Another eventful week filled with inspiration, insights, and even a few eureka moments as the pace of the reopening accelerates.

This week’s Top 10 skews to retail launches and re-openings

Major shoutout to Krispy Kreme for giving us a knockout new flagship store in Times Square. And special thanks to Levi Hetrick, VP Shop Experience & Real Estate, for filling me in on the most fun “doughnut theater” details.

Another new and very recent observation (in NYC at least) is the return of business-attired executives lunching in midtown. I’ve even seen a few random execs popping up in my neighborhood. I have no idea what they’re doing on the Lower East Side but I imagine it might have something to do with the new hotels currently under construction in the area, e.g., Marriott’s Moxy on the Bowery.

Scroll down to see what else made it onto this week’s Top 10 List.

1. Krispy Kreme Flagship in Times Square (1601 Broadway @ 48th Street)

This pandemic-delayed flagship finally opened this week and it’s awesome. The take-out window is open 24/7 and the store/doughnut-theater is open daily from 8 am-10 pm. Kudos also to the staff working in the store. They are fantastic.

2. Hudson Yards Re-opens

• I checked it out Tuesday, mid-afternoon. The shops were open but very little traffic. Additionally, most restaurants are currently only open Wed-Sat 2 pm – 7 pm. I’m sure those days/times will change as the reopening picks up steam.
• While there were few shoppers inside, the crowds outside were clearly thrilled to be back. They were soaking up the reopening vibes at the Vessel, the Backyard Cafe with its big-screen outdoor TV, the #Kingnyani sculpture by artists Gillie and Marc Schattner, and the large scale mural by Key Detail (pic above, middle right).
• From Sept. 17 through Oct. 18, Hudson Yards is also partnering with the Tribeca Film Festival to host Backyard Big Screen movie nights. Each night, the park will host two outdoor screenings in front of Vessel at the Public Square and Gardens.
• There is also a new mural underway from Public Color. It’s on the side of a storage shed near the subway entrance. Funny aside: their on-the-ground lead is also named “Irma” (pic above left of the two of us). Video below of Public Color at work.

“Edge” at Hudson Yards also re-opened for visitors and yoga enthusiasts

3. US Open Tennis: great job USTA!

Fantastic tennis over the last two weeks was pure joy for me. Definitely a bit strange without the fans but exciting nevertheless and WOW what a finish!

The men’s finals, in particular, between Dominic Thiem and Alexander (Sasha) Zverev was WILD. It took a fifth set tie-breaker to get a winner (Thiem). Heartbreaking to see these two friends battling it out, gladiator-style, knowing there could only be one winner.

• The NY Times, snarky as always, had nothing but disdain for both the US Open and the USTA. Give it a break, guys, you’re just plain wrong!
• The success of the US Open, the first major sporting event since the pandemic shut down the world, will undoubtedly serve as the template for the Tokyo Olympics next summer.

4. “STREATERIES” – super cool & positive outcome of the pandemic

The term ‘StrEATeries’ only recently made it onto my radar. It perfectly describes the amazing alfresco dining experiences that restaurants around the country have created for us.

A few of my favorites in NYC this week:

• And although NYC is allowing limited indoor dining as of September 30th, I do hope that some form of outdoor dining will remain – even in the winter.
• I’ve been getting an endless stream of ads on Instagram for outdoor heating lamps but have been told by restaurant friends they are not approved for use in NYC. C’mon Cuomo, make it happen!

5. Meet the owner: Shane Armstrong, CEO Plant It NYC

• I first noticed Plant It on Grand Street a few months ago. I posted an image on Instagram and Plant It “liked” it.
• This past week, I finally got to meet the owner.
• He was busy getting a delivery but took a moment for a photo. If you’re in downtown NYC and looking for houseplants, check him out. He also sells plant seeds and CBD products.
• He has an interesting background having traveled with the band Phish from 1994 to 1998 volunteering as a member of the Phish Green Crew. Their mission was to keep the festivals as green as possible through cleanup.

I’m planning to do a “meet the owner” as a new feature on the blog to regularly celebrate all the hardworking entrepreneurs and founders I know. Good idea? Let me know what you think.

6. UPDATE: Backyard chickens in urban settings

I recently ran into this guy (below) walking his Silkie chicken in Soho. He told me he is from Upstate NY. Why he brought this particular chicken to the city remains a mystery!

My friend, Joycie also just added a few more chickens to her backyard coop. They are absolutely adorable! Joycie has turned into a bona fide chicken farmer!

However, while Mr. Silkie from Upstate and Joycie from LA know a thing or two about raising chickens, most people are clueless about it which is why we’re seeing more articles discussing how “the growing trend of raising backyard chickens in urban settings is backfiring.”

Patch, Foster City California, reports:

“Some hipster farmers discover that hens lay eggs for two years, but can live for a good decade longer, and that actually raising the birds can be noisy, messy, labor-intensive and expensive.”

NBC

But it’s not just in California. Mary Britton Clouse, who runs a chicken rescue project in Minneapolis, had this to say about the chicken population explosion in shelters and on Craigslist:

“It’s the stupid foodies. We’re just sick to death of it. … People don’t know what they’re doing. And you’ve got this whole culture of people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing teaching every other idiot out there.”

