« Kiss Me | Main | They're just good ole boys »
March 11, 2002
"A Wake and an Awakening"
[Received via forwarded email, reprinted with permission.]
By John Voelcker, a NYC resident
The Jewish custom of sitting shiva after a death, similar in some ways to the Irish wake, provides for a designated 7-day period of mourning. There follow 30 days of lesser mourning, and 11 months during which a mourner says Kaddish twice daily. These rituals also specify the end of mourning, when life may resume -- changed, but normal.
For me, the nonspecific end to my personal wake came sometime in February. I felt no great need to write a February letter, and so I didn't. The "events of 9/11" had quietly become backdrop, had been written into my ongoing narrative, were now part and parcel of life.
I wondered last night if I were the only person in NYC not watching the CBS special on the Naudet brothers' remarkable 9/11 video. Third Avenue seemed unusually quiet, even for a cold Sunday night. But the friends with whom I'd spent that remarkable night were dispersed, each to his own social life. Coming together to remember our shared horror that day would have seemed superfluous. We wouldn't forget it. Where were you when JFK was shot?
Much has been written about an upcoming second mental-health impact. The events of 9/11 may have become part of the background, but grieving families and those most affected cannot move on as the rest of the world does. And yet, visibly and emotionally, life in NYC for most seems to be back on track.
The stories still punctuate our news, of course -- even more so last week and this. So six months is a good time to take stock, to remember what happened and look at how far we have come.
Six months after the attack, 83% of the debris -- 1.4 million tons -- has been cleared from Ground Zero. The process should be complete by May, not the two years first anticipated. The cost will have been $600 million, not the $2 billion projected. There has not been a single death or serious injury among the work crews.
A 30-foot plywood wall is to be built around the site. The last major closed road links, West Street and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, will reopen April 1st. The 1/9 subway line will be rebuilt by November, the PATH trains to New Jersey sometime in late 2003.
Intact human remains are still being found in the last major pile of debris, which formed a ramp into the foundation of the WTC until it was superseded by a custom-made metal bridge. The bodies of two police officers were taken from the site Wednesday. And the corpose of Moira Smith, the only woman NYPD officer of the 23 killed, from the 13th Precinct -- my local, just around the corner -- was recovered recently. It came just days after a memorial mass held on Feb 15th (her birthday) at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The photo of their 2-year-old daughter holding the hand of her husband, NYPD Officer James J. Smith, was widely seen. Her partner, Bobby Fazio, is still missing.
The number of confirmed dead is 2,672. Another 158 are listed as missing but unconfirmed. And the families of the 9 people killed in the 1993 attack on the towers have now officially been added to the roll of the bereaved. The WTC memorial to those dead, a granite disc with their names, was completely obliterated.
The families of the dead may get an indoor viewing area in a nearby office tower. It will have to be high enough so they can see into the excavation, which is now 70 feet deep. Hundreds of cars from the site and surrounding area are being returned to their owners or insurance companies. Some are crushed to the size of an office desk, others are just very dirty. All contain traces of toxic materials, and will need to be cleaned in very specific ways.
Momentously, the fabled clothing discounter Century 21 reopened on Thu, Feb 28. Across the street from the WTC plaza, its building was not damaged, but $10 million of stock was. The owners' vow to return probably meant as much to bargain-hungry New Yorkers as the American Express pledge to return all employees from Jersey City to Manhattan. That was possible, news accounts point out, because AmEx had laid off so many people since 9/11 that they could consolidate their remaining employees in space they already had.
Today, two memorials are to be unveiled close to Ground Zero. "Tribute in Light" will be illuminated from dusk to 11 pm for one month, its two 50-foot arrays of 44 searchlights each creating an infinite tower of light stretching to the sky. They are only one-quarter the size of the actual footprints of WTC 1 and 2 -- but far, far higher. And under a glass roof in Battery Park City sit the damaged remains of "The Sphere," a 17-ton bronze globe, 25 feet high, that was the focus of a 90-foot circular fountain in the WTC plaza. Artist Fritz Koenig dedicated it in 1971 as a monument to world peace through world trade.
Over six months, the economy got worse. Much worse. It will be a painful year indeed for New York City and state residents. The city's projected budget deficit has reached $4.5 billion. Parks will get scruffier, streets will get dirtier, but programs for the elderly will likely retain a larger percentage of their funding than programs for needy children. (They always do, since NYC's elderly vote while its needy children and often their mothers do not.)
Insurance claims from 9/11 are now expected to reach $52 billion, up from $38 billion. Far more than the original projection of 57,000 jobs were lost. Travel to NYC remains depressed. The recovery of Broadway theatres -- February grosses actually exceeded the previous year's -- relies largely on New York area residents. But we're only buying tickets a few weeks ahead. Much nail-biting has ensued among producers. (And if the horrendous "Sweet Smell of Success" I saw Saturday night was any indication, some of them should gnaw off their contract-signing fingers altogether.)
The crime rate has continued to fall, last month to levels equal to those from 1962. Returning NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly has refocused on quality of life crimes -- taking us thankfully back to at least one part of the normality we knew before 9/11.
We now have a mayor with seemingly no ego needs, no debts owed to vested interests, and the ability to ask for necessary budget cuts with no sacred cows. Has this happened within living memory? My knowledge of NYC mayors starts only with Jimmy Walker and Fiorello LaGuardia, but it is hard to imagine a mayor so bereft of the need to appear in the spotlight. He lets his lieutenants take credit for their programs, and simply shows up -- quietly -- at the appropriate ceremontial occasions. Of which there are still many.
Bloomberg does intervene, politely but firmly, where needed. He opened City Hall Park to pedestrians, for example. Under Giuliani the newly restored park had been gated off for security reasons. He has also continued to ride the subway to work, and urged his deputies to turn in their city-provided black cars.
The mayor has also said publicly that the rebuilding process at Ground Zero should be slowed, not speeded up, until a master plan is in place. Developer Larry Silverstein's much-publicized plan to start work on a replacement for 7 WTC by September may not happen. And Bloomberg quietly worked a deal with Governor Pataki under which the city can appoint new members to the Redevelopment Council, so that NYC has as much say as NY state in what gets built, where, when and how.
First comes the plan for a massive underground transit mall tying together various subway lines and the PATH to Jersey. On top of that will be layered some portion of a street grid restored to its pre-WTC routing, linking the north and south sections of Greenwich Street and a few east-west corridors. Only after those basics are in place will buildings be specced out. It could be a year or more before we see plans.
What should be built? Remember that public opinion is very far from a deciding factor. But it's worth noting that 75% of NYC voters support a plan that mixes offices, apartments and a memorial on the site. That's even higher than the 61% nationally who opted for the same mix. And NY City Opera, the perennial step-child at Lincoln Center, has serious plans to propose a new opera house to add culture to the mix. I can practically write the 2007 article: "The striking new Memorial Hall was inaugurated last night with Memoriam, an elegaic work commissioned by the NY City Opera to launch its first season in its new home while paying tribute to the site's tragic significance .... "
My favorite whimsical idea comes from my friend Jem in Scotland. He notes that, "the British Government has been desperately trying to get rid of the Millenium Dome for the last couple of years. And it does seem that Ground Zero is getting the number of visitors that the Dome could only dream of ...."
Back in reality, work is well underway on most of the damaged buildings around Ground Zero. Verizon's 1926 Art Deco ziggurat of a switching center -- where a supervisor in chest-deep water slammed a 2x4 against circuit breakers to switch off power before fleeing -- is being restored. The basic work will be $300 million, but restoring damaged historic detail might raise the total toward $1 billion. Cass Gilbert's 90 West Street -- its 23 stories made it a skyscraper in 1907 -- seems likely to be restored, keeping company with its slightly newer and much taller brother, the Woolworth Building. Though individual floors were gutted by fire, the terra cotta surrounding its steel frame keep the structure intact and sound.
The crushed corner of City University of New York's 15-story Fiterman Hall has now been amputated. But the building, opened just days before 9/11 following a seven-year, $65 million renovation, is still laced with dust containing dioxin and other toxins. Cracks in its stairwells make the university wary. One administrator told The NY Times it might be easier and quicker to demolish the remains and start from scratch.
Most apocalyptic is the 40-story Deutsche Bank tower at 130 Liberty Street. The black metal-and-glass 1970s building was declared structurally sound, despite a 24-story zipper-like gash in the north facade that shows where WTC 2 debris sliced through an entire set of load-bearing columns. But left open to the elements, the building has been invaded by an infestation of mold so aggressive and persistent that it may have to be torn down altogether.
And yet. People talk as much about the absurdly warm weather and the coming drought as about 9/11. Upstate reservoirs are at 40% or less of capacity. There is NO snowpack at all to melt this spring and refill the streams and lakes. This was painfully evident from my house in the Catskills; some of the trees I cut down on a balmy Sunday in mid-February had already begun to bud.
A few weeks ago, the stairwells in our PR agency's century-old loft building acquired a shiny new coat of paint and bright fluorescent lights. Coincidence, or a landlord making it easier to evacuate if necessary? The stairwell in Eziba's building has the same, but so far only between the first and second floors.
I no longer notice the odd "New York Needs You Strong" ad campaign in the subways, a series of NYC Dept. of Public Health posters. Hand lettering describes the coping strategies of individual New Yorkers ("Janine, 44, maintenance worker") with a toll-free number to call for mental health referrals. I haven't seen many people reading them -- though, honestly, no one ever seems to pay any attention to ANY subway ads.
The hordes visiting Ground Zero are now almost entirely tourists. Regular New Yorkers working or visiting downtown implicitly acknowledge the void, and politely sidestep or walk around, past, through the People From Somewhere Else. But there are deals to be done, people to meet, drinks to be had, contacts to be schmoozed, trains to catch. Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me ... move, please ... NOW!
Tomorrow, the New-York Historical Society will open an exhibit called "Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning." It includes rolls of butcher paper covered in messages from Union Square Park, a stopped clock from Ground Zero, and a host of other items that chronicle the tide of emotions that washed across NYC in the weeks after 9/11. I wrote about some of the hundreds of shrines, and the open-air ecumenical chapel that arose spontaneously at Union Square Park. I may go see the exhibit. But I don't think I'll be paralyzed by it.
So this morning, I listened to the memorial service from Ground Zero on 1010 WINS, my news source and touchstone in those terrible days. I paused with the city for a moment at 8:46 am, and again at 9:03 am, to pay tribute to the heroes and victims of 9/11 -- the dead and the living. By far the most gut-wrenching moment was the poem, "Death is Nothing at All," recited by the 12- and 16-year-old sons of one WTC victim. The mayor ended with our collective vow: "Never forget."
Then I got coffee from the Starbucks around the corner that evacuated me on the morning of 9/11. I cranked up Gloria Gaynor's anthem, "I Will Survive," and played it. Loudly.
And then I went back to work.
Which is, after all, what New York is all about. Always has been, most likely always will be.
love, jv.
P.S. As always, feel free to pass this on. Please note, however, that this and previous letters are my own personal reaction to what I see and hear and read. There are 8 million stories in the naked city. This has been merely one of them.
© 2001-2002 John Voelcker
Posted by KinCross at March 11, 2002 10:34 AM