Apartment Windows Become Billboards for Love and Perseverance

With the neighborhood stuck inside for weeks, neighbors are sending messages in a new way and making new connections in the process.

Amy Mahoney’s 8-year-old daughter Eva posted a “hi” and a heart on her window on 76th Street. Neighbors across the backyard posted their own message back, and the conversation continued.

Funny enough, we also heard from the people on the other side of this exchange. Kelsey Weeks sent us the view from her side.

And in the West 60’s, illuminated hearts began showing up in windows across the way, writes Elinore Kaplan.

“One evening a week ago, when looking out my window, which faces across a Lincoln Towers park and west towards the Hudson, something in a  window some 20 stories up in the building at 180 Riverside Boulevard caught my eye. It was a heart! Seemingly shaped in Christmas lights, it was a lovey sight to see, one neighbor sending a loving visual message to anyone who happened to look that way.

I got into the habit of looking for the heart nightly, and being reassured at the sight. Then, a few nights later, what should appear, but a second heart, three floors lower! So now, before I lay me down to sleep, I make sure to check on that caring message from my neighbors. I do wonder whether there’s a response so that they, in looking east, can see it. (Sort of like Jay Gatsby looking out across the bay.)”