At the beginning of October, I wrote an article for my The Beat: Reporting Downtown class at NYU about a tiny post office on the Lower East Side that was on the United States Postal Service's list for closure.
Because of massive losses (due in large part to the internet!) the USPS is trying to scale back its services. The Pitt Street Post Office is special because it sits in a NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community - with at least 50 percent of residents 60 and over) on Clinton Street, and the elderly is the one of the biggest snail mail demographics.
My teacher, who has connections at the Daily News, submitted my article and it was published on Nov. 18.
Daily News article from Nov. 18
Then Gothamist, a prominent NYC blog, picked it up:
Gothamist's Extra Extra
I was already excited about the attention the story was getting, until Nov. 20, when the USPS announced they were reducing the list of closing P.O.s in NYC from 14 to five.
Gothamist: Post Office Death Count Down to 5
The Pitt Street Post Office is staying open!
The decision of the USPS was due in part to community activism (and there has been a lot around Clinton Street) but I was so happy that my article may have had influence, no matter how little or how much.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Vegan Treats at BabyCakes NYC
When one thinks of cupcakes, eggs, milk, and sugar usually figure into the list of ingredients. But BabyCakes NYC, a vegan bakery on the Lower East Side, defies the standards and you won't know the difference. Seriously.
When I approach BabyCakes, the bright interior stands out on a city block pockmarked with dim, swanky bars and shadowed, crumbling tenement buildings.
Inside the air is warm and sweet, and everything from the walls to the bakers’ outfits is a light, pastel pink. It feels like walking into a Hollywood baby nursery, with signed photos of Chevy Chase and the Golden Girls adorning the space. At first glance, BabyCakes looks like any other bakery in New York: tiny – with only seven chairs - and quirky, exuding a pleasant, sugary atmosphere.
But a glance at the menu reveals the hidden treat: all of its pastries are free of dairy, eggs, refined sugar, soy, and most are also free of gluten. And they are delicious.
“I always had a hunch everyone who knew me thought I was crazy when I announced I was quitting my job in fashion to open a bakery,” says Erin McKenna, owner of BabyCakes, on the bakery’s blog.
McKenna opened BabyCakes in 2005 to satisfy her own sweet tooth. “She was inspired to open the bakery because of her own dietary restrictions,” says Emily Woesthoff, general manager of BabyCakes NYC. “An intolerance to wheat, dairy and sugar left her on an endless quest for really delicious desserts.”
When McKenna couldn’t find suitable treats at other bakeries, she decided to bake her own. After a year of experiments, using ingredients such as agave nectar syrup (to replace refined sugar), garbanzo beans (instead of wheat flour) and coconut oil (known for heart benefits), McKenna opened BabyCakes and started selling her creations.
Since then, BabyCakes has received glowing reviews from The New York Times and Vanity Fair, and has celebrity fans including Martha Stewart and Natalie Portman. This vegan treat-seller attracts a young crowd, but also older generations who want to eat their sweets in a healthier way.
The bakery is unique in making vegan goodies – including cookies, cupcakes, breads, and even donuts - that don’t taste vegan, or like they are missing ingredients. I ate two red velvet cupcakes, one gluten-free, made with garbanzo beans, and one made with spelt (wheat). One cupcake is $3.95, with breads (such as banana and pumpkin spice) at $5 a slice, and cookies $1.50 each.
The gluten-free one was creamier and smoother than its counterpart, which was grainy and a bit more “healthy-tasting.” However both were unbelievably delicious. If I had gotten these in a blind test I would never have guessed they were dairy-free and sugar-free. The frosting was rich, sweet, and had a great cream cheese flavor that red velvet is famous for. The cupcakes themselves had the right amount of crumble and stickiness.
In May, Babycakes came out with a cookbook called “Babycakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-about Bakery”, bringing non-New Yorkers access to this wealth of unconventional treats.
The bakery is also opening another outpost in Los Angeles, where veganism, like in New York, is a growing trend.
A very special cupcake
When I approach BabyCakes, the bright interior stands out on a city block pockmarked with dim, swanky bars and shadowed, crumbling tenement buildings.
Inside the air is warm and sweet, and everything from the walls to the bakers’ outfits is a light, pastel pink. It feels like walking into a Hollywood baby nursery, with signed photos of Chevy Chase and the Golden Girls adorning the space. At first glance, BabyCakes looks like any other bakery in New York: tiny – with only seven chairs - and quirky, exuding a pleasant, sugary atmosphere.
