Are assertions that New York is a ghost town now merely an exaggeration? With a population of 1.6 million before the COVID-19 pandemic, Manhattan—that part of New York City’s five boroughs that tourists tend to think of as the Big Apple—and its throngs of people would seem to pose a serious challenge to requirements to stay inside if you possibly can while riding this crisis out. Yet, on a handful of visits there in the last half of 2020, each place I visit does indeed seem a ghost town, one with few inhabitants.
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New York Ghost Town 2020: Uptown, Downtown, All Around Town
Arriving at Grand Central Station after a rush hour train ride that held just a few people in my car, crowds are nonexistent, businesses are shuttered, and the place is cleaner than I’ve ever seen it.
Venturing uptown toward Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I experience more of the same: very few people on the sidewalks, very little traffic. In some measure, this surreal experience of Midtown Manhattan is a credit to the city’s citizens: people are either staying at home or have left town; those on the streets are wearing masks.
Tourism is down, by some estimates, 93 percent. And it shows. Times Square, on my visit, is eerily empty; signs on doors of Broadway theaters are just sad. Calling New York a ghost town, a place that has been deserted, seems apt.
The Meatpacking District is equally vacant, as are parts downtown.
Just 22.9 million visitors came to New York City in 2020, down from 66.6 million the year before, according to NYC & Company. The city’s destination marketing organization estimates it will be 2024 before travel returns to the level experienced in 2019.
The Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Terminal in New York City is closed.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
A food hall at Grand Central Terminal in New York City is closed.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
An empty Rockefeller Center in New York City at 9 a.m. on a weekday morning.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
An empty Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower in New York City.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
A Starbucks in midtown Manhattan is temporarily closed.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
Masks are required at the Whitney Museum in New York City. Entrance is timed, so buy tickets beforehand.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
A traffic-free West Side Highway in New York City on a weekend in 2020. Photo credit: L. Tripoli. 
A boarded up first floor on Horatio Street in New York City.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
Not much of a crowd at the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse at the South Street Seaport in New York City.
Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
A Coach Store on Madison Avenue in New York City is shuttered. Photo credit: L. Tripoli.
New York Ghost Town: What’s the Upside of a Less Crowded City?
On the bright side, the presence of fewer people makes museum going and restaurant dining ever so slightly more pleasurable. There’s no more need to fend off strangers bumping into you. Crowds aren’t there. The city as a whole seems all the time like it used to on a summer weekend, when seemingly everyone had escaped to the Hamptons.
Of course, the down side of so few residents and visitors is exceedingly grim: vast swaths of commercial real estate lie empty, businesses hard hit by the lack of foot traffic have already shuttered, and so many people are without jobs.
And so I keep returning to Manhattan in the hope of keeping some favorite places alive.
What still gives me hope: that so many construction projects continue. Hopefully, New York will not be a ghost town for long.
How Much Longer Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Last?
A century ago, a health official warned of the return of influenza a year after the epidemic appeared in New York City in September 1918. Interestingly, the Times back then noted that those who are more senior in years—age 45 and up— “were practically immune” while the hardest hit were people between 25 and 45, who accounted for 50 percent of deaths (although from this account, it is not quite clear whether those statistics refer to New York City alone or to the nation as a whole). To ward off the influenza, Health Commissioner Dr. Royal Copeland recommended “exercise, good food, and vigilance.” Warns of Influenza: Health Commissioner Expects Visitation This Autumn, New York Times, Aug. 15, 1919 p. 6.
By Feb. 1920—a year and a half after the epidemic reached New York—Copeland announced that the epidemic had ended. Influenza Beaten, Says Dr. Copeland, New York Times, Feb. 15, 1920, p. 14. How long will it be until a similar announcement is made this time around?
—Lori Tripoli
Lori Tripoli is the editor and publisher of Bashful Adventurer. Based in the New York City vicinity, she writes about travel for a variety of publications.
Contact Lori at loritripoli @ bashfuladventurer.com.
Are you planning to visit New York City during the pandemic?
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