The Wall Street Journal - 09.03.2020

newtally was up from 89 Sat-

urday. He renewed his call for

the federal Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention to ap-

prove testing for Covid-19—the

disease caused by the virus—

by private laboratories, includ-

ing the Northwell Health site.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said

Sunday that the city had 13

confirmed cases, including a

new case of a man in the

Bronx. Based on modeling, his

team estimated there could be

100 cases in the next two or

three weeks, but for most peo-

ple the illness would result in

very mild symptoms, he said.

New York officials said

there were 105 cases state-

wide of coronavirus Sunday.

One case of a patient who

lives in a suburb and is hospi-

talized in New York City had

been double counted so at one

point it appeared there were

106 cases in the state.

Early in the day, the gover-

nor called the inability to test

at the Northwell laboratory in

North New Hyde Park, which

he called the most sophisti-

cated lab in the state, “outra-

geous and ludicrous.”

On Sunday evening his of-

fice announced that federal

authorities had authorized

manual testing at Northwell

lab, which would enable it to

process about 75 samples a

day, but he still wants ap-

proval for automated testing

at a range of labs, in order to

handle thousands per day.

The CDC didn’t respond to

a request for comment.

New York officials said Sun-

day there were 82 confirmed

cases in Westchester County,

five in Nassau County, and one

or two in Rockland, Saratoga,

Suffolk and Ulster counties.

The governor urged vigilant

hand-washing, generous sick-

leave policies and avoiding

densely packed areas.

He said people should try

to let crowded subways and

buses pass and instead use

less-congested ones.

Columbia University said

classes will be suspended

Monday and Tuesday due to a

community member’s expo-

sure to the virus, though the

person hadn’t been diagnosed

as having it. The university

will have online lessons

Wednesday through Friday’s

start of spring break.

In Scarsdale, school district

officials said a faculty member

tested positive, and at the rec-

ommendation of Westchester

County health officials, schools

would close through March 18.

The number of people

across New York infected with

coronavirus was 105, based on

state and city tallies on Sun-

day, as residents prepared for

a new workweek full of extra

caution about personal contact

and staying home if they no-

tice any concerning symptoms.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the

BYLESLIEBRODY

Coronavirus Cases in State Rise

Cuomo says CDC

approves some testing

by Northwell lab, as

workweek begins

ALBANY—Health-care pro-

viders had planned a major

trip to the State Capitol on

Wednesday to push lawmakers

about why they shouldn’t re-

duce Medicaid spending by

$2.5 billion—a key issue in the

state budget debate.

But as the new coronavirus

spread in New York, the gath-

ering was canceled.

The change shows how the

coronavirus is crowding out

public conversation on issues

related to the state budget

that is due April 1, at a time

lobbying in Albany normally

reaches its crescendo.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo con-

ceded on Thursday that he is

spending less time than in

previous years talking about

the slew of policy changes he

proposed in his $178 billion

spending plan, including the

legalization and taxation of

recreational marijuana and

plans to address Medicaid cost

overruns.

“This has been all-consum-

ing for me,” Mr. Cuomo, a

Democrat, said during a coro-

navirus briefing—one of nine

he held around the state this

past week.

Advocates for legal mari-

juana said they wonder

whether Mr. Cuomo will have

time in the next three weeks

to tour states where the drug

is sold in stores, a step the

governor announced last

month. Mr. Cuomo didn’t say

whether he still planned to

take the trip when asked on

Thursday; his aides didn’t re-

spond to a request for further

comment.

Melissa Moore, deputy New

York state director of the Drug

Policy Alliance, which advo-

cates marijuana legalization,

led a rally of roughly three

dozen people at the Capitol

last Wednesday and said it

was a “scheduling fiasco” to

find a time when members of

the news media might cover

it.

Steven Greenberg, a spokes-

man for Compassion &

Choices, a group that advo-

cates for the legalization of

medical aid in dying, said the

organization was still engag-

ing with legislators but that

“certainly coronavirus is ap-

propriately a focus for policy

makers and for the public at

large.”

The Healthcare Association

of New York State had planned

to bring hundreds of health-

care providers on Wednesday.

“Advocacy remains critically

important, but at this time,

public health has to take pri-

ority,” the group wrote in an

email.

Hospital officials are still

meeting with such legislators

as State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a

Democrat from the Bronx who

chairs the chamber’s health

committee.

Mr. Rivera said in an inter-

view that senators had a con-

versation about the coronavi-

rus before lawmakers

approved a bill to authorize

$40 million to deal with the

outbreak, but it was currently

on a “parallel track” to budget

discussions.

