Proprietors escaping street tensions, coronavirus restrictions are opening shops, renting offices, and transforming aging inns into chic hotels. Andrea Westerlind decided in May that she needed to leave New York City after looters smashed the windows at her apparel and home items store in Manhattan. She moved her company’s operations to Millerton, N.Y., buying a two-story retail building for a new shop and purchasing a home nearby in western Massachusetts. With business now thriving, she says she has no plans to move back to the city.