You're a mod? I never even noticed. (I guess that's a compliment.)

i am.

but only for the past 18 years.

so i'm still a little green..... ;)

The West Coast has plenty of financial and other companies that were never "branches" of East Coast companies. Businesses like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Union Pacific Railroad and Charles Schwab. But even though there once was a Pacific Stock Exchange, NY remains the seat of finance and where too much business is transacted and Washington, DC remains where the country is run from.

I still usually wake up at 6:30 AM to check the markets, then if nothing exciting is happening I go back to sleep. The good side is that markets close at 1 PM West Coast (and AZ) time and business people can pretty much relax and enjoy the rest of their day.

You can tell because he's a purple people eater.

• Video Link

^^I really do blame public transit for a lot of this. The NY metro has the most intensive transit dependency in the US. People ride it because they have to. And as far as I'm concerned, it's got to be a risk equal to or greater than dining indoors or most other activities pegged high risk.

We now know that what really exposes you to COVID is the concentration of aerosolized virus-containing particles you breathe in over how long a period of time. So wiping down surfaces and the other things various transit agencies have done to try to cut transmission probably don't help much. In warmer weather you can open the windows of above-ground vehicles; not much you can do in a subway.

That's not a San Francisco thing. When I travel I often forget that restaurants elsewhere usually close much earlier than I'm accustomed to, and I often find myself with few decent options for dinner when I'm not mindful of that. And oh how San Franciscans drink. So much drinking.

I grew up here on the West Coast and that does not ring true. I don't believe the economy of California was ever dominated by industries requiring Californians to work East Coast hours--and if it ever was, it certainly hasn't been like that for several decades now. I've lived in the East Coast as well, and I never noticed any difference in the hours that people in general keep.

That said, there are exceptions to the rule--Las Vegas and Manhattan have later nightlife than just about every place, for example, but as a rule Americans generally don't regularly go clubbing until 4:00 a.m.

It's the re-openings (bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, etc.). More things are open now in the NY region than have been open at any point since March 2020.

What is going on right now in New Jersey is very disturbing:

They seem to be having a new wave unlike most of the rest of the country:

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...637204/enhance

and it's focused mainly around the New York metro:

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...637204/enhance
Above 2 images: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...rus-cases.html

But it's in spite of doing a better than average job of vaccinating people:

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...637203/enhance
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/c...-distribution/

I would have thought that with roughly ⅓ of the adult population vaccinated and likely another 15% or more immune from infection, we'd be seeing the virus have difficulty finding susceptible victims by now.

But that's true in many, many places. I'm looking for what's different about NYC and metro.

Yikes. That's not even a plateau. That's a legit uptrend, not as sharp of an increase as previous surges, but still quite noticeable. NY/NJ is probably going to have to lockdown again, or at least go back to the next restrictive tier.

I would imagine that in any big city, people would be going to the gym at all hours? And that people would be working at all hours, staggered schedules, etc.? Aren't people at the gym in NYC at 4am?

Going out to dinner at 10pm is not unheard of here, not in Los Angeles, anyway. Maybe your California buddy is from Orange County? Hehe I remember a friend of mine who was a student at UC Irvine (back in the 1990s), she would complain about the lack of ANYTHING that was open past 10pm in Irvine, apart from Denny's and In-N-Out. :haha:

And in my clubbing days, a lot of nightclubs (gay clubs, anyway) had afterhours that would be open until about 4am. And some underground clubs got around the 1:30am/last call for drinks/no selling alcohol past 2am law by charging more for cover at the door past 2am, and not charging for liquor... kind of like an open bar but you just pay a higher cover charge.

Any politician that even thinks of doing this in NJ will lose re-election. They can get away with pausing the reopening for a few weeks but to "go back" is never going to happen and rightfully so. The vulnerable are all vaccinated.

You might be right. If anything, as long as there's no increase in hospitalizations resulting in overwhelmed ICUs and excess deaths, this could be a good thing for NJ. Herd immunity can be achieved faster through both vaccinations and increasing cases.

Uh no, they should only do that if deaths go through the roofs. The virus spreading doesn't matter if there is not a major uptick in new deaths; which there won't be now that all the old geazers are getting vaccinated.

Remember, the only reason the idiotic lockdowns started was to flatten the curve so that hospitals didn't get overrun; which didnt happen in most of the country outside of a few major cities. If younger people are getting it, which is most likely what is happening than whatever, doesn't matter as most people dont even get sick from it if they get it.

Another reason to get your jab:

https://www.gvnews.com/news/vaccine-...6dfd90097.html

As the chart shows, there is a 12% increase in hospitalizations. What there is not (yet) is an increase in deaths, probably for 2 reasons: (1) The most vulnerable HAVE been vaccinated so those catching it now are younger and healthier and (2) deaths lag other stats by 3 weeks or so (people die after holding on in the hospital for that long).

But just the fact that these supposedly younger, healthier folks ARE needing hospitalization is worrisome.

