In every zombie apocalypse movie, there's at least a few scenes of an the aftermath of the apocalypse, as all humans have cleared out of a once prominent city and all that are left are empty roads, unoccupied buildings, unused street lights, and stray pieces of paper flying through the air. Like the name it's been given, "ghost town," there's an eerie quality to this kind of cleared-out city, like I've always wondered how it'd feel to walk through a ghost town like this, how the movie producers were able to clear out large cities like London (in 28 Days Later), New York, Atlanta (the Walking Dead) to film those eerie scenes.
Recently Los Angeles has felt like a ghost town. The library is closed, stores are shuttered up, no events are happening at Staples Center, malls have few to no people. Many restaurants are closed, most buildings don't have occupants, not that many cars are flowing through the town, people aren't filing out of the subway station like on normal busy non-holiday weekdays. I feel bad for small businesses, service industry workers that work for those small business and restaurants that aren't getting any revenue that they normally would be getting, and all others who have been disproportionately affected adversely by the coronavirus. I've had a really rough month on the stock market (the Dow is down more than 30%, restaurant stocks like Shake Shack are down 50%, travel stocks like Carnival and airlines are down 70%, Boeing is on the brink of bankruptcy if they don't get bailed out. I feel lucky enough to have a job through this for now; many don't. It really is a terrible tragedy for most of America, especially poor-to-middle-class income people who are depending on their weekly or monthly income for their very survival. Big corporations can get bailed out, political leaders will still make a living even if they get voted out of office, but the normal average worker in America gets hit the hardest, with losing at least a month of income or maybe even their job entirely (some experts estimate about a 20% unemployment rate as a result of the outbreak). And there's not even really anyone to blame! No one even knows who caused the coronavirus, and sources differ as to the origin of the virus. I hope people don't get a negative impression of Chinese people due to the most likely origin of the disease in Wuhan, China. It's not like Chinese people meaningfully caused people to get the virus and the ensuing mass hysteria, but alas uninformed people might find someone to blame (I've already encountered some homeless people on the street who started grumbling and cursing under their breath at me, regarding what I suspect to be accusations that I'm Chinese).
But back to the ghost town. It's so shocking how the American city and economy can go from thriving, booming, and operating on all cylinders in one month (stock market at all-time highs) and seemingly go belly-up in just a few weeks time, and it's symbolized by how bad a booming city like LA has become. And LA hasn't even had it that bad; it's like it's on extended weekend. Other cities like San Francisco, and New York, and Seattle have really turned into ghost towns from what I've read; there is much more regulation in those cities about not going outside due to fear of spreading the virus. And it's only getting worse; America is about to go into full lockdown mode, which is terrible for the economy. The economy can take a break; families that need income can't.
Let's hope that the ghost towns and American economy can come back to life again. (Some restaurants and businesses, unfortunately, wont'......they don't have enough cash to last them until the July-August estimated time of recovery that President Trump has laid out).
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment