If you're a Civic Center local, you can probably remember the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.
I can't begin to imagine the chaos around City Hall that day. All I can really remember is my own fear for my father surge through my chest, a litany cycling through my head while they held us at school: Please, let Daddy have been far away from the World Trade Center. Sometimes that fear still pulls at my chest and brings tears to my eyes.
And today, those tears spilled out at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, where I went with my journalism class. I didn't lose anyone in the attacks, but I still cried for the 2,751 people who died and for the families of the approximately 20,000 remains found in the rescue effort, according to statistics compiled by Tribute WTC.
What I saw on a film in one of the galleries impacted me the most during the visit. I can still hear the gravelly voice of an aging firefighter talking about the rescue effort, and the search for the body of his son. I can still hear him counting himself more fortunate than the others because he found his son's body in one piece.
"We were finding boots with feet inside. We were finding pants and jackets with body parts inside," Manny Papir, former Mayor Giuliani's deputy chief of staff, said.
Papir aided in the evacuation process on Sept. 11. During the evacuation it seemed as though he had lost all senses except for sight and it was only days later that he could distinguish smells again, he said.
Our tour guide, John Henderson, had also been in the area that day. He told us that he and his wife wore surgical masks while walking through the debris. They walked across the Brooklyn bridge and refused to turn back, he said.
"We're not looking back. There's nothing behind us that we need to see," Henderson said he told his wife.
Yet Henderson, who also works in NYU Graduate Enrollment Services, has come back to lead WTC Tribute tours around the site and through the galleries. As the tour neared its end, Henderson stressed to us that everyone can help in some small way. We can look forward to the World Trade Center Memorial and the Freedom Tower. We can spare a minute to remember those brave enough to try saving others even when all hope seemed lost.
"Are you guys ready? Let's roll," Tom Beamer, credited with leading a passenger takeover of hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, said on Sept. 11, 2001.
29 October 2008
28 October 2008
Meeting Pete Hamill
"The City Hall area is better off now and it's a great location."-Pete Hamill
"New York is a place where you can't judge often what people think."
-Pete Hamill
"Music is one of the great triggers."-Pete Hamill
"Some people are New Yorkers the day they show up."
-Pete Hamill
"Youth needs the possibility of romance," Pete Hamill wrote in his book Downtown: My Manhattan.
I'll admit it. I was jealous. New York was my city, my secret love. And now this 73-year old writer named Pete Hamill felt that same possibility of romance with its sleek buildings, its tough character and its rich history!
But I got so caught up in the wonders of Downtown - in which Hamill wove his own personal New York narrative together with the separate, intricately detailed threads of the city's history - that my outrage had faded when I finished it a few days later. Instead, I was pretty impressed.
My respect for Hamill increased tenfold when he visited my journalism class on Wednesday and spoke about his personal writing process. For Hamill, language beats to a musical rhythm. He walks around, collects his memories, jots down ideas on a yellow pad and strings together his words in a steady cadence that captures meaning and emotion and possibilities.
The ability to help others represents one of writing's possibilities, Hamill said. He said this notion arose from a past memory in which his mother admonished, "Don't you ever look down on anybody unless you're giving them a hand to get up."
This influenced the first piece he ever wrote, which was about an evicted Williamsburg tenant. Readers then found both job offers and a place to live for the evicted man, Hamill said. This desire to help people guided Hamill throughout his entire journalistic career, in which he wrote for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and New York Newsday, the Village Voice, New York magazine and Esquire.
Don't let all of those publications and all of Hamill's sucesses intimidate you, though. In journalism class, Hamill was both friendly and patient. But the thing that really stood out to me, the thing that really made me feel like I could understand a little bit more about him than I had previously, was this:
"Within the label of poverty, there were dozens of people who were not impoverished," he said.
The public library, filled with paperback fictions and tomes of knowledge, represented the most important place in Hamill's life. And what he meant was that although he may not have been monetarily rich, Hamill felt rich whenever he went to that library and immersed himself in another literary adventure.
