Although Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen headlined New Year’s Eve festivities in typical inebriated fashion, the scene at Times Square was anything but normal. With New York City facing a new coronavirus surge and lagging vaccination rates, Times Square, already a ghost town with Broadway shows closed until late May at the absolute earliest, was blocked off from the public for an eerily empty ball drop. It was a surreal end to what was a brutal year for the Big Apple. Like many cities, New York has indisputably suffered from the one-two gut punches of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown measures instituted to combat it — and the unrest that, in many instances, escalated far beyond anything like legitimate protest of George Floyd’s death last May. It also faced a mass exodus of residents and...