“This is my first time coming on a Saturday and it happens to be after the… it’s really not after – we’re still in the pandemic, but I guess after mass vaccination, so I’m actually quite surprised to see how many people are here,” said Eric Johnson, 32, of Harlem  ”

 Johnson said he isn’t scared to be around a large group of people since he is vaccinated.

 “We’ve been risking it all for a while,” said Johnson. “I mean, you know, I’m not scared. I was vaccinated back in April. Nothing’s happened since then. I ride the trains. This is a little different for me though, I’ve never been in this type of crowd for quite some time, but I am hoping for the best. I think we’ll be alright.”

 Anna Delgado, 62, from Queens said she was a regular at the San Gennaro Feast. She also felt safe in the large group due to the vaccination rates in Little Italy. 

“Some people, they are aware of the pandemic,” said Delgago. “They use masks, but I think around 70 percent of the people over here, they already had the vaccination. That’s very good for New York.”

According to the CDC, 85.54 percent of Hudson Square, Little Italy, SoHo, and Tribeca are vaccinated. This is higher than Manhattan’s vaccination rate of 79.09 percent and New York City’s vaccination rate of 69.45 percent. The case and death rate for these neighborhoods are also lower than Manhattan’s as well as New York City’s.

 With hundreds of people unmasked in such close quarters, the feast does have the potential to  be a super spreader event as fully vaccinated people are still getting infected with Covid.  The vaccine card and mask mandates  are not required for outdoor events.

But the crowds who walked around eating cannolis and smoked sausages were not afraid and neither were the vendors hawking the food.

 “It doesn’t matter because we’re all outside, “ said Angelique Aquilino, 36, a pastry stand owner.  “We can do whatever we want to do, and everybody’s happy.”

Not every vendor was comfortable with the crowds.

Josephine Caso, sister of the owner of Cafe Napoli, checking her reflection in a window at the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy. Photo by Maggie Geiler

“I tell you I’m a little leery,” said Josephine Caso, 85, sister of the owner of Café Napoli. “Thank God that everybody’s healthy, [my family and I] all got our shots, we’re happy to be back.”

 Caso and her family handed out cannoli’s, almond-filled pastries, and zeppole to customers waiting in long lines, some for up to 45 minutes. With much of Little Italy’s income being dependent on tourism, the tight-knit community was hit hard by the pandemic, causing most restaurants to lay off staff members and some to deal with closing.

 “Forget it, forget it, it was a disaster,” said Caso “I’ll tell you the truth, I was scared. We had the place closed for a year and a half, nobody walked the streets. It was very hard.”

Business owners hoped the feast would be the boost neighborhood businesses would need.

“With the whole festival going on, hopefully it boosts everything back up, said Manuel Siguencia,37, the manager  at Il Cortilo restaurant. “All of Little Italy is packed… it’s so awesome.”

And the 11-day festival was exceeding their expectations.

 “We were afraid that it wouldn’t be like this coming back,” said Aquilino. “It’s like nothing ever happened. Like we just fell asleep and woke up and we’re back where we were. Everyone is back. This neighborhood needed this.”

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When clients first arrive at the salon they get their temperature taken at the door, then they fill out a form that is sent via text message on their phone, answering questions about previous travels and whereabouts during the pandemic and before taking a seat in the stylist chair, guests sanitize their hands. 

Everyone is required to wear a mask while inside the salon.

Hair stylists take similar precautions, they must clean their styling chairs from top to bottom, submerge their hair tools in disinfectant before and after each client, and change gowns out between each guest. 

Stylists are working a staggered schedule and only allow up to 10 people total in the salon at a time to minimize the spread of COVID-19. 

Nicole Joi, 29, a hair stylist at The Door Salon, where she has worked for the last eight years, said she is happy to be back since her last day on March 14.

“It feels good to touch hair again,” Joi said. 

A sign on the door of The door Salon directing people to wait and call before heading inside on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Nicole Joi, a hair stylist at The Door Salon poses for a portrait inside the salon before clients arrive on opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Amy Fink (my mom), a client at The Door Salon gets her temperature taken before getting her hair done on opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Amy Fink (my mom), a client of The Open Door Salon, fills out a form on her phone, answering questions about previous travels and whereabouts during the pandemic before getting her hair done on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Amy Fink (my mom), a client of The Open Door Salon sanitizes her hands before getting her hair done on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Amy Fink (my mom), a client of The open Door Salon shows me her grey hair growth before getting it colored on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Amy Fink (my mom), a client of The Door Salon holds her mask on her face while getting her hair colored on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Amy Fink (my mom), a client of The Open Door Salon holds her mask on her face while getting her hair washed on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Nicole Joi, a hair stylist at The door Salon sanitizes and wipes down hair washing station to prepare for the next client on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

Amy Fink (my mom), a client of The Door Salon poses for a picture with me after getting her hair washed on the opening day, June 16th. Photo by Kyla Milberger

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“It’s so bad here. The entire market has incurred a monthly loss to the tune of $4 to $5 million,” said Raju Patel, the president of Travel World, a travel agency and president of the Jersey City Asian Merchant Association, an advocacy group for local Asian-owned businesses.

