VOLUME 29, NUMBER 18
SEPTEMBER 08 – SEPTEMBER 21, 2016
better than ever 15
Years of
Resilience &
Resurgence Sept. 11, 2001 BY BILL EGBERT When the 9/11 attacks brought down the World Trade Center fifteen years ago, the collapsing towers almost resembled a pair of knives plunging into the heart of the city. The otherworldly clouds of smoke and dust that billowed out from the site settled over everything Downtown, as if it meant to burry the neighborhood alive. Immediately afterwards, it seemed far-fetched to imagine restoring Lower Manhattan to how it was before the attacks. The frantic imperative was simply to haul away the smouldering wreckage, shovel the toxic dust out homes
and offices, and somehow persuade residents and business not to flee the disaster area for good. For a heartsick moment, it seemed possible that New York’s First Neighborhood might well become a vacant urban ruin. What a difference 15 years can make. Today, Downtown has one of the most dynamic, fastest growing economies in the city, and a still-booming residential population already double what it was before 9/11 — and the number of children has tripled, attesting that a neighborhood long considered a sterile office district has become a true family community.
Sept. 11, 2016
The feared exodus from post-9/11 Lower Manhattan was halted and reversed not only by a swift cleanup and hastily arranged government incentives, but more importantly by a resilient community determined not to be driven from the neighborhood where they lived and worked. It was these survivors — in every sense of the word — who initially set the example by returning individually to their devastated homes and shops to dig out of the rubble, and then joining together at the grassroots to cooperate and build a sense of community that many concede was absent before the attacks. The casual
1 M e t r o t e c h • N YC 112 0 1 • C o p y r i g h t © 2 0 16 N YC C o mm u n i t y M e d i a , L L C
networks the formed among Downtown’s survivors evolved into tenacious groups that began setting and steering the agenda for rebuilding Lower Manhatan, even as powerful forces in Albany, Trenton, Washington, and City Hall wrestled for control of the greatest urban renewal project in history. The hard work of these dedicated Downtown stakeholders helped assure that the slow, gruelling and often chaotic process of rebuilding Lower Manhattan culminated in the livable, attractive, multiuse neighborhood that has since resilience Continued on page 2