And for that, I highly respect and admire Pete Hamill, even if he is having a love affair with my city.
I'll admit it. I was jealous. New York was my city, my secret love. And now this 73-year old writer named Pete Hamill felt that same possibility of romance with its sleek buildings, its tough character and its rich history!
But I got so caught up in the wonders of Downtown - in which Hamill wove his own personal New York narrative together with the separate, intricately detailed threads of the city's history - that my outrage had faded when I finished it a few days later. Instead, I was pretty impressed.
My respect for Hamill increased tenfold when he visited my journalism class on Wednesday and spoke about his personal writing process. For Hamill, language beats to a musical rhythm. He walks around, collects his memories, jots down ideas on a yellow pad and strings together his words in a steady cadence that captures meaning and emotion and possibilities.
The ability to help others represents one of writing's possibilities, Hamill said. He said this notion arose from a past memory in which his mother admonished, "Don't you ever look down on anybody unless you're giving them a hand to get up."
This influenced the first piece he ever wrote, which was about an evicted Williamsburg tenant. Readers then found both job offers and a place to live for the evicted man, Hamill said. This desire to help people guided Hamill throughout his entire journalistic career, in which he wrote for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and New York Newsday, the Village Voice, New York magazine and Esquire.
Don't let all of those publications and all of Hamill's sucesses intimidate you, though. In journalism class, Hamill was both friendly and patient. But the thing that really stood out to me, the thing that really made me feel like I could understand a little bit more about him than I had previously, was this:
"Within the label of poverty, there were dozens of people who were not impoverished," he said.
The public library, filled with paperback fictions and tomes of knowledge, represented the most important place in Hamill's life. And what he meant was that although he may not have been monetarily rich, Hamill felt rich whenever he went to that library and immersed himself in another literary adventure.
And for that, I highly respect and admire Pete Hamill, even if he is having a love affair with my city.
25 October 2008
Some Ghoulish News
Halloween is just around the corner, which means scary fun for the kids. But this year, even the adults are shaking in fear. This year's ghouls are real. And in the Civic Center, locals have names for them: economic recession, construction, and Mayor Bloomberg.
Locals said the scariest ghoul of all was Mayor Bloomberg's quest to override term limits. And on Oct. 23 the City Council voted 22-29 to approve Bloomberg's third-term run. Opponents charged Bloomberg of bribing his private charities for support. The LaRouche PAC warned against Bloomberg's third-term bid and the economic bailout by handing out fliers around City Hall park on Tuesday.
Another scare is the redevelopment threatening the South Street Seaport. Developer General Growth Properties plans to demolish historic buildings and replace them with "a 42-story residential/hotel tower and a 12-story boutique hotel," according to AMNY.
But don't let this year's real fears scare you into staying indoors and missing out on traditional Halloween spookiness. There are still plenty of free and social events in the neighborhood. Trinity church will host three different free, open to the public activities on Halloween night. Other upcoming events at the church include a choir concert on Oct. 28 and a wedding workshop on Oct. 29. Visit the church from now until Nov. 14 to see the art exhibit "A Variety of Gifts."
For a different venue, check out South Street Seaport on Halloween and sail on the adults-only Haunted Ghost Ship. More events include a scavenger hunt at the South Street Seaport Museum on Oct. 25 and a Diabetes Fundraiser Walk at Pier 17 on Oct. 26.
If you're still not shaking with excitement at the prospect of all these events, try attending the Pace University performance of "All Shook Up" from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. For those with a passion for acting, the Actors Theatre Workshop now offers "semi-private" classes.
Whichever event you choose, don't do what I'm doing, which is trying to look 12 so I can go trick-or-treating and get some free candy.
If you're thinking of brushing this off as another urban legend, think again. Take a walk down Church Street, where you can see victims with 'for sale' and 'for rent' signs on their store windows. Many side-street stores have lowered their metal grates for the last time, unable to remain open as the economy flounders.