I think there are some differences about New York other than public transit. New York was much more cautious about re-opening than almost any other state. For instance, indoor dining has been completely banned in NYC for roughly 9 of the last 12 months. A month ago it reopened to 25% capacity, after a two month shutdown.

The first reopening of indoor dining coincided with the beginning of the winter surge. The second reopening of indoor dining has coincided with the plateauing at an elevated level of infections. But the transit system was never shutdown throughout the entirety of the pandemic, and for most of the summer and fall of 2020, New York had some of the lowest rates of infection in the country.

Another change has been schools. Schools in NYC have been reopening over the past few weeks, after having been closed for most of the winter. I just heard of an outbreak this week in a school in Brooklyn that has forced some teachers, students, and their families into a self-quarantine.

I compare NY to my town, San Francisco, which has been just as locked down and is reopening at a similar pace and which has a very low rate of COVID infections. One difference is our transit system is hardly running and I don't know anybody using it who has any options (and a lot more people do have options than in NY).

I must say I consider your post an example of New Yorkers being rather unaware of what's going on west of the Hudson. SF schools still aren't open (but there are plans to open them when the unions can be convinced to come back to work).

Why fun is no longer allowed:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...05a_story.html

Since there are a number of participants on this site who are good at fat shaming, I expect you'll now have your say. But donuts are the alternative to pizza . . . only Krispy Kreme thought of giving away high calorie bribes first.

https://notthebee.com/article/heres-...t-comes-in-red

Commented one person: "I would rather be pummeled by a horde of rabid baboons, thrown off a cliff, and eaten slowly by sharks than to strap that thing on my schnoz." But I can see this too getting political.

I think KK promotion was harmless. WOuld have thought, the outrage machine would have been sent into overdrive? It's one donut.

I assume you’re talking about me. Saying that it’s bad to be fat and people should try harder not to be fat is not “fat shaming”.

Regardless, a single glazed donut isn’t going to make anyone fat. Especially if they work out.

I'm aware that other school systems have not reopened, but I have friends who work in schools in other parts of the country that have had to be physically present in schools since last August. One friend works in a school in the Atlanta area that has had so many outbreaks that she's had to stay home on several occasions because she was a known "close contact" of someone at the school who tested positive. I have another friend who is now self-quarantining here in NYC for the same reason, which is the first I'd heard of it happening here to someone I know.

Not just you. It's too often classed as a moral issue here by a number of people. Yes, it's bad to be fat but for some people it's harder not to be than those who naturally aren't realize. And there should be no guilt involved.

But I don't want to get into all that yet again. I just think it's fine to get a free donut and if I had a KK nearby I would. I also think it would be nice if pizza parlors everywhere gave you a free slice for getting vaccinated.

Zero transmission of Covid for a month here in Australia - rule changes coming this monday in Sydney

What could have been here too....

Australia: Population 25 million
US: Population 328 million

Australia: Tight travel controls, even on returning citizens, and no land borders
US: Porous land borders and travel controls with numerous exceptions and loopholes

Australia: 1.4 million Chinese visitors in 12 months before COVID. Essentially shut down its borders on 1 February, denying entry to all travellers who had been in or transited through China within 14 days of arrival in Australia
US: 3 million Chinese visitors in US (in 2018). The US also shut down entry to non-Americans from China but continued to allow tens of thousands of Americans living in China to return home. And delayed putting controls on even non-American travelers from Europe.

In spite of the limited and perforated limitation on entry of possibly infected persons from both Asia and Europe to cities all over North America, the US government at the time was heavily criticized for being racist and xenophobic. In Australia the tougher measures were accepted, even if criticize and the number of entry points were much more limited to a few major cities.

The Australians did a great job, no question. But they had a much easier job than we did. We are a country connected extensively to every other part of the world and to a greater degree than almost anywhere else. And people fly from all over the world to all over the US (not to mention cruise and other ships returning from ports all over). With the amount of travel still being allowed, even an efficient contact tracing system would have been overwhelmed and our system was far from efficient.

It’s not hard enough that obesity rates should have increased as much as they have. It’s clearly not genetics. Lifestyles have changed, yes. We do less physical labor and have cars. And the food on offer in the grocery store has changed. This means more willpower and conscious effort is required but, you know, have it.

I think less of a very fat person and I always will.

When are you allowed to freely come and go from your penal colony?

p.s. I am not going back to the UK until travel restrictions are lifted (even though they don’t apply to me as a US passport holder) out of principle.

Hopefully the link works, but this is an amazing level of detail showing the percent of the population that has received at least one dose of the vaccine in the entire state of Louisiana at the census tract level. The highest rate in New Orleans is the census tract representing much of the central business district where 66.2% of the 2,859 residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

http://nola.com/app/graphics/interac...tract_map.html

I think I speak for the vast majority of SSPers when I say that you are honestly the most arrogant, obnoxious, egotistical, self-righteous and judgmental douchebag ever to "grace" Skyscraperpage.com.

Fellow mods, I know moderators shouldn't necessarily post something like this, but you can't deny thinking what I have just typed. ;)

Aaron (Glowrock)

Yes! Biking when Corona first started was amazing. I even got my girlfriend to ride with me.

