|
|
 |
Taking back New York
By Leah D. Casner. Leah D. Casner lives in Brooklyn, N.Y
Published September 28, 2001
If, today, Sept. 28, you go into a subway station in New York City and ask for a map at the booth, a clerk will give you a full-color, 32-by-23-inch map of the newest subway routes, which include the changes since the airborne terrorists attacked us slightly over two weeks ago.
There is a blank space on the map labeled World Trade Center, which no subway line goes through now.And aside from one crossing where two routes that are no longer running still are listed, the map is correct.
Let me emphasis this--before two weeks were up, the staff of the metropolitan transit authority, which New Yorkers love to hate, was able to print millions of accurate, revised maps to keep New Yorkers on the right track.
It was only a few hours after the attack that the subway was running again.
Here's what was working in Brooklyn within hours after the attack: my phone. My DSL line. The mail was delivered. The garbage was picked up.
We are all jittery. But unless the remains of the WTC are in your face, which they are in all of lower Manhattan where the air still smells of smoke and pulverized concrete still irritates throats, we are moving. The entire city is not a war zone.
Of my two children in public schools, the youngest was back in class two days after "it," and my middle child, whose school still is being used for recovery workers, is at least going to classes, though in a borrowed school on a split shift. For a while there, things were very different. Our mayor, Rudy Giuliani, seemed to be a different person--calm, rational, statesmanlike. Now he's back to his delusions of messiah-hood, suggesting that he be allowed to continue as mayor against all democratic processes before backed away from the idea. We definitely are getting back to ourselves.
Car-pooling requirements went into effect Thursday. People in New York, damned if they'll share their cars, instead got up earlier to cross into Manhattan before 6 a.m., when the rule comes into effect. Some were quoted as saying they'd drive the extra 20 miles to reach crossings without the car-pool requirement.
Walking along a busy street in Brooklyn this week, many stores, most owned or staffed by immigrants, displayed American flags. One woman screeched as she walked by one store, "Don't you dare put up the flag! That's our flag! You can't fly it!"
I really, really wanted to punch her out. Wanting to beat up someone on the sidewalk in New York--how normal can you get?
There is a suggestion running around the Internet that the WTC be rebuilt with four towers, instead of two.
We have not yet put one brick on top of another, and yet, in a way, I think we've already thumbed our noses at the terrorists.
Copyright © 2001, Chicago Tribune
|
|
|