The sinking economy has also brought about a decline in customer turnout at Civic Center shops, according to an informal survey of local store owners and workers. Shoppers try to save money and buy less. Also, the seemingly never-ending construction - especially on Fulton Street - hurts business at small side-street stores, the survey revealed. New construction plans for 2010 will only worsen this problem, blocking many other streets and sidewalks.
Locals said the scariest ghoul of all was Mayor Bloomberg's quest to override term limits. And on Oct. 23 the City Council voted 22-29 to approve Bloomberg's third-term run. Opponents charged Bloomberg of bribing his private charities for support. The LaRouche PAC warned against Bloomberg's third-term bid and the economic bailout by handing out fliers around City Hall park on Tuesday.
Another scare is the redevelopment threatening the South Street Seaport. Developer General Growth Properties plans to demolish historic buildings and replace them with "a 42-story residential/hotel tower and a 12-story boutique hotel," according to AMNY.
But don't let this year's real fears scare you into staying indoors and missing out on traditional Halloween spookiness. There are still plenty of free and social events in the neighborhood. Trinity church will host three different free, open to the public activities on Halloween night. Other upcoming events at the church include a choir concert on Oct. 28 and a wedding workshop on Oct. 29. Visit the church from now until Nov. 14 to see the art exhibit "A Variety of Gifts."
For a different venue, check out South Street Seaport on Halloween and sail on the adults-only Haunted Ghost Ship. More events include a scavenger hunt at the South Street Seaport Museum on Oct. 25 and a Diabetes Fundraiser Walk at Pier 17 on Oct. 26.
If you're still not shaking with excitement at the prospect of all these events, try attending the Pace University performance of "All Shook Up" from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. For those with a passion for acting, the Actors Theatre Workshop now offers "semi-private" classes.
Whichever event you choose, don't do what I'm doing, which is trying to look 12 so I can go trick-or-treating and get some free candy.
21 October 2008
This Week in Pictures
(Woolworth Building - 233 Broadway)
(Municipal Building / 4,5,6,J,M,Z Subway Entrance)
(Remembering the New York Sun on Broadway)
(A hand-made sign at Dutch Street fills in for a missing street sign)
(While walking down Fulton Street to South Street Seaport)
14 October 2008
Luck of the Irish
Once before, in 1992, financial troubles led to a change in management at the Beekman Pub, which has served tradition IRish food on Beekman Street for almost 50 years. THis time, the pub tries hard to keep it's current good luck streak and emerge unchanged from the last recession.
The Beekman is a pretty average pub - so average that there aren't really any reviews about it. But it make sup for this lack of glamor by offering a different type of charm - the look, feel, scent, and taste of the Irish bar scene.
It's just like a tradition Irish pub, but not quite as rowdy, according to bartender Jim Galloghly. The Irish accents of the pub's two staff members seduce businessmen into the pub's wooden doors and away from the parking garage, Dunkin Donuts, and ongoing construction outside. Inside, the dim lights of the dining area and music waftering over from the bar make it the perfect place to kick back, relax, and down a glass of cold beer.
"It's a fun place to come with a friend and forget about problems for a while," Pace University Junior Elina Kolo said.
Alongside soup bowls ($4) and the well-known Beekman Sirloin ($42), the pub offers dishes like bangers and mash, a well-known IRish plate of potato and sausages. Although the menu isn't too extensive, it promises free Irish soda bread and teaches you real Irish phrases while you wait for your ood, like 'beoir' (pronounced beeyore) which means 'beer.'
But if you plan on eating there, you have to hope that Waitress Esther Sweeney doesn't forget exactly what you ordered as she takes orders and brings out moderately warm food to the businessmen, tourists, and regulars dining in the well-worn booths.
Now, as the economy threatends to keep customers away from the pub, Sweeney finds hope in the construction of a 76-floor high-rise across the street. Use of the building will range from education, to retail, to residential apartments, according to Skyscraper Source Media Inc.
