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Looking at those pictures from Norway I'm struck by how different our countries actions have been during this crisis. Here hardly anything is boarded up (even

Looking at those pictures from Norway I'm struck by how different our countries actions have been during this crisis. Here hardly anything is boarded up (even business that have failed or gone online-only just have an A4 notice in the window explaining the situation and apologizing for the lack of service), and even when things were at their worst there were still people in the streets, a lot of shops, offices, and industries were still operating. So now I have to wonder: are those pictures representative of the US as a whole?

the_pwner224 6y ago
The boarding up is because of the looting and rioting. Before that they were just closed as they would 'normally' close.
- kasey_junk 6y ago
  That was true in my neighborhood in Chicago but I’m not sure it was in San Francisco (where these pictures were taken). I remember seeing board ups there very early in the shutdown.
  - andromeduck 6y ago
    It's true in SF as well. There were a few businesses boarded up when SIP started but most of the boarding happened after union square and a few other streets were looted around end of may. In june we went from something like 5-10% boarded up to the 30-60% now depending on district. Even a lot of grocery stores are boarded up now, and quite a number of convenience stores like CVS stopped operating in half their locations and where operating, with reduced hours.
  - i_am_proteus 6y ago
    Bear in mind that San Francisco has very high property crime rates in general. Street wisdom is to leave absolutely nothing of value in a parked car, to do otherwise invites a smash-and-grab. In this context, it's natural that closed business would board up even absent riots.
  - catalogia 6y ago
    A lot of people anticipated civil unrest of some sort very early into the shutdown. The conditions were ripe for it; huge numbers of people losing their jobs and finding themselves socially isolated is a tinderbox just waiting for a spark.
onion2k 6y ago
Same for the UK. Nothing is boarded up here. I read the article thinking "How to I invest in American plywood manufacturers if there's a second wave?"
- gerikson 6y ago
  Assuming there are any domestic manufacturers of plywood left. According to this first-hit google result, in 2017 82% of world plywood production was in Asia https://www.wbpionline.com/features/global-plywood-industry-update-6908934//image/global-plywood-industry-update-6908934-497877.html https://www.wbpionline.com/features/global-plywood-industry-...
  - xyzzyz 6y ago
    This is extremely out of touch with the state of industry. US produces 10 times as much plywood as it imports. This should be apparent to anyone who's ever actually bought plywood: if you go to your local Home Depot, you'll see the manufacturer information stamped on the edge of the stack. It's almost always US company.
    - gerikson 6y ago
      Thanks for this information! I don't live in the US myself.
dx87 6y ago
I live in a blue collar town near Baltimore, Maryland, and I didn't see anything shut down where I live. Even non-essential businesses, like a local board game store, quickly adapted to curbside pickup. If it wasn't for signs saying "face masks required", "keep 6 feet apart", and "drive-through only", I'd barely know there was a pandemic going on.
rayiner 6y ago
The boarding up is not because of Covid, but because of the ongoing rioting. (Not to say that the protests are rioting; but the plywood is for the rioters, not the peaceful protestors.) But no, it’s not representative. Most of America doesn’t live in New York, DC, Seattle, etc. Nothing is boarded up in suburban Annapolis where I live, and almost nothing was ever completely shut down. Restaurants had a steady stream of takeout orders, etc.
pdonis 6y ago
There are a few businesses closed in my local area, but most are open. Restaurants now are seating people at outdoor tables in addition to delivery and takeout.
WealthVsSurvive 6y ago
I'm starting to see local businesses in my major cities close shop permanently, and I am seeing even some large businesses host going-out-of-business sales. This is merely the pre-stage. Its about to get much, much worse. The corporate news is currently reporting on the corruption surrounding the US relief funds, but I posit that the while corruption is there, the real reason that they aren't releasing the data is because it will show that a critical mass of the US economy is completely underwater and is being floated with zombie loans while the government shits itself, telling their good buddies when to sell and when the public will know, postulating how they're going to spin the complete and utter failure of conservative economic policy. Combine this with ~1/3 of the country unemployed with little sign of relief, state's budgets buckling, and states panicking to throw people off unemployment, so they're about to be literally starving and homeless. The Hacker News crowd doesn't see it coming. Give them a few months; they'll start to be personally affected by it, which will trigger an inescapable realization. I see it coming: the next great depression. There are many creative ways to stop it, and they all involve re-distributions of wealth because that is essentially the root of the problem: the finance, make-believe funny-money & assets have no value, and we've starved the buyer, so no one has incentives to trade anymore. Great job! Hope your ideologies were worth it. And, when people are dying, instead of blaming some "natural" phenomenon that totally "naturally" occurs, blame yourselves!
- joejerryronnie 6y ago
  This is fear mongering driven by obvious ideological bias. Sure, things may get worse than they are now, but you have no evidence of the scale of the problem, just as you have no evidence that socialism or “wealth re-distribution” will make anything better.
  - WealthVsSurvive 6y ago
    Then time will prove me wrong. I would greet it with pleasure.
    - joejerryronnie 6y ago

the_pwner224 6y ago

The boarding up is because of the looting and rioting. Before that they were just closed as they would 'normally' close.