BYJIMMYVIELKIND

Outbreak

Stymies

Lobbying

In Albany

STATE STREET|By Jimmy Vielkind

New York’s Warren Supporters Weigh Endorsement Options

The end of

Sen. Elizabeth

Warren’s

presidential

campaign last

week has left

her New York supporters

saddened and searching for

the next steps as the Demo-

cratic field narrows to two

major candidates.

Ms. Warren said Thursday

she was suspending her cam-

paign after a lackluster

showing in the Super Tues-

day primaries. She wasn’t

victorious in any of the 14

voting states and finished

third in her home state of

Massachusetts behind for-

mer Vice President Joe Biden

and Sen. Bernie Sanders of

Vermont.

Ms. Warren and Mr. Sand-

ers had been competing in a

side-primary among the

state’s progressive officials

and institutions. The Work-

ing Families Party endorsed

Ms. Warren. Some of Mr.

Sanders’s staunchest sup-

porters, like him, identify as

democratic socialists and are

active in the Democratic So-

cialists of America.

By one measure, the WFP

and DSA are vying for pri-

macy in progressive circles

and the WFP’s endorsement

of Ms. Warren over Mr.

Sanders was off-putting to

some voters. Several Sanders

supporters vented online af-

ter the WFP announced its

decision in September.

Most of the people inter-

viewed for this column,

though, said they believed

any row would quickly be

smoothed over.

“Both Warren and Sand-

ers will have important

roles in the future of the

progressive movement, so I

wouldn’t say the WFP’s out.

But there are groups like

DSA that will use this to

help recruit,” said Sean

McElwee, a DSA member

who backs Mr. Sanders and

is the executive director of

Data for Progress, a pro-

gressive think tank.

WFP National Director

Maurice Mitchell said the

party is “a coalition of pro-

gressives, some of which

were Bernie supporters and

Warren supporters” and the

relationships among them

remain “very, very strong.”

“We think that our record

speaks for itself. We point to

the work we’re doing every

single day on really, really,

really big issues,” he said, in-

cluding races for the New

York state Legislature and

Congress.

Mr. Mitchell wouldn’t say

what the party’s next step

would be, but was clear that

“now is a time for progres-

sives to unite.” Some promi-

nent supporters of Ms. War-

ren, including New York City

Councilman Brad Lander,

have endorsed Mr. Sanders.

But others, like Assembly-

woman Yuh-Line Niou, a

Democrat who represents

lower Manhattan, are wait-

ing.

“I want to think about

what’s good for all of us, but

right now—I’m in mourn-

ing,” she said.

CUOMO STILL NOT EN-

DORSING BIDEN: Gov. An-

drew Cuomo is so far declin-

ing to join moderate

Democrats around the coun-

try who coalesced behind

Mr. Biden after his strong

performance on Super Tues-

day.

Mr. Cuomo, who is Mr. Bi-

den’s longtime friend, has

been a fair-weather ally dur-

ing this primary season.

When the former vice presi-

dent first declared his candi-

dacy, Mr. Cuomo said Mr. Bi-

den was the best candidate

to defeat President Trump,

and people close to the gov-

ernor said he would do

whatever he could to help

the Biden campaign.

But after some lackluster

debate performances, Mr.

Cuomo answered questions

about Mr. Biden by saying he

hadn’t endorsed anyone for

president. Between the Iowa

caucuses and New Hamp-

shire primaries, Mr. Cuomo

demurred when asked if he

still believed Mr. Biden was

the Democrats’ best bet to

defeat Mr. Trump.

During a Thursday news

conference on the coronavi-

rus, a reporter asked Mr.

Cuomo when he would be

ready to endorse Mr. Biden.

“When will I be ready to

endorse Joe Biden? So, are

you assuming that I will en-

dorse Joe Biden?” the gover-

nor replied.

Some reporters nodded.

One retorted, “So you’re con-

sidering endorsing Bernie

Sanders?” The comment

drew laughs around the

room and a smile from Mr.

Cuomo, who has said Mr.

Sanders’s identification as a

democratic socialist would

be “a pretty big pill” for vot-

ers to swallow.

“Good comeback,” Mr.

Cuomo said. “No politics to-

day.”

[email protected]

Karen Robinovitz and Sara

Schiller knew they wanted to

build a business around

“slime,” and for the past year

they have been throwing goo

around to see what would stick.

The two friends joined the

growing number of experience-

based businesses in New York

when they opened the Sloomoo

Institute in October. Slime is in

vogue among children and

adults who make the glue-

based substance at home and

watch online videos of well-

manicured fingers pulling and

pushing colorful, elaborate cre-

ations.

Ticketing platform

ShowClix, which sells for Sloo-

moo, expects to serve between

250 and 300 experience-based

businesses nationwide this

year, compared with 130 in

2019, President Brian Arnone

said. About 15% will be in New

York City, where the Museum

of Ice Cream is credited with

kicking off the craze in 2016.

