Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 6 noveMber 2017
9/11 neighborhood shaken by truck attack fears it’s targeted

By ADAM GELLER a halt, just five short blocks 7 World Trade Center tow- that feeling. time and free yoga classes
AP National Writer separated him the crowds er, in a triangular pocket Long before this week’s on summer evenings.
NEW YORK (AP) — that flock to the 9/11 Me- park dedicated to those attack, she said, she had In streets once cordoned
On his way to work each morial. who survived 9/11. spent years in school off by rescuers, students
morning, Antonio Collac On Wednesday morning, In September 2001, Bell watching documentaries from Stuyvesant High
stops to light a candle at School and the community
St. Peter’s Roman Catholic college now fill benches
Church, a stone-columned and fast-food joints on
sanctuary two blocks from weekday afternoons.
lower Manhattan’s ground On some blocks, sidewalks
zero. are thronged by young
There, beneath a vaulted couples with babies in
roof that was pierced by strollers, residents of the
the landing gear from one many buildings that have
of the jets that felled the been converted into luxury
World Trade Center, and apartments.
before the altar where Since the 2001 attacks, “it’s
firefighters laid the broken like God threw money to
body of Mychal Judge this area,” said Louisa Lo-
— the chaplain often pez, who lives nearby and
counted as Sept. 11’s first stopped in Wednesday at
victim — the tragedy of St. Peter’s.
that morning 16 autumns Within hours of this week’s
ago is anything but ab- attack, kids in costumes
stract. Collac, a designer were out trick or treating
who has worked in the and by Wednesday morn-
neighborhood for many ing, tourists were flocking
years, says he, too, is a ves- again to the Memorial,
sel for memories of that threading streets choked
day. with honking traffic.
But on Wednesday morn- They meant the victims no
ing, Collac came to offer a Waeld Naama, an Egyptian immigrant who works at a food cart across from Saint Peter’s Roman disrespect, people said,
new prayer — this one for Catholic Church, rolls up a set of American flags in preparation for closing down, late Wednes- but it is a sign of the nec-
the eight people killed and day, Nov. 1, 2017, in New York. Waiting on customers long after he wanted to close down the cart, essary adjustments that this
12 seriously injured when Naama said he tries to impart “love” to all his customers. neighborhood — and the
terror again targeted (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) world that has watched
lower Manhattan the day the chop from the police said, she was working at a about the 2001 attack and it rebuild — have made
before, again just a few helicopters deployed to union office about 2 miles hearing about it from those since 9/11.
blocks away. keep watch over the new away when a TV began who went through it. After hearing about the
The attack served as a terror site overwhelmed the showing images of the When she was admitted attack Tuesday night, Da-
reminder, he said, for a sound of the waterfalls that smoke billowing from the last year to the Borough vid Dodds of Wayne, New
neighborhood that has continuously fill the memo- Trade Center. She rushed of Manhattan Commu- Jersey, said his daughter
been transformed by con- rial’s reflection pools. out to a supermarket and nity College, a commuter suggested he put off a
struction and washed over But for many of the thou- headed downtown, hand- school with more than long-planned visit to the
by a tide of tourism in the sands who live, work and ing out bottles of water to 27,000 students that sits be- 9/11 Memorial Museum.
years since 9/11. study in this neighborhood, those stumbling out of the tween the memorial site On Wednesday, though,
For all the area’s success the notion that it might complex, covered head to and the location of this Dodds stood by the reflect-
in pushing to remake itself, again find itself in the cross- toe in white soot. week’s attack, she told her ing pools, thinking about
people here acknowledge hairs of a terrorist attack Now, with a new job in this mother she felt uncomfort- the two people he knew
that the memories of its was hardly surprising. neighborhood, she marvels able with the idea. who’d escaped the World
past still help shape their Most days, caught up in at what it has become. On Wednesday, when just Trade Center before it fell,
state of mind. their rush from the subways “They did almost a 360 de- seven of the 21 students and one who did not make
“You know, this area is to the area’s new condo- gree turn,” she said. enrolled in her math class it. It didn’t matter that ter-
Target A. We know. Every- miniums and office towers, But that has not stopped showed up for the lecture, rorism had again found this
body knows,” Collac said, they said it is easy to forget Bell from worrying that it occurred to her that she neighborhood.
pausing at the bottom of what seem like existential some of the grime that may not be alone in her He needed to be here, he
the church steps. worries. gathers on the ground here doubts. said.
“But there is nothing we Then, they walk around is not from construction, “I feel as though this is a “I have that same feeling
can do, my friend. the corner and gaze up at but residue of ash from the targeted place,” Aponte here as when I go to the
We have to continue and the new Freedom Tower 2001 attack, even around said. Vietnam War Memorial.
the only thing we can do is and remember that for all the newest buildings. Aponte is quick to note It’s that same kind of quiet,
pray.” the neighborhood’s new Her discomfort with the that, after more than a grateful feeling,” Dodds
It is not clear whether Say- wealth and cosmopolitan neighborhood is not year of classes here, her said, sitting on a stone
fullo Saipov, a 29-year-old energy, for much of the unique, she said. relationship with the neigh- block at the edge of the
immigrant from Uzbekistan rest of the world it remains “People go along every borhood has changed. memorial plaza.
who mowed down bikers defined by what came be- day like its normal,” she When the weather is nice, “We have to move on,
and pedestrians Tuesday fore. said. she loves sitting by the river. but we have to remember
with a rented pickup truck, This week’s attack, if any- “But do you know there are The bike path where the past,” he said. “Do we
knew just how close he was thing, is just a fresh, albeit lots of people who don’t Saipov ran down tourists have a choice?
to the site of the 2001 terror horrifying, confirmation. want to work down here?” borders a park that fringes Of course we’re here.
attack. Postal worker Lorraine Bell Samantha Aponte, 19, is the Hudson for miles, filled What are you guys going
When his truck struck a took a cigarette break at too young to remember with runners in the morn- to do, hibernate? Then for
school bus and came to the base of the glassy new 9/11, but she, too, knows ing, office workers at lunch sure, they’ve won.”q