However, the building will bring "a different kind of clientele" to the pub, Galloghly said. Although this new influx of customers would assuage some of the staff's eocnomic concerns, it might also create new ones. Regular customers don't want the pub or its patrons to change.
"If the pub changes too much, I might not go there anymore," regular customer Paul Falcone said. So ar, the pub has only undergone minor changes, including the addition of two flat-screen televisions, on which Falcone enjoys watching the football game.
No one can really predict yet what will happen to the Beekman Pub. The owners just plan to "handle one thing at a time," Eddie Robinson said in a phone interview.
The Beekman is a pretty average pub - so average that there aren't really any reviews about it. But it make sup for this lack of glamor by offering a different type of charm - the look, feel, scent, and taste of the Irish bar scene.
It's just like a tradition Irish pub, but not quite as rowdy, according to bartender Jim Galloghly. The Irish accents of the pub's two staff members seduce businessmen into the pub's wooden doors and away from the parking garage, Dunkin Donuts, and ongoing construction outside. Inside, the dim lights of the dining area and music waftering over from the bar make it the perfect place to kick back, relax, and down a glass of cold beer.
"It's a fun place to come with a friend and forget about problems for a while," Pace University Junior Elina Kolo said.
Alongside soup bowls ($4) and the well-known Beekman Sirloin ($42), the pub offers dishes like bangers and mash, a well-known IRish plate of potato and sausages. Although the menu isn't too extensive, it promises free Irish soda bread and teaches you real Irish phrases while you wait for your ood, like 'beoir' (pronounced beeyore) which means 'beer.'
But if you plan on eating there, you have to hope that Waitress Esther Sweeney doesn't forget exactly what you ordered as she takes orders and brings out moderately warm food to the businessmen, tourists, and regulars dining in the well-worn booths.
Now, as the economy threatends to keep customers away from the pub, Sweeney finds hope in the construction of a 76-floor high-rise across the street. Use of the building will range from education, to retail, to residential apartments, according to Skyscraper Source Media Inc.
However, the building will bring "a different kind of clientele" to the pub, Galloghly said. Although this new influx of customers would assuage some of the staff's eocnomic concerns, it might also create new ones. Regular customers don't want the pub or its patrons to change.
"If the pub changes too much, I might not go there anymore," regular customer Paul Falcone said. So ar, the pub has only undergone minor changes, including the addition of two flat-screen televisions, on which Falcone enjoys watching the football game.
No one can really predict yet what will happen to the Beekman Pub. The owners just plan to "handle one thing at a time," Eddie Robinson said in a phone interview.
13 October 2008
What's New and Groovy in the Civic Center?
First the bad news: a host of issues, stemming from a lack of money by the city, city agencies, as well as ordinary folks. The one bit of recent news that doesn't focus on economics deals with a battle between Community Board One and the Department of Transportation over the opening of City Hall Park's most highly trafficked pedestrian lane to cyclists.
Another issue facing the community is the shortage of space in schools to meet the rapidly growing population of Lower Manhattan, which has doubled since the year 2000. The Community Board arranges deals with site developers to use one or two floors of a building for education purposes,according to Michael Levine, the Board's director of land use and planning. The future of two more schools remains unknown until next year.
Separately, construction of the Freedom Tower, with an estimated the cost of $3 billion lags at the former World Trade Center site. Declining funds caused the MTA to scale back the scope of the Fulton Street project, which has an estimated cost af $750 million. Rising MTA expenses may lead to service cuts or layoffs. Approximately 110 or more layoffs already came to the City Hall area on Sept. 30, when the New York Sun shut down due to a lack of financial backing.
Unemployment forces some ordinary people out into the streets where, day after day, they set up their wares on Fulton Street. Despite receiving a police summons, they keep coming back because this is their only income in this economically depressing time.
