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This Week's Stories GG's quick takes on recent NYC news |
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Week of 10 September 2001:Recovering New Yorkers, meanwhile, are focusing on the details of rescue and recovery. In lower Manhattan, the emphasis is still on rescuing survivors. By late yesterday morning, Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that only 184 bodies or body parts had been found, and that only 35 of them had been identified. There are, he said, 4,763 on the official list of the missing (among them 300 firefighters and 60 police officers), and their friends and family members have posted photocopies of their snapshots on telephone polls and bulletin boards and storefront windows. Below 14th Street, security is tight, all but emergency vehicles are still banned, schools and many businesses remain closed and even the most basic of deliveries, such as newspapers and the mail, have been halted. Some residential buildings remain without electricity, telephone service or water. The rest of the city is attempting a semblance of normalcy, not always with complete success. Most subways and schools, bridges and tunnels (except below 14th Street) have been reopened, as have Broadway theaters. The New York Stock Exchange is scheduled to reopen on Monday. But many of Wall Street's largest firms, in scrambling to find new office space, are already signing new leases, some of them lasting for years, in places like Jersey City. All three major New York-area airports were reopened, but then abruptly closed down again after ten people were taken into custody at Kennedy International and La Guardia airports for questioning to determine whether they were part of a plot to attack American targets. Law enforcement officials said one of those held was carrying a false pilot's identification. Authorities reportedly believe they have thwarted two new attempts to hijack planes. The primary election that was called off after five hours on Tuesday has been rescheduled for September 25, with a runoff election if necessary scheduled for Thursday, October 11th. The Board of Elections faces even more problems than usual because of the attack, among them that the board's headquarters is not far from the World Trade Center. (See Campaign Trail) Bomb threats at dozens of buildings, including the Empire State Building and Grand Central Terminal, led to their being evacuated. There was also a start in efforts for rebuilding over the long term. President George W. Bush, who is scheduled to visit New York today, agreed with Congressional leaders early this morning on a $40 billion emergency aid package, with $20 billion of that going to New York. The New York Legislature passed a bill, which Governor George Pataki signed into law shortly afterward, authorizing the state to spend up to $5 billion in federal aid, and committed up to $500 million in state money to the effort. The New York City Council, unable to meet in City Hall, held a special session in an ornate room in the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, to pass a measure intended to help rebuild downtown. The 46 members present (out of 51) voted unanimously to call on the State Legislature to permit the city to borrow an additional $2.5 billion in bonds backed by the federal government. Council Speaker Peter Vallone and Public Advocate Mark Green praised the efforts of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, city workers and agencies, and emergency personnel. "In acts of great heroism and in gestures of common affection, we have seen the strength and spirit of New York," Vallone said. "This council will do everything in its power to provide the resources to return life to lower Manhattan."
Aftermath Investigators began to assemble a picture of how the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field were hijacked and who might have been behind the attacks, pursuing clues in Boston and Florida. The federal government still did not blame anyone explicitly for the attacks. Yet, despite this, some regular activities will resume in New York today. Schools others than those south of 14th Street are set to reopen two hours late, Broadway shows will go on, and Governor George Pataki will announce a new date for New York£s primary election, which was canceled on Tuesday. Stock exchange officials spoke of reopening Friday or Monday. The city and country started to consider how to move on. "We're going to rebuild," Mayor Giuliani vowed at his morning briefing yesterday. "We're going to come out of this stronger than we were before. Emotionally stronger, politically stronger, economically stronger." Attack As rescue workers continue to search for survivors beneath the mountains of rubble - two men were rescued from under 30 feet of rubble -- the mayor urged people to stay out of Manhattan if they can. Lower Manhattan has been evacuated beneath Canal Street, and only emergency vehicles will be allowed beneath 14th Street. Both public schools and Catholic schools are closed. Postal service will not resume until Thursday. Virtually every article in all the newspapers is about one or another aspect of the attack. The most useful site to keep up on the emergency may be the city's Web site, which lists the latest from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Board of Education and so forth. For a list of emergency phone numbers, where you can give blood, an account of the first hours, and a look at New York City's experience with terrorism and anti-terrorist policies and practices, please go to Gotham Gazette, "We all have suffered a terrible trauma," said a spokesman for St.Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, the closest trauma center to the scene, and by "we," he meant all New Yorkers. "We need to understand it, and to talk about it." Primary Today If something goes wrong, and the Board of Elections does not adequately address your complaint, here are some voters' hotlines:
All of these groups are interested in trying to get the specific problem resolved, and also in getting an overview of the troubles. The first is also conducting an extensive election monitoring project, and the second, an exit survey. For more information on voting (learning your election district; differentiating among paper ballots; the phone numbers of the Board of Elections' borough offices.), and to tell us about your experience voting today (and learn about other New Yorkers'), please go to New York Votes: An Interactive Diary. It is not too late to figure out who to vote for. Remember, some races will be decided by literally a handful of votes. Turn to our Guide For The Last-Minute Voter And for election results, when they become available, check out our Primary Election Results Page Primary Tomorrow 2. Debates, Democratic The harshest exchange of the debate, and perhaps of the campaign, came when Vallone attacked Ferrer for running an "us against them" campaign for mayor, and specifically pointed to Ferrer's endorsement by Sonny Carson, an African-American political organizer who has called himself anti-white. "When you're talking about two cities, that's what happens: you encourage these kind of divisive lunatics to come out." Ferrer replied that he did not ask for Carson's endorsement, and said "When too many New Yorkers find the pursuit of decent housing at a price that they can afford a crisis in their lives, they live in the other New York..To confront those questions and those crises in people's lives is a unifying issue." 3. Debate, Republican 4. Getting Out The Vote The candidates in competitive races for City Council are especially concerned with getting their supporters to the polls, for two basic reasons: 1. Because Democrats dominate this town, the winners of the Democratic primary with very few exceptions go on to become the elected officials, meaning that the primary in effect determines the outcome in November; those New Yorkers waiting to vote until November will have little opportunity to make any real choices. 2. As little as a single vote could literally make the difference between victory and defeat in some close races. 5. New York Votes |
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