Mary Britton Clouse, Minneapolis

So if you’re considering raising chickens, here’s some advice:

Do not do jump into the backyard chicken trend until you’ve thought it over not once, not twice, but at least three times. At the end of the day, getting your eggs at the grocery store or at a farmer’s market may be the way to go.

7. It’s back to the office for top executives (Source: Fortune, Yahoo)

Well, that didn’t take long.

More big companies are starting to call their top executives back to the office.

“The WFH lifestyle seems to have impacted younger employees with overall productivity and ‘creative combustion’ taking a hit.”

Brian Kleinhanzl, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, instructed the company’s top executives to return to their desks by Sept. 21.

• A troubling pattern had emerged as employees worked from home: productivity slipped and work output was particularly affected on Mondays and Fridays.
• That, along with worries that remote work is no substitute for organic interaction, is part of why Chase, the biggest U.S. bank, is urging more workers to return to offices (even as several workers were sent home this week after an equities trader contracted COVID-19).

Goldman Sachs also announced it would start allowing employees to return to offices in shifts over coming weeks.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in a note to employees in March, “Much of the essential work we do cannot be done from home.”

• Amazon purchased 900,000 square feet of office space in six cities in the United States last month.

Facebook has been expanding its office space during the pandemic saying its offices are “vitally important to help accommodate anticipated growth and meet the needs of our employees that need, or prefer, to work from campus.”

8. Buying Houses During The Pandemic Might Not Be The Smartest Move (Source: Yahoo/Bloomberg)

Regret is already in the air. LendEDU, a financial information website, surveyed 1,000 mortgage holders in August and found that most people who bought houses after March 2020 already regretted taking out a mortgage.

Teresa Ghilarducci, the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, cautions going slow when it comes to buying in the midst of a pandemic:

“The housing market may be soaring because of bad information and short-term thinking. You don’t know whether bosses will make work-from-home permanent or who will be targeted for downsizing. You may come to rue buying at a time when inventory is so low and prices so high.“

Meanwhile, Mansion Global, notes the comeback of the Pied-à-Terre

Wealthy urbanites in NYC, London, and Paris have fled to the countryside but are fully aware that eventually, the coronavirus outbreak will abate, and they want to maintain ties to their cities.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who bought houses in areas like Greenwich, Connecticut, in the last six months, but they’re not giving up on New York. They don’t necessarily want to live in the suburbs all the time, and they know this is a temporary thing.”

Tamir Shemesh, Douglas Elliman NY

9. UPDATE ON SWEDEN: low infection rates, zero lockdowns. (Source: Guardian, Financial Times)

“In the end, we will see how much difference it will make to have a strategy that’s more sustainable, that you can keep in place for a long time, instead of the strategy that means that you lock down, open up and lock down over and over again.”

Anders Tegnell, Chief epidemiologist

Sweden’s population of 10 million was ‘asked’, rather than ordered, to respect physical distancing and work from home if possible, which it largely did.

• Shops, bars, restaurants, and gyms stayed open and the wearing of masks has not so far been recommended.
• Schools remained open with attendance mandatory for those under the age of 16 and, again, with no mandatory face masks for pupils or teachers.
• Sweden believes its high early mortality rate was not related to its overall strategy but rather to its failure to initially prevent the catastrophic spread of the virus in the country’s care homes, where the majority of their 5,846 deaths occurred. “Of course something went wrong there,” Tegnell said.

As I have stated previously, once the fog of the pandemic lifts and we do a thorough hindsight analysis, I predict the lockdowns will be judged a net negative.

I further expect people to seriously question why businesses were forced to shut down while nursing homes (where most deaths occurred), were left unprotected. Even more outrageous, why nursing homes in NY were mandated to take in COVID positive patients.

Thus far most people disagree with me. Only time will tell. In the meantime, besides the Swedes, John Mackey, Founder, and CEO of Whole Foods is thinking along similar lines.

“We’ve done tremendous damage to our economy, shutting it down like we did. You have to trust people to make good decisions. They’re the best people to decide about their families, their bodies and their lives, and I have more confidence in individuals than I do in government to make decisions.“

John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods (WSJ)

10. last but not least: Get Your Flu Shoot, People!!

Avoid this winter’s potential “twindemic.” I just got mine at the local Walgreen’s/Duane Reade. Fauci recommends getting it by mid-to-late-October.

And that’s a wrap.

If anyone wants to check out Krispy Kreme or any of the fabulous ‘streateries’ around NYC, hit me up.

Yesterday, by the way, I checked out 16 art galleries in my neighborhood. First time I’ve done that in over 6 months. It was amazing and I will cover how galleries are coping and reinventing themselves in next Friday’s blog.

Here are a few highlights:

Wishing you all a good weekend. If you can, get out and support local businesses, especially restaurants.

And finally, sending good weather vibes to my friends on the West Coast. The weather on the East Coast is going to be great this weekend, very Fall-like (temps in the 50s at night). I see bike rides in my future!!