鈥業 chose to keep going鈥�: Resilience of New York workers tested by pandemic
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Sarah Matusek Staff writer
| New York
Hangouts resume on South Bronx stoops as the sun staves off the rain. The grunt of buses fades behind a block of public housing, where a Saturday basketball game is in full swing and a cluster of cops looks on. Nearby a man removes his hat at the sidewalk shrine of a saint.
Alexandra Maruri has walked East 138th Street for decades as a local and a tour guide. But today there are no tours. One out of 4 Bronxites like her are unemployed; she and thousands of others are survivors of COVID-19. In March, her bank account held only $1.77, after she reimbursed 50 customers who had signed up for her walking tours before a ban on travel.
鈥淚t was so sudden. I didn鈥檛 really have a plan,鈥� she says.听
Why We Wrote This
Many Americans have seen images of a near-empty Times Square amid the pandemic. Yet the shutdown鈥檚 ripple effects are harshest in places outside New York City鈥檚 core 鈥� mostly communities of color. Part 2 of a series.
New York鈥檚 saga is a tale of two cities.听Yes, Midtown Manhattan is emptier than in the past, but as the Monitor reported last week, many of its mainstay businesses are听adapting.听Workers in tech and finance are among those who have听fared best听in terms of job security, nimbly adjusting to remote work.听
By contrast, as the city鈥檚 overall jobless rate听pushes 20%, workers with the least have lost the most.听It鈥檚 true on the health front, where the city鈥檚 more than 23,600 deaths have fallen heaviest on Latino and Black residents, who account for about half of the city鈥檚 population but are dying from COVID-19 at around twice the rate of white New Yorkers. And the economic disruption of city life has generally landed hardest on lower-paid, public-facing jobs such as those in restaurants, retail, and hotels 鈥撎齢eld by workers who tend to live in largely听nonwhite neighborhoods.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no question that New Yorkers who were often living paycheck to paycheck are the ones that have sustained the greatest job losses under the pandemic,鈥� says Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future. For example, half of the city鈥檚 more than 3 million immigrants lost their main source of income, the think tank estimates.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers like Ms. Maruri are banking on resilience. It helps to have the long view.
Ms. Maruri has seen New York bounce back before. She and her mother arrived from Ecuador in the 1970s 鈥渋n search of the American dream鈥� as the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. During the infamous decade of fires that the South Bronx鈥檚 housing, she says her family escaped their own building鈥檚 blaze. Three decades later came the recession in 2007, when Ms. Maruri lost her marketing job and had to rebuild again.
Now, as the Bronx Historical Tours founder applies for assistance to keep herself and her small business afloat, she revives her survival skills. She finds peace in parks and eats one meal a day.听
鈥淵ou either keep going or you cave in,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 chose to keep going.鈥�
Testing the safety net
Locals who stuck out the outbreak have found varying degrees of struggle and stability in New York City, where, by , a family of four needs $10,344 a month to sustain a modest living.听
Previous recessions in the city tended to begin with layoffs in higher-income sectors like finance, followed by a ripple effect in lower-wage industries when consumer spending shrank, says economist James Parrott.听
In the current crisis, job losses are flipped. Although high-wage earners aren鈥檛 generally unemployed, they have largely changed the office-lunch and business-travel habits that sustained lower-wage workers.听
鈥淲e鈥檙e testing the viability of the safety net right now,鈥� says Mr. Parrott, director of economy and fiscal policies at The New School鈥檚 Center for New York City Affairs.听鈥淲e鈥檙e beginning an unfortunate experiment when you take away the $600 weekly [federal] supplement.鈥�
New York state on Monday was for a federal weekly $300 supplemental check for those unemployed, but when the rollout begins is unclear.听
Experts worry that enduring job losses and shrinking safety nets like the expired $600 federal unemployment benefit may further magnify the city鈥檚 inequality.
Ms. Maruri says she spent her $1,200 federal stimulus check on bills, saving only $10 to treat herself to dinner. The additional federal unemployment benefit that expired at the end of July had also gone toward payments that were falling behind.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very difficult time without the extra $600,鈥� says Ms. Maruri, who shares an apartment with her mother. That amount was three times what she receives in state unemployment insurance.
Faced with a potential $9 billion deficit within two years, Mayor Bill de Blasio is seeking permission from the state to borrow funds for operating costs. Without more aid, a layoff of 22,000 municipal workers could come next month.
