JULIA PELISH PHOTO -- Visitors inside the gallery of the World Financial Center watch as construction cranes erect new skyscrapers on the site of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District.
Vibrant life abounds amid grim reminders of terrorist attack NEW YORK–The last time I visited Ground Zero was Sept. 22, 2001. I lived in Long Island, N.Y., then and the Sept. 11 attacks consumed life for weeks.
Seeing the World Trade Center in fiery rubble was Dickensian bleak and painful. The ruins smouldered, firefighters teemed, anxiety swept over every face.
Returning nearly eight years later, I expected to find Lower Manhattan solemn as it recovers from that horror and the economic crisis. Instead, I discovered New Yorkers are not only getting over 9/11, they're turning the Financial District into a neighbourhood with more life than before the Twin Towers collapsed.
The World Trade Center stop is the last one on the southbound E subway train. Once on the surface, I noticed construction workers had replaced the army of firefighters as the massive rebuilding job unfolds.
A half-dozen cranes rise from the cavity that many will always view as a tomb to the 2,750 (including 24 Canadians) who lost their lives on that sad Tuesday. It was hard to find a smile among the visitors who watched the frame of the new skyscrapers being hammered and clanged into place. Emotions swelled there and across the street at St. Paul's Chapel.
People walked slowly around the chapel's grounds, occupied by centuries-old gravestones, to its doorstep. St. Paul's, the city's longest continuously run public building, stands on Church St. Remarkably, the 243-year-old chapel didn't suffer any structural damage when the towers collapsed. During the recovery efforts immediately after Sept. 11, the chapel was a place of refuge for the firefighters and emergency services personnel. Inside, displays honour the heroes and the fallen.
While St. Paul's brings back grim memories, the good news is there's much happening in the vicinity that makes it clear this area is likely to rebound to a state better than it was in 2001. That reason makes Ground Zero a point of interest, not a morbid itinerary stop.
You can get a fantastic panoramic view of the World Trade Center reconstruction and the district's skyline at the World Financial Center, an upscale but unheralded mall and office tower that pedestrians can access by crossing a bridge over the West Side Highway. Sixteen palm trees and an ornate staircase greet you inside the centre. On the western side of the mall, you will access one of New York's highlights that doesn't get nearly enough mention.
The Esplanade is secluded from the WTC construction and everything else in Manhattan. It's a route for pedestrians and cyclists, ambling alongside the Hudson River. You can grab a coffee at Devon & Bleakley inside the World Financial Center before heading out on the 20-minute walk. If you want to bike it, there are rental shops in the area.
You'll notice new residential towers and a number of established retailers opening stores. Most of the area was void of activity after about 8 p.m. most nights.
The population in the region has nearly tripled from 2001. Lower rents and a push for gentrification have turned it into a place to live, not just work.
Perhaps no spot exemplifies this spirit more than the restaurant-rich blocks on Stone and Pearl Sts. My favourite is Ulysses' Folk House (95 Pearl St./58 Stone St.). The food is overpriced and mediocre, but the beer menu has few rivals in New York and the picnic tables that line Stone St. make it feel like a summer barbecue.
After a walk that forces you to contemplate the issues that plague the world, such a leisurely atmosphere is a sure way to lighten your mood.
Discovery walks
When Rolando Pujol told me he was offering walking tours of New York’s neighbourhoods, I signed up fast. I’ve known Rolando for 13 years; he’s one of those brainy types who swallows knowledge as if it was a libation. His enthusiasm for the city and its history has turned him into a minor celebrity. He appears on NBC’s New York Nonstop (a TV channel similar to CityLine) several times a week with stories of the quirks and oddities he’s discovered about town.
As managing editor of amNY, a free daily newspaper, Rolando takes friends and colleagues on Tabloid Tours, picking a neighbourhood then inviting anyone who wants to come to join them on free walks. Along the way, Rolando spills out some of that knowledge he’s stored up and posts highlights on The Urbanite blog (amny.com).
On the day of our walk to New York’s Financial District, he met me at the Benjamin Hotel on East 50th St. and said we’d be making a detour. He took me north to the Seagram Building (375 Park Ave.) and asked what it reminded me of. After a joke about bankers and an asylum, I stepped between the building’s black pillars and felt like I was on Bay St.
“The TD Centre,” I told him.
“You got it,” Rolando said. “Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built both buildings using similar design elements and material. The Seagram Building, in a lot of ways, is the prototype for the TD Centre in your city.”
Next, we were off to Lower Manhattan and one of the points of interest was the grave of Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. treasury secretary who died following a duel with then vice-president Aaron Burr. An understated monument in Trinity Church marks his grave, located directly across from a factory shoe outlet.
“A founding father of the nation, the first head of the Bank of New York, he’d think capitalism was a glorious success if he could look over from his tomb and see Nike shoes at 20 per cent off,” Rolando said.
Down on Wall St., about 45 minutes since we’d left Ground Zero, Rolando placed his hand on the side of the J.P. Morgan building and pounded on one of several fist-sized holes on the facade. “This was the site of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history before the Oklahoma City bombings. A horse-drawn wagon rolled up to the Morgan building in 1920 and detonated a bomb, killing dozens of people, injuring hundreds,” he informed. “The Morgan family chose to not fix the entire exterior wall when they repaired the damage. The story goes they wanted to leave these indentations as proof the family and the city and Wall St. could withstand anything.”
If you’re in New York and up for a discovery walk, drop Rolando an email (Rolando.Pujol@am-ny.com) and see if you can tag along on his group’s next tour.
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