But a glance at the menu reveals the hidden treat: all of its pastries are free of dairy, eggs, refined sugar, soy, and most are also free of gluten. And they are delicious.
“I always had a hunch everyone who knew me thought I was crazy when I announced I was quitting my job in fashion to open a bakery,” says Erin McKenna, owner of BabyCakes, on the bakery’s blog.
McKenna opened BabyCakes in 2005 to satisfy her own sweet tooth. “She was inspired to open the bakery because of her own dietary restrictions,” says Emily Woesthoff, general manager of BabyCakes NYC. “An intolerance to wheat, dairy and sugar left her on an endless quest for really delicious desserts.”
When McKenna couldn’t find suitable treats at other bakeries, she decided to bake her own. After a year of experiments, using ingredients such as agave nectar syrup (to replace refined sugar), garbanzo beans (instead of wheat flour) and coconut oil (known for heart benefits), McKenna opened BabyCakes and started selling her creations.
Since then, BabyCakes has received glowing reviews from The New York Times and Vanity Fair, and has celebrity fans including Martha Stewart and Natalie Portman. This vegan treat-seller attracts a young crowd, but also older generations who want to eat their sweets in a healthier way.
The bakery is unique in making vegan goodies – including cookies, cupcakes, breads, and even donuts - that don’t taste vegan, or like they are missing ingredients. I ate two red velvet cupcakes, one gluten-free, made with garbanzo beans, and one made with spelt (wheat). One cupcake is $3.95, with breads (such as banana and pumpkin spice) at $5 a slice, and cookies $1.50 each.
The gluten-free one was creamier and smoother than its counterpart, which was grainy and a bit more “healthy-tasting.” However both were unbelievably delicious. If I had gotten these in a blind test I would never have guessed they were dairy-free and sugar-free. The frosting was rich, sweet, and had a great cream cheese flavor that red velvet is famous for. The cupcakes themselves had the right amount of crumble and stickiness.
In May, Babycakes came out with a cookbook called “Babycakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-about Bakery”, bringing non-New Yorkers access to this wealth of unconventional treats.
The bakery is also opening another outpost in Los Angeles, where veganism, like in New York, is a growing trend.
A very special cupcake
An Interview with Carey Pulverman, Worm Lady
Carey Pulverman, 24, is known as the “worm lady.” She earned this nickname as the project manager of the Manhattan Compost Project at the Lower East Side Ecology Center. The Center was founded in 1987 to jumpstart recycling, composting, and environmental awareness in New York neighborhoods.
A resident of the East Village, Pulverman has always maintained an active interest in the environment. The worm lady got her start at NYU, where she majored in Metropolitan Studies and found an internship at the Ecology Center. The experience combined her two passions: a love for cities and a mission to save the earth. Pulverman teaches kids how to compost at home in worm bins and community gardens, in an outdoors classroom in East River Park. Pulverman spoke about her job that literally has all the dirty details.
How did you get into composting?
I started in college, by bringing my food scraps to the LESEC Compost Drop Off at Union Square, when I lived in an NYU dorm. When I got my own apartment, I got a worm bin.
What made you want to major in Metropolitan Studies?
I grew up in the suburbs of Southern California, and so I had an interest in cities, and how the organization of life is different from where I lived before.
Why New York in particular?
I wanted to live on the other side of the country, because staying in California would be too similar to being in high school.
I read that you studied abroad in Panama. What did you do there?
I studied the social sustainability of a really small seaweed farming project in the Caribbean off of Colón, Panamá. I looked at how the employees felt about their jobs and if they cared about the environmental impact.
How do you feel about your job?
What’s great is that my job is outside, in the East River Park, as opposed to being inside in an office building. My office is in the park, in an old fireboat house on the river. I ride my bike here; it’s a nice balance of city and nature. During the winter, we have more indoor workshops on composting, but it’s an all-year round program and students from neighboring schools come here to learn.
What are your students’ favorite things to hear about worms and composting?
They really like to hear about how the worms have babies, it is one of their favorite topics.
How do you use composting in an apartment setting – how does it compare to composting in a backyard?
I compost at home in a worm bin in my closet, as well as at my community garden, La Plaza Cultural. I don't think either is more difficult, it just depends what kind of space you have.
What is your favorite thing about your job being outdoors?
Not staring at a computer all day!
How do you see the future of the Ecology Center?
