As some of New York's wealthiest neighborhoods emptied out, mail-forwarding requests show us where they went.
As some of New York's wealthiest neighborhoods emptied out, mail-forwarding requests show us where they went.
Covid-19Guidance
Where New Yorkers Moved to Escape Coronavirus
ByAzi PaybarahMatthew BlochandScott ReinhardMay 16, 2020
Seattle-Tacoma
Top 50 metropolitan destinations
outside New York City
Portland
Boston
Albany
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Detroit
Cleveland
Chicago
Philadelphia
Baltimore
San Francisco-
Oakland
Washington
Denver
Nashville
Charlotte
Los Angeles
San Diego
Phoenix
Atlanta
Dallas-Fort Worth
Austin
Houston
Orlando
Tampa Bay
Sarasota
Miami-
Fort Lauderdale-
West Palm Beach
Top 50 metropolitan destinations
outside New York City
Seattle-Tacoma
Boston
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Detroit
Chicago
San Francisco-
Oakland
Denver
Washington
Nashville
Los Angeles
San Diego
Phoenix
Atlanta
Dallas-Fort Worth
Austin
Houston
Tampa Bay
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-
West Palm Beach
Top 50 metropolitan destinations
outside New York City
Seattle-Tacoma
Boston
Chicago
San Francisco-
Oakland
Washington
Los Angeles
Phoenix
Atlanta
Dallas-Fort Worth
Houston
Tampa Bay
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-
West Palm Beach
Top 50 metropolitan destinations
outside New York City
Seattle-Tacoma
Portland
Boston
Albany
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Detroit
Cleveland
Chicago
Philadelphia
Baltimore
San Francisco-
Oakland
Washington
Denver
Nashville
Los Angeles
Charlotte
San Diego
Phoenix
Atlanta
Dallas-Fort Worth
Austin
Houston
Orlando
Tampa Bay
Sarasota
Miami-
Fort Lauderdale-
West Palm Beach
New York City has long been a cheek-to-jowl town with cramped apartments and determined strivers. But starting in March, as the coronavirus outbreak here began,parts of the city emptiedout, with many leaving from New York's wealthiest neighborhoods. Mail-forwarding requests show where a number of them went. Some abandoned the Upper West Side for sunny Miami. Others left Gramercy Park for New Jersey. Some left Brooklyn apartments for California.
In March, the United States Post Office received 56,000 mail-forwarding requests from New York City, more than double the monthly average. In April, the number of requests went up to 81,000, twice the number from a year earlier. Sixty percent of those new requests were for destinations outside the city.
Mail-forwarding requests from New York City, by month
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
Jan.
2019
April
July
Oct.
Jan.
2020
April
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
Jan.
2019
April
July
Oct.
Jan.
2020
April
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
Jan.
2019
April
July
Oct.
Jan.
2020
April
The empty feeling is the most pronounced in Manhattan. In April, a little more than half of those requests for destinations outside New York City originated in Manhattan, led by neighborhoods on the Upper West and Upper East Sides.
The data from neighborhoods that saw the most requests mirrors cell phone data showing thatthe city's wealthiest areas saw the most movement.
“Right after Covid hit, everyone just blasted out of here,” Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal said of the Upper West Side. “You could walk just in the middle of Columbus Avenue. And I often did.”
Miles of normally cramped streets are empty, andgarbage collection is lowerin those neighborhoods than in recent years. In Times Square, you can practically hear the hum of electronic signs glowing above empty sidewalks.
Many New Yorkers who fled their homes in the city moved to nearby areas in Long Island, New Jersey and upstate New York.
Top destinations in the New York region
Schenectady
Albany
NEW YORK
MASSACHUSETTS
Hudson
Hillsdale
Great Barrington
Saugerties
Woodstock
Rhinebeck
Kingston
Sharon
Accord
West Hartford
New Paltz
Poughkeepsie
CONNECTICUT
Beacon
Middletown
Carmel
Danbury
New Haven
Ridgefield
Wilton
Fairfield
Chappaqua
New Canaan
New City
Westport
Shelter Island
Stamford
White Plains
Montauk
Greenwich
Sag Harbor
Scarsdale
East Hampton
Yonkers
Sagaponack
New Rochelle
NEW JERSEY
Southampton
Port
Washington
Hampton Bays
Huntington
Fort Lee
Montclair
Huntington Station
Westhampton Beach
Great Neck
Plainview
West Orange
Westbury
Jersey City
The Hamptons are a summer
home destination for many
New York City residents.
Elmont
Newark
Valley Stream
Long Beach
Edison
Princeton
Schenectady
Albany
NEW YORK
MASSACHUSETTS
Hudson
Hillsdale
Great Barrington
Saugerties
Woodstock
Rhinebeck
Sharon
Accord
West Hartford
New Paltz
Poughkeepsie
CONNECTICUT
Beacon
Middletown
Carmel
Danbury
New Haven
Ridgefield
Fairfield
Chappaqua
New City
Westport
Stamford
White Plains
Montauk
Sag Harbor
Greenwich
Scarsdale
East Hampton
Yonkers
Sagaponack
New Rochelle
NEW JERSEY
Southampton
Huntington
Fort Lee
Montclair
Huntington Station
Great Neck
Westhampton Beach
Westbury
Jersey City
Elmont
Newark
The Hamptons are a summer
home destination for many
New York City residents.
