While most of New York City slowed to a crawl because of the coronavirus, commuting in the Mount Hope neighborhood of the Bronx increased. The likely reason: the number of essential workers who live in the neighborhood. nyti.ms/2BcIXqU
Many residents of Mount Hope never stopped going to their jobs during the pandemic. The average number of weekday commutes in the neighborhood rose 4% in April from the same month the previous year, according to an analysis by StreetLight Data. Across NYC, commutes fell 34%. 
In New York City, many essential workers who have shouldered the burden of the pandemic put in long, hard hours for not much money. The median annual household income in Mount Hope is $30,706, compared with $60,762 for NYC.
One nurse’s aide from Mount Hope, Jennifer Lutchman, earns $19 an hour, barely enough to support her family. She begins her day by checking her own temperature before getting on a bus to go to work.
Another worker, John Carter, who has diabetes, said he was so scared of getting the virus that he took 2 weeks of vacation so he could stay home from his job as a cook. But when that ended, he said, his boss told him, “You have to come to work — or.”
The sheer number of essential workers in Mount Hope who cannot work from home is most likely why it was the only neighborhood in New York City where the total number of commuting trips actually increased during the height of the pandemic.
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