But enough about economic depression! Here's the good news:
Throughout the month, several free, live concerts will be held at the J & R music store, located on Park Row across from City Hall Park. Performing artists include: Little Anthony and the Imperials on Oct. 14, Ollabelle on Oct. 15, and Tommy James on Nov. 11. J & R also features free technology seminars every day at noon at 1 Park Row, 4th floor.
Other free events in the neighborhood include both films and reading for children at the New York Public Library. Click here to see this branch's entire schedule of educational events. Not quite as free, but still educational, is a $90 course for adults on tree care offered weekly by City Hall Park in October. Another weekly occurrence is the free Monday concert series hosted by St. Paul's Chapel. The church also offers daily prayers for peace at 12:30 pm.
As additional hip and educational events come to my attention, I'll be sure to let you know!
Another issue facing the community is the shortage of space in schools to meet the rapidly growing population of Lower Manhattan, which has doubled since the year 2000. The Community Board arranges deals with site developers to use one or two floors of a building for education purposes,according to Michael Levine, the Board's director of land use and planning. The future of two more schools remains unknown until next year.
Separately, construction of the Freedom Tower, with an estimated the cost of $3 billion lags at the former World Trade Center site. Declining funds caused the MTA to scale back the scope of the Fulton Street project, which has an estimated cost af $750 million. Rising MTA expenses may lead to service cuts or layoffs. Approximately 110 or more layoffs already came to the City Hall area on Sept. 30, when the New York Sun shut down due to a lack of financial backing.
Unemployment forces some ordinary people out into the streets where, day after day, they set up their wares on Fulton Street. Despite receiving a police summons, they keep coming back because this is their only income in this economically depressing time.
But enough about economic depression! Here's the good news:
Throughout the month, several free, live concerts will be held at the J & R music store, located on Park Row across from City Hall Park. Performing artists include: Little Anthony and the Imperials on Oct. 14, Ollabelle on Oct. 15, and Tommy James on Nov. 11. J & R also features free technology seminars every day at noon at 1 Park Row, 4th floor.
Other free events in the neighborhood include both films and reading for children at the New York Public Library. Click here to see this branch's entire schedule of educational events. Not quite as free, but still educational, is a $90 course for adults on tree care offered weekly by City Hall Park in October. Another weekly occurrence is the free Monday concert series hosted by St. Paul's Chapel. The church also offers daily prayers for peace at 12:30 pm.
As additional hip and educational events come to my attention, I'll be sure to let you know!
06 October 2008
Neighborhood Overview
Chinatown bustles to the north. The 5,989-foot long Brooklyn Bridge stretches out toward the east. Tribeca expands along the west. And in the south, Fulton Street meanders down to the South Street Seaport. Nearby stands the New York City Police Department's headquarters, where I interned two summers ago.
In the middle of all this is the Civic Center (A.K.A. City Hall). And although the neighborhood has arts groups and museums and tourist attractions, it still lacks major movie theaters - a cultural and entertainment necessity. Especially in Lower Manhattan, where the population has doubled since the year 2000, according to the Community Board One director of land use and planning, Michael E. Levine.
Despite this flaw, I quickly fell in love with the place and its purpose, which remains the same as when the 17th century Dutch settled the area: politics. Our current City Hall, opened in 1812m was the third constructed in the neighborhood. Around this time, the infamous Boss Tweed built the Tweed Courthouse for twice the price of Alaska.
With a neighborhood all about government, it makes sense that journalists writing about government would locate here too. The 19th century Park Row was called 'Newspaper Row,' home of the Times, the World, and the Herald. Now, Pace University, along with a series of small technology stores and commercial chains like Starbucks have taken over.
Along with these new shops has come diversity. A walk around the outskirts of City Hall Park reveals businesses ranging from computer stores to pharmacies to coffee shops. During my NYPD internship, I usually stopped at the Park Row Starbucks, and then tried to snag a bench near the majestic, four-tiered Mould Fountain in City Hall Park.
