NYC in the Time of Coronavirus

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m still here! After all my shows were canceled when Broadway went dark on Thursday and nearly every museum closed, there was little point in me staying in NYC through Wednesday afternoon as originally planned (when I had nine shows and a journalism conference at NYU lined up).

But I’ll be here until Wednesday, after all — I booked a nonrefundable and nonchangeable flight through Expedia (which, since it was bundled with my hotel, was about $300 cheaper than it would have been to book with the airline and hotel directly), and Expedia disconnected their customer service number Thursday night. Classy move.

I asked my hotel about their cancellation policy, and Holiday Inn is offering refunds for coronavirus-related changes even to nonrefundable rooms — but the catch is that, since I booked through Expedia, someone from Expedia has to call them for me to get a refund. And clearly that isn’t going to happen. Plus, I couldn’t do anything to my hotel before I could be sure my flight was bumped up — I didn’t want to sleep on the street, after all!

I called American Airlines to see if they could change my flight for me, as they’d waived all change and cancellation fees, but their helpline was disconnected for most of Thursday night as well, and then, when I finally got through, promised a wait time of “more than two hours” for a call back (but at least they did call back, unlike Expedia!).

I finally got said call yesterday around 4 p.m. I tried to change to a Saturday-afternoon flight, but the agent spent 90+ minutes on hold with me trying to get through to the pricing department — only to find that all economy seats on American’s NYC to Indy flights were sold out through the end of the month, and that I could change into a flight before my original Wednesday one with premium seating, but it’d cost me an additional $500 (ugh).

So, now I’m flying back Wednesday as originally planned. But I’m determined to still have some fun (it is NYC, after all — there are *worse* places to be stuck) while warding off the coronavirus! Here's a recap so far:

I took a long walk from my hotel on the west side of Midtown yesterday afternoon down to the Staten Island Ferry terminal while I was waiting for American to call me back, and then while I was on hold for ever and ever (good thing I fully charged my phone before I left in anticipation of just such a scenario). Coronavirus concerns aside, it was a gorgeous, 65-degree day, and the High Line was outdoing itself with views like these.

Central Park is, of course, still open as well (at least for now!), so I’ll definitely be making some strolls north in the next few days.

Other highlights from my walk: Madison Square Park (home of the original Shake Shack), the Museum of Sex, and all the still-lit Broadway marquees for shows that may never open or reopen (RIP Tracy Letts’s “The Minutes” and maybe even “Phantom of the Opera”).

It was eerie to walk by Times Square last night — a Friday night, normally peak theater-going and tourist-congregating time — and to be able to see from end to end. Normally, there’s, umm, a mass of people in the way.

Thursday night also featured a what-in-the-world-is-happening walk after my performance of “Little Shop of Horrors” was canceled less than an hour before curtain (darn it, no Gideon Glick!). So, instead, I made my way down to Pier 35, my favorite spot on FDR Drive on the Lower East Side, near where I lived last summer. Because you can take my Broadway shows, but I’ll always have this view of the Manhattan Bridge (and the super-fun swing bench seats you can sit on to stare at it).

I also grabbed a Chairman Bao from my favorite Lower East Side Asian restaurant, Baohaus. You haven’t tasted real meat until you’ve had their succulent pork belly. It's so tender and melt-in-your-mouth-tastic that I gobbled it up like a chocolate bar — the best kind of meat candy. I passed by on my walk again today and seized the opportunity to grab a couple more — restaurants here are still open, for the time being! (Unless you’re a fancy five-star place, then, probably not.)

Which brings us to … now. I give my feminism and Gay Talese presentation this morning at the all-virtual Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, which I’m looking forward to.

And then, after that, who knows what the day will bring. I read this New York Times story last night about people like me who’ve had their plans canceled and are now looking for other ways to have fun in NYC after being unable to book earlier flights home — while, of course, hoping not to be marooned by a ban on domestic travel or mass outbreak at JFK Airport (fingers crossed I make it until Wednesday!)

In the meantime, I’ll look forward to long walks through the city, more bao and sushi donuts, and knocking out some freelance stories and grad-school work. And, of course, I'll be hoping that IUPUI doesn’t decide to kick students out of university housing, which my Indy apartment technically is, while I’m in NYC.

Joy.