'Ground Zero' faces new challenge

The area that came to horrifically be known as Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan survived the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and would prosper again not long after.

Fast forward to 2020 and then 2021, and the area with Wall Street at its heart finds itself struggling again, this time due to the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On that infamous day 20 years ago, the Financial District's imposing landmarks — the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center — were destroyed by al-Qaida hijackers who flew two jets into New York City's tallest structures, killing more than 2,700 people.

The "footprints" of the towers serve as reflecting pools at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, with the names of all the victims of the attacks, including at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, etched in the memorial's bronze parapets.

The economic upheaval and doldrums caused by the coronavirus outbreak, which began with shutdowns in the city in March 2020, have persisted with the virus' Delta variant.

"There are a lot of similarities, unfortunately (between 9/11 and the pandemic). New Yorkers are again mourning the loss of loved ones. Businesses have closed. Some people have moved. A lot have questioned the future of the city," former mayor Michael Bloomberg told USA Today. "But people have short memories. The comeback that New Yorkers led 20 years ago should fill us with optimism, because there's no reason we can't do it again."

A major reason for the prolonged slump is that the once-bustling commercial real estate market — normally filled with ambitious people streaming daily into the area from across the tri-state region — has receded in the face of the remote-working phenomenon borne of the pandemic.

Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank, wrote in City Journal on Sept 8 that working from home could be a high hurdle for a return to offices.

"People may or may not like working at home, and they may or may not be more productive, but they've proven for 18 months that they can do it. That evidence on the ground changes cities forever," she wrote.

"So what long-term factors prohibit people from snapping back to a five-day-a-week commute, or even a four-day-a-week in-office schedule? One is transit. In one survey, 84 percent of remote workers cited 'no commute', as the top benefit of staying home. This effect is magnified in New York, which has the longest and most expensive commutes in the country."

Through the first seven months of 2021, daily ridership in the busiest subway stations downtown was 6.3 million passengers, an 82 percent drop over 2019, according to a New York Times analysis.

Still, there are signs of a rebound. The workers are gradually heading back to Manhattan daily, just not with the same volume and density befitting America's largest city.

In 2019, more than 253,000 people worked in private-sector jobs, surpassing the number just before 9/11, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York, an advocacy and research organization.

Since 2005, more than 900 companies relocated to Lower Manhattan.

Tourists were regularly flocking to the uptrending area, and Wall Street would be just as teeming with people on weekends as on weekdays.

The southern tip of Manhattan is where modern New York City was born, starting with the Dutch settlement in 1624 around the Stone Street area. It was known as Nieuw Amsterdam then, before the British invaded and renamed the city 40 years later. In those days, the city's population was concentrated in the area.

Lower Manhattan became less residential in the 20th century and more a center of global finance and corporate headquarters, ensconced in limestone skyscrapers.

Now the area has come somewhat full circle, with its residential population more than doubling since 2000, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of census data.

A walk around the area this week confirms that it still has vibrancy, but just not as many people as before.

The majesty of the buildings is still there, and there are plenty of construction projects, with scaffolding abounding. That suggests an unyielding confidence in the city's future.

Numerous film crews were out conducting interviews for 9/11 20th anniversary features, and a few tour groups were being escorted around the sprawling area.

But amid the nascent rebound, signs of the pandemic still persist.

The steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street, the site where George Washington was sworn in as the first US president in 1789, are blocked by metal barriers. When those steps were publicly accessible, they would provide many an office worker or tourist a spot for an alfresco lunch and to people-watch.

The current heroes being celebrated in the city are the healthcare workers battling the pandemic.

Twenty years ago, among the prominent heroes were the 343 firefighters, 37 Port Authority police officers and 23 NYPD officers who died that day at the World Trade Center. Then there were those who toiled on the toxic "pile" at Ground Zero, including volunteers, succumbing years later to cancer and respiratory diseases.

Across from the World Trade Center site, sits Engine Company 10, Latter Company 10, or "Ten House", which lost six of its members on Sept 11.

Veteran firefighter Sal Argano is stationed at Ten House. He helped rescue people that day 20 years ago but said he would "rather not talk about it" when asked, although he graciously agreed to a photo.

More than 350 retailers in Lower Manhattan have closed over the past 18 months. New malls built after 9/11, such as the spectacular Oculus, have had scant shoppers.

Century 21 was a large department store and onetime anchor of the Financial District. It featured discounted designer brands and was a destination for European tourists, who found famous labels there cheaper than in their own countries. The magnet store would survive 9/11 but not the pandemic.

When the store off Broadway reopened early in 2002, five months after it was left caked in debris from the towers' collapse, Bloomberg talked about how happy he was to see Century 21's signature red shopping bags reappearing around the city.

But with the office workers largely absent and tourism drastically reduced due to pandemic travel restrictions not only in the US but worldwide, Century 21 called it a day in 2020.

Surprisingly, many of the diners and taverns that were in business even before 9/11 have managed to survive both that day and the pandemic.

Closer to Wall Street, the Killarney Rose on Pearl Street has overcome two pandemic-related closures. A bartender at the pub, which was mostly empty in the afternoon, said she "lost too many friends" on 9/11.

Retail lately has shown some signs of sprouting, as more than 40 retailers opened in the first half of the year, similar to 2019, according to the Downtown Alliance. Another 50 plan to open in the neighborhood.

"We have to be careful jumping to conclusions about how much this latest crisis is going to change human life and the city's life," Carl Weisbrod, founding president of the Downtown Alliance, told the Times. "What we have seen throughout history is the lure of cities, the lure of density and the lure for human talent to exchange ideas in a central place."

Jessica Lappin, president of the Downtown Alliance, said: "Recoveries always take time, and what we're seeing now in Lower Manhattan are the slow and steady steps toward a return."

Real estate magnate Larry Silverstein recently told an Israeli television network how he had purchased the Twin Towers seven weeks before they were felled.

Silverstein said that on the morning of Sept 11, he was "dressing to get downtown to meet with one of the tenants, and my wife said: 'You can't go.' And I said: 'Why? I have an appointment downtown.' She said: 'Because I made an appointment for you with a dermatologist, and that's something you canceled last month, and you cannot cancel again.'

"When you're married for 45 years to the same woman and she gets upset, you can't let that happen," Silverstein said.