We are pretty small, with only six staff members, so we can’t really expand until we have more office space. But our compost drop-off program at the Union Square Greenmarket has doubled every spring for the past three years. We get up to six-seven tons of food scraps a week!
The cycle of composting
A resident of the East Village, Pulverman has always maintained an active interest in the environment. The worm lady got her start at NYU, where she majored in Metropolitan Studies and found an internship at the Ecology Center. The experience combined her two passions: a love for cities and a mission to save the earth. Pulverman teaches kids how to compost at home in worm bins and community gardens, in an outdoors classroom in East River Park. Pulverman spoke about her job that literally has all the dirty details.
How did you get into composting?
I started in college, by bringing my food scraps to the LESEC Compost Drop Off at Union Square, when I lived in an NYU dorm. When I got my own apartment, I got a worm bin.
What made you want to major in Metropolitan Studies?
I grew up in the suburbs of Southern California, and so I had an interest in cities, and how the organization of life is different from where I lived before.
Why New York in particular?
I wanted to live on the other side of the country, because staying in California would be too similar to being in high school.
I read that you studied abroad in Panama. What did you do there?
I studied the social sustainability of a really small seaweed farming project in the Caribbean off of Colón, Panamá. I looked at how the employees felt about their jobs and if they cared about the environmental impact.
How do you feel about your job?
What’s great is that my job is outside, in the East River Park, as opposed to being inside in an office building. My office is in the park, in an old fireboat house on the river. I ride my bike here; it’s a nice balance of city and nature. During the winter, we have more indoor workshops on composting, but it’s an all-year round program and students from neighboring schools come here to learn.
What are your students’ favorite things to hear about worms and composting?
They really like to hear about how the worms have babies, it is one of their favorite topics.
How do you use composting in an apartment setting – how does it compare to composting in a backyard?
I compost at home in a worm bin in my closet, as well as at my community garden, La Plaza Cultural. I don't think either is more difficult, it just depends what kind of space you have.
What is your favorite thing about your job being outdoors?
Not staring at a computer all day!
How do you see the future of the Ecology Center?
We are pretty small, with only six staff members, so we can’t really expand until we have more office space. But our compost drop-off program at the Union Square Greenmarket has doubled every spring for the past three years. We get up to six-seven tons of food scraps a week!
The cycle of composting
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Where political extremes come together in the weirdest of ways
Leave it to the Lower East Side to have the ultimate architectural paradox: a statue of Vladimir Lenin gracing the top of a luxury apartment building. What a way to bring old-school immigrant politics and current gentrification together.
The LES is all about the smallest quirks, the tiniest details that can escape your eye if you keep your head down and your I-pod earbuds in. There's street art everywhere, ancient 19th century advertisements peeling off tenement walls, and Stars of David engraved on buildings that now house Chinese bakeries and Hispanic hair salons.
One of my favorite oddities of this neighborhood can only be glimpsed if you lift your eyes skyward at the corner of Avenue A and East Houston Street, to the top of a 13-story apartment building called Red Square.
It was built in 1989, the same year as the fall of the Berlin Wall, by urban developer and former NYU professor of radical sociology Michael Rosen. Atop it stands Lenin, hero of many Eastern European immigrant workers who started promising, but underpaid/overworked lives in this neighborhood. Paradox much? Check out Lenin's stance. He is raising his right arm in the direction of Wall Street, a "**** you" to the triumphant capitalists of the late 1980s. Such defiance becomes more confusing with the building's purpose as a luxury apartment complex. I love this part of town.
The LES is all about the smallest quirks, the tiniest details that can escape your eye if you keep your head down and your I-pod earbuds in. There's street art everywhere, ancient 19th century advertisements peeling off tenement walls, and Stars of David engraved on buildings that now house Chinese bakeries and Hispanic hair salons.
One of my favorite oddities of this neighborhood can only be glimpsed if you lift your eyes skyward at the corner of Avenue A and East Houston Street, to the top of a 13-story apartment building called Red Square.
It was built in 1989, the same year as the fall of the Berlin Wall, by urban developer and former NYU professor of radical sociology Michael Rosen. Atop it stands Lenin, hero of many Eastern European immigrant workers who started promising, but underpaid/overworked lives in this neighborhood. Paradox much? Check out Lenin's stance. He is raising his right arm in the direction of Wall Street, a "**** you" to the triumphant capitalists of the late 1980s. Such defiance becomes more confusing with the building's purpose as a luxury apartment complex. I love this part of town.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Veggies - A-hoy to the East River docks!
