Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times posted a multimedia presentation yesterday entitled “Why the Empire State Building, and New York, May Never Be the Same.”   Developed by Keith Collins, Nikolas Diamant, Peter Eavis, Or Fleisher, Matthew Haag, Barbara Harvey, Lingdong Huang, Karthik Patanjali, Miles Peyton and Rumsey Taylor, it takes a somber look at the economic instability the pandemic has caused for office towers in New York City.  It makes the point that the Empire State Building once symbolized an urban way of working and New York City’s resilience.  In the pandemic’s second year, its future is in doubt.

I can remember as a toddler, my oldest brother Donald would take me and my other brother Peter on a subway ride to visit the Empire State Building.  We would gaze up and look at it in awe – just as tourists do today.  Let’s hope that it and New York can bounce back from COVID.  Actually I think it can and will!

Tony