In a stark reversal, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday called for the reopening of the economy. Cuomo, a Democrat who has overseen some of the strictest restrictions in the nation over the past nine months, said during his State of the State speech that “we simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass.” “The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely,” added Cuomo, whose state has struggled to quickly vaccinate people against COVID-19. Cuomo ordered a near-statewide lockdown in March and has since then kept onerous restrictions on small businesses. The number of small businesses that opened on Dec. 30, 2020, compared to January 2020, was 30 percent lower, according to a Harvard University-database tracking economic recovery. At one point in April 2020, more than half the small businesses …