Big Apple recalls 9/11 terror attack
ANNIVERSARY: CITY BATTLES AS VIRUS AFFECTS BUSINESS
Buildings empty, homeless more visible – and crime is on the rise.
With crime on the rise, shops and apartments increasingly vacant and homeless people on the sidewalks, New York today will mark the 19th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter fight with the White House.
The city will hold its annual ceremony in memory of the nearly 3 000 people who died in the bloodiest terrorist attack in US history, punctuated by a minute’s silence at the exact moments that al-Qaeda jihadists crashed two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Centre towers.
Instead of reading out the roll call of the dead, this year the families of victims have recorded themselves. But they will still be present at the “Ground Zero” memorial.
The site museum will also open for the first time since the coronavirus brought the city to a standstill in March.
Almost two decades after the attacks, 11 September remains synonymous with New York’s heroism and resilience.
City leaders have emphasised the latter in the past months as the Covid-19 infection rate – which killed 23 000 people here, the early epicentre of the disease in the US – has been lowered to under one percent.
Gale Brewer, president of borough of Manhattan, said the island faces an array of problems.
Some of these stem directly from the pandemic: almost all the white collar workers, such as bankers, traders and insurance employees, have been working from home since March. This has emptied Manhattan’s business hubs, leaving thousands of small stores and restaurants without customers.
If the more than 60 million tourists who visit New York every year have gone so, too, have New Yorkers, fleeing the city by the thousands. At least 35 000 people have moved out of Manhattan, judging by requests for absentee ballots for November’s presidential elections, Brewer said.
Many businesses are now shuttered: between 2017 and 2020, the number of vacant commercial spaces has almost doubled, up by 78%, she said.
Homeless people are now more visible due to the closure of shelters for health reasons and the transfer of almost 13 000 to live in less contagious conditions in Manhattan’s vacant hotels.
The rise in homicides and shootings – up 47% and 166% in August, compared with the previous year – is one of the more striking aspects of the crisis hitting the city.
Even if it is still far below the endemic levels of crime that plagued the city in the ’80s, New York has slipped back to 2012 crime levels, the New York Times reported.
Even as the city shows signs of revival – which include museums reopening and restaurants welcoming diners inside this month – its full recovery could take up to three years, Brewer said.