Heavy toll my a$$!
NYC's population is about 9 million (source:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/new-york-city-ny-population)
That means that, if 75,000 residents died (the article says "more than 73,000, so I'll round up a bit), the mortality rate was 0.8333% - a tiny mortality rate.
Furthermore, if 63% of the NYC population has had COVID-19, that means about 5.67 million people had it, of which 75,000 died, yielding a mortality rate with respect to total infections of about 1.3227% - still a very small mortality rate.
And since the data show that flu-related deaths fell precipitously, these deaths were not so-called excess deaths, but simply replacement deaths.
So, no, hardly a heavy toll.