The magic of empty streets

San Francisco

WE'RE in week four of sheltering in place here (it feels like week 40). It's a completely unfamiliar situation in so many ways. As someone who has lived in cities her whole adult life, for me it's especially strange to experience a time when all the things I love are no longer available. Nearly everything is closed - restaurants and shops, libraries and museums, and, of course, all schools. All non-essential workers are under a mandatory work-from-home order.

But these efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus have also offered us a rare experiment: We can see our cities for the first time without the choking traffic, dirty air and honking horns that have so often made them intolerable.