BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER and ALINE REYNOLDS | An informal survey of residents of the neighborhoods abutting the World Trade Center site indicates that most are not looking forward to the tenth anniversary ceremonies of the attack on the Twin Towers. In fact, they will do everything they can to be elsewhere.
“My family and I were displaced for months after running for our lives and being caught in the dust cloud,” said Tom Goodkind, who lives in Battery Park City’s Gateway Plaza. “Like most survivors who returned, we will be sleeping in on Sunday. Although we wished to have our community included in the ceremonies, there has been nothing official for us to do on this or any other anniversary. Still, our hearts and best wishes go out to all in our great little community. Look at how far we’ve come!”
Kenny Shane, the super at 377 Rector Place said, “I planned my vacation for the first two weeks of September. I don’t want to be here. It brings back the lockdown of the neighborhood, restrictions on travel, streets blocked off, check points — the same stuff we had in 2001. I went through it for six weeks. I don’t need to do that again. Just walking to the corner in those days, I had to show ID. I’d rather not be here.”
Though not a direct victim of 9/11, Community Board 1 member Tricia Joyce’s instincts tell her to duck when she hears the sound of a plane overhead.
Unlike some who feel the need to escape the city on the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks, Joyce and many other Downtown residents plan to stay close to home and partake in 9/11 commemoration events. As are most C.B. 1 members, Joyce plans to attend the “Hand in Hand: Remembering 9/11” ceremony in Battery Park City that weekend, as well as events at P.S. 234, where her seven-year-old twin daughters go to school.
“Now, [public commemoration] feels right to me,” said Joyce, having spent past anniversaries by herself. The “Hands” event, she said, “represents something wonderful about coming together as a community.”
Bob Rosen, who has lived in Battery Park City for 25 years, said that he and his wife get “very emotional” when they think about 9/11. “I hope it rains on Sept. 11 so we’ll have an excuse not to go outside,” he said. “It’s not right that we’ve been excluded from the ceremonies after what we went through.”
Wellington Chen, executive director of the Chinatown Partnership, is helping to organize 9/11 ceremonies at Sara D. Roosevelt Park and Columbus Park the weekend of the anniversary, where community members will read aloud names of Chinese-Americans who perished that day. Confronting one’s sorrow tied to 9/11, he said, is an important step in the healing process. “I’ve always believed that out of darkness comes sunshine,” said Chen. “I don’t believe in letting the cloud linger or hang over us. We have to show [people] that we can over come it.”
Gwen Bey, who worked in the Financial District on 9/11 and who has since moved to Battery Park City, said she would be out of town this year through Sept. 12th. “I chose not to fly back on the 11th just out of memory and respect,” she said. “On 9/11, I was coming out of the PATH station at the World Trade Center when the second plane hit.”
Bey, whose office is at 1 Broadway, is the chief administrative officer for a law firm with more than 350 employees. “I was very much involved in what went on that day,” she recalled. “It was horrible and terrifying, but part of what kept me going was the realization that a lot of people were counting on me. The National Guard came and took out the last few people, and I was one of them. You never forget, but I’ve moved on from it. I look back on 9/11 with great sadness and reflect on all the people who came forward to help us and just pray that nothing like that ever happens again.”
Other Lower Manhattan community members haven’t made plans yet for the tenth anniversary weekend. Tribeca resident Liat Silberman will be home, but does not want to attend the ceremonies. Having moved to the neighborhood six months after 9/11, she feels slightly removed from the 9/11 community Downtown. “I think for the 10-year [mark], everyone has an opinion of where things should be, and I watch respectfully,” she said. “I feel the people who have gone through it should take center stage.”