鈥淪cared to come back鈥澨�
Ms. Maruri began Bronx Historical Tours in 2011 to help reverse decades of negative press and preconceptions about her home borough. It鈥檚 been a tough task.
鈥淚鈥檝e had people bring food with them because they thought we didn鈥檛 have restaurants here,鈥� she says.
After applying to numerous financing opportunities while sick with COVID-19, Ms. Maruri won a $6,500 Small Business Administration loan and $2,500 Facebook cash grant this spring. She hopes to revive tours no later than November.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to see jobs that involve a lot of social contact like restaurants, hotels, tourism ... be very depressed until we get a vaccine or effective treatment,鈥� says Heidi Shierholz, former chief economist of the Obama administration鈥檚 Labor Department and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.
While the city鈥檚 COVID-19 caseload has plummeted (with 1,723 new hospitalizations on April 6 and only 32 on Aug. 6), New Yorkers who are able to resume their jobs still weigh the risks.听On her subway and bus commute from Queens to Manhattan to make strangers鈥� beds, Nudolma Lama Sherpa is afraid to sit down.听
Ms. Lama Sherpa, a room attendant at a midtown hotel, says she stopped getting called to work in mid-March. The federal stimulus check and weekly $600 federal payments were extra boosts for her household, which she shares with her mother and two young adult daughters. Two and a half months passed.
鈥淲e got a text from work that they want us to come back,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e scared to come back.鈥�
Ms. Lama Sherpa says she returned to work for financial security. She reasoned a new gig would be tough to find amid citywide layoffs.听
鈥淲ithout work, nobody can survive,鈥� says Ms. Lama Sherpa, who recently worked nine days straight.
A dozen blocks downtown, Cindy Jaimangal labors at a hospital. The majority of the city鈥檚 million 鈥渆ssential鈥� workers are like her: women and people of color. While her uninterrupted employment lent financial security during the crisis, new stresses were added at work and at home.
Neighbors
When the doorbell chimes, Ms. Jaimangal鈥檚 4-year-old and 9-year-old retreat to their rooms. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the coronavirus!鈥� they say, even though it鈥檚 only Mom. No one can hug her until after she showers.听
The patient care associate spends eight-hour days at a Manhattan emergency room that swelled with COVID-19 patients this spring. A 海角大神 music playlist helps pass the hourlong subway ride back to Queens. Home and exhausted, all she wants is curry chicken and jasmine rice. Unless she falls asleep in a chair.听
Ms. Jaimangal lives with her two children, husband, and parents in the middle-class neighborhood of South Richmond Hills. Since her husband, a software developer, has needed peace and quiet during his remote workday, she will soon resume her second job around dinnertime: homework police.
鈥淚 have to prepare mentally,鈥� she says, for the prospect of managing more virtual schooling plus her career this fall.
Ms. Jaimangal became a citizen in 2005, and still sends remittances to family back in Guyana. Despite the outbreak鈥檚 grueling work-life balance, she says her household has been financially OK. If anything, they鈥檝e saved, especially with an effort to live frugally. She cut her son鈥檚 winter sweatpants down to summer sweatshorts.
鈥淲e can manage,鈥� she says.
Despite the demands of her job, Ms. Jaimangal never considered leaving. 鈥淚 always wanted to help people,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen the day is over, I want to do something good for somebody. It鈥檚 not about pay for me.鈥澨�
She ended up helping a friend and neighbor who lives two streets away. When her daughter鈥檚 godfather, Dean Ragoonanan, spent 11 days at her hospital with COVID-19, Ms. Jaimangal filled in for family who weren't allowed to visit by tending to him at the start and end of each shift.听
She used to see Mr. Ragoonanan on Sundays as a fellow church member at Bethel Assembly of God. Now Ms. Jaimangal visited him in a hospital bed, praying by his side. He remembers that she even brushed his teeth.
鈥淚 will be forever grateful for Cindy,鈥� says Mr. Ragoonanan. 鈥淪he never turned her back.鈥�
Now, like so many others, Mr. Ragoonanan has a story that includes both trials and resilience in the face of an uncertain future.
He鈥檚 been back home since April. Yet during his recovery he鈥檚 had to send his r茅sum茅 around. His quarter-century career in building maintenance ended this spring.听
He says he misses work.听This month he called to tell听Ms. Jaimangal听that he鈥檇 been able to climb up to his roof. He reattached shingles that had scattered in a storm.
Part 1: What will happen to Big Apple鈥檚 core? Clues from reopening.
Editor鈥檚 note: As a public service, we have removed our paywall for听all pandemic-related stories.
