Kerby Anderson

Should the rest of the country have to play by New York rules? Bret Stephens doesn’t think so. He lives in New York City and writes for the New York Times. But he understands why most of America doesn’t want to live under a national lockdown just because of how the virus pandemic has slammed New York.

He begins by reminding us of the famous cover for The New Yorker with the title “View of the World from Ninth Avenue.” Manhattan is in the foreground, there is a brownish strip called “Jersey,” and the rest of America is in the distance. He says that could almost be a map for the epidemic.

When he wrote the column, there were more fatalities in Long Island’s Nassau County (population 1.4 million) than in all of California (population 40 million). There were more fatalities in Westchester County (989) than in Texas (611). Virus deaths per 100,00 in New York City were more than 16 times what could be found in America’s next largest city: Los Angeles.

Why so many infections and deaths in New York City? It has the highest population density among US cities of 100,000 or more. “Commuters crowd trains, office workers crowd elevators, diners crowd restaurants. No other city has the same kind of jammed pedestrian life as New York.”

He understands why so much of the country is ready to open up and has dwindling sympathy for lockdown conditions that may still be necessary for New York City for the near future. He also acknowledges that his argument goes against his personal interest.

He believes people in safe suburban neighborhoods should not be prevented from returning to their jobs just because he and others choose to live, travel, and work in what he calls “urban sardine cans.” That’s why we should not have to play by New York rules.