Valley Stream
Long Beach
Schenectady
Albany
NEW YORK
MASSACHUSETTS
Hudson
Great Barrington
Saugerties
Woodstock
Rhinebeck
Sharon
Accord
West Hartford
New Paltz
Poughkeepsie
CONNECTICUT
Beacon
Carmel
Danbury
New Haven
Chappaqua
Fairfield
New City
Stamford
White Plains
Montauk
Sag Harbor
Greenwich
East Hampton
Yonkers
New Rochelle
Southampton
Montclair
Great Neck
Jersey City
The Hamptons are a summer
home destination for many
New York City residents.
Newark
Valley Stream
Long Beach
In most locations, the United States Postal Service allows individuals and families who normally get mail at a given location to temporarily forward their mail somewhere new, for up to a year.
Now, mail that used to go to Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan is going to Maine and Connecticut. Lower East Side letters are being rerouted to Florida and Pennsylvania. Packages meant for Park Slope, Brooklyn, are going to Texas and Rhode Island.
Destinations for mail-forwarding requests across the country
Circles are sized by the proportion of requests for that destination.
Seattle-
Tacoma
Portland
Minneapolis-
St. Paul
Boston
Detroit
Chicago
Philadelphia
San Francisco-
Oakland
Washington
Denver
New York City
region excluding
the city
32% of requests
St. Louis
Nashville
Los Angeles
Phoenix
Atlanta
Dallas-Fort Worth
Austin
Orlando
Houston
Tampa Bay
Miami-
Fort Lauderdale-
West Palm Beach
Puerto Rico
Seattle-
Tacoma
Minneapolis-
St. Paul
Boston
Chicago
Philadelphia
San Francisco-
Oakland
Washington
N.Y.C. region
excluding
the city
32% of
requests
Nashville
Los Angeles
Atlanta
Dallas-
Fort  Worth
Miami-
Ft. Lauderdale-
W. Palm Beach
Houston
Puerto Rico
N.Y.C. region
outside the city
Chicago
Washington
Los Angeles
Atlanta
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-
West Palm Beach
Seattle-
Tacoma
Portland
Minneapolis-
St. Paul
Boston
Detroit
Chicago
Philadelphia
San Francisco-
Oakland
Washington
Denver
New York City
region excluding
the city
32% of requests
St. Louis
Nashville
Los Angeles
Phoenix
Atlanta
Dallas-Fort Worth
Austin
Orlando
Houston
Tampa Bay
Miami-
Fort Lauderdale-
West Palm Beach
Puerto Rico
After being laid off from his job as a theater stage hand, Kurt Gardner, his wife and their young daughter left their crowded two-bedroom apartment in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn for the family’s three-bedroom summer home in eastern Suffolk County, on Long Island.
Mr. Gardner, 50, said he hears about friends in the city who “have to wait outside an hour for Trader Joe’s.” The Gardners now live near a well-stocked supermarket with practically no lines. They’re surrounded by open space, and their daughter “doesn’t have to worry about socially distancing at Prospect Park,” he said.
As for their mail, it comes “maybe once a week,” Mr. Gardner said. He and his wife filed mail-forwarding requests in mid-March, but he said much of his mail from March never arrived.
Brooklyn had the second-highest number of mail-forwarding requests, which were concentrated in neighborhoods like Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights.
BRONX
MANHATTAN
Mail-forwarding requests
by ZIP code in April
QUEENS
1,500
500
100
BROOKLYN
STATEN ISLAND
Mail-forwarding
requests by ZIP
code in April
1,500
500
100
Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, including many areas where essential workers live, tended to have far fewer mail-forwarding requests. Roman Suarez works for a union in New York City and travels on weekends doing stand-up comedy. He was in Texas when his boss in New York called to say things were shutting down. “I immediately rushed home,” said Mr. Suarez, 42, who lives in the Bronx. He picks up medication and groceries for about three dozen family members who live nearby. “I just stayed and made myself available for my family,” he said.
His neighbors, many of whom work for the city, or in health care, stayed too, he said. His neighborhood, just east of the Bronx Zoo, had fewer than a quarter as many mail-forwarding requests as the Upper East or Upper West Sides.
“My father was a cab driver. My mom was a hairdresser, so I understood service to your community,” Mr. Suarez said. He recalled living through other challenging times in the city, from Hurricane Gloria in 1985 to the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001. “Whenever New York goes through stuff, the best thing to do is just be there.”
Top 20 destinations
Metropolitan area
Mail-forwarding requests
New York-Newark-Jersey City
16,041
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
1,830
Philadelphia
1,456
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.
1,456
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria
1,298
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
1,131
Boston-Cambridge-Newton
1,092
Kingston, N.Y.
963
Atlanta
710
Torrington, Conn.
644
Chicago
573
Hudson, N.Y.
545
Albany, N.Y.
527
Providence-Warwick, R.I.-Mass.
469
Hartford, Conn.
448
Baltimore
447
Orlando, Fla.
436
San Francisco-Oakland
434
Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.
418
New Haven-Milford, Conn.
414