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Photos: Times Square Welcomes 2022 With Masked And Vaxxed Crowd
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 1, 2022
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Gretchen Robinette / Gothamist
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 1, 2022
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Thousands of revelers returned to Times Square to ring in 2022 after last year's surreal "crowd-less" pandemic celebration. But the Friday night event was still a different experience, with New York City limiting the number of spectators, who were required to be fully vaccinated and masked.
Pre-pandemic, the city said New Year's Eve crowds in the center of Times Square had totaled around 60,000. But only a maximum of 15,000 people were allowed Friday in order to offer more space for distancing as the highly transmissible omicron variant has resulted in record-breaking COVID-19 cases across New York.
As midnight approached, the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball — a 12-foot wide, six-ton sphere with nearly 3,000 Waterford crystals illuminated by 32,256 colored LEDs — made its descent to put a close on the second year of the pandemic.
COVID sidelined LL Cool J, who was scheduled to headline "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve With Ryan Seacrest"—but Ja Rule and Ashanti stepped in and perform.
The new year also saw a new mayor: Eric Adams was sworn in as the 110th mayor of New York City, a few minutes after midnight. He stood on a platform in Times Square, surrounded by friends and family (mostly masked) while proudly holding a photograph of his late mother, as he vowed to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of the mayor of the city of New York... to the best of my abilities, so help me God."
The end of de Blasio's term was welcomed by Andy Cohen, the Bravo TV personality who was co-hosting CNN's New Year's Eve telecast with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Cohen, who frequently documented his complaints about the lack of trash pickups in the West Village, said he was disgusted after "watching Mayor De Blasio doing his victory lap dance after four years of the crappiest job as the mayor of New York."
De Blasio was in Times Square to press the start button on the New Year's Eve Ball's descent in his final duty as mayor and to watch Adams be sworn in.
Cooper half-heartedly tried to stop Cohen during his on-air rant.
The headline to this story has been updated.
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new york city
Times Square
pandemic
new year's eve
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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