Elastic NYC Style

When that perfect day arrives -- if it arrives -- and COVID-19 is no more, people will look back at what others wrote about NYC during this time, and either praise or mock the predictions that the city was "dead" or would "never die."

Count me in the latter group but, that said, who knows? (Just to hedge my bet.) NYC is being altered by COVID-19 in ways we could never imagine before, and the fall-out is beyond anything we'll ever be able to reckon with. So maybe the city will go into decline -- but, for my money, it'll roar back better than ever.

So when I read yet another article about the future of NYC by a lifelong New Yorker, I really liked what this person said: "The city is so elastic."

The adjective of elastic is being "able to resume its normal shape spontaneously after contraction, dilatation, or distortion."

I think that sums up what NYC is and has always been -- a place that snaps back after trauma. A place that recovers quickly. Although I would quibble with one thing: this city never goes back to "normal" because being "normal" is not what NYC does. We wouldn't want to live in a "normal" city -- there're are plenty of those if you want them. God help us if we were "normal"!

No, the elasticity of NYC is that we take a set back, build on it, learn from it, and become better. We snap ahead, not back.

That's elastic NYC style!