4 SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020Tracking an Outbreak
0 NBroadway theaters and museums that
tourists would flock to are still closed.
The United States has banned travel
from China, Brazil and much of Europe.
And Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has ordered
a quarantine for visitors from 31 of the
country’s states.
Four months after New York City shut
down to combat the coronavirus, its vital
tourism industry remains essentially
paralyzed even as the city struggles to
kick-start its moribund economy.
The enormous challenge the city faces
was on vivid display when the Statue of
Liberty reopened last Monday. Instead
of carrying the usual throngs of visitors
from around the world, the first boats to
the island that holds the statue ferried
more journalists than paying customers.
Times Square, typically gridlocked
with visitors, was nearly as lonesome.
“It’s not that happening,” said Swathi
Roja, who lives in Washington, assessing
the so-called Crossroads of the World.
“Maybe I’m not getting the real New
York City.”
New York’s abrupt lockdown in March
came just before the annual onslaught of
tourists as the weather begins to warm.
Officials had been expecting more than
67 million visitors in 2020, about one-fifth
of them from outside the country.
Now the city’s tourism officials have
been left wondering how they will ever
revive an industry that brought in about
$45 billion in annual spending and sup-
ported about 300,000 jobs.
Not since the grim days of the 1970s,
when crime was rampant, the subway
was in disarray and boarded-up store-
fronts were abundant, has promoting
New York to out-of-towners seemed so
daunting, said Jonathan M. Tisch, chief
executive of Loews Hotels and former
chairman of NYC & Company, the city’s
tourism marketing agency.
“There are all kinds of challenges that
are going to make our jobs of rebuilding
tourism and New York City’s economy
even tougher,” said Mr. Tisch, who
worked the front desk at one of his fam-
ily’s hotels as a college student in the
1970s.
He said the process of rebuilding the
city’s image as a safe and fun place to vis-
it would take a lot of time and help from
the state and city government. Along
with rhetorical support from elected offi-
cials, hotels and restaurants are seeking
tax breaks and rent relief.
“We can survive this,” Mr. Tisch add-
ed.
Mr. Tisch is one of dozens of leaders of
tourism-dependent businesses who have
been devising plans for the industry’s re-
covery from its longest and steepest
slump in memory. The situation is unlike
the city’s brief shutdown after the 9/
terrorist attacks in 2001 because Ameri-
cans felt a patriotic urge then to help the
city heal, he said.
Two nights after the attacks, on Sept.
13, shows resumed at all 23 Broadway
theaters.
But this time, with confined indoor
spaces making it easier for the virus to
spread, the theaters plan to remain dark
until next year. Without the shows that
serve as the city’s thumping heart, hun-
dreds of hotels and restaurants in Man-
hattan are simply trying to survive 2020.
“The perception is that if Broadway is
closed, New York City is closed,” Mr.
Tisch said.
In the second week of July, the occu-
pancy rate of New York City hotels was
just 37 percent, according to STR, a re-
search firm. That is down from more
than 90 percent in recent summers.
“We think it’s too soon to encourage
travel and invite folks to come back in,”
said Fred Dixon, the chief executive of
NYC & Company. He said that for the
past four months the city had no tourism
to speak of and that he was not even
guessing how many visitors it would
tally for the year.
So, instead of promoting the city in in-
ternational capitals and other faraway
places as it typically does, the agency is
narrowing its focus to New York and its
surrounding areas.
This month the city introduced a cam-
paign themed “All In NYC” that was cre-ated by Aruliden, a Manhattan market-
ing firm, to stir interest among local resi-
dents in exploring the city and seeing
some of its sights.
The strategy is similar to one being
employed by Paris, which is encouraging
its own residents to tour the city without
the usual hordes. “Paris is yours” is the
theme of that campaign.
But even a scarcity of tourists may not
be enough of a lure to get jaded New
Yorkers to venture to the city’s famous
attractions. Local residents were no-
where to be found among the few visitors
to the Statue of Liberty last Monday
morning.
For now, the city may have to rely onpeople like Shin Roldan, 31, and her new
husband, Keith, 30. The couple, who live
within commuting distance in Morris-
town, N.J., were having a honeymoon of
sorts a few months after a “pandemic
wedding” in their backyard, Ms. Roldan
said.
Despite the city’s continuing ban on in-
door dining, they said they were enjoy-
ing their stay in a Midtown Manhattan
hotel. They had already ridden the tram
to Roosevelt Island in the East River and
planned to go to the observation deck
atop the Empire State Building, which
had just reopened.
“We can take a lot of pictures, just the
two of us, with nobody else in the pic-tures,” Mr. Roldan said. “That’s always a
problem in New York.”
The fourth phase of the city’s reopen-
ing, which started last Monday, was a
mixed blessing for Brad Hill, whose com-
pany operates the concessions on Lib-
erty Island and nearby Ellis Island. It al-
lowed him to bring back more than 100
employees who had been laid off since
mid-March. But with so few tourists, be-
ing open again was a losing proposition,
he said.
Just a few days before, Mr. Cuomo had
upended his plans by excluding muse-
ums from the list of places that could re-
open. That ruled out Ellis Island, whose
main attraction is its exhibits on immi-gration and archives that visitors can
search for records of their relatives.
