake your hand.

I'm not going to shake your hand either. Great, okay. Can I get you to just say your name and what you do here real quick? Yeah, sure. My name is Juju. I've been supervising this store and the key food down there for the past 10 years. And never seen anything like this. It's just a sheer volume of customers shopping at the same time. You know, you would think like perishable items

wouldn't be moving. I have no eggs. Yogurt is running out. Meat is running out. What did it feel like for you when you saw the line starting to get really crazy? What were you thinking in your head? I was extremely stressed. Like yesterday, I went so unprepared, bags under my eyes. I'm working 19 hours sometimes. I'll get like a half hour sleep. My employees are overworked. I am overworked. I'm shaking, guys. I'm speaking to you. Not because I'm nervous.

Your leg is shaking? I'm tired. I'm very tired. I'm a cashier for five minutes. I'm stocking meat for five minutes. I'm doing everything. And at one point in time, there was a few shoplifters. I swear to God, I didn't even have time to talk to them. I was like, I tap them on the shoulder. Have a good day. Enjoy. What were they stealing? Soap. Soap. What do you, if somebody is desperate enough to steal soap, what do you do? Have a good day, man. I don't know if you see my eye twitching. I feel like my eye is twitch man. I don't know if you see my eye twitching.

I feel like my eye is twitching. I can't tell. You know, for the past 30 years, my family has been around over here operating. My dad is 72 years old. When he comes around here, people still recognize him. So, you know, you feel bad for people. You know, you really want to help. What's going on, brother?

We have no garlic. We have no onion. We have no... Our refrigerators are empty. Our walking boxes are empty. For as long as I know, my entire life, Boar's Head never delivers on Sunday. They don't deliver on Saturday either. They close Saturday and Sunday. Boar's Head is the lunch meet? Yes. They're the delicatessen meets, most popular in New York. And I called the guy yesterday, and I was like, hey, listen, we don't have anything.

And the guy's like, you know, we don't deliver on Sunday ever, right? I told him, I was like, look, if you have any common sense as a businessman and if you have a heart you'd get your ass up this morning all right and you deliver food all right because people are running out called me this morning at seven o'clock in the morning he's like hey i'm in front of your store and he had a full truck so he didn't just come serve me. Boardshead is a really big company, but each route owner is independent, you know? So that's where I wanted to come from. It's like this guy got up, you know, left his family to do something like that. That's something I appreciated a lot.

When you said that you saw this line and you were nerve-wracked and you were panicked, what was the worst fear that was going through your head? Like what were you specifically panicked about that people wouldn't do what i was doing the deep breaths you know that people would start fighting each other um and that we would have to handle that like there's where's the support that we should have you know like from our government right in that scenario, what am I supposed to do? Put my own life at danger or one of my guys or? Over toilet paper or something.

Over toilet paper or something. You know, like if hypothetically speaking, we are the only businesses, will we have police officers standing outside supporting us? Will we have, you know, fire department people just sticking around like just more bodies around? Is there going to be a National Guard? You know, if that case does happen, these are all worst case scenarios. But these are the only things I would think about, you know, moving forward. Like everything that we've dealt with, the sleep deprivation, my own personal issues,

all these things, I'm all right, right? But if it goes a few steps further, what do we do? The United States is starting to shut down as millions of Americans are working from home. Now, thousands of schools have closed. Millions of Americans are working from home. Now, thousands of schools have closed. Millions of Americans are working from home. When you avoid public places, you hurt sales at restaurants, retailers, malls. You've seen the impact. We talked to Uber and Lyft drivers that they've seen a 70% drop off from their sales from the last few weeks. Hey, this is Jessica Chung. It's Monday, March 16th. I'm on the Upper West Side and I'm actually

standing in the lobby of my apartment building waiting for a lift because I wanted to talk to one of the many workers who are still working during this pandemic. There are people who can't work from home. There are people who might not have paid sick rules. And I wanted to ask them what it's like to be working during this time. Hi, Raul. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Okay. It's nice to pick up. You want to close the window?

No, we should probably leave it open, right? Yeah, you always keep one window open. Yeah, yeah. I see that you have a can of Lysol spray, a can of Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer on your cup holder, and you're wearing a mask. Right. I'm 75 years old. I have diabetes. I have a chronic bronchitis. So there are two very bad conditions for the virus. I have to protect myself. And I have to protect you. I think that it should be mandatory

for every taxi driver to have a mask. Because we pick up around 30 to 35 people a day. And only one person with the virus can contagion about 35 people that's terrible my name is raul og and santi i'm from our originally from argentina i'm in this country for 47 years. And all my life I was... My work was to do custom anchor frames with gold leaf for artists and museums and art galleries. But three years ago, I fall in the street.

I have an urinary disc. So the only position that I'm not in pain is when I'm sitting. The only thing that I could find out that I can be sitting and make money is the taxi. And I'm so happy that I'm doing this because in 47 years of living in New York, I discovered in six months more than I did in 47 years. Oh, what did you discover? Many places in Brooklyn that I didn't know much about Brooklyn, many places, beautiful gardens, beautiful buildings all over the

city that I never expect that they were going to be here, that I was going to be able to see something like this. And now I can see everything. Now I had the opportunity to see everything. Can you tell me how business is doing for you? Very slow. Usually when I work in the morning, I drive many parents with the kids to schools. At night, when I work Saturdays and Sundays and Friday nights, usually I pick up between 35 and 45 people.

Yesterday I went out to work, I picked up on the whole day 11 people. So it's really slow and this is affecting everybody. Given that you have so many risks of getting the virus, why are you still working? Because, to tell you the truth, because the retirement in the United States is so low, that it's not enough to buy food. So I have to work. If you stopped working, what would happen? I have no idea because I won't have enough money to pay rent or to buy food or to survive.

So I have to work. I have to do it. All right. Well, thank you so much. Okay. You are very welcome. I really appreciate this. You are very welcome.

And it's going to go on the radio. Yes, we are on the radio. We are also on the phone, like a podcast. Uh-huh. I could send you a link and all you have to do is press play. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

We'll be right back. I'm going to we do this, it'll open sooner. If we leave them open and everybody gets really sick, then everything gets closed for months. Okay, it is March 16th, and this is Daniel Guimet. I'm going to be going over to see Luca Di Pietro. He's a restaurant owner, owns five restaurants here in Manhattan. He's going to be talking to staff about the shutdown. And that's why I'm here now. Hi, how are you?

Yes, he's not here. Come, love. He's not here yet. Yes, come, come. I'm Adriana. Oh, yeah, very nice to meet you. Yes, so sit. I'll just hang out. Okay. Hi, guys. How are you doing? Hey, how are you?

I'm here to talk to my staff, and they already know that restaurants have been ordered to shut down. But I just want to talk to them and give them a plan. How are you doing today, just yourself? I'm very tired and very, you know, upset, but... Can I talk to you in private for a second? Yeah, of course. Do you want to turn it off?

Yeah, okay. Sure. Okay, he's asked me to not be there as he's talking to his staff. So that conversation is happening right now over... You can hear them over there. But yeah, I'll talk to him after. So do you mind telling me what, you just spoke to your staff, this is, I guess, maybe nine people or something like that?

Yeah. I mean, no. When I told them, I don't know if you could hear it, because I was just telling them that, you know, as of tonight, we have to close, and that I'm really sorry that I couldn't keep it open. And I told them, you know, I'm pushing very hard to get this delivery business up and running so that I can hopefully, you know, need help and get them back in and help out with packaging food and, you know, maybe taking orders, delivering, you know, if we get busy,

I would love for us to get busy so that I can bring people back in, you know. So based on the staff who's here tonight, you've got, what, three cooks? Three cooks. In the back, you got a busboy, a server, manager, and the bartender? Yeah. So in this case, so of these people here tonight, how many of them don't have a place right now?

No, none of them. There's no money. You know, there's no money to pay salaries. I love, you know, these guys are great. So the people that work here are amazing, and it's a good group of people everybody understands and you know everybody's shocked but i guess it's it's a national crisis but you know we don't see national we see what is in front of us and

and it's tough it's very tough and uh people are going to, you know, be suffering. And I don't know what this, you know, how much money is going to be available for people who lose their job. And nothing like this has ever happened. So I don't know what is in place. I just know that it pains me greatly to let, you know, let people down. So it's, but I know it's not me, but that's, that's how I feel. I think that I'm used to relying on my own strengths. And possibly sometimes, you know, your strength is not enough. Good, how are you? Yeah, I'm okay.

Luca talked to you guys. How was it? I mean, we knew that it was coming, but I would say it was all happening so fast, so we didn't really have time to prepare for that. Most of us are working on a paycheck to paycheck. I have a little daughter and a wife. At this location, we got married right here. That's why it's hard to see this place shutting down so my name is akram bouchette i've been working for the company since 2012

it's almost it's eight years now i would say my wife also works in the business she works in a different restaurants so today they're officially closed they basically fired everyone so yeah so the thing is like both of us work in the same business and we're not going to be making money for god knows how long and we have rent to pay we have a child to take care of we have insurance to pay and with little savings that we're probably gonna last for a month maybe Thank you so much. Good luck with everything. Yeah, you too. This is Andy Mills. It is Monday night, and all of the bars in New York City have been told that they have to close at 8 p.m. And so I've come here to Sonny's Bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn. My favorite bar,

maybe in the entire world. It is at the edge of Brooklyn, right on the waterway. You can see the Statue of Liberty off in the distance and I'm going to go spend the last minutes of being able to be at a bar in New York City with whoever's inside. Just tell me your name and what you're doing here tonight. My name is Henrik. So I was actually going to go to Ikea to get some stuff, even though I'm not, like, you know, I'm trying to be smart about it, like not go outside, but I was like i'm not like you know i'm trying to be like smart about it like not go outside but i was like all right you know i just want some stuff from ikea i get there and

you know i get to ikea and this like dude comes out he's like it's closed it's all like they shut it down it's closed and i was like what do you mean it's like 5 p.m i'm like and he was like no it's closed uh so i was like okay okay, wow, this is really happening. Like, Ikea got shut down. So I was like, you know, I was like, all right, might as well just, like, go to Sonny's, you know, this bar we're at right now, which is, like, my favorite bar. So because this is, they're closing it down tonight, like, 8, I believe. So this is, like, my last chance to, like, get out and be free before I'm going to, going to like be inside for like, I don't know how long, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now we're just like, go home. Like we've stocked up on food.

So I think we're going to be good for a while. Yeah. Are you here for just one last round before they close? We realized we were in the neighborhood and then we're like, Oh, Sonny's is probably still open. Like this is the last half hour. We got it. We got to do something. We look at the clock. We're like, oh, Sonny's is probably still open. Like, this is the last half hour. We got to do something. We look at the clock. We're like, oh, my God, there's a half hour left. We got to get the last beer.

Yeah, we got to have the last drink here. This is going to be our last drink for, like, the next four to eight weeks, if not more. Like, it has to be Sonny's, right? I mean, I'm going to probably keep drinking at home. Let me ask you this. What are you going to miss from being out in a bar? What's the difference? Oh, of course, just bumping into a friend or meeting a new person,

seeing, like, you know, the classic bartender. Everything that a bar has to offer, you know. You're outside of your house, which is good if you live in a tiny, like, shoebox apartment that a lot of us do you know yeah can i have a little glass of wine just like a small one yeah a little small one can you just tell me your name and where we're at right now? My name is Tone Johansen and I'm at Sunny's Bar. And what do you do here at Sunny's Bar? Well, I run this fine establishment.

