Early voting is open in many places, including New York City.
The New York Times reports long lines at the polling stations with waiting times of several hours, sometimes deterring voters.
It reports that
New York City has 88 early polling sites for five million registered voters. The mayor recommended at least 100.
By contrast, in 2017 Berlin/Germany, where I live, had 1779 polling sites for 2.5 million eligible voters of which 75% voted. (To be fair, each "site", catering to a specific election district, may just be a single large room with several voting booths in a building like a school. A handful of these sites ("Wahllokale") are typically bundled in one building, at least in cities.) I think I have never walked more than 1000 meters to a polling site and never waited for more than one minute to cast my vote. It is a relaxed and smooth affair. As an aside, there is no early voting, so all votes are cast on a single Sunday.
Clearly, the New York situation is an organizational failure, and one that would be comparatively easy to fix. This failure to properly organize the foundational procedure of any democracy is baffling, even more so in the U.S. which is a pioneer and, in spite of everything, a standard-bearer of democracy.
Being one of the most Democratic leaning cities in the country with a Democratic mayor, in a state with a Democratic governor, we can safely assume that this is not an act of voter suppression.
What then is the reason that there are so few polling sites in New York?