Mr. Hill said he had spent about
$60,000 preparing the dining areas and
gift shops on the two islands to accept
customers in a socially distant manner.
Now he was no longer planning to hire
more than 150 seasonal workers for the
summer.
Mr. Hill said he was having flashbacks
to the recovery from past shutdowns of
the statue, after 9/11 and Hurricane
Sandy in 2012. “The only problem with
this one is there are no tourists,” he said.
Kate Fone and her family, visiting from
Haverhill, Mass., saw the statue from a
passing tour boat before it reopened.
She, her husband and son made a sponta-
neous trip to take advantage of the low
prices and lack of crowds.
They were staying in an Airbnb rental
on Fifth Avenue that was “a real good
deal,” she said as she stood outside St.
Patrick’s Cathedral.
Some intrepid travelers made longer
treks in defiance of Mr. Cuomo’s quaran-
tine rules.
Shea Ellis, 33, and Tony Green, 34,
drove to New York from Talladega, Ala.,
a state on Mr. Cuomo’s list, with his three
children. Ms. Ellis, a business manager,
said she was undaunted by the spread-
ing virus.
“It’s all over the country,” she said. “I
haven’t been worried about it.”
Mr. Green, a truck driver, added, “You
can’t just stop your life.”
They said they liked the lack of traffic
in Manhattan but were disappointed that
so much of the city, like the 9/11 Memori-
al Museum, was still closed.
“You don’t get the real experience,”
she said.
Abigail Valle made an even longer
haul with her nephew, Hazael, and her
mother. Taking a break from posing at
the base of the Statue of Liberty, she said
they had driven 48 hours straight from
their home in Azusa, Calif., to see rela-
tives in Brooklyn.
“I just wanted to see it in real life,” she
said of the statue.
After a week in the city, they were
heading back on the road Monday night,
Ms. Valle said. Next stop: Las Vegas.TRAVELTourists Scarce, New York Tries to Lure New Yorkers
The Statue of Liberty reopened last week to virtually no visitors. In the second week of July, the occupancy rate of New York City hotels was just 37 percent.PHOTOGRAPHS BY VICTOR J. BLUE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESBy PATRICK McGEEHANPerformers dressed as cartoon characters seemed to outnumber visitors in Times Square on a recent Saturday.La Caridad 78, an Upper West Side an-
chor on the corner of 78th Street and
Broadway for 52 years, has closed. It was
one of the city’s best-known purveyors of
Chino Latino food, a particular combina-
tion of Chinese-American and Cuban
fare.
The restaurant and others like it juxta-
posed dishes from both cuisines; some-
times they met up in a single dish, like
fried rice with plantains or Chinese pep-
per steak with Cuban black beans. And
these restaurants were known for gener-
ous, inexpensive portions. The Cuban
side of the menu was fairly classic, and
the Chinese-American items were domi-
nated by lo mein and chop suey.
“It was one of the pioneers,” said Ri-
cardo Cardone, a Salvadoran chef who
has worked at a number of Latino restau-
rants, including La Nueva España in the
Inwood section of Manhattan. “The clos-
ing is unfortunate. It was important for
the Latino community, for Cubans, Do-
minicans, Puerto Ricans.”When Rafael Lee — a Chinese immi-
grant who came to the United States
from Cuba after Fidel Castro took power
— opened La Caridad 78 in 1968, it was
one of many places in the neighborhood
that tried to replicate the food of Ha-
vana’s Chinatown.
In 1997, Ruth Reichl, who was The New
York Times restaurant critic and lived
near the restaurant, wrote that the Cu-
ban dishes on La Caridad’s menu, like
ropa vieja and rice and beans, were
standouts, and she praised the “always”
ripe avocados.
“One of the things I miss most up here
has been La Caridad,” Ms. Reichl said
Friday from her home in the Hudson Val-
ley.
The closing was reported Thursday by
the West Side Rag, a neighborhood publi-
cation. Signs in the window said the
space was for lease by the building
owner, but the restaurant owners could
not be reached Friday for comment. (In
May, a former employee filed a com-
plaint against the restaurant’s owners inUnited States District Court, saying they
had required him and others to work
overtime, without proper wages.)
Though there are other Chino Latino
restaurants nearby — like Flor de Mayo,
which also serves Peruvian fare — La
Caridad seemed to have been the best
representative.
“I would go there when I had a hang-
over,” Mr. Cardone said. “The sancocho
soup brought me back to life.”
Burt Wolf, a writer and producer of
television travel programs on PBS, also
used to live in the neighborhood. He said
La Caridad was part of his regular diet
for many years, starting when he was re-
searching a show about Chinese emigra-
tion to the United States. “Sad to see it
go,” he said.
There remain many Cuban-Chinese
restaurants in New York, including Calle
Dao, with locations in Chelsea and near
Bryant Park. Many are in the Bronx and
Upper Manhattan, with a handful in
Brooklyn and Queens. But none have a
following like La Caridad.DININGLa Caridad 78, Beloved Manhattan Mainstay of Chino Latino Cuisine, Is Shut
By FLORENCE FABRICANTLa Caridad had been at the corner of 78th Street and Broadway, serving up
dishes like Chinese pepper steak with Cuban black beans for over 50 years.ROBERT K. CHIN — STOREFRONTS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO