I've been happily drinking in my home.

I rotate between:

1. The basement mancave
2. The rear deck where I grill
3. The front porch where I stare at my neighbors
4. Riding my bike around the neighborhood while buzzed
5. Riding my bike to the grocery store, buying beer, and bringing it home by bike (stopping to down one at a local park or two :D )
6. At my parents' home

Who needs bars right now?!!

Sure, it would be better news if it weren't necessary. But it's good news that it likely means a faster return to normalcy, given the situation.

It's obviously not great for bar owners and staff, but honestly, anybody going to an indoor bar right now was being irresponsible. It would be cheaper long-term to just pay all bar owners to stay closed.

need a major bailout

I mostly sit at home in front of the computer during the day, watching TV in the evening. Find myself sleeping much later because why not?

Frankly, I'd go out more if there was anywhere to go but there really isn't. Most businesses are doing curbside/takeout business only. And on the sidewalks of San Francisco are the crazy/homeless/drugged/aggressively obnoxious masses to be avoided.

I just ordered about 6 new books from Amazon.

In SF, we have always seen a few people wearing masks, mostly women who appear to be of Japanese heritage. But it hasn't been the norm for those with European or African or indigenous genes.

Now I think maybe it will be less surprising to see a Euro-American wearing a mask, even after COVID has faded from pandemic status. I think in future I'd wear one on transit in cold/flu season, for example. In recent years I've been going to Arizona in winter but before I started doing that I used to get 2 or 3 colds a year, almost always caught on transit. I could predict it--somebody coughs or sneezes in the seat behind me on a bus and 2 or 3 days later I'd start getting sick.

São Paulo decided to open bars last week, with reduced hours and social distancing. I, for one, went to this kind of hipster Vietnamese bar Saturday. I was missing my drinks badly.

However, masks down here is a non-issue. Everybody is using them, no exception. That makes things a lot safer and easier to move toward.

I dont see myself not wearing a mask any time soon, but I work with a lot of people recently released from jail or prison (my gf works at a hospital). I'm also a fat diabetic (Type I) with asthma, which apparently to some people on this forum disrupts and impedes on their ability to do whatever it is they feel entitled to do in their daily lives?

Why don't you just die already... bnk needs to get his drank on!

Oh, I actually wasn't referring to bnk

As someone with kids, it's just weird hearing about all the free time people have. The only major difference between my life now and pre-pandemic is that I don't have to commute any longer. Oh, and of course when my youngest is at home it's friggin impossible to get anything done. But the only time I have to actually read a book/watch a movie/game remains after 9PM.

Well I'm retired with no kids. So I've always had plenty of free time. It's just the things I used to do with it--walking around the city, reading one or maybe two newspapers cover to cover in a cafe, window and actual shopping--I can't do right now. So I'm finding at-home things to do.

Try taking a walk around Pier 39. I hear it's pretty empty nowadays. Time to be a tourist in your own city!

Didn't say it wasn't. We actually still have more than a few very unfortunate monuments to it in this country, not including the one that was recently vandalized. Just trying to say that it was a widely accepted belief.

Should have given a proviso to the American who wanted to do the BUT CANADA thing.

Drinking is a social activity. The only time I really drink at home is when I’ve taken the time to cook a nice dinner (and everyone knows you can’t have better than a B- meal without wine or beer).

I wish I could post photos of bars in Milan at apertivo last Saturday. Some of you would be apoplectic. This week we are enjoying Lake Como with no American or Chinese tourists (except for one soldier and is family who drove down from Germany where he is deployed). I’m looking forward to visiting Venice while cruise ships are banned.

lol yeah we wish so too. pics or you are in mom's basement in peoria.

looks like some joints are skirting rules around here ! :haha:


https://nypost.com/wp-content/upload...trip=all&w=780

No, because Italy had an incredibly strict national lock down that allowed them to provisionally reopen more quickly and safely. They also have a national plan and policies in place. People in Italy took mask wearing a social distancing extremely seriously. Imagine, treating a pandemic like a pandemic!

Ha, when they first opened outdoor bars in some parks in London they required food purchases. There were piles of unopened chip bags left on tables. If I were a homeless person in need of a free meal, that’s where I would have gone.

The real question for NYC and other cities is if "the bad old days" will return in terms of crime, deficient municipal services, schools, etc., and if that will spur more people who are "iffy" on the city to leave it, than would otherwise make that move in better times.

As others have said, living in the inner area of a big city can be expensive, impractical, claustrophobic, etc. A whole bunch of negatives. Of course there are lots of positives too.

The question is how negative and lingering the after-affects of COVID will be.

NYC is an extremely transient place. Thousands of people move out of the city every year, and they are replaced by thousands of people moving into the city every year. The real risk to NYC is on the supply side. Are there would be future New Yorkers who are less likely to choose NYC because of the pandemic? I don't think the answer to that is exactly clear right now. NYC will suffer if immigrants view America as a less attractive destination because of the pandemic.