I Moved Home When Coronavirus Hit. I Might Never Come Back to New York.
Four women on settling into adult life in their childhood hometowns. Lori Cheek never planned to leave New York City. After graduating from the University of Kentucky in her native state in 1996, she had packed up a Penske truck, driven to Manhattan, and never looked back.
Her plan was to become a famous architect. But ? as happens to many people who come to New York City to realize their dreams ? Cheek?s ambitions shifted but never faded. Instead, she started a dating app based on missed connections called Cheekd. She met the same 17 people for drinks every Sunday night (they called it ?Church?). She funded part of the rent for her $3,300 two-bedroom Lower East Side apartment by serving as an Airbnb host. She loved her life. ?I was a New Yorker at heart,? she said. ?Hurricane Sandy, 9/11 ? nothing was going to make me leave. Nothing.? And then: COVID-19.
Suddenly, it was impossible to make rent as an Airbnb host. A dating app based on missed connections is harder to market when no one leaves their homes. And Church" It went online.
It became clear that the life Cheek had loved and nurtured for 24 years was not only something she couldn?t afford anymore; it was something that couldn?t exist. But as uncertainty replaced ambition and income evaporated, where could she go" She decided to return to her hometown.
Much has been made of the absconding upper crust of New York City ? the graphic swirls mapping the COVID-19 diaspora of second home owners, abandoni...
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