Life In The Containment Zone

Starting Thursday, New York will close schools and houses of worship for two weeks in parts of New Rochelle, in an effort to help contain the spread of COVID-19. At least 108 people in Westchester have been infected with the new coronavirus.

The containment area will not be locked down. Those who are not personally quarantined will be able to leave their homes and enter and leave the area. The National Guard will help distribute food and clean public spaces over the course of the two weeks.

Lisa Keller is a New Rochelle resident who lives inside the containment zone. She's also the mother of Gothamist's Arts & Culture editor Ben Yakas, and she spoke with WNYC's Richard Hake:

WNYC transcripts are created on a rush deadline and the text may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record is the audio record. 

Richard Hake [host]: Lisa, good morning. Thanks for coming on with us.

Lisa Keller [guest]: Good morning Richard, from New Rochelle, Queen City of the Sound.

Richard Hake [host]: I know New Rochelle quite well. What was your first reaction when you first heard that your home was in this one-mile-radius zone?

Lisa Keller [guest]: I had a tip-off from my son that there was going to be an announcement early on in the morning, and didn't know really what it meant. I was waiting for the news, but I had some errands to run. So I went out to run the errands, and on the radio heard part of the governor's announcement. And I must say I was probably confused more than anything else really.

Richard Hake [host]: Now, the measure doesn't go into effect until tomorrow. But are you seeing things there starting to feel different? What are people doing to prepare?

Lisa Keller [guest]: Well, that's it's a very puzzling picture. I go to the local shopping center, which is in the middle of this area. There's an Acme supermarket and the local Italian meat area where I buy a lot of food. The stores were not particularly busy. The banks, the other stores, the post office. I speak to all the local merchants the owner of the Italian meateria said to me, he had two kinds of customers. One who was stocking up on things and packing it, and the other who was just avoiding coming in.  I went to buy some buttermilk for baking and the dairy manager said — I asked him when there'd be buttermilk in — and he looked at me rather mournfully and said, "Who knows when we'll get supplies for anything?" And yes, oh dear, but there is a kind of mixed picture of this. We are a little bit puzzled because the containment zone is not clear. The mayor of New Rochelle Noam Bramson has tried his best to keep an even hand in making the residence feel comfortable, but it took a number of hours till the picture was clarified. When I came home from the stores. I watched helicopters circling my area for quite a long period of time. And I must say that was a little unnerving.

Richard Hake [host]: Now you mentioned that you were a little confused when you first heard this. Has it been transparent? I mean, you said you heard part of the governor's message. Are you confident in the official information that you're getting? And who are you getting it from? You mentioned the mayor.

Lisa Keller [guest]: Yeah, that's a good question. sources of information these days are not particularly reliable or accurate. The governor's initial message, I did not hear the entire thing. The mayor then clarified and then I checked on reliable online sources. What containment meant was not clarified initially. And I think probably what disturbed residents — I also monitor a local community listserv, and many people were unclear what containment meant, and that there's a lot of misinformation. That's one of the biggest problems of understanding what this means. The other issue that puzzled many of us is that the initial infection occurred in an orthodox synagogue. Those families' children do not attend the local schools. So we were not quite sure why the local schools would be involved. We also feel that since this happened a week ago, people were saying, why did they take a week to start this or do anything? And the most frightening part again, was the National Guard. What are they going to do?

Richard Hake [host]: So have you seen any National Guard?

Lisa Keller [guest]: No, there's no sign of them. The governor's announcement made it clear that they, this would start on Thursday, which led people to wonder what was going to happen between now and Thursday? One merchant I spoke to yesterday in the shopping center, said we're not sure the governor will do exactly what he said. How do we know he's not going to change the rules as we go on. But they did try to maintain a stoic picture and say life goes on, as long as we can move in and out of the zone, unlike Italy, where they are having really clamped down zones,

Richard Hake [host]: Right, Lisa, can I just ask you finally, like what are you personally planning to do? I know you're a history professor at SUNY Purchase and starting today, classes there are moving online. So do you plan on leaving your home and moving about?

Lisa Keller [guest]: Well, I will go out to go shopping, but I'm trying to spend much of today mastering Zoom and my online methods of lecturing. We want to support our students and make them stay calm also.

Richard Hake [host]: All right. Lisa Keller, resident of New Rochelle, lives inside the containment zone. Lisa, thank you so much. We'll be checking back in with you.

Lisa Keller [guest]: Yes, I would say uh, by Thursday or Friday. We'll we'll have more information and news. Thank you, Richard.

Richard Hake [host]: All right. Good luck. We'll talk to you then. Thank you.