Reflections on a Coronavirus Summer

Today I am sitting by a pond at Longwood Park in Macedonia, Ohio. The park is about 20 minutes by car from my house in Stow. The centerpiece of the park is a pond that is two to three acres in area and is surrounded by a wooded area with picnic tables and a fishing dock.

 

It’s a spacious park with several baseball and softball fields, the pond and the city’s recreation center. On this warm July Saturday afternoon, the park is not particularly crowded and seems to be a very laid back place.

 

This summer, I’ve been exploring parks like this around the area as I attempt to escape boredom of staying mostly at home because of COVID-19. Frankly, it’s not like I have anything else to do. I discovered this park several weeks ago when I took 10 bags of papers to one of the monthly free paper shredding drop-offs provided by the county at various parks during spring and summer months.

 

Thankfully, the gym I belong to, Akron General Lifestyles in Stow, recently reopened with pretty strict safety protocols. Everyone wears a mask—staff and those working out—and the machines have been spread out so there is about six feet of separation between them. There a plenty of bottles of hand sanitizer and cleaning solution for wiping down the machines after use.  It will probably take another two weeks, but I am gradually working my way up to the workout I did before the gym shut down in mid-March.

 

I try to keep engaged by calling family and friends and I’ve had a couple of coffee dates meeting outside with former co-workers. A group of couples we know has been gathering every couple of weeks in a park for a group picnic where everyone brings their own food. The first one was okay, but during the second one, people started chatting with each other without masks at less than six feet of separation. We were invited to another one last week, but I declined. Pam went and told the others I didn’t feel safe meeting in such a large group where people got too close together.

 

As I look around Longwood park, I see several people with fishing poles trying their luck in the pond. On the other side of the pond, I see a couple of groups in picnic shelters and a few hikers on a short trail.

 

No one is sure of the lasting social effects of this pandemic. This week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine instituted a state-wide order for people to wear masks in public. Both college and high school sports are in doubt as several major college conferences have either sharply curtailed or canceled fall sports completely.

 

I see more and more articles about workers enjoying working from home and that their companies are satisfied with the arrangement. There is a lot of debate between parents, administrators and teachers about how K-12 schools will meet safely and most universities are grappling with the same problem as we are about a month or less away from the start of the new school year.

 

If this pandemic upsets most of the next school year, we may see an accelerated and permanent shift towards online instruction even after COVID-19 runs its course. If I were looking to invest now, I would not invest in commercial real estate because significant numbers of workers won’t want to return to the office full time if it isn’t necessary even after the pandemic ends.

 

If workers don’t have to commute on a daily basis, this will lead to increased demand for housing in suburbs and diminished demand for close-in housing near the center of the city. Many sit-down restaurants and bars will go out of business and will not return.

 

The original projections were that a vaccine might be ready in the first couple of months of 2021. If there is a delay much beyond that, the changes to work and society will be even more profound and things won’t return to the way they were.

 

It’s difficult to predict the future, but I think things could be different once the COVID-19 pandemic ends, a lot different.