Located along a one-mile stretch on Newark Avenue, India Square has about 95 outlets that range from Indian restaurants and jewelry stores to bars and grocery shops. About 10% of Jersey City’s population is Indian American, a major contributing factor to the thriving businesses at India Square. 

 Once a bustling market thronged by hundreds of patrons every day, it’s now deserted.  High rents and few customers due to the coronavirus, has created huge losses. Store owners said it would take them a  over a year to recover losses incurred during the three-month shutdown. 

 Patel’s travel and tour business has done no business since mid-March. 

 “Who do you think will travel even after the government reopens?” asked Patel.

 The restaurants at India Square have also taken a hit. They didn’t do any business in April. Although many of them started takeout and delivery services in May, their sales were only about 20-25%. 

“We won’t see even a nominal increase in the revenue when we reopen,” said  Satinder Saggar, the owner of Rasoi, a restaurant.

“Why would people come out and eat when there is a threat of the coronavirus?” 

Before the pandemic, Rasoi saw about 70 to 80 patrons on weekdays and over 150 people visited the restaurant on weekends. But business in May dropped 75%. 

“How can a restaurant survive with only 25% of business after making no money for two months? We will survive because we are old in the business,” said Saggar who owns two other restaurants in Jersey City and New York City.    

In phase two of reopening, restaurants are allowed to have only outdoor sitting .   None of the restaurants at India Square have outdoor space so they will continue to have to depend on takeouts and deliveries. 

 Sagar said when Rasoi reopens he would be able to hire back only seven of the  12 employees he had before the outbreak. 

Many business owners said they are pinning their hopes on a  vaccine to salvage their businesses. 

 Some jewelry stores at India Square are facing closure. 

 “Why would someone buy jewelry during this time?  With wedding and other functions being postponed and canceled there is no chance we will get sales,” said Wahid Akbari, 48, who owns Sara Jewelry.  

 The only stores thriving are the square’s grocery stores. 

 “The only thing we worry about is the supply chain that might get affected due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in India,” said Sushma Patel, 41, owner of Apna Bazaar grocery store. 

 Jayesh Modi, who owns a home appliances store, said that the Paycheck Protection Program loan,  a forgivable loan program introduced by the coronavirus stimulus bill,  wouldn’t be of much help if stores don’t do business.

“I got a $15,000 loan. It can help me survive for a while but I need business,” Modi said. “Never have I seen such destruction. Let’s see how many stores reopen on June 15. Some might never(reopen). India Square won’t be the same again.

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Life has never been the same for Mark Weng and David Martinez, local business owners whose shoe store was near the World Trade Center.

Seventeen years after the terrorist attack, they are still haunted. Martinez had to battle anxiety, and Weng refuses to go anywhere close to Ground Zero, the replay of the plane hitting the towers still vivid in his memory.

Weng is forever grateful he was not one of the victims of the terrorist attack.

“One day can change your life forever,” he said.

Weng and Martinez owned and worked at Footmart on Fulton Street. They saw hundreds of customers, the majority worked at the Twin Towers. Those people became their friends.

“People came through here every day looking for shoes, all sorts of people, and you begin to familiarize yourself with some,” said Weng.

Their memories of 9/11 are still vivid.

It was just after 9:15 a.m. when Martinez of Flushing, Queens, was on his way to work. His train came to a halt right before the Fulton Street stop. Confused passengers on the train waited to hear why they were being delayed.

“Everyone was lost at what was going on,” Martinez said.

Finally, after 15 minutes, the train jolted and worked its way up towards the Fulton Street Station. Unaware of the events taking place above him, Martinez came out and headed toward work as if it was a normal day. But there was something wrong. Approaching the store, he noticed the gate was closed, he also noticed something else.

“I looked up and saw a giant fireball coming from the side of one of the buildings,” he said “I didn’t understand the magnitude of the situation, it all looked like an accident.”

What he failed to realize was he was staring at the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

As people filled the streets ravaged with fear, Martinez had to make sure Weng and his other workers were not coming anywhere toward Ground Zero.

But Weng’s train was on the Williamsburg Bridge. He watched the attack through the train’s windows.

“I also thought it was an accident,” he said. “But when I saw the second plane hit, I knew something was wrong”.

Weng continued to make his commute into Manhattan heading west on Centre Street, as the dark reality of the event came full circle.

“I looked up at the tower and saw people jumping, at first I didn’t want to believe it was real,” he said.

