April 7, 2020
UI senior Matthew Whittle and first-year law student Bryony Whitaker walk downtown on Saturday, April 4, 2020. Downtown was quiet during the first weekend after spring break as classes have been moved online and the bars closed due to the coronavirus.
The weekends now come and go in Iowa City with no fanfare.
Parking spots — which are usually hard to come by in the busy Downtown District — are now plentiful along the city streets. The doors remain shuttered with the occasional delivery driver bobbing swiftly in and out of local restaurants to take food to hungry, cooped up customers.
There may be few people out to talk to, but the pedestrian-crossing sign still drones on: “Clinton. Walk sign is on to cross. Clinton. Clinton. Walk sign is on to cross. Clinton.” The beeping sound seems to bounce off the buildings louder than usual as fewer vehicles clog the city streets and fewer people mosey along the sidewalks.
The Pedestrian Mall, normally bracing around 7 p.m. on a Saturday for UI students to pack its many bars come nighttime, would go for minutes without any foot traffic. The latest chart-topping tunes weren’t playing from any establishment. No alcohol-infused chattering of Hawkeyes spilled out like static from the bars and onto the brick-laden downtown area.
“We’d probably be maybe going to get some food somewhere — maybe the restaurant, cinema, that kind of thing. Maybe casually browsing the mall or Coralville,” said UI first-year law student Bryony Whitaker, who’s from England.
The Pedestrian Mall is seen on Saturday, April 4, 2020. Downtown was quiet during the first weekend after spring break as classes have been moved online and the bars closed to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
UI senior Matthew Whittle, who was walking on the Ped Mall alongside Whitaker on April 4, said after that they’d “probably come down here just for the bar scene or something like that, just hang out for a while.”
Whittle said he’s lucked out so far with his plans after graduation to work at Lincoln Financial in Omaha, Nebraska remaining stable, though he anticipates not being able to immediately meet his team.
Although Whitaker has campus to return to for the remaining years studying law, as an international student, she’s uncertain when she’ll be able to see her family again.
State Board of Regents President Mike Richards has vowed that Iowa’s three public university campuses will be operating normally again come August, but Whitaker wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know when we’re going to be coming back to campus because I think realistically September is a very early end goal in the grand scheme of things — we’ve still got to think about public health,” she said. “But I think everyone will just be thankful to see each other and finally be able to make some contact with other human beings.”