Since becoming a vegetarian almost a year ago, I've been on a constant mission to find a great veggie-friendly restaurant on the Lower East Side, but the neighborhood is surprisingly empty of one.
I've found plenty in the East Village where I live - Curly's Vegetarian Lunch at 14th Street and 1st Avenue (my personal favorite - try the crabfakes and "chorizo"!), Caravan of Dreams at 6th Street and 1st Avenue, Kate's Joint at 4th Street and Avenue B, and Lula's Sweet Apothecary at 6th Street and Avenue A (vegan ice cream that everyone has to try to believe).
BabyCakes, on Broome Street on the LES, is a great vegan bakery that tempts me every time I'm walking in the neighborhood. But aside from that, below Houston Street restaurants that aren't steak and fish-heavy seem hard to find. In such a thriving, modern, and youth-centered neighborhood, it's odd that the restaurants aren't following the nationwide trend of young people taking vegetables and tofu over meat. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough...
LES, you need more of this goodness! Delicious burrito property of Curly's Vegetarian Lunch.
I've found plenty in the East Village where I live - Curly's Vegetarian Lunch at 14th Street and 1st Avenue (my personal favorite - try the crabfakes and "chorizo"!), Caravan of Dreams at 6th Street and 1st Avenue, Kate's Joint at 4th Street and Avenue B, and Lula's Sweet Apothecary at 6th Street and Avenue A (vegan ice cream that everyone has to try to believe).
BabyCakes, on Broome Street on the LES, is a great vegan bakery that tempts me every time I'm walking in the neighborhood. But aside from that, below Houston Street restaurants that aren't steak and fish-heavy seem hard to find. In such a thriving, modern, and youth-centered neighborhood, it's odd that the restaurants aren't following the nationwide trend of young people taking vegetables and tofu over meat. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough...
LES, you need more of this goodness! Delicious burrito property of Curly's Vegetarian Lunch.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Guss' Pickles - Why are they moving to Brooklyn?
It seems like Guss' Pickles will be out of the Lower East Side around the end of the year. It will be the end of a 99-year tradition, and another LES mainstay to join the list of mom-and-pop shops that can't pay the new, ridiculously high rent of the neighborhood.
The LES used to be the place for pickles. Guss' dates back to the 1900s, when a Polish immigrant named Isidor Guss opened up a stand. There were vendors all over the place. But with Guss' up and moving to Brooklyn, one of the traditions of Jewish immigrant life is that much closer to disappearing.
Apparently the rent has become too high for Pat Fairhurst, the owner, and the space just isn't big enough for her to brine the way she wants. The other day when I was down there I bought two pickles: a three-quarter sour, and a spicy pickle. Other varieties are half-sour and full-sour. They were both delicious, even though the spicy pickle was so hot my ears started burning. It was a wonderful taste experience.
The gentrification of the Lower East Side has brought along many wonderful eateries, including Il Laboratorio del Gelato, a homemade ice cream stand on Orchard Street, and the Roasting Plant, also on Orchard, a cafe that roasts its coffee beans freshly every day. But what about the shops of immigrant life that have survived the years? There are still a few knisherys and delis scattered throughout the neighborhood, but it seems like the loss of Guss' is just the continuation of an old-world exodus.
Probably the spiciest pickle in New York - maybe on earth.
The LES used to be the place for pickles. Guss' dates back to the 1900s, when a Polish immigrant named Isidor Guss opened up a stand. There were vendors all over the place. But with Guss' up and moving to Brooklyn, one of the traditions of Jewish immigrant life is that much closer to disappearing.
Apparently the rent has become too high for Pat Fairhurst, the owner, and the space just isn't big enough for her to brine the way she wants. The other day when I was down there I bought two pickles: a three-quarter sour, and a spicy pickle. Other varieties are half-sour and full-sour. They were both delicious, even though the spicy pickle was so hot my ears started burning. It was a wonderful taste experience.
The gentrification of the Lower East Side has brought along many wonderful eateries, including Il Laboratorio del Gelato, a homemade ice cream stand on Orchard Street, and the Roasting Plant, also on Orchard, a cafe that roasts its coffee beans freshly every day. But what about the shops of immigrant life that have survived the years? There are still a few knisherys and delis scattered throughout the neighborhood, but it seems like the loss of Guss' is just the continuation of an old-world exodus.
