The state of New Jersey tweeted on July 31 that people “really”—for emphasis, the word was repeated 19 times—must “stop having crowded indoor house parties.” Really. Maybe the state should hire an influencer to pick up the message. Last weekend police broke up a pool party advertised on Instagram as “Real Big Drip 5” that had drawn an estimated 500 people.
Across the Hudson River, “illicit warehouse ragers, public binge drinking, street parties and raves continue to flout COVID-19 social distancing rules,” the website Gothamist reports. New York cops recently broke up a sex party in Midtown Manhattan. One Instagram user who has been documenting the pandemic partying told the Gothamist: “In Manhattan, clubs pay hosts or promoters or models just to sit at a table and look good to fill up the club with beautiful people, in order to sell tables to the rich people willing to pay up to $5,000 to a table.” Nice gig if you can get it, and there aren’t many licit opportunities now in New York City.
Affluent New Yorkers who have decamped to the Hamptons last month put on a charity tailgating concert headlined by the D.J. duo Chainsmokers. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon (a k a “DJ D-Sol”) performed an opening act. Guests forked over $1,250 and $25,000 for tickets—more for air-conditioned RVs with private restrooms.
Event organizers received a permit from the Town of Southampton—whose supervisor, Jay Schneiderman, also performed—and guests were supposed to maintain 6 feet of distance and encouraged to wear face masks. Yet photos posted on social media showed thousands of revelers crowding the stage, most without masks. “I am appalled,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted.
Blue-state politicians failed to learn the lessons of America’s failed experiment with liquor prohibition a century ago: Banning normal economic and social activity creates a black market. Dine-in restaurants and bars have never reopened in New York City or New Jersey and were allowed to open only briefly in California before Gov. Gavin Newsom closed them amid a virus resurgence.
Unemployment rates in the Northeast and California look more like the 1930s than the ’20s, but at least their underground party economies are thriving.
We had a better political class in the 1920s, though.