At Sloomoo, an 8,000-

square-foot exhibition in SoHo,

visitors can stick their hands in

vats of multicolored and

scented slime and walk bare-

foot through a large 250-gallon

pit of slime. At the end, they

can stop by a slime bar where

they can make their own slime

creations to take home with

them.

“It’s a way to connect with

other people, it’s a way to get

out of your own head,” said Ms.

Robinovitz, who on a recent af-

ternoon was recording photos

of visitors for Sloomoo’s Insta-

gram page.

Established brands, from

Nike to Baskin Robbins, are in-

creasingly using experience

pop-ups as marketing tools to

increase their exposure on so-

cial media and cultural cache,

said Denise Lee Yohn, a brand-

leadership expert and author.

But other companies are build-

ing businesses entirely around

experiences based on themes

like pizza or rosé.

Doreen Bloch said she

wasn’t worried about market

saturation when she decided to

launch the Makeup Museum,

which will open in New York

City’s Meatpacking District this

May. The experience will start

out as a subsidiary of the

beauty-data company Poshly

Inc., where Ms. Bloch serves as

chief executive, although she

hopes that it will eventually be-

come a free-standing museum

dedicated to the history of

makeup.

The initial six-month exhibit

will focus on makeup from the

1950s and feature cosmetics

used by Marilyn Monroe and

Greta Garbo. Tickets, which

went on sale March 1, cost $

to $40. Ms. Bloch said she is

confident it will draw in a vari-

ety of visitors, including tour-

ists, local museumgoers and in-

dustry veterans.

“We can strike the perfect

balance between what tradi-

tional museums do so well,

which is to educate and pre-

serve and be an authority for

historical record,and also take

the best of what new, Insta-

grammable and immersive pop-

ups are doing,” she said.

Few experience-goers are

repeat visitors, Mr. Arnone

said, so immersive experiences

either need to reinvent the ex-

hibit over time or build a sus-

tainable retail component. Mu-

seum of Ice Cream, for

example, started a line of

branded ice cream that is on

sale at Target and Safeway

stores. The company recently

signed a 10-year lease for its

SoHo location.

Sloomoo Institute sells arti-

sanal slime and supplies, ap-

parel and accessories and its

founders are thinking about

wading into children’s books,

an animated television series,

conferences and events.

The women behind the slime

have experience in business

and branding. Ms. Robinovitz

co-founded Digital Brand Archi-

tects, a talent-management

agency for digital influencers,

in 2010. Ms. Schiller’s company,

Meet, hosts brainstorming and

other corporate meetings at

three locations in Manhattan. A

third partner, Toni Ko, is an en-

trepreneur whose first com-

pany, NYX Cosmetics, was ac-

quired by L’Oréal in 2014.

The three founders invested

$1 million to open Sloomoo In-

stitute. They said they have

sold 90,000 tickets and pulled

in more than $5 million in

gross revenue, including retail

store sales (items include arti-

sanal slime guaranteed to make

it through airport security).

Ticket sales account for 80%

of their revenue, and retail

20%, Ms. Robinovitz said. Ad-

mission starts at $38 and in-

cludes a take-home slime she

valued at $16.

Despite being profitable,

Sloomoo’s founders say they

are looking to cut costs, par-

ticularly payroll. The company

has six full-time employees

while the rest of its workers

are hired from temporary-

staffing agencies. To lower la-

bor costs, Sloomoo is turning

to automation. Ms. Schiller

said they are working with in-

dustrial engineers to automate

the slime bar.

The ability to find affordable

short-term leases has given ex-

perience founders room to

build their brand first and then

figure out what product, if any,

to sell. In SoHo, where Sloomoo

Institute is located a few blocks

south of the Museum of Ice

Cream, the retail availability

rate was 23.8% in the fourth

quarter of 2019 compared with

13.7% five years earlier, accord-

ing to an analysis by Cushman

& Wakefield.

Sloomoo’s founders, who de-

clined to share how much they

pay in rent, recently renewed

their lease through January.

They said the abundance of va-

cant retail space has them

thinking of expansion, particu-

larly to malls.

BYKATEKING

A Pair of New Yorkers Capitalizes on Slime

Achild plays with slime at the Sloomoo Institute. Below, the founders of the institute, Karen Robinovitz, left, and Sara Schiller.

SARAH

WAGNER MILLER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)

‘Iwant to think about

what’s good for all of

us, but right now—

I’m in mourning.’

THEWALLSTREETJOURNAL. ** NY** Monday,March 9 , 2020 |A10A

GREATER NEW YORK