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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now I'll call in on the question, what phase of Coronavirus reopening are you in, in your life? 646-435-7280. The segment with the mayor is over obviously he's gone so he can't take any more calls. If you were holding on for the mayor, we ask that you clear the lines for callers for the next call in. The question is what phase of Coronavirus reopening are you in, in your life? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. New York City officially entered phase four of reopening a little over a month ago. Now we want to check in with you in terms of what you have changed this summer for yourself. It's such a judgment call, right? Such a tricky judgment call for a lot of people. What has the past month been like? Are you in a different phase of personal reopening in August than you were in July? Have you eased into some of the reopenings of things around the city? What are you doing in phase four of your reopening if you're in phase four, that you didn't do before? How are you mitigating the risks for yourself and for your loved ones if you are doing more things? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. Some major cultural institutions have reopened, at least some outdoor ones and to a limited degree, some indoor ones. Have you visited the New York Botanical Garden or Brooklyn Botanic Garden yet? What does it feel like? Was it comfortable or did your family head to the Bronx Zoo or any zoo in our area? Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo all reopened when you were there? I don't know. Did you and your kids use the restroom? Would you have done that in May, but you did it maybe in August? Library branches also reopen for what they call, grab-and-go service. Hospitals are allowing visitors again to some degree which they didn't earlier in the year. How about your summer vacation or staycation? Are you ready to go indoors when some of these things? I think then Met is opening. That is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not the Opera, is opening shortly for a limited indoor. I assume if they are, that's going to be other museums too. What phase of Coronavirus reopening are you in, in your life? 646-435-7280. We'll take your calls right after this. [music] Brian Lehrer on WNYC. What phase of reopening are you in your life 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. Lauren in Manhattan you're on WNYC. Hi, Lauren.

Lauren: Hi, how are you?

Brian: Good. How are you?

Lauren: I'm good. I returned to the city in June. I'm back at work. I see people working in supermarkets. I see people delivering. I see people working in restaurants. Everybody's wearing masks, that's spectacular. Meanwhile, while I was away, the Garden of the school next door, the Joan of Arc school where the Manhattan School for Children is, has become completely infested with rats as have many of the gardens of the buildings around us. I have called 311. I have filed complaints on the website. I've talked to the mayor's office, Helen Rosenthal's office, Daniel O'Donnell's office, the community board, the Department of Health, school construction authority.

Brian: [chuckles] Lauren, what are they telling you? This is one of the questions, there's so much going on that I didn't get to ask the mayor about some of the budget cuts and including to the sanitation department. There are a lot of complaints that trash is not being picked up as it was before and that's contributing to a rat problem. Is that what you think is going on in your neighborhood?

Lauren: What I think is going on is that the government-- literally no one is taking control of the situation. Everyone's saying we're working from home, which I find bizarre since many of us are not. If my council woman's office can't be at work where we can reach her, what is even the point? What is our government doing for us anymore?

Brian: Lauren, I'm just going to get back to the question for this segment and the beginning of what you said in your answer, which is that you had moved away from the city and you moved back to the city. Is that maybe you're the leading edge of something. If a lot of people have been leaving the city with the rates of the virus here so low, maybe people are going to start coming back because they think it's safer than they thought it was a few months ago. Does that sound like you?

Lauren: I think people move back when they feel safe, and they move back when they're bored in the suburbs, and they'll move back even more when everything-- now that the museums are starting up, they'll come back. When concerts and plays come, they'll come back. The city is not dead, Jerry Seinfeld is correct.

Brian: Lauren, got you, and I got you about the complaint about the government. Listeners if you didn't get the reference, Jerry Seinfeld wrote a New York Times op-ed this week that said basically New York City is not over. By the way, I just looked it up, and I think it's today that the Met and MoMA and I guess if then, then some other museums are opening for 25% capacity appointments in advance museum-going. Dustin in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Dustin.

Dustin: Hey, how's it going?

Brian: Good. What phase of reopening are you in?

