NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Concerned At Long Shutdown Of NYC Arts & Culture That “Make New York City New York City”

Jill Goldsmith
·3 min read

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New York Governor Andrew said Monday he’s “concerned” at the prolonged shutdown of New York City’s cultural industry as the city moves into Phase 3 today with key businesses still shuttered.

“You have businesses that can’t fully reopen. That is an economic problem for the city. You have to get restaurants up and running, you have to get concert halls up and running. What makes New York City New York City, the arts, the culture. When we’ll get that up and running, I don’t know,” he said at his daily briefing in response to a question.

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Broadway will be dark until sometime in 2021. Movie theatres, which were supposed to open in Phase 4 – that has already hit in other regions of the state outside NYC — are staying closed statewide for an indeterminate time. State authorities are examining new COVID-19 outbreaks in other states across the country that opened sooner with special attention to air filtration in large venues like movie theaters and malls.

“We’re still looking at the data,” Gov. Cuomo said.

Indoor dining is hapening elsewhere in the state and was supposed to start today in the city but was postpopned.

Spas, tanning salons, tattoo parlors and personal services can open (but are limited to 50% capacity). So are low risk youth sports, dog parks, basketball and tennis courts. The Highline park opens next week but free timed passes will be required.

Gov. Cuomo said he was also concered that COVID-19 had pushed many people to leave the city.

And he continued to slam President Donald Trump for the ongoing refrain with less testing there would be fewer cases of coronavirus. “He’s saying … if we don’t test we won’t know, and if you don’t know, you won’t have a problem.”

“So … let’s not do no cancer tests … and no mamograms, that will solve breast cancer. No more prostate checks … no more TB tests … and no more HIV tests and that will solve the HIV issue,” Cuomo said.

The president Tweeted over the weekend: “Cases, Cases, Cases! If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases,” the president tweeted. “If you test 40,000,000 people, you are going to have many cases that, without the testing (like other countries), would not show up every night on the Fake Evening News.”

 

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