{"id":372424,"date":"2021-11-25T14:31:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T11:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-im-thankful-for-crowds-returning-home-for-holidays-in-nyc\/"},"modified":"2021-11-25T14:31:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T11:31:09","slug":"why-im-thankful-for-crowds-returning-home-for-holidays-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-im-thankful-for-crowds-returning-home-for-holidays-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why I&#8217;m thankful for crowds returning home for holidays in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Why I&#8217;m thankful for crowds returning home for holidays in NYC<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--columnist inline-module--author\">\n<div class=\"inline-module--author__img\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"76\" height=\"69\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/steve-cuozzo.png?w=76&amp;h=69&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-nyp_columnist size-nyp_columnist\" alt=\"Steve Cuozzo\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/steve-cuozzo.png 76w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/steve-cuozzo.png?w=38 38w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 76px) 100vw, 76px\"\/>      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Welcome back, New York City, in all your congested, untidy, patience-testing glory. Good riddance to the \u201cghost town\u201d that the world\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> warned us was to be our permanent destiny.<\/p>\n<p>I hate loud noise. I hate overcrowding. But I say to the Big <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le on this golden, parade-redux Thanksgiving holiday:<\/p>\n<p>Be as loud and as congested as you can be. Sidewalk trumpet players, blow your rusty horns to the skyscraper pinnacles. Bongo drummers, wake the living dead clustered beneath \u201csidewalk bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Enough of pandemic hush and its close cousin, the \u201cIs it over?\u201d tentative, abundance-of-caution, masked-up variant (to use that distasteful word).<\/p>\n<p>Notoriously cantankerous crank that I am, maybe I\u2019ll change my tune six months from now. Today, I\u2019m loving the myriad daily dehumanizing episodes whose 20 months\u2019 absence made them seem precious.<\/p>\n<p>Slow-moving tourists downtown who ask where Wall Street is: Folks, you are on Wall Street, may I help you with anything else?<\/p>\n<p>I love that friends say they can\u2019t get Thanksgiving reservations at any restaurant in town because they\u2019re already booked up.<\/p>\n<p>I love picking my way around sidewalk vendors selling junky wooden animals on Sixth Avenue in Midtown. I loved steering through a boozy \u201cWelcome back to the office\u201d party for a law firm in the building where I work.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-nypost-small-post\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"231\" height=\"347\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-538.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=231\" alt=\"People kiss while ice skating in Rockefeller Center on November 15, 2021 in New York City.\" class=\"wp-image-20267482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-538.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=462 462w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-538.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=347 346w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-538.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=231 231w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-538.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=116 115w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-538.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\"\/><figcaption>It\u2019s about time New Yorkers can share a kiss on the rinks without politicians yapping about masks. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Noam Galai\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The zillion-decibel din at restaurants Hawksmoor, Gage &amp; Tollner, Le Bilboquet, Carne Mare, Clocktower, Hutong, Polo Bar, Cellini, Nobu Fifty Seven and Fresco by Scotto was music to my 71-year-old ears. The mob scene in the Carlyle Hotel\u2019s lobby and lounges tickled me to the bone.<\/p>\n<p>At Bloomingdale\u2019s men\u2019s department, I (almost) enjoyed having to hunt for help because the sales guys were busier with customers than they\u2019d been in a long time.<\/p>\n<p>The long wait for the Apple Store Genius Bar was more soothing than infuriating. Starbucks baristas, brought to a virtual standstill by having to cope again with multiple orders at a time, charmed me.<\/p>\n<p>I thrill to the sight of young people camped out on Rockefeller Center sidewalks hoping for tickets to \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d whose cast members weren\u2019t even allowed in the same rooms last year.<\/p>\n<p>Subway crowds are best of all. Trains are filling up again \u2014 not yet to pre-pandemic levels but trending upward. Not only in heavily trafficked Manhattan but on the J line to Brooklyn\u2019s Broadway Junction, the elevated station of my childhood that was scarily lonely a few months ago.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019d rather stay in and watch the parade on TV, know that more people around make everyone safer. It\u2019s no coincidence that subway crime has finally begun to fall as the trains became fuller. Times Square\u2019s annoying Elmos and the crowds they draw might be a better crime deterrent than cops on horses.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-539.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"A woman throws leaves above her for a photo in Central Park on November 19, 2021 in New York City.\" class=\"wp-image-20267484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-539.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-539.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-539.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>After a year of heinous lockdowns and mandates, it\u2019s time for New Yorkers to have fun in Central Park.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Alexi Rosenfeld\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Anyone with a heart, a brain or an ounce of affection for Gotham should rejoice.<\/p>\n<p>True, there were small consolations during last year\u2019s lockdown and the on-again, off-again, masks-off, masks-on reopening purgatory that followed.<\/p>\n<p>I briefly enjoyed the unaccustomed solace of Central Park walks with hardly anyone around. I didn\u2019t miss the clamor of kids when the lobby in my building of 360 apartments was devoid of life and the chairs were roped off with yellow tape as at a crime scene.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-540.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"A Pikachu and Eevee balloon is inflated in preparation for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24, 2021.\" class=\"wp-image-20267486\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-540.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-540.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/cuozzo-nyc-crowds-540.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A Pikachu and Eevee balloon is inflated in preparation for the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24, 2021.  <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">REUTERS\/Carlo Allegri<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Aug. 1, 2020, I even wrote that a minor blessing of the lockdown was its \u201ccivilizing\u201d influence on the raucous, tourist-trampled city.<\/p>\n<p>I complained that the pre-pandemic city was a \u201cmosh pit\u201d of jammed restaurant coat checks, too-long lines for Broadway theater toilets and weekend gridlock of \u201coverlapping parades, street fairs, street races, fireworks shows and cycling events.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>But we all went a little crazy last year \u2014 remember when we thought former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was a hero? \u2014 and that was my own moment of madness.<\/p>\n<p>I long ago had enough \u201ccivilizing.\u201d So, judging by this autumn\u2019s revival, did everybody else.<\/p>\n<p>The public grasps the truth that mustn\u2019t-let-our-guards-down \u201cexperts\u201d avoid lest they lose their quote-of-the-day media access: Few fully vaccinated New Yorkers are catching the virus. Those who suffer \u201cbreakthrough\u201d infections almost never get seriously sick, much less require hospitalization.<\/p>\n<p>Those who\u2019ll howl that I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about should pipe down and see the city <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www1.nyc.gov\/site\/doh\/covid\/covid-19-data.page\">Department of Health\u2019s daily updates,<\/a> click on the \u201crecent trends\u201d box and look at the data for hospitalizations and deaths among the vaccinated. There have been near none since August despite slightly rising case numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Bill de Blasio might be our worst mayor ever, but he isn\u2019t too dumb not to read the charts. They\u2019re why we\u2019re getting our Times Square New Year\u2019s Eve party back.<\/p>\n<p>So go out and enjoy the chaos. Be nice to the tourists. And let\u2019s all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We earned it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>scuozzo@nypost.com<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/11\/25\/why-im-thankful-for-crowds-returning-home-for-holidays-in-nyc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Why I&#8217;m thankful for crowds returning home for holidays in NYC&#8221; Welcome back, New York City, in all your congested, untidy, patience-testing glory. Good riddance to the \u201cghost town\u201d that the world\u2019s media warned us was to be our permanent destiny. I hate loud noise. I hate overcrowding. But I say to the Big Apple&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":372426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/newspress-collage-20256679-1637809612107.png?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[120242,70344,81767,4952,4953,22512,77894],"class_list":["post-372424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-25-21","tag-coronavirus-in-ny","tag-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york-city","tag-restaurants","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}