Dustin: I think I'm a little bit further along than most people. Only because I already had COVID back in February. I have fully recovered at this point, me and my partner. I'm in a strange position in New York because I actually just moved to Harlem, which is a very strange time to move here, but it was job-related. We are fully sticking to all the guidelines and everything, but also eager to see where it goes from the perspective of somebody who's already had it. We've been antibody proven several different times. We want to make sure that we're doing the most safe thing, but we're also on the edge of looking forward to things as they reopen. I also work in the music industry, and obviously, New York is a center for that and it's been completely devastated by all of that and I'm very curious to see where that's going to. We actually got tickets to MoMA yesterday, which was the very first day that it was open, and they did an amazing job. If you guys are at all concerned about safety and stuff, they were really on top of it. It was a great time to go because if you can get in because of the 25% capacity, it's a strange way to see MoMA with almost nobody there but it was pretty neat. It's really cool to see the city opening up a lot of different things in the right way compared to, honestly the rest of the country. Because as we've been waiting for our apartment to be ready here, we did go to states that were on New York's rolling list of acceptable places to be and hung out in some small towns for a little bit and I got to see what other places are like, sticking to all the guidelines, of course. I think New York is actually doing it really, really right having seen a few different ways. I'm actually really positive about the whole thing. I think I'm ready for the next phase.

Brian: Cool story, Dustin. Do you want to give some people a further report on day one at MoMA? Besides limiting capacity to 25%. What else were you referring to when you said they were taking a lot of good safety precautions?

Dustin: Yes. The first thing I noticed was that they closed all entrances but one so that they could make sure that there wasn't people coming from multiple directions and there wasn't cross traffic. Then they had many different people ready for different lines, testing your temperature and things like that. Anything above 100 degrees, you weren't able to enter. They had really, really good and clear signage. You had to move through all the floors in one singular direction. Everybody there seemed to be-- They had lots of security making sure masks are staying on. I think they had some filtration system installed. As far as I could see, they really went above and beyond and I felt even if I didn't have the antibodies, I would have felt completely safe there.

Brian: Dustin, thanks so much for checking in. Angela in Flatbush, you're on WNYC. Hi, Angela.

Angela: Hi, Brian. How are you doing today?

Brian: Doing all right. How about you?

Angela: Okay, good. As I was explaining to your screen, this is my first time spending the entire summer-- I'm a DOE teacher. This is my first time spending the entire summer in New York in years. I have a mom that lives out of the country and I wasn't able to go and visit her like I normally do because they weren't allowing anyone in from the United States. I have a former teacher who I'm close with, and I used to visit her every year in Martha's Vineyard and I hadn't done that because I was traveling out of the country. I did get to go to Martha's Vineyard this year because I couldn't travel out of the country. The next step for me, just having this conversation with the mayor will be, I'll be going in to work on the eighth because that's when the teachers go in technically, whether I'll be going in to work on the eighth or not, I'm not quite sure. I'm supposed to be going out to dinner this afternoon with a friend, and I'm so excited to go out. I hope we don't have to sit in the middle of the street because I'm not comfortable with that. That's where I am, the first time I'm in New York in a long time and Prospect Park was packed. I went there yesterday, it is packed. I don't know if it's usually like that and I just don't realize because I'm not typically here in August, but people are definitely in Prospect Park, that's for sure.

Brian: My local parks have been packed too. The teacher question, what would make you feel safe? Because it sounds like you want to go back and teach in-person, but you're not sure yet if it's going to be safe.