kasey_junk 6y ago
That was true in my neighborhood in Chicago but I’m not sure it was in San Francisco (where these pictures were taken). I remember seeing board ups there very early in the shutdown.
- andromeduck 6y ago
  It's true in SF as well. There were a few businesses boarded up when SIP started but most of the boarding happened after union square and a few other streets were looted around end of may. In june we went from something like 5-10% boarded up to the 30-60% now depending on district. Even a lot of grocery stores are boarded up now, and quite a number of convenience stores like CVS stopped operating in half their locations and where operating, with reduced hours.
- i_am_proteus 6y ago
  Bear in mind that San Francisco has very high property crime rates in general. Street wisdom is to leave absolutely nothing of value in a parked car, to do otherwise invites a smash-and-grab. In this context, it's natural that closed business would board up even absent riots.
- catalogia 6y ago
  A lot of people anticipated civil unrest of some sort very early into the shutdown. The conditions were ripe for it; huge numbers of people losing their jobs and finding themselves socially isolated is a tinderbox just waiting for a spark.

onion2k 6y ago

Same for the UK. Nothing is boarded up here. I read the article thinking "How to I invest in American plywood manufacturers if there's a second wave?"

gerikson 6y ago
Assuming there are any domestic manufacturers of plywood left. According to this first-hit google result, in 2017 82% of world plywood production was in Asia https://www.wbpionline.com/features/global-plywood-industry-update-6908934//image/global-plywood-industry-update-6908934-497877.html https://www.wbpionline.com/features/global-plywood-industry-...
- xyzzyz 6y ago
  This is extremely out of touch with the state of industry. US produces 10 times as much plywood as it imports. This should be apparent to anyone who's ever actually bought plywood: if you go to your local Home Depot, you'll see the manufacturer information stamped on the edge of the stack. It's almost always US company.
  - gerikson 6y ago
    Thanks for this information! I don't live in the US myself.

dx87 6y ago

I live in a blue collar town near Baltimore, Maryland, and I didn't see anything shut down where I live. Even non-essential businesses, like a local board game store, quickly adapted to curbside pickup. If it wasn't for signs saying "face masks required", "keep 6 feet apart", and "drive-through only", I'd barely know there was a pandemic going on.

rayiner 6y ago

The boarding up is not because of Covid, but because of the ongoing rioting. (Not to say that the protests are rioting; but the plywood is for the rioters, not the peaceful protestors.) But no, it’s not representative. Most of America doesn’t live in New York, DC, Seattle, etc. Nothing is boarded up in suburban Annapolis where I live, and almost nothing was ever completely shut down. Restaurants had a steady stream of takeout orders, etc.

pdonis 6y ago

There are a few businesses closed in my local area, but most are open. Restaurants now are seating people at outdoor tables in addition to delivery and takeout.

WealthVsSurvive 6y ago

I'm starting to see local businesses in my major cities close shop permanently, and I am seeing even some large businesses host going-out-of-business sales. This is merely the pre-stage. Its about to get much, much worse. The corporate news is currently reporting on the corruption surrounding the US relief funds, but I posit that the while corruption is there, the real reason that they aren't releasing the data is because it will show that a critical mass of the US economy is completely underwater and is being floated with zombie loans while the government shits itself, telling their good buddies when to sell and when the public will know, postulating how they're going to spin the complete and utter failure of conservative economic policy. Combine this with ~1/3 of the country unemployed with little sign of relief, state's budgets buckling, and states panicking to throw people off unemployment, so they're about to be literally starving and homeless. The Hacker News crowd doesn't see it coming. Give them a few months; they'll start to be personally affected by it, which will trigger an inescapable realization. I see it coming: the next great depression. There are many creative ways to stop it, and they all involve re-distributions of wealth because that is essentially the root of the problem: the finance, make-believe funny-money & assets have no value, and we've starved the buyer, so no one has incentives to trade anymore. Great job! Hope your ideologies were worth it. And, when people are dying, instead of blaming some "natural" phenomenon that totally "naturally" occurs, blame yourselves!

joejerryronnie 6y ago
This is fear mongering driven by obvious ideological bias. Sure, things may get worse than they are now, but you have no evidence of the scale of the problem, just as you have no evidence that socialism or “wealth re-distribution” will make anything better.
- WealthVsSurvive 6y ago
  Then time will prove me wrong. I would greet it with pleasure.
  - joejerryronnie 6y ago