Good Ole New York City

I’m deeply proud with my home city. New York City.

It survived a major terrorist attack and a blackout. Despite popular opinion, New Yorkers didn’t riot, look, and pillage their own city. New Yorkers didn’t lie down and give up.

They banded together like brothers and sisters, cooperating and sharing with one another to get through each crisis.

New York City has always gotten the reputation of being a hard-edged, cold city rife with crime and rudeness.

Then Major Giuliani, though angering many liberals and low-income taxpayers, came in and decreased the crime rate significantly. Former red-light districts like 42nd Steet became family centers.

When the World Trade Center was destroyed, hundreds of New Yorkers volunteered alongside the city workers to help find survivors. New Yorkers, formerly known as some of the coldest and rudest people in the world, became the some of the warmest and kindest.

The stories I read about volunteers making food, bringing clothes, and helping out in any way they could for the city workers made my eyes water.

In one story, a woman saw a tired young fireman shivering in the cold. He was too tired to get a heavier coat. So she took off her sweater and gave it to him. He smiled; that was the first smile she’d seen all day, and she broke down and cried in his arms.

When the blackout happened, many feared riots and looting in NYC. Instead, New Yorkers came out of their houses and had neighborhood BBQs. Children opened fire hydrants and played in the streets. Foot Locker gave away sneakers to hundreds of commuters who had to walk home.

It was the second time New Yorkers had to walk over Manhattan’s bridges to get home. But they did so civilly and with dignity.

These are the people who are supposed to be hard-edged, cold, and rude. Hard-edged, cold, rude people don’t give their belongings away; they don’t help each other out and hold neighborhood BBQs.

New Yorkers are anything but hard-edged, cold, and rude.

I’m proud of my city. Good ole New York City.

Are you proud of New York City?

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War with Iraq

We’re at war.

Here’s a viewpoint that isn’t anti- or pro-war. It’s just a neutral observation.

There may be another reason for this campaign against Iraq. Military disarmament and regime change are noble enough reasons, if the entire world also agrees that such actions are necessary.

The entire world, however, does not agree. Most notably, France, Germany, and Russia have all publicly declared their dissent with the United State’s disregard for the wishes of the United Nations.

Anti-American sentiment is a common sentiment around the world. President Bush, despite what many may believe, isn’t stupid enough to ignore such sentiment.

It’s also well-known that this sentiment will only increase with this war. So why has Bush launched this campaign against former friend, Saddam Hussein?

Maybe it’s the same covert reason the United States went to war with Iran in the early 1980′s: for oil.

Oil powers and finances much of the Western world. One could extrapolate that the control of oil means the control of the Western world.

After the Iran-Iraq war, the United States was content with a U.S.-friendly leader like Hussein in control of the Middle East, because control of the Middle East meant control of one of the world’s richest regions of oil. Thus, the U.S. supported Hussein’s efforts against Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran with military aid.

(It is interesting to note that France, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and at least ten other nations also supported one of these countries with military aid during the Iran-Iraq war.)

Moreover, a U.S.-friendly leader meant the United States could maintain its position as a major world power.

Then, starting in 1999, a number of national crises threatened to shake the U.S.’s position of power.

First, the vibrant bubble economy burst. Then, in the winter of 2000, an energy shortage hit California. Finally, on September 11th, 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center.

(The U.S. lashed out violently when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Similarly, the U.S. lashed out violently at al Qaeda for 9/11.)

In some people’s eyes, these crises showed how frail United States’ position of power was. No longer could the U.S. be counted on for a strong economy. No longer were energy resources plentiful. No longer was the U.S. untouchable.

By this time, relations with Hussein and the United States had soured. The Persian Gulf War, a second war over oil, earned Hussein the nickname, “the Butcher of Baghdad”. His actions as a vain, ruthless dictator with a taste for weapons of mass destruction were officially recognized (though they were already known during the Iran-Iraq conflict).

Hussein invaded Kuwait to gain a dominant holding of the world’s oil supply. The U.S., along with a United Nations coalition including France, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates, sent military support to prevent Hussein from doing this.

This time, in 2003, Hussein hasn’t made an overt aggressive move against the United States or any other nation.

But yet, Bush has declared war against Hussein and Iraq. The Bush family’s affiliations in the oil industry notwithstanding, perhaps Bush is no longer content with a U.S.-friendly leader in control of the Middle East.

No world power in its right mind would step down from a position of power. It would fiercely defend its position. How it defends its position may differ from nation to nation, but the root desires are the same.

If France, Russia, or the United Kingdom were the major world power, how would they behave in the United States’ position?

Here’s another way to look at this situation: a Major World Power (MWP) is suffering from lack of resources. MWP experiences multiple events that threaten its security, so it begins to look for ways to stabilize and strengthen that security.

At the same time, another nation, in control of one of the world’s most valuable resources, has possible affiliations to terrorist groups that threatened MWP’s security. These affiliations aren’t very clear (and may not even be real), but MWP sees an opportunity to take control of one of the world’s most valuable resources.

MWP must also deal with international pressures. MWP, being a major world power, feels a responsibility to the international community to decrease the political and social turmoil in this much-sought-after region.

For both internal and external reasons, MWP sees little choice but to takes advantage of this opportunity.

Now for the sake of argument, pretend that MWP is you and that you are playing a strategy-based game, like Settlers, Civilization, or Age of Empires. What would you do? Would you make a similar move?

These are games of resource control. The player that has most deftly used his/her resources to build the most assets or gain the most land wins. Say one player is low on wood resources. The player has a few moves now; the player can trade with another or just take over another player’s land.

For better or worse, the United States just made its move.

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WTC 2.0

“Don’t Rebuild. Reimagine,” says the New York Times Magazine of the site of