I am a local business owner and resident, and I have not spoken to another human in-person in quite awhile now. Seeing as the following facts seem to be true, I thought we should try to build our community ties to help weather what's to come:

1) Spatial distancing and no shared hard surfaces will be a way of life for the next 6-10 months.
2) Many people will not be at work, and are likely working from home. True social isolation (not spatial) is terrible for mental health, and outlets will be needed.
3) This will get much worse. People in our community will be getting sick. We will need to pool small resources. We will need to have people that are young or (later) immune be able to help any high-risk community members. Many elders may have younger children that are sheltered in place with their children, rather than drive to grandpa's house. This population may be quite isolated.

I propose that we use one of our large public spaces, the North Battery Park by the police station, as a community "distance-gathering" point. It is quite large, and has an amphitheater set in front of beautiful views of the lake. We could have sound equipment from anyone, and have a few hours of open mic. Poetry, music, your daughter's violin practice, or just rant. We would need to enforce strict spatial distancing, but with the park's size this is still a substantial number of households. Bring lawn chairs and relax, talk to others from a distance, whatever. Have people looking for, or offering, services walk around the perimeter sidewalk. Setup a food donation area in the middle, with all of it sanitized.

One day, this will be over. It will end. This barrage of news we see will switch to how cases are declining, this slow tricking of us as a species turning the tide against it. We will win. There will be a redemption day, one morning where the news will read "LAST CASE OF CORONAVIRUS AS VACCINATIONS TRIUMPH". The only questions that remain are how many of us will not live to see that redemption day -- and what we do with it when it is here.

Every restaurant will packed for hours. Shops will bustle with people, and money will start to fly like never before. Every event, every play, every kids soccer game, every casual party with friends -- they will be jubilation. Our stock market will be probably by down, and a lot of people will have lost their jobs, but absolutely everyone will know that the future is better than the past.

That kind of unity has never existed before in the history of a community, in all of humanity. Modern technology, websites like this, they connect us to one another to a level our ancestors would have never fathomed. A person can take a video of themselves in their own living room, experiencing this virus, from most countries in the world. And anyone can watch it, from almost anywhere.
That shared moment will not last all that long, but it will be more novel than this virus ever was. What we do with that moment, may shape huge parts of our future.

Let's do something here, now. Email me at eyedocpittman@gmail.com if you'd be happy to show up, or you have sound equipment, or if you have the much better ideas that I am sure are out there. I am thinking maybe next Friday, the 27th, from 5-7pm. Getting police presence should be straightforward with it being on their front door. We need our blue line of sheepdogs more than ever before. This has to be a safe, family environment for us to pull together in. It will be our "ANTI-COVID BLOCK PARTY", or whatever better name is out there. We need to start acting now for what may be to come.

Thank you. I look forward to seeing it come together. Please pass this along to anyone, everyone, that might be able to help make it real. If you know anyone in media, that is how it will really get done. Let's be the change, because change is in the air.