ADNY and the Covid-19 Pandemic

It’s our 30th anniversary, and we’re self-celebrating. Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out 30 stories about 30 of our biggest accomplishments, including everything from our daily public safety and sanitation work, to our small business outreach, to how we helped the neighborhood navigate challenges and even tragedies. You’ll be able to find these stories on our website, as well as in our weekly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. 

Over the course of the Alliance’s 30-year history, Lower Manhattan has faced an array of challenges. But in March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic presented downtown with an entirely different kind of crisis. As the virus’s severity became clear, the pandemic thrust the neighborhood, the city and country into uncharted territory. Statewide lockdowns temporarily shut down many of Lower Manhattan’s office buildings, bars, restaurants, shops and service hubs. Much of our community stayed home. The streets downtown were quiet, save for the occasional sirens that served as a startling reminder that the virus was pulsing through the city. 

When Covid-19 hit, our Operations team added assisting with public health measures to its already full plate. We distributed tens of thousands of masks to local businesses, restaurants and schools, installed sanitizer dispensers to Big Belly units at 20 locations near subway stations and other highly trafficked pedestrian areas, and placed social distancing signage in parks and open spaces to remind everyone to stay at least six feet apart at all times. We switched out dozens of handle-operated Big Belly trash compactors to ones with a hands-free, hygiene-friendly foot pedal. We also replaced our old Downtown Connection fleet with a new operator and a slate of buses complete with an interior configuration and air filtration system to better mitigate communicable airborne disease.  

Restaurants were particularly hard-hit by Covid, and though our Dine Around Downtown community food festival could not be held in June 2020 as planned, we created Dine Around Downtown: Cooking at Home Edition, a virtual series hosted by celebrity chef and tv star Rocco DiSpirito featuring local chefs showing viewers how to make restaurant meals at home. In July 2020, the Alliance launched the Department of Transportation’s Open Streets: Restaurants program partnership with several Lower Manhattan restaurants, giving eateries even more room for outdoor dining; our public safety officers maintained the open streets for walking and dining to ensure everyone had a safe and enjoyable experience. 

Our Communications team, which generally works as a megaphone for all that’s happening in Lower Manhattan, snapped into action, made sure that residents and businesses alike knew important information like which essential businesses were still open, how to file unemployment, finding childcare, where to obtain face masks and how to wear them, how to clean your phone and where to get tested. We provided helpful tips to essential workers on ways to commute when the MTA shut down overnight subway service. As restaurants were cleared for outdoor dining, we made sure that owners knew how to set up according to new city regulations. The list goes on and on. 

And, crucially, with so many small businesses reeling from the effects of the shutdown, the Economic Development team found a way to provide our constituents with direct and indirect financial relief, which kept many retailers afloat in an uncertain time. You can read all about those grants here. 

As stay-at-home orders lifted, vaccinations became available and the immediate urgency of the pandemic faded, the Alliance worked hard to encourage visitors, workers and more to return to Lower Manhattan, with everything from live concerts and programming to special promos for local businesses. While some economic effects of the pandemic still linger in the neighborhood, downtown is once again a thriving place to live, work and play.