Surely I'm not the only one who's noticed the plethora of U-Haul trucks.

I'm genuinely afraid that everyone who can afford to leave New York City is going to abandon it for good, and this flight could be disastrous for the long term health of the City on so many levels.

I mean, I get it. If you moved from Cleveland to Brooklyn to wait tables while you chase your dreams as an indie rock guitarist or a Broadway dancer, and your lease ends on May 1, there's no reason to stay in New York City. The smart thing to do is to move back home.

Or if you're a a software engineer who can work from your parents' house up in the Catskills, there's no logical reason to shell out $2,000 a month for a studio in the West Village this year.

The hands of many who are moving are forced by brute economic realities.

In the worst years of White Flight during the 1970s, New York City was losing ~50,000 residents a year to the suburbs and the Sun Belt. In one decade, 20% of the population just packed up and left.

I'm afraid we could see a repeat of that in just the year 2020.

As much as New Yorkers love to make fun of new arrivals and gentrifiers, imagine the long term economic consequences if 200,000 or 400,000 taxpayers - mostly 20-40 year old yuppies - pack up and leave New York City.

NYC could face a fiscal crisis for a decade or more.

Say in October the pandemic ends, the stay-at-home orders are lifted. If entire neighborhoods of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens are summarily depopulated, bars and restaurants might open but there'd be no one left to patronize them.

New York's retail commerce might never recover.