Haunting images of an empty Times Square and the daily accounting of hundreds of fatalities in New York City have reinforced the idea of the coronavirus as an urban contagion. In some, there have been more fatalities per capita than in super-dense Manhattan. The virus’s rampage through the New York metro region, from the well-to-do towns along Connecticut’s coastline to the bedroom communities of northern New Jersey and Long Island, offers a counterweight to the notion of the suburbs, with their plentiful open spaces, as safe havens.