The history attached to City Hall Park seems never-ending. During 1991 renovation near the park's northern end, construction workers discovered an Arican burial ground, containing the skeletal remains of more than 400 Africans from the 17th century. Now, a monument stands at the corners of Duane and Elk streets.
My favorite part of this neighborhood is also a sort of underground burial site, although this one reveals chandeliers and skylights instead of skeletons. The City Hall subway station, constructed by the IRT in 1904 as part of the six subway line and close to the public since 1945, represents a cultural and historical graveyard. The New York Transit Museum planned to turn it into an exhibit, but the Giuliani administration feared a terrorist threat.
Now, the Civic Center is trying to break away from its 17th century model by creating scools and cultural centers to meet the population surge. But it will always be the heart of New York politics.
In the middle of all this is the Civic Center (A.K.A. City Hall). And although the neighborhood has arts groups and museums and tourist attractions, it still lacks major movie theaters - a cultural and entertainment necessity. Especially in Lower Manhattan, where the population has doubled since the year 2000, according to the Community Board One director of land use and planning, Michael E. Levine.
Despite this flaw, I quickly fell in love with the place and its purpose, which remains the same as when the 17th century Dutch settled the area: politics. Our current City Hall, opened in 1812m was the third constructed in the neighborhood. Around this time, the infamous Boss Tweed built the Tweed Courthouse for twice the price of Alaska.
With a neighborhood all about government, it makes sense that journalists writing about government would locate here too. The 19th century Park Row was called 'Newspaper Row,' home of the Times, the World, and the Herald. Now, Pace University, along with a series of small technology stores and commercial chains like Starbucks have taken over.
Along with these new shops has come diversity. A walk around the outskirts of City Hall Park reveals businesses ranging from computer stores to pharmacies to coffee shops. During my NYPD internship, I usually stopped at the Park Row Starbucks, and then tried to snag a bench near the majestic, four-tiered Mould Fountain in City Hall Park.
The history attached to City Hall Park seems never-ending. During 1991 renovation near the park's northern end, construction workers discovered an Arican burial ground, containing the skeletal remains of more than 400 Africans from the 17th century. Now, a monument stands at the corners of Duane and Elk streets.
My favorite part of this neighborhood is also a sort of underground burial site, although this one reveals chandeliers and skylights instead of skeletons. The City Hall subway station, constructed by the IRT in 1904 as part of the six subway line and close to the public since 1945, represents a cultural and historical graveyard. The New York Transit Museum planned to turn it into an exhibit, but the Giuliani administration feared a terrorist threat.
Now, the Civic Center is trying to break away from its 17th century model by creating scools and cultural centers to meet the population surge. But it will always be the heart of New York politics.
05 October 2008
Proof in Pictures
(City Hall)
(Tweed Courthouse)
(African Burial Monument)("For all those who were lost
For all those who were stolen
For all those who were left behind
For all those who were not forgotten")
For all those who were stolen
For all those who were left behind
For all those who were not forgotten")
01 October 2008
The Reason
This is my home,
known as the
most people just call it City Hall.
Let me guess: you’re wondering what a 20-year old NYU student obsessed with writing
poetry and with everything Hungarian thinks she knows about this area.
Well, as a Dean’s List student, I feel pretty akin to the determined, hard-working
people of the
Hall, and in Park Row – the real birthplace of newspaper writing in NYC. Considering my
grandiose plans to be on the Supreme Court, I try to follow the local cases, too.
The nearby neighborhoods act as the veins and arteries bringing perpetual growth in
and out of the pulsing
~ I commute from the
~ I often go to
~ My dad works a few blocks away and my best friend works at South Street Seaport.
After spending so much time in the area during my internship with the New York City Police
Department, I feel really attached to it. And I was in
what it is like to have a life line snipped unexpectedly, leaving you dangling and wondering:
What now?
But NYC always changes, for better or for worse.
My purpose is to chronicle that change, to build bonds between the
everyone in it, and to strengthen my own bonds with the place and its people.
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