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Collected Item: “Empty Rockefeller Center”

Give your story a title.

Empty Rockefeller Center

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

screenshot

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

During the height of Covid, when New York City first went into lockdown, it was surreal to say the least. I think the last time the city was so empty and void of life was 9/11, so to see it again in 2020 really highlighted just how severe the situation was. Two of my sisters, who are a nurse and hospital manager, talked about being in the city for work, and practically being the only ones working in person, and it feeling like some kind of post apocalyptic movie. I remember around May of 2020, I helped my other sister move out of her dorms at #NYU, and it took about 15-20 mins to get to the bottom of Manhattan (Union Square) from The Bronx, due to the lack of fellow cars on the road. To see such a highly populated and lively city such as NYC turn into a ghost town almost overnight was something of a shock. It was one thing to see photos, and speak on how insane the situation was, but to actually be in the heart of Manhattan at this time was… well scary. So, seeing such a busy area such as Rockefeller center be completely empty is insane to say the least, and brings up a sad reminder of just how bad things were in the initial stages of the pandemic.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#rockefellercenter, #nyu, #nyc, #newyorkcity, #NewYorkCity, #covid, #pandemic, #manhattan, #Hist718, #csi, #collegeofstatenisland, #csipublichistory, #empty

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

smithpetersusan, csipublichistory

Give this story a date.

2020-07-27
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