Probably the spiciest pickle in New York - maybe on earth.
Are the Lower East Side tenements really gone?
For many, the Lower East Side of Manhattan has become completely gentrified - swanky bars and organic coffee shops mark dozens of street corners. The rent can match that of apartments on the Upper East Side. But walk far, far east, and the 19th century tenement slums the LES was known for seem reincarnated in sky-high public housing buildings.
Walking south on Allen Street, I noticed that park benches and greenery are starting to pop up on the median of the two-way street. According to a podcast tour I took of the LES a few months ago for my NYU Beat Reporting Downtown class, Allen Street used to have another row of tenement buildings right down the center. It's hard to imagine squeezing in an entire block of buildings, even though this street is technically a wide boulevard. But now, instead of smelly, dirty, unsafe apartments, the median on Allen Street is just another place to sit and drink your shade-grown coffee.
In fact, the dilapidated tenements of the 19th century are now swanky high-priced apartments, or historical sites. The devastation and poverty that plagued this area 100 years ago seems to have disappeared completely. There's even the Tenement Museum, for the majority of us who can't imagine the LES as the former home of the worst slums on earth.
But is this LES poverty really gone? If you walk east, and I mean so east that you almost hit the river on Grand Street, you see a New York that feels forgotten. It is not in the guidebooks, retail stores are few and far between, and I saw street names that I didn't recognize, far beyond Orchard, Norfolk, and Clinton. The housing projects on the East River rise to staggering heights, but their poverty can seem as low as that of the old Lower East Side, the filth and despair that used to pervade the wealthy streets of today.
Down here, far east, streets are named after important Jewish people. There's a Rheba Liebowitz Square, and an Abraham Kazan Street. But most of the Jewish families have left, replaced by low-income Hispanic, black, and Asian families. In this area below Houston Street and east of Columbia, 38-49 percent of families are below the poverty line, with the median income as low as $11,963, according to the census profile of the district in 2000.
Maybe the dirty windows and ancient air conditioning units of the housing projects down here cannot be rightfully compared to the tenements of the past, but walking through this neighborhood, then circling back on Orchard towards home amid the fancy boutiques and gourmet food stores, makes it hard to ignore the "history repeating itself" feeling. Many people say that the Lower East Side has become completely gentrified, but this Lower East Side, just a few blocks from the river, is completely removed from this renewal.
Walking south on Allen Street, I noticed that park benches and greenery are starting to pop up on the median of the two-way street. According to a podcast tour I took of the LES a few months ago for my NYU Beat Reporting Downtown class, Allen Street used to have another row of tenement buildings right down the center. It's hard to imagine squeezing in an entire block of buildings, even though this street is technically a wide boulevard. But now, instead of smelly, dirty, unsafe apartments, the median on Allen Street is just another place to sit and drink your shade-grown coffee.
In fact, the dilapidated tenements of the 19th century are now swanky high-priced apartments, or historical sites. The devastation and poverty that plagued this area 100 years ago seems to have disappeared completely. There's even the Tenement Museum, for the majority of us who can't imagine the LES as the former home of the worst slums on earth.
But is this LES poverty really gone? If you walk east, and I mean so east that you almost hit the river on Grand Street, you see a New York that feels forgotten. It is not in the guidebooks, retail stores are few and far between, and I saw street names that I didn't recognize, far beyond Orchard, Norfolk, and Clinton. The housing projects on the East River rise to staggering heights, but their poverty can seem as low as that of the old Lower East Side, the filth and despair that used to pervade the wealthy streets of today.
Down here, far east, streets are named after important Jewish people. There's a Rheba Liebowitz Square, and an Abraham Kazan Street. But most of the Jewish families have left, replaced by low-income Hispanic, black, and Asian families. In this area below Houston Street and east of Columbia, 38-49 percent of families are below the poverty line, with the median income as low as $11,963, according to the census profile of the district in 2000.
Maybe the dirty windows and ancient air conditioning units of the housing projects down here cannot be rightfully compared to the tenements of the past, but walking through this neighborhood, then circling back on Orchard towards home amid the fancy boutiques and gourmet food stores, makes it hard to ignore the "history repeating itself" feeling. Many people say that the Lower East Side has become completely gentrified, but this Lower East Side, just a few blocks from the river, is completely removed from this renewal.
