The offices of the National Association of Scholars are in midtown Manhattan, at 420 Madison Avenue, which is a block from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and four blocks from Times Square. Midtown is our campus, so to speak. And midtown has been under nightly attack for the last week. The riots and the looting that have afflicted cities across the country are here as well. Elsewhere I’ve written about the complicity of higher education in teaching many young people to despise their country and dismiss the rule of law. The consequences take many forms, and one of them is evident in the smashed-in storefronts and looted businesses that now line the streets of Lockdown, USA.
NAS members have been writing to me to see how NAS is doing. We are doing very well. The staff are working from home, but we stay in close touch and we’ve been productive in both old and new ways. One product of the shutdown was our thirty-page counsel to Congress for when the higher education lobby comes begging for an additional multi-billion dollar bailout. We titled it Critical Care, and our recommendations are getting serious attention in DC. We’ve also been holding weekly webinars on topics such as Title IX, China, and The Future of Higher Education, and these have proved successful. Financially, we are strong. The shutdown surprisingly left us mostly unscathed. Donations are up. And our membership is growing rapidly. And the dread COVID-19 virus passed us by.
But our neighborhood took some hits.
Note that the plywood doesn’t necessarily mean the store was hit by looters. Much of the plywood went up after the first night of looting; some stores waited until the second or third night, trusting that the police would get things under control. In some cases the board may have succeeded in defending the premises but rioters took to ripping down the plywood to smash the windows. There were over 700 arrests in the area three nights ago and hundreds of stores, including Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square were looted. Rioters tore off plywood barriers to smash the windows. Nike, Coach, Bergdorf Goodman, Michael Kors, Urban Outfitters, and many other stores were ransacked.
I don’t have dramatic photos of mobs in the street, overwhelmed cops, and looters making off with whatever they could grab. I have pictures of the aftermath, with the bandaged wounds of damaged storefronts. They tell their own tale.
Across the street from our offices. Even rioters need some bread. I don’t know whether Pret A Manger was broken into or just thought it might be.
Paris Baguette likewise.
MacDonald’s was more confident.
Capitalism suffered some direct blows—or at least feared that it might.
Times Square Some TV reporters are conducting an interview with private security keeping a watchful eye.
The man standing on the bench was doing a celebratory jig. The security guard is telling him to get down. A moment later the guard objected to my taking the picture.
Chase attempted to ward off mischief by decalring “Black Lives Matterrepeatedly on its marquee
The plywood suppliers in Manhattan are doing booming business. Puma, which sells sneakers, oared itself up Tuesday morning agfter the Monday night riots.
Gap chose a less secure barrier.
Skechers, another shoe retailer, also anticipated trouble and probably met it.
Adidas walled itself off entirely.
The bars off Times Square were left alone. They may have had their own protection in the form of bouncers.
The Disney-ification of Times Square has its limits, currently constructed from plywood. On Wednesday Disney announced that it was donating $5 million to organizations that advance “social justice.”
Phone stores were a favorite target in many parts of the city. Not clear whether the plywood anticipated visitors or came up after they had left.
T-Mobile on Sixth Avenue was likewise cautious or rueful.
Little Brazil appeared to suffer no damage, but the Diamond district a block away was full of police. I steered clear.
AT&T prepared for the worst, just across the street from the Times Square police station. Rioters ripped down the plywood, broke it, and looted the store.
Note the reflection of the AT&T sign. New York’s police, their hands tied by the mayor, have been ineffective in stopping the rioters.
Consumer electronics stores were also popular destinations.
These words of advice are part of an advertising campaign by the clothing brand Diesel. I’m not sure whether they encourage the rioters or counsel the rest of us to live with feckless civic authorities who have abandoned the streets to lawlessness.
Restaurants were selectively hit, though again I can’t tell if TGIF just expected trouble or cleaned up after trouble came. I suppose some of the others were saying TGIF. The restaurant was already permanently closed.
But Hard Rock Café appears to have encountered some hard rocks, or thought it might.
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday. You changed too much.
Sacks Fifth Avenue mounted a great Christmas display in December, and has flown a whole fleet of flags since. The flags may have incited the protesters. In this case, the news made clear that the windows were smashed by rioters.
The morning after.
Some of the business decided that a plywood barrier wasn’t quite enough.
Some high-end fashion retailers felt apprehensive.
Sephora tried a more decorative approach to saying “Keep Out!”
Club Monaco had a similar idea. Aldo, Intimissimi, and Ted Baker, however, went for the classic raw look. Old school.
Jimmy Choo suggests a fashionable walk on the wild side.
“Stay safe” says H & M. Good advice.
The white-feathered eagle is departing the scene.
Guess played peek-a-boo.
Victoria’s Secret wrapped itself in mysterious black plywood.
Salvatore & Co, offers some advice made from helium balloons.
A city shut down in a foolish over-reaction to a virus is now in tatters by a foolish under-reaction to violent protesters.
The police are conspicuous, though usually knotted together in little groups.
It was widely reported that St. Patrick’s Cathedral was vandalized and readers can find pictures of the graffiti on Google images. I’ll just note that the Catholic Diocese has cleaned up most of the mess.
And is working on the rest.
Keeping a watchful eye on the guy with the camera.
And failing to notice that Atlas is getting into the spirit of thing as he prepared to crush the car with the weight of the whole world.
Most businesses are shuttered, but a few street vendors are seizing the commercial opportunities. This fellow is selling designer face masks.
A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....
