Things To Do & News Updates NYC

Event, Arts & Entertainment Venues to Reopen 4/2, NYC Movie Theaters Reopen Today, Small Business Funding, CoVid Testing & Vaccines Update, Eviction Moratoriums Tentatively set to Expire & the 'Real Economy & Employment' Picture

March 5, 2021 / NYC Neighborhoods / Things To Do NYC / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

Weather. No precipitation is in the forecast. The temperature highs will be around 40 and the temperature lows will be in the high 20's throughout the weekend. On Friday the humidity will rise from about 30% to between 40% - 50%, where it will remain for the rest of the weekend. Winds will be 10 - 15 mph on Friday, falling to 7 - 12 mph the rest of the weekend.

Things To Do - Event, Arts & Entertainment Venues Can Reopen at 33% Capacity April 2nd, Movie Theaters Reopen Today 3/5/21, Many Restaurants Now Open til 11 pm & Who's in Charge?

McGolrick Park farmers market in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn opens on Sunday, March 7th from 10 am - 3 pm.

On Wednesday, March 3, 2021 Governor Cuomo announced that effective April 2nd, 2021 the Events, Arts & Entertainment venues can reopen at 33% capacity. He also said that effective March 22nd, 1) residential outdoor gatherings could include up to 25 people, while 2) non-residential outdoor gatherings could include up to 200 people, while non-residential indoor gatherings would be limited to 100 people.

Some NYC movie theaters reopen today. They will open at 10% capacity or a limit of 50 people per screen and at this time will not be offering concessions as we knew them [generally you have to order concessions via an app]. As of this post the Angelika, IFC, The Village East, and AMC theaters in Manhattan and NiteHawk Cinema in Brooklyn have made announcements that they will be open today. More than half of all movie theaters have not yet announced their reopening plans including many in Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island and Queens.

On February 12th, when NYC restaurants reopened indoor dining, Governor Cuomo extended their opening hours to 11 pm. Since then most restaurants have taken opportunity of the longer hours to accommodate diners.

Who's in Charge? It's worth noting that a number of people I have conversed with - were under the impression that restaurant closures were being managed by the Mayor - but this is not true. Since the pandemic began, Governor Cuomo was granted emergency powers by the NYS Legislature, and Cuomo has been managing most of the healthcare restrictions, including restaurant closure times, as well as all of the other closures and reopenings. If I'm not mistaken, under ordinary circumstances the opening and closing times would be managed at the municipal level [meaning normally it's the Mayor's call but during the emergency CoVid pandemic it was the Governor's call].

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report about the gradual NYC / NYS reopening of the economy near the end of the CoVid pandemic, including vaccine distribution, eviction moratorium, unemployment and the economy.

Things To Do & News Updates NYC

Event, Arts & Entertainment Venues to Reopen 4/2, NYC Movie Theaters Reopen Today, Small Business Funding, CoVid Testing & Vaccines Update, Eviction Moratoriums Tentatively set to Expire & the 'Real Economy & Employment' Picture

March 5, 2021 / NYC Neighborhoods / Things To Do NYC / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC. Continued.

NYC Small Business Funding is Available from the Government

The are literally scores of programs that various levels of government have created to assist small business owners with funding. One of the best sites for this information appears to be SCORE NYC which is a volunteer non-profit that is funded in part by the Small Business Administration. Copy and paste this link into your browser bar to see the report which contains links to various resources.

https://newyorkcity.score.org/news/coronavirus-funding-support-nyc

CoVid Vaccine Eligibility Continues to Grow & CoVid Testing Plateaus in NYC / NYS?

The percent of people testing positive for CoVid appears to have plateaued at between 3% - 4% at the NYS level and at 4% - 7% at the NYC level. These are about the same as they were three weeks ago. Meanwhile in the rest of the U.S. the trajectory seems to continue downward, currently at below 4.2% according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

Vaccine eligibility groups continue to grow. As of March 1, 2021 workers in food related industries and hotel workers who interface with the public were added to the eligibility list. For a complete list of those eligible to be vaccinated in NYC copy & paste this link into your browser bar.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-vaccine-eligibility.page

NYS & U.S. Eviction Moratoriums Tentatively Set to Expire

On Monday there were several protest marches around the city focused on the upcoming eviction and foreclosure moratoriums which are set to expire at both the state and federal level. The federal moratorium is set to expire at the end of this month [March 2021], while the NYS eviction / foreclosure moratoriums are set to expire on May 1st, 2021. President Biden extended the federal eviction moratorium to March 1, 2021 on Inauguration Day, shortly after being sworn in as president. According to a January 20, 2021 report Biden was expected to ask Congress to extend the moratorium to September 2021. This seems to make sense as it would provide folks with enough time to transition, following the rollout of the vaccine and a more robust resumption of economic activity.

According to a survey reported in January by Community Housing Improvement Program, New York tenants are said to be between $1 - $2 billion behind in rent. About half of that is for market rate apartments, which may not attract the same prices post pandemic as they locked in pre-pandemic. In the non-market rate segment of the survey [$1 billion], an estimated 185,000 households were affected, representing two or more months behind in rent.

The Real Economic & Unemployment Picture

There was good news on the employment front, with 379,000 jobs reported to have been added in February, reducing the unemployment rate to 6.2%. But like all statistics, one has to be careful in interpreting them. According to a March 5, 2021 report by Bloomberg Business, the U-6 Unemployment rate - considered a more reliable estimate - unemployment held at 11.1%. Bloomberg explains the difference stating that,

" ... Unlike the headline unemployment rate, the U-6 rate includes those who are employed part-time for economic reasons and those who have stopped looking for a job because they are discouraged ... "

FYI to Corporate Broadcast TV Networks - Trump is the 'FORMER' president

I can't tell you how many times I've heard the late night comedy shows, the talk shows - and worst of all, are the people who really should know better - the nightly TV network newspeople who errantly call Donald Trump president instead of FORMER president Trump. Are they 'Stop the Stealers' or just plain sloppy? And after all we've been through in that regard, there's no excuse. Pay attention to who's a professional news person who knows the difference, versus those who don't. You'll likely be as surprised as I was, as even many of the celebrity newspeople get it wrong.

Have a good weekend.