From Macy’s “Miracle on 34th Street” store to the World Trade Center’s office towers, New York City hit a key point Monday in trying to rebound from the nation’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak. For the first time in three months, New Yorkers are able to dine out, though only at outdoor tables. Shoppers can once again browse in the city’s destination stores. Shaggy heads can get haircuts. Cooped-up kids can finally climb playground monkey bars instead of apartment walls. Office workers can return to their desks, though many haven’t yet. Larry Silverstein, for one, couldn’t wait. The 89-year-old World Trade Center developer was headed to work at his office there Monday, along with up to a third of Silverstein Properties’ staff. The firm is staggering schedules so employees can keep their distance and they’ll have to wear masks in the 7 World Trade Center lobby. Footprints mark where to stand in elevators now limited to about a quarter their usual capacity. To Silverstein, returning to office life and in-person teamwork brings “a joy, a fulfillment, such a sense of being able to function.” He doesn’t buy into arguments that the pandemic doesn’t bode well for office work or New York City. “I went through 9/11. I remember people telling me we were never going to be able to get people to come back to lower Manhattan,” said Silverstein, who leased the twin towers six weeks before the 2001 terror attacks destroyed them. “Never bet against New York, because New York always comes back, bigger and better than ever before.” But some New Yorkers are apprehensive. Alex Michaels may return soon to a retail job. He agrees it’s important to revive the economy, but he worries about potential coronavirus exposure from working with the public, even with new safety measures. “Something’s got to give. I get that,” said Michaels, 30, but there could be “a high price to pay.” Eve Gonzalez, a food industry worker whose job hasn’t yet resumed, feels it’s too soon to relax restrictions. “I’m dying to go out, but people’s health is more important,” said Gonzalez, 27. The virus has been blamed for over 22,000 New York City deaths. The death toll has been in single and low double digits in recent days. Infections have plummeted from an early-April peak, but between 200 and 400 people have still been testing positive for the virus each day over the past two weeks, according to city data. The city estimates 150,000 to 300,000 additional workers will return to their jobs Monday, two weeks after reopening began with construction, curbside-pickup retail, wholesaling and manufacturing. Monday marks just the second of four reopening phases, but Mayor Bill de Blasio called it “the biggest step forward as we fight back from the coronavirus crisis,” particularly for a restaurant industry he called “so much the identity of New York City.” The Democrat mayor said he planned to dine out Monday with his wife Chirlane McCray. After three months of struggling to get by on takeout and delivery, Melba Wilson is exuberant about introducing appropriately spaced sidewalk tables outside Melba’s, her Harlem restaurant. “This is definitely the infusion that we so greatly needed. … It’s been very grim,” and not just financially, said Wilson, president of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, an industry group. “We talk […]

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