Empty NYC -- Greenwich Village, March 2020
 

These are all from exactly a week ago -- March 22nd, the last time I've gone into Manhattan and the only time I've been in there since March 12th. I'm usually here in Greenwich Village working and walking around 10 miles a day, 4 days a week, so not only is it weird for the city to be shut down, not only is it weird to not be spending a lot of time here, but it's also weird for me to not be walking 50 miles a week (not trying to brag--I work as a food delivery walker for a side job).

It was a nice and sunny albeit cool March day, and at that point in time the message to #flattenthecurve had gotten out and most everyone was being sensitive to the situation.

I went in to get groceries and see if the delivery work was busy (it wasn't) and basically look at the day as perhaps my goodbye to the Village for the time being. Not to sound dramatic, but it's an area I love and have basically adopted as my home. I have lots of friends in the area... people working at restaurants or shops or cafes, my comedian friends at the comedy clubs there (I've done standup exactly one time), or my friends in what I call "The Park" aka Washington Square Park, a place where I spend a lot of down time because it's just a fun and funky place to exist in.

Some shots will look like everything is completely normal, and then others will be stark. Overall I would say there was only about 20% of the normal foot traffic out and about. Some of you might think that number should be at 0%, to which I don't disagree, but it's somewhat unique in NYC in that most people don't have the slightest bit of private outdoor space to retreat to, or a car to shuttle themselves around in, in which case there's simply no way for people to NOT be out on the sidewalks for at least a basic quick trip to the corner store.

This is my neighborhood of Bushwick, deep out in Brooklyn and looking towards the cluster of towers around Madison Square

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Taking the M train in

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Now in the West Village

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Like I said, somewhere around 20% of the usual foot traffic AND vehicular traffic as well

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"The Park" aka Washington Square Park

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These benches would normally be absolutely packed with people enjoying the sun, even on a cool March day

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This is Macdougal Street, otherwise known as the Bourbon Street of NYC. It is packed with bars, restaurants and comedy clubs, and on a normal day these narrow sidewalks would be loaded with people and vehicles

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6th Avenue is ALWAYS loaded with traffic. This is weird to see

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7th Avenue is a ghost town

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Bike shops are doing good business

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This isn't the busiest stretch by any means, but usually there would be at least 10 people in view from this perspective

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Six foot spacing to get into Trader Joe's

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Prince Street in Soho is usually teeming with activity

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West Houston Street is usually thick with traffic trying to do highway speeds

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Macdougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District

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And back on Macdougal Street in the middle of the comedy club zone. Literally no shows going on

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Heading back to the M train

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And up onto the Williamsburg Bridge we go, heading for Bushwick

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Hoping everyone stays safe for the coming months and that we as a people can get through this with minimal pain!

Take care everyone

Great photos. Love seeing the Village! :tup:

nice work -- and i think our first ssp corona photo tour.

looks like that was the one nice day we had when everybody got out. on the mostly dreary days we have had lately there are even less people. meaning its truly empty at times. it gets very charlton heston/omega man-ish, vs the charlton heston/soylent green-ish it usually is. :tumbleweed

Beautiful! Greenwich Village is spectacular, and your photos are amazing. :cheers:

Nice pics. I hope the city's energy and pace comes back shortly.

Thanks for the report. Startling to see such desolation in Manhattan (relative, obviously).

Looks like most US cities now.

Surreal. Thanks for sharing. DTLA was similarly empty this weekend, but we seem to have a lot more homeless camping out than that area of Manhattan.

^ The Village tends to have a ton of homeless on the streets where the bars are, but the eerie thing was that even they had mostly disappeared from the streets too, or at least on the day I rolled through.

In this shot you can see one guy, known as the Irish Handyman, camped out in his usual spot in front of the Minetta Garage. Normally there's beggars every 50 feet on this block -- in front of the McDonald's, IFC Theater, 7-11, pizza spot, directly where I'm standing -- so to see only one instead of the usual 6 or 7 further paints the picture of the crisis we're in.

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It's the same faces camped out in these same spots day after day after day. I've given to some of them, I've talked to some of them, and I feel like I know some of them, Irish Handyman included. They ARE a part of the community, and amidst all this chaos I really find myself wondering how they're coping given that they basically have nobody to ask for money any more and their shelters are even less safe than they were before. There's going to be so much fallout from this damn virus.

What is the story on the statue of Garibaldi? Perhaps an area of Italian immigrant influence?

The South Village was traditionally very Italian. It was considered something of a Little Italy until maybe a generation ago. Bleecker Street, even today, has a lot of legacy Italian businesses.

This is in contrast to the North Village, which was traditionally very WASP and patrician. Lower Fifth Ave. and University Place are still the Gold Coast and the southern area around NYU remains more student-oriented with Italian and hippie-era remnants.