You are currently viewing the stories for November, 2001
October 2001
by Patrick J. Sauer 11/15/2001Neighborhood: All Over, Manhattan
On September 12, I went back to work at Men’s Journal because the issue was gutted and redone for a tribute to the FDNY. The streets were empty, not only of people, but also of noise. There were no street peddlers, few taxis, no music, no screaming, and no horns honking, only the non-stop blare […]
The Costume Nazi
by Carly Hutchinson 11/13/2001Neighborhood: Chelsea
M. Gordon Novelty, Inc., at 933 Broadway, just south of 23rd Street, is a very tight operation. When things get really busy — like during the last days before Halloween — customers enter the showroom by twos or threes as other shoppers leave. The subsequent waiting period encourages customers to determine costume possibilities before they […]
Cheering the Rescue Workers
by Kate Walter 11/12/2001Neighborhood: Greenwich Village
I saw summer turn to fall on the median of the West Side Highway where I stood waving my American flag, holding up hand made thank you signs, saluting the rescue and recovery workers. The crews, coming from long shifts, appreciate the support. When they pass in their various vehicles, (fire engines, police cars, ambulances, […]
The View From Staten Island
by Dino D'Agata 11/11/2001Neighborhood: All Over, Staten Island
It was with a sense of being robbed that I watched, from a television set on Staten Island, the events that unfolded on September 11th. The smoke emanating from the two buildings as if they’d been sliced by some reckless cosmic lawnmower gone berserk, and the camera angle that made the bodies falling look like […]
The Fate of the Pear Trees at Ground Zero
by Bram Gunther 11/10/2001Neighborhood: World Trade Center
Two weeks after the shock of September 11th, I was sent to “ground zero” by the Parks Department Commissioner to make a quick evaluation of the damage to the plant life in the area. The Commissioner wanted to know what had survived, what plants would need to be replaced, how much it would all cost. […]
Stories From Fire Engine 16
by Interviews and introduction by EDWARD HELMORE 11/09/2001Neighborhood: Murray Hill
Interviews and introduction by EDWARD HELMORE Fire Department of New York Firehouse 16-7. 234 East 29th Street, Manhattan. September 11, 2001. On the riding list of Engine 16 were Lieutenant Mickey Kross and firefighters Tim Marmion, Paul Lee, Pete Fallucca, and trainee firefighter Sean Brown. On the riding list of Tower Ladder 7: Lt. Vernon […]
More Stories From Engine 16
by Interviews and introduction by EDWARD HELMORE 11/06/2001Neighborhood: Murray Hill
Paul Lee I came in about 8:30 that morning, changed into my uniform, and then a few minutes later they announced plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I was thinking to myself, is this real or is it just a fake or is it an accident, whatever it was. Just a few minutes […]
On Ay-rabs, Tourists and War in Red Hook
by Victoria Malkin 11/05/2001Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Red Hook
It is a month after 9/11 when I first hear about Dags in the Palestinian grocery store, on Columbia Street, next to the Red Hook housing projects. I am on my way tenants’ patrol – a group of five of us (on a good day) that wears orange NYCHA jakces and is supposedly keeping out […]
See You Later, Alligator
by Dorothy Spears 11/04/2001Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights
A favorite phrase of my mother’s, those early days in Brooklyn, was “See you later, Alligator.” She would send my brother Wally to play with his friend next door. And she would leave me with Fanny, the so-called cleaning lady, a monolithic black woman who took perverse pleasure in threatening to scrub my mouth with […]
Morgan Stanley’s Free Lunch
by Bryan Charles 11/03/2001Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad, Outer Boroughs
First came the hugging and the crying and the storytelling. We’re all alive and it’s groovy. Long live the marketing department! Long live the company! We’ll rebuild! Then came the fatness. Working in an office, in a cubicle, is the surest way to obesity. You scorch your eyes looking at the Internet all day, sipping […]
Halloween Identity Crisis
by Cris Sales 11/03/2001Neighborhood: Chinatown, Lower Manhattan, SoHo
I haven’t dressed up in several Halloweens. I’ve been reluctant to do so since third grade when I came to school as Diane Keaton in “Annie Hall.” I blew my wad that year. This year would see no disguise. The better part of the day would be spent with my friend Sabine killing time before […]
Morrone’s Bakery on East 116th Street
by Beagan Wilcox 11/02/2001Neighborhood: East Harlem
In 1956, at the age of nineteen, Rosa Morrone was almost past the prime marrying age in her native town, Polla, south of Naples, Italy. Her father was beginning to seriously worry that she wouldn’t marry. At the same time, Gabriele Morrone, who had left Polla for New York City when he was 14, returned […]