Well, I should say own this fine establishment. You do. You own it and you run it. I do. You run it well. Thank you. How are you feeling? What are you thinking right now? Well, I've been through a crisis or two before. And there's one thing to fight, you know, the new boogeyman, which is this virus.

Another to cope with the fear that it instills in all of us. And what I try to concentrate on is how to kind of take care of your emotional health because the fear is the alarm clock that wakes us up into action. But if we keep that alarm clock ringing, it will just drive us crazy in the end and we can't take care of business. This will pass, believe it or ringing, it will just drive us crazy in the end. And we can't take care of business. This will pass. Believe it or not, it will pass. It's like there's a note. I'm Norwegian and there's a Norwegian proverb that I love that goes like this.

Either it will go well or it will pass. And those are two good options. And we will get through this. And especially New Yorkers, we will get through this. Because we're a hardy bunch. You know, we just buckle down and get through stuff. I guess we've got to close this place down, huh? Oh, I think we've got about 15 minutes in which I will enjoy my little glass of wine.

All right. Cheers. All right. Cheers. All right. Cheers. Well, it's just a couple minutes after 8. The music has been turned off. The patrons have been asked to go home, and it's just me and the bartender and the owner speaking in Norwegian to her Norwegian friends

who are now putting on their coats, heading out. Tuna, now that the bar is closed and emptied, Now that the bar is closed and emptied, how are you feeling about the financial aspect of being closed for a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month, maybe two months? I do have to say that the finances right now are stressing me out more than the virus. It's like I feel like we have a plan in place

for how to try to prevent the spread of the virus, but we need a financial plan. And that's my main worry right now. It's a big uncertainty. When you look out at all the other businesses in New York, from restaurants to taxi drivers, how common do you think that feeling that you're having is i think it's in everybody's heart you know i mean new york city it's a place where people hustle where i think every new yorker is a hustler unless you were just born into money. You know how to hustle.

Otherwise, you just go back home again. But that being said, we also know how to get through a crisis. And we've been tested before. And this is a test. We'll take it day by day and, you know, if you feel like you are paralyzed and can't do something about the situation you're in, you know, if you can't take that first step, try to lift a foot. And if you can't lift your foot, try to wiggle your toe and we'll get through it. You can't lift your foot, try to wiggle your toe and we'll get through it.

Tuna, thank you for talking with me. And you too. And thank you for stopping by and thank you for caring. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Italy passed a grim milestone on Thursday, announcing that deaths from the coronavirus have reached 3,400, surpassing the toll in China, where the pandemic began. At the same time, China announced a very different milestone,

reporting no new local infections for the first time, a sign that it has turned a corner in containing the disease. In the United States, the number of infections approached 12,000. California ordered all residents to remain in their homes, and the economic cost of the pandemic was revealed in new government data. Unemployment claims rose by 70,000 in the past week, an unusually rapid surge as the businesses shut down over the virus began laying off workers. The Times reports that the stimulus package, under negotiation in Congress to try to revive the economy would send payments of $1,200 to individuals

and $2,400 to families, but would be phased out for wealthier Americans. That legislation, expected to cost $1 trillion, is likely to be passed in the coming days. The Daily is made by Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Doerr, Chris Wood, Jessica Chung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Lee Young, Jonathan Wolfe, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Mark George, Luke Vanderploeg, Adiza Egan, Kelly Prime, Julia Longoria, Sindhu Yanasambandhan, Jasmine Aguilera, MJ Davis-Lynn, Austin Mitchell, Sayer Kaveto, Nina Patuk, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Daniel Guimet, Hans Butow, Robert Jimison,

and Mike Benoit. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Michaela Bouchard, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Nora Keller,

and Jason Horowitz. And welcome to the world, Cleo Cowett-Bromwich. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.