John Galanopoulos has been selling hot dogs in Times Square since 1979.

He was 14-years-old when he took over his father’s cart and has raised three kids of his own working 16 hours a day, but the pandemic skewered sales by 80%, and now he shows up to mostly stand around.

“I hope this year, it's not going to come back,” he said. "It was the worst year."

What You Need To Know

  • The Times Square Alliance held its 14th annual Good Riddance Day where people write down what they want to forget about from the last 12 months and shred it

  • It was held mostly virtually, with people using #GoodRiddanceDay on Twitter and Instagram and the Times Square Alliance taking care of the printing and shredding

  • The Times Square Alliance says the ball drop will remain mostly the same, save for the massive crowds

He’s not alone in wanting the year to disappear. Just a block away, the Times Square Alliance held its 14th annual Good Riddance Day, where people write down what they want to forget about from the last 12 months and shred it.  

Many other people want COVID-related problems to go away for good.

“Goodbye to corona,” said nurse Brooke Reiz.

“COVID sucks,” said Louis Carilem. "I lost a lot of family and friends, the job market went down, I have to work triple hard.” 

“Obviously, the pandemic,” said Donald Layne. “And then going through a breakup because of it.”

Some people focussed on other things, from wanting "memories of Trump” to fade away, to hatred and bigotry.  

A little girl told NY1 the problems are closer to home.

"My brother being mean to me,” Madeline Raeder said.

This year’s event was mostly virtual. People posted their problems on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #GoodRiddanceDay and the Times Square Alliance took care of the printing and shredding. It could be seen on the internet. The ball drop will be on TV.

“There’ll be some things that will be the same: the ball drop, there’ll be amazing entertainment with everybody from J.Lo to Billy Porter to Gloria Glaynor singing ‘I will survive,’” said Tim Tompkins, the president of The Times Square Alliance, "but there’s not going to be any crowds in Times Square. It’s going to be completely sealed.”

But it’s not closed off yet and the Wishing Wall had a small in-person presence where you write your hopes and dreams for the next year and they get turned into confetti. 

"What did you wish for?” we asked one woman.

"One of them is to meet Justin Bieber and to have a happy and healthy 2021,” she responded.

From the superficial to the most substantive of hopes, John Galanopoulos is happy anyone is here, just wishing for a little business she he can support his family again.

“So, I hope this year passed away and start coming back to life to normal again," he said.