What does recovery and reopening look like across Brooklyn during the pandemic? Mateo Ruiz González captured images of Brooklyn's streets in this COVID-19 Writers Project photo essay.
The coronavirus pandemic was accelerating. More tests were needed. More personal protective equipment was needed. Food supplies were depleting. Prices for essential products skyrocketed. Hysteria was setting in.
The pandemic underscored long-standing inequalities in American society. It also created scores of new social activists in Generation Z ready to become the leaders of tomorrow.
When COVID-19 cases spiked in March, officials encouraged extreme vigilance with social distancing. At the same time, residents were beginning to see the failures and strengths of their government's crisis response.
A report released in April found that Black and Hispanic New Yorkers were dying from COVID-19 at almost twice the rate of white New Yorkers.
Out of the pandemic came many valuable lessons and, at the same time, many hard truths. Would these lessons become opportunities for a new way forward?
In late April, the City was in the eye of the storm. Residents understood the physical impact of the virus, but up until that moment, few would have guessed the profound toll it would take on mental health.
As Brooklyn started reopening, residents began to reflect on lessons learned, society, and health. So much had changed in such a short time. Who had they become?
In March, when New York City was the epicenter of the pandemic, Brooklyn had become a ghost town. In the streets, you could hear a pin drop, except for the unending sound of ambulance sirens.
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets this summer to protest racial injustice and police brutality. Was this merely a momentary period of awakened frustration? Or was it a sign that real change was on the way?
This photo essay presents scenes from summer protests in New York City.
In the end, it wasn’t the struggles of Tasha Lamm's family that stood out most in their little house in Appalachian Ohio. It was love.
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