Monday, November 2, 2009
A Trip to the WTC Tribute Center, 10/28/09
Last Wednesday I went to Tribute WTC Visitor Center on Liberty Street with my NYU Beat: Reporting Downtown class. The war ideology that developed behind 9/11, and that eventually engulfed it, has always felt so over-analyzed and drawn out to me. Before the field trip I felt rather ambivalent about going.
Although that feeling did stick with me during several parts of the visit - the melodramatic music on the audio tour didn't help - I realized there is a point to the center, to the plans for the new World Trade Center buildings and memorial. It is to make sure that no one will forget what happened that September, over eight years ago, when two planes hit the Twin Towers and killed 2,749 people. It seems like the meaning of that day can be distorted by war and xenophobia. However, the center did a great job of sticking to what was pure, inspirational and literal: keeping the memory of those who died alive.
Wednesday was rainy, and my 14 classmates and I splashed through the streets to reach the World Financial Center. Looking through the windows towards Ground Zero, we listened to an audio tour given by a father who lost his son on 9/11, a firefighter. After hearing that only 174 whole bodies were recovered from the wreckage, and that it only took 10 seconds for one 110-story building to fall, the damp, disordered construction site was truly impacting. It was the most emotional and disturbing field trip I have ever been on, but also one of the most important.
"Sept. 12 was the worst day, because Sept. 11 we still had hope," said a woman on the audio tour whose husband was never recovered. After our return to the center, we saw images and video of what we had merely heard about. A collage of hundreds of "Missing" signs was plastered on one side of the room. Videos of the WTC before 9/11, and then the devastation of that day in 2001, play again and again on flatscreen TVs on the other side.
After absorbing gruesome photos of the wounded, and items retrieved from the catastrophe (including a piece of one of the jetliners), we went downstairs to hear a truly emotional speech. Tracy Gazzani, a volunteer docent, spoke about the loss of her 24-year-old son Terri, who worked on the 104th floor of the North Tower. "He was cut off from all exits," said Gazzani. "Terri was never recovered." She spoke about the process of grief and why she decided to volunteer for the tribute center. "It's my way of giving back, because people from all over the world came to help us. 9/11 was like dropping a pebble onto a piece of glass and having it spider out. It affected so many people."
When the tour was over, I walked to the World Trade Center subway stop, which has never changed its name even though the buildings are gone. I realize now how important this is, because sometimes a name is all we need to remember something so vast and tragic.
Although that feeling did stick with me during several parts of the visit - the melodramatic music on the audio tour didn't help - I realized there is a point to the center, to the plans for the new World Trade Center buildings and memorial. It is to make sure that no one will forget what happened that September, over eight years ago, when two planes hit the Twin Towers and killed 2,749 people. It seems like the meaning of that day can be distorted by war and xenophobia. However, the center did a great job of sticking to what was pure, inspirational and literal: keeping the memory of those who died alive.
Wednesday was rainy, and my 14 classmates and I splashed through the streets to reach the World Financial Center. Looking through the windows towards Ground Zero, we listened to an audio tour given by a father who lost his son on 9/11, a firefighter. After hearing that only 174 whole bodies were recovered from the wreckage, and that it only took 10 seconds for one 110-story building to fall, the damp, disordered construction site was truly impacting. It was the most emotional and disturbing field trip I have ever been on, but also one of the most important.
"Sept. 12 was the worst day, because Sept. 11 we still had hope," said a woman on the audio tour whose husband was never recovered. After our return to the center, we saw images and video of what we had merely heard about. A collage of hundreds of "Missing" signs was plastered on one side of the room. Videos of the WTC before 9/11, and then the devastation of that day in 2001, play again and again on flatscreen TVs on the other side.
After absorbing gruesome photos of the wounded, and items retrieved from the catastrophe (including a piece of one of the jetliners), we went downstairs to hear a truly emotional speech. Tracy Gazzani, a volunteer docent, spoke about the loss of her 24-year-old son Terri, who worked on the 104th floor of the North Tower. "He was cut off from all exits," said Gazzani. "Terri was never recovered." She spoke about the process of grief and why she decided to volunteer for the tribute center. "It's my way of giving back, because people from all over the world came to help us. 9/11 was like dropping a pebble onto a piece of glass and having it spider out. It affected so many people."
When the tour was over, I walked to the World Trade Center subway stop, which has never changed its name even though the buildings are gone. I realize now how important this is, because sometimes a name is all we need to remember something so vast and tragic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
