I am Barry Cassidy, a planning and development consultant located in Philadelphia. When the virus hit the United States, everything went into slow motion as the government shifted its focus to contain and combat the virus. Many of the projects that I work on require public sector funding. Most of my projects went into suspended animation.
My wife and I isolated and watched the televised reporting of people in the City of Philadelphia rioting and looting. We both thought it was in our best interests to stay in our suburban house and not visit our condo in Center City, Philadelphia. Her center city job went remote.
We both secured our vaccinations for the virus. Twenty-eight days after my second vaccination, I decided to see what was going on in the country. I decided on driving as far as I liked and stopping at any place that looked interesting. So I bought a case of Pellegrino, some Utz Potato Chips, put some ice in the cooler, and started across the country with no particular route, but there were a few people I wanted to see.
The site is not a photographic essay, and I am not a professional photographer. Instead, I am presenting a legacy snapshot that will provide context to where American cities were situated during the last 30 days of the government-imposed lockdown. It is to be considered an economic development inventory of buildings and places.
On the right-hand side of the site are, in chronological order, videos of the pictures I took, in the order I took them. In addition, there are also analysis videos where I examined and provided commentary on my trip. Finally, I used some of the photos to compare and contrast in the analysis videos.
The scope of my trip evolved as I was presented with conditions in the town. First, I thought that public art and vacancies should be chronicled and try to determine the virus's effect on the cities across America. But, I quickly realized that I needed to incorporate issues relating to the protests in my narrative.
I wanted to concentrate on public space, buildings, and artwork and not include people. Not including people was the easy part of the trip. In many places, there were no people, and the lack of people provided an eerie setting, and the lack of people is a key component of the conditions.
I would visit as many towns as I could in 30 days. I made my hotel reservations every night and plotted my end destination. The stops I made were determined by road signs or a need to stop for gas or a bathroom.
I tried to go to many places that were not large. I went to some very small towns and some names that I recognized. I stopped in many historic districts if I could see a road sign; some of the places were in remote areas.