El Diario
Jorge Pérez, who has been a Yankees fan for 50 years, laments The Bronx’s economic debacle. 'It is dead around here.'
From street vendors to nearby shops, the largely Latino Bronx neighborhood is feeling the loss of this year’s crowds. “Many people here depend on what goes on before, during and after a game,” one resident says.
Salon workers and owners, many of them immigrants, head back to work this week as part of New York’s Phase 3 reopening. But many are worried about how new social distancing restrictions will impact their livelihood.
Despite the pandemic, voters in Bronx’s heavily-Latino Congressional District 15 showed up to cast ballots in person.
‘I made a big sacrifice when I got into debt two years ago to start this business,’ one bodega owner whose shop was ransacked told El Diario. ‘I did it for my family’s well-being, but also for the community.’
East Harlem zip code 10029 had the most COVID-19 cases in Manhattan, city data shows. ‘When a plague comes to New York, it always hits Harlem hard,’ one resident told El Diario.
“There are no tourists. We are living through a period worse than 9/11. Two or three hours can pass before anyone gets into the cab. People would rather walk because they feel that being locked inside a taxi is a risk,” one driver told El Diario.
Ecuador has emerged as an epicenter for coronavirus, creating ‘double anguish’ for Ecuadorian immigrants in New York as they watch the virus ravage both their homes, El Diario reports.
Some undocumented immigrants are afraid to seek care, either because of fears about their status or medical debt, El Diario reports.
Hispanic Association of Health Professionals is calling for lawmakers to create temporary, flexible licenses so thousands of immigrant health professionals can be included in the COVID-19 emergency effort.
The spread of coronavirus could mean additional agony for hundreds of day laborers, mostly Latin American immigrants, who stand on the corner of 69th Street and Roosevelt Avenue and other locations every morning in the hope of scoring temporary work.