What Senator Gounardes Forgot to Tell Us
This past month has been pretty awful for NYC.
Some leaders in this community sent mixed messages about the coronavirus. Maybe they really didn’t understand what was going on.
Below is a picture of Park Asia Restaurant located at 6521 8th Avenue. Across the street is the Dust Bowl, a park I played baseball in when I was kid.
Senator Gounardes shared the picture below on March 6th. It’s tagged #DineInChinaTown. Through the windows, you can see the Dustbowl (which is really called Quaker Parrot Park).
At the end of January, Chinese New Year is celebrated. Many people in the Asian Community did not go out this year for New Year’s because they were afraid of contracting the coronavirus. The Chinese New Year Parade on 8th Avenue had a much smaller crowd, as did the parade in Manhattan. People walking around in Sunset Park were wearing masks at this time.
In the February 25th issue of the Home Reporter, Jane Duong, Director of Outreach from Senator Gounardes’ office explained that her friend didn’t want to go out to dinner with her in Chinatown because of the rumors she had heard about the virus.
Park Asia is a fantastic restaurant and is usually packed. Sometimes when we have been there, the waiter or waitress will get someone else (usually the manager) to translate because we don’t speak Cantonese. Many of their patrons do. This restaurant wasn’t visited because the community was scared, as they knew what the coronavirus did to their families in China.
A separate issue at the time (and still existing now) is that some people blame Asians for the coronavirus and have been verbally and physically abusive to Asians. NYC needs to better address racism and allow people to report it more easily. Many people don’t want to call the police, but phones and technology should allow for quick reporting. While it’s nice that politicians want to show concern, people want something to be done, so it doesn’t continue to happen.
Racism should not have been combined with the issue of a restaurant being empty because people feared getting the coronavirus. It’s strange that NYC Politicians didn’t understand the fear. (See here) In Sunset Park, the people didn’t need to be told to socially distance themselves because they knew it was necessary.
On March 7th, Brannan labeled the picture below with #SolidarityDimSum Solidarity from the coronavirus? This doesn’t make sense.
NYC was taken back by the coronavirus as leaders were focused on the wrong issue. By March 7th. 437 people in the United States had the coronavirus. No one in the US had died yet, but over 3,000 people had died in the world, mostly in China. (Source) At that time, NYC students were still in school for another week. The hashtag should have been: #Prepare4Pandemic
On February 27th, Gounardes was at a gala with the CAPC – Chinese-American Planning Council. I find it hard to believe that they didn’t warn Senator Gounardes about the coronavirus.
Why about Oxiris Barbot, the NYC Health Commissioner? Did she speak with NYC council members and state leaders about preparing for the coronavirus? If so, why didn’t they take the time to educate the community?
Hugs,
marlene
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