After witnessing the Big Apple’s lockdowns, a libertarian economist said that New Yorkers are forced to live a restricted lifestyle by coronavirus mandates. New York City has taken dramatic measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic. The then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo had ordered the closing of all non-essential businesses throughout the state and shut down schools. Recently, Mayor Bill de Blasio issued the first ever vaccine mandate to all city workers.

Brownstone Institute President Jeffrey Tucker said that freedom is what made New York great. He recalled that “people were just running around the streets trying to escape.” “Not because the virus was present, but because there were fear lockdowns.” He returned to the area a few months later, and said that it felt like a post-apocalyptic revival. He observed a decrease in masks, open businesses, and more people trying to return to normalcy.

Tucker was also dismayed when he visited New York City in December. He said that he had been back since the mandates and it was a shock to see what has happened to the city. He also noted his initial shock when asked to show proof of vaccination at the bar.

Tucker stated to Fox News that “you can’t enter any public building, any restaurant or bar, museum, library, or any other place without flashing your pass.”

Tucker described the requirement, which de Blasio called the “Key to NYC Pass”, as a “sadistic” policy that felt “degrading” to him and “un-American.” Only a few U.S. cities require proof that they have received COVID-19 vaccine to be allowed into certain indoor businesses.

New York City has had some of the strictest coronavirus-related mandates since the outbreak of the pandemic. De Blasio had earlier this month announced the mandate for vaccines, which requires all employees in private sector to have at least partial vaccinations by Dec. 27.

He said Monday that “Today [is] an historic day in New York City.” “We are implementing the strongest vaccination mandate in the country, all employers from the private sector, today.”

The outgoing mayor stated, “This is what we must do everywhere.” “Every mayor, governor, and CEO in America should have vaccine mandates. 2022 must be the year that we abandon COVID.”

New York is one of the few cities where children over five must show proof that they have been immunized in order to be allowed into indoor facilities. Tucker noted that none of these mandates were voted on by the legislature.

Fox News reported that he said, “This is not how we’re supposed conduct public life in the country.” “You have a type of extreme segregation developing in the city… and somehow people are just not paying attention to what’s going on in New York.”

Tucker stated that the crime situation right now is very volatile. But what are the cops doing?” They are moving from bars to restaurants and enforcing the vaccine passports with very heavy fines.

Since Sept 13, when the policy was implemented, nearly 52,000 inspections have been completed by the city. 31 businesses have been penalized $1,000 so far. If a business fails to comply with the mandate, they could face fines up to $5,000

A viral video shows New York City police pushing a family member and their child out of a restaurant because they didn’t have a vaccination card. “We’ve lost our minds,” Tucker told Fox News. Omicron cases rose in New York despite restrictions. Nearly 81% of the population has had at least one shot. Mask mandates were reinstated, and restrictions tightened to combat the spread of the new variant.

According to Eater NY, at least 1,000 New York restaurants closed since the outbreak of the pandemic. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New York’s population fell by 319,020, or 1.6%, between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021.

Tucker described the increasing guidelines that the political class and health officials have placed on the city as “a machine that’s just devouring it with ever more controls, never more absurd levels of despotism”. He continued, “Freedom is the solution to all these problems, even the public health ones including the virus.” They’ve won if they pretend that we can’t use the word. It does indeed seem that they have won. He said that he was concerned about the New Yorkers who are still living, and that “there’s a gradual effort to kind of acquiesce in the new normal there.”

Tucker stated to Fox News, “We must really decide as individuals and as a nation what kind of world that we want to live.” “And I don’t believe this is it.”