The local paper for the Upper East Side
THE VITAMIN D QUESTION ◄ P.8
KIDS AND THE FUTURE OF SCHOOL
EDUCATION A rainy and empty Times Square on Monday, May 11, 2020. Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
MOOD OF THE CITY MENTAL HEALTH
New Yorkers are experiencing a spectrum of anxieties, therapists say - a loss of identity and a fear of going back out into the world BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
Friday, May 15th was the first real summer night in New York City, Twitter users declared last week when there was an unmistakable shift in the weather: a temperature in the 80s, and blue skies giving way to a warm, but not-quitemuggy, night. Though, still in the midst of a crisis, it was unlike any other summer night in the city’s recent memory. “It’s unbearable to think about what would be going
on otherwise on a night like this,” Rachel Syme, a contributor for the New York Times and The New Yorker, wrote on Twitter. She and other New Yorkers had some ideas: happy hour drinks at a crowded and clamoring outdoor café; after-work picnic in the park with friends, a cooler of beer and a Polaroid camera; leaving an evening movie theater surprised to find it’s still light out; opting for the long walk home just because. As the shelter-in-place order has been extended, for now, until the end of May, there is a collective mourning among New Yorkers for their old lives in the city. And yet, even with the yearning for an evening out, free of risk, among those
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Amid a rare inflammatory illness and the stresses of remote learning, questions about what students will face this fall BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
It has been an open question as to what the 2020-21
academic year will look like in New York as the city continues to manage the COVID-19 outbreak and plot a path forward. But the prospect of schools reopening in the fall for classroom instruction seems even more dubious by the growing number of children developing a rare, and in some cases deadly, inflammatory syndrome linked to the coronavirus.
@OurTownNYC
21-27 21-27 2020
INSIDE
RESTORING DIGNITY IN DEATH
Amid the COVID toll, funeral directors offer new approaches for burial and memorial services. p. 10
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
VIRAL READS
19 works of fact and fiction for a stay-athome plague night. p. 14
WHAT TO NAME THE PANDEMIC PUPPY Everyone seems to want a dog while sheltering at home, so get creative with your new pal’s name. p. 6
Mayor Bill de Blasio visits the Meal Hub at P.S.1 Alfred E. Smith School in Manhattan on April 7 to thank school food services workers who provide families with “Grab and Go” meals. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
OurTownEastSide
OURTOWNNY.COM
The condition, known as Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS), was first identified in April and has affected mainly school-age children and teenagers in North America and Europe. It’s been compared to toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, another inflammatory illness that presents in infants
WEEK OF MAY
Voices Business
6 12
Real Estate 15 Minutes
15 16
Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, May 22 – 7:55 pm. For more information visit www.chabbaduppereastside.com.