Meanwhile Martinez was looking for a pay phone to call Weng and the others. He spotted one on the corner of Nassau and Fulton street and headed towards it. Moving frantically, he dropped his quarter, stopped, and noticed the quarter bouncing up and down. He turned his head, and saw one of the towers falling as a huge mushroom cloud of debris and smoke whipped its way toward him. He ran with others fleeing the debris filled cloud.

“It was like a nuclear bomb had went off or the equivalent to hundred of planes flying over you at once,” he said.

Finding a nearby subway station, he ran into it and waited for a sign to let him know things were okay. After 30 minutes, he made his way up out of the subway and arrived to a street of floating papers, dust and the smell of burning cars.

Four weeks later the men were allowed to go back to the store and recover items.

“I came back to the store and it was filled with white ash,” Weng said. “The pants I had on were black, by the time I left they were gray.”

Fortunately the store wasn’t severely damaged and the business eventually reopened. Weng is forever grateful for surviving the attacks.

“I can’t believe it’s been 17 years since,” he said. “I pray nothing like that happens again.”

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The natural gas industry has created jobs in central Pennsylvania, but residents say there are economic consequences as well. Photo by Eric Zerkel

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Just over the Susquehanna River, along freshly paved streets, the taupe stucco facades of hotels jut out in rows, blotting out the old church steeples and glass storefronts of small-town Pennsylvania.

This is the new Williamsport, a city transformed from a quaint logging town into a bustling corporate hub by the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation below ground.

“It has truly been an amazing renaissance,” said Vince Matteo, president of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce.

Over the past four years, Matteo said he has seen more than 100 new businesses sprout up in the county, leading Williamsport to be named the seventh fastest growing metropolitan area in the country.

“I’ve been involved in economic development chamber work for 31 years and have seen good times and bad times, and from an economic development standpoint I’ve never seen something this good before,” said Matteo.

But outside of Williamsport, on the stretches of farmland and rolling hills, locals see little of the “boom” of the natural gas industry. Leading some to question whether the industry will have a real and lasting impact on local rural communities.

“The natural gas industry is extractive by nature,” said John Trallo, 60, of Sonestown, Pa. “There is a short-term boost for the area when they have to set up the wells, but once the wells are in the ground, the jobs move on.”

Trallo lives 45 minutes outside of Williamsport, in neighboring Sullivan County, where he said he sees little evidence of the positive economic impacts that Matteo and Williamsport experience.

Instead, Trallo said he has witnessed the slow decay of many staple businesses of the area as the demand for business follows “frackers” to Williamsport.

“The mom and pop stores, the campgrounds, the farming supply stores, we’re just watching them disappear,” said Trallo, who runs his own small business – a music lessons and instrument repair shop – out of his home. “The jobs that we’re losing, once they’re gone, are not coming back.”

While drill sites are located hours outside of Williamsport, workers use the city as an industrial hub, booking up hotels, and shipping out in company provided econo-vans to areas in Bradford, Sullivan and Susquehanna Counties.

With so many new temporary residents, Matteo said that jobs are not only created within gas companies, but also are taking hold within Williamsport.

“There is a trickle down effect,” Matteo said. “You have all these companies that are doing work on the Marcellus Shale, but they are spending money in our hotels, in our restaurants, and in our stores.”

Twenty miles east, in Moreland Township, Drake Saxton sees little of the trickle-down. Saxton said that the high presence of out-of-state workers was a clear sign that the gas industry wasn’t concerned about the local economy.

“Take a look at the license plates on the cars around here – Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma – if they (the gas industry) are so good at picking up the local economy then why are they all still here?” said Saxton, 64.

Saxton runs a bed and breakfast and said the negatives of workers coming in and out of town drowned out any small economic impact felt locally.

“Let’s talk about the rest of what the frackers are bringing us – an increase in crime, ruts in the road a foot deep, blocked off roads, increased rent – it’s like they are saying get a job with the oil/gas industry or die off,” said Saxton.

Saxton’s business was recently put on hold, when massive ruts created by the trucks carrying water to and from drill sites kept him from being able to drive on and off his property for weeks.

“I couldn’t get out, the ruts were this deep,” Saxton said, as he stretched his hands apart the length of his torso.

Though the business has slowed the past few months, as gas prices have risen, trucks still drive through the streets of Williamsport on their way to drill sites. Something Matteo said he has no problem dealing with.

“There are impacts (from this industry) that aren’t positive, but overall if you asked me if I want them to be here with the additional problems and issues, or not be here, I’d say I’d want them to be here, and have people have these additional jobs,” Matteo said.

But for Trallo, jobs are the last thing on his mind.

“This is just another boom, and once they (the gas companies) are gone, what do we have left?” Trallo said. “This area is going to lose its charm.”

