It was standing room only for commuters on the New York-bound train leaving Summit, New Jersey, at 5:38 a.m. Tuesday. Traffic on the Long Island Expressway was at a crawl as rain poured down, while Sweetgreen locations in Manhattan were packed by lunchtime.
Labor Day has long marked a turning point in New York: Finance moguls return from the Hamptons, kids go back to school, and business picks up as the calendar turns to September. But that’s not been the case since 2019 with return-to-office plans scuttled by the pandemic, including the delta variant last year.
