This time in Streets & Squares we won’t be dealing with any one city, but with any city in the world that is facing the serious threat of the COVID-19 virus, also known as the Corona virus.

There actually is a city of Corona (crown in Spanish), or rather, several cities with that name. One in Riverside County in Southern California. There is also a town, city or community with that name in Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, South Dakota and Tennessee. It is also a neighborhood in Queens, New York.

But here we concentrate on our hometowns and cities where we the denizens see the change in how things are done, how we move around, how places are closed down, and how our freedom of movement is restricted.

Depending upon how serious the situation is in your town or city, you are to face the consequences of the spreading of a virus like never before. The subway cars, trains, buses and trains may seem eerily less populated. There are less cars on the roads. More people in the woods perhaps. People with protective masks on, people keeping their distance.

Even in the friendliest places in the world, it is a good idea to keep distance to your fellowmen. For such is the potential threat of the virus. Or else you might become a carrier, even if the virus poses less threat to yourself.

The streets of Corona are everywhere and anywhere. We cannot name them, just like we cannot name the people who carry the disease. Not for the sake of anonymity, but for the sake of ignorance. Because we don’t know. We don’t know who might be a threat to us, or who we might be a threat to.

Saw yesterday a Youtube video (perhaps unavailable now) where a guy rides his bike along the streets of Manhattan, facing hardly any traffic or people on his way. Very much like the scene in Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise realizes that the streets around Times Square are completely void of people.

We see streets like that everywhere now, and it is really hard to get used to. Is it something that we will get used to? Probably no need for that before things get more normal again. But who knows?

What we do know is that we live in dangerous times right now that affect the health, economy, relations, and the future of so many of us. The only thing we can do is take one day at the time, and do our best to be on the safe side of everything. In all the streets, parks, malls and homes of Corona.

Updated 20.3.2020