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On a typical morning, Erica Jones wakes up, eats a hearty breakfast, puts on her running gear and heads for the door.

Along the way she will pick up running partners, but not the typical type. Her cohorts aren’t people, they’re dogs.

Jones, 32, of Harlem, N.Y., is a professional dog runner for Happy Pants NYC one of the numerous dog walking services that don’t just walk dogs, they run them.

“You come in and they’re just knocking stuff over they’re so happy to see you” Jones said of the dogs she runs.

With over 1.5 million dogs living in the city, many being large breeds in small living spaces, many dogs are left with little room to release pent up energy.

But companies like Happy Pants NYC, provide a rigorous work out. Athletes are hired to take dogs on a vigorous 30-45 minute run during the day, a time when they might otherwise sit idle while their owners are at work.

Jones recently moved to the city from California after quitting a desk job in finance, because she really wanted a change of pace, she said.

“This is my full-time job now,” she said with a smile.

Jones said for her, it’s the best of both worlds. She has run in seven marathons, and combining her love of dogs and passion for running seems to suit her well.

“It’s totally perfect, I love running, I love the dogs,” Jones said. “I love being outside, running is easy and fun for me.”

She heard about dog running while still in California, and even tried putting up ads to seek out people who might be interested in having their dogs exercised, but she said it was difficult to find clientele in an area where open spaces were readily available and many people had their own yards for pups to run in.

So immediately after picking up her two dogs and moving across country, she went online and applied for a running position with David Haber’s company, Happy Pants NYC.

“I think the ad said something like, ‘Do you love to run? Do you want to get paid to run? Do you love dogs?” she said.

Checking yes to all those things, she met with Haber and was approved to proceed to the running test.

“He wanted to see if I could run basically,” she said laughing. Not a problem for Jones, who held her own during the 45-minute trial run around Central Park with Haber and one of the dogs.

Haber, 39, from the West Village, worked in marketing for years before starting Happy Pants NYC.
He wanted to try and do something on his own, less structured than his previous corporate jobs, and when he saw dog walkers around the city he’d wonder if it was something he could make a living out of doing.

Then, about four years ago, he began working as a runner for a company that specialized in dog running and did odd jobs on the side to make ends meet.

“After my commitment to them was finished, I basically went off on my own and tried to do something similar,” he said.

Haber combined his long-time love of dogs and his desire to run a business into Happy Pants NYC (“pants” as in the panting a dog makes when it’s happy after a long run).

At first Haber was the only runner, and with clients emerging in areas scattered around Manhattan, he was literally running all over the city.

Now he’s got multiple runners and clients all over the city. His business is doing well, he said. Prices start at $32 for a 30-minute run and clients choose how many visits per week they’d like, ranging up to five 30-minute visits for $115 per week.

“In the beginning it was just me and I was running sometimes up to six or seven times a day,” he said. “I think I was logging like 15 or so miles.”

Haber’s legs were so sore at night, he could barely sleep, he said.

Soon after he began to build a larger clientele, he started hiring runners to help take the load off, he said.

“The key criteria is definitely someone who loves dogs and has a great temperament to them” he said.

It is important that his runners are able to withstand running long distances, which is why he typically hires experienced athletes, but more important to Haber than athletic ability being able to trust them with the dogs.

“We develop such a close bond and relationship with the owners, and their dogs,” he said. “They’re affording us a lot of opportunities and sort of trust to be in their home and take care of their dogs that people value sort of at the same level as their kids,” he said.

One such client who entrusts her pooch about three times a week in the care Haber’s company is Dr. Nina Mohr, a veterinarian at City Veterinary Care in the Upper West Side.

Mohr, 41, from the Flatiron District, owns a yellow mix-breed named Banana. She said he had some behavioral issues before exercise was introduced into his routine. Mohr started running him years ago, but doesn’t have the time to do it as often as she’d like, so about three times a week, one of Haber’s runners at Happy Pants take’s Banana out to run.

She said dog running is a great alternative to dog parks and dog walking, which don’t offer the energy release that running does, especially for working breeds like retrievers and schnauzers, whose natural instincts are to be moving and working.

“They’re in an apartment, they sleep when we’re gone, they don’t do anything,” she said.

As a result, dogs do sometimes develop behavioral and even medical issues like arthritis and weight problems, but those who can get enough exercise, usually see improvement in these areas, she said.

“I think there are tremendous benefits, cardiac benefits, orthopedic, all kind of things,” she said.

Mohr believes strongly in exercise for dogs. Not only does she recommend running and other forms of exercise to patients, she also swears by it with her own pooch.

At 11 years old, Banana is still in great health and has the spirit of a young pup, Mohr said.

“Before I started running with him, he was sort of more destructive, “ she said. “He had separation anxiety.”

But the running has mellowed him out, she said.

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