Angela: I was hoping I was able to speak to the mayor because what everyone needs to know is that every single teacher wants to go back into the building, we all want to. We recognize that the students are missing out on a lot with this remote learning, and there's so many different inequities. In terms of being safe, I don't know how safe we can be because they're going to put things in place in terms of the hand sanitizers, limiting the amount of students. We're doing a blended learning where you have the A and B, and the students who are cohort A, these kids will have assigned seats and then cohort B will have assigned seats. This way they're not traveling from seat to seat, they've cleaner seats, and you can make sure that the children won't be moving. They will stay in the classroom, and the teachers will be the ones that will go from room to room. Then there're certain logistics if the teachers are moving, how do you ensure the safety of the children? Because kids aren't supposed to be left in the classroom by themselves. My concern is the school, the system can go through everything they can within the building to make sure things are safe but the students when they get to school in the morning or hanging out in the schoolyard or socializing at the pizza shop or in Burger King with one another. All of that social distancing and everything that you put in place inside the building it's in vain because-

Brian: Especially for the younger kids.

Angela: -they're middle school children. Exactly, because I'm in a middle school.

Brian: There we go. Angela, I'm going to leave it there. Please keep calling us. We're going to take a break and more of your calls on what phase of coronavirus reopening are you in? Stay with us. [music]

Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC taking your calls on what phase of coronavirus reopening you're in your life. Deborah in East Hampton, you're on WNYC. Hi, Deborah.

Deborah: Hi, Brian. Good morning. How are you?

Brian: Good. How are you, and what phase of reopening are you in out there?

Deborah: The phase that I'm really at it is that I've been mostly sitting at home actually for the last 10 weeks. I'm an occupational therapist, and I do virtual therapy and I did it all through the summer for the DOE, and I just started to go out. Today was my first farmers market. I haven't really had a real conversation with anyone out there for weeks. I did have a brief conversation with somebody that lasted for about 10 minutes, but it was my first human real contact because I've just been inside. I've been getting delivery of food or quickly going to the market and running home. I have to say it's a little strange getting out there. As a therapist, we want to get back into the schools, and I can't wait to get back in, but we're concerned. I almost have PTSD about staying home so much. I want to get back in but at the same time, I don't think we're ready yet. I want to know that we could do virtual. We can do this right away and set up right away for our kids, hit the ground running on September 10th for all of the parents and all the kids with special needs and I wish they would consider thinking about that because we're ready to do that. Close to day one, we've done it. We have full caseload five to six kids a day, five days a week. We weren't on for just a half an hour, an hour with our kids. I want to get back out there for sure.

Brian: I hear you.

Deborah: I need to know we're ready, and our kids-- the special needs kids are the ones that are at the most risk and they could really get sick very, very badly.

Brian: I hear you about the PTSD, that what you described about going even to the farmers market for the first time and so many weeks feeling weird. That's the psychology of reopening for people who've really, really, really taken this very seriously and been really locked down. Deborah, good luck with everything including the school as it sounds like you're doing some of the hard work out there that so needs to be done. Not that every teacher doesn't work hard, but it sounds like you're working in more challenging situations than some so thank you for your service. Mark in Queens here on WNYC. Hi, Mark.

Mark: Hi. How are you?

Brian: Good. We've got about 30 seconds for you. Do your best.

Mark: Great, great, really quick. We made a decision this summer we're going to take our first leap back into the world with the kids by signing them up for soccer Little League, and not really terribly concerned, they're wearing masks. We were informed recently that a child in the league had a fever. Just a heads up, the kid was going to get tested and everybody should just keep an eye out to see what happens. We're not concerned, we social distance when we're there but I think it is somewhat of a premonition for what's going to happen when they go back to school, is that kids are constantly getting sick on any given year with fevers and flues and coughs and everything. I think it's going to create a lot of chaos and confusion when you go back to school if you find out a child in the school had a fever, did they get tested? Is it mandatory they get tested?

Brian: They'll have policies for that. Go ahead. [music] Mark [clears throat] thank you very much, and good luck in that soccer league kind of dovetails with the mayor's announcement on the show earlier this morning, that they are going to start giving youth sports permits for fields in New York City again, so there we go. Sorry, we're not going to be able to get through the last caller I was hoping for, who was going to say he's a stand up comic, and the mask makes it easier for him to do his ventriloquism bit. Thanks to all of you for your calls. Have a great weekend. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. [music]

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