Now I mostly stick to segregated paths or nice bike lanes.

But you have to compare these numbers to other states that have been pretty much reopened since May or June.

Yeah, New York's current numbers aren't really that out of line with similarly sized Florida. Using the 7-day average on worldometers, it looks like New York is a little bit above Florida this week, but they don't look wildly different. And of course, New York's new infections were well below Florida for most of last year once the former got past the first wave and the latter entered its first wave.

The highest local infection rates are in Hasidic areas. Lakewood, NJ, the largest Hasidic enclave on earth outside of Israel and Brooklyn has super-high rates. But deaths continue to drop, so, while concerning, it doesn't seem like the high-risk population is getting sick (they're vaccinated, already had it, or dead).

Hasidic cultural practices probably mean that virus transmission is inevitable.

no surprize there. meaning the rest of us living around them would inevitably get it as well. :shrug:

of course to be fair, the no mask brigade and the young underground party ragers probably spread covid just as much and to even more difficult to assess/scattershot areas around the region. at least the hasids tend to stick to themselves.

thinkiing about that gives me a headache.

i just got shot #2 this morning, so hopefully things are looking up. :tup:

Per Governor Newsom, all California residents age 50 and up will be eligible for the COVID vaccine starting April 1st. And beginning April 15, all California residents age 16 and older will be eligible.

Woo hoo!

There are basically 4 or 5 "hotspots" in the US right now but the reasons don't have to be the same in each case: The New York Metro (and not just Brooklyn, a lot is norther NJ), the Texas panhandle, Michigan (the whole state but especially Detroit), Minnesota and specific rural counties around the west (mostly these are very low population so a few cases spike the rate dramatically). While the rate in southeast Florida is especially high--and don't forget this is the preferred Florida destination for a lot of New Yorkers--the rest of the state is not.

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...793805/enhance
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-us-cases.html

This has its downside. I have a good friend who is 56 and has HIV (which has made him eligible in SF for a while now) but has been unable to get a shot. Now that he'll have to compete with the entire population, it'll be that much harder.

Poor guy... I hope he's able to get it soon. Supposedly, California's supply of vaccines is such that that's why they've opened up the eligibility groups.

I turn 51 in a few weeks and am hoping to get it as soon as I can. I'm hoping that I can get it through my doctor's office or through Rite Aid or something.

He was told he might be able to get one on a walk-up basis at the Oakland Coliseum but because it's Oakland, not SF, he may not qualify until April 15. The person who told him they were giving them walk-up said if he told a little fib about his job they wouldn't question it and he could qualify as an "essential worker". He actually did (until COVID) have a front-line, people-contact job but not one of the ones always mentioned. Anyway, if that doesn't work, I think the next best chance may be at a pharmacy like Rite Aid, CVS or Walgreen's. In a few weeks I'm hoping they have much more vaccine at such places.

Signs of the midnight curfew being lifted soon here. There have always been speakeasies, but places are openly flaunting the rule and have lines outside to get in post-1am now.

The US seems to be rapidly returning to “normal life” led of course by Florida and Texas.

working in the energy sector i was able to get my first vaccination pretty easily. its hard to find an appt. in st louis but i drove 1.5 hours sw down I-44 and theres tons of open appts and everyone can get vaccinated at this point down there if youre willing/able to drive. i dont know too many people who don’t at least have their first shot at this point.

Yeah, I hear e.g. Texas is opening up to all adults this week, but according to all the online maps, they have a relatively low fraction of people already vaccinated. I think some politicians may be trying to score points by opening it up to more people before there really is enough capacity. Or maybe people in Texas don't want to take the vaccine, or the population is a lot younger on average, I don't know...

From NYT:
https://i.imgur.com/onmlbLx.png

Two weeks is not enough, especially considering how horribly this roll out has been overall. It's going to be a mad rush for those 2 weeks before they open it up to everyone else. Only a small percentage of that age group will even get appointments before they're already pushed out.

California is averaging 370k vaccinations per day, so 5 million / 2 weeks. But ~half of that are going to be people getting their second dose. There are probably more than 2.5 million people who will be newly eligible, not to mention all the previously-eligible people who haven't been processed yet...

Anecdotally it appears my moms town in Arkansas (pop around 75k) is having an issue of getting enough people to get vaccinated. They had an event at the university and eventually said anyone who wants one can come and at Walmart yesterday they had someone outside asking if *anyone* wanted one.

Here in Chicago it seems quite different. On my colleges slack channel students appear very eager to get the vaccine but keep running into obstacles.

this is why i got my shot in the missouri ozarks. massive vaccination events with nobody else there except a (primarily) trickle of people driving down from st louis...it all took 20-25 minutes including the 15 minutes of observation afterwards.

^ yeah, I'm getting mine through work later today, but for my wife (who is eligible for health condition reasons), I had to autorefresh like 3 different websites and barely got it after many attempts.

It';s relatively easy to get an appointment at a CVS in e.g. Hoopeston or Pekin downstate, but renting a car and driving 2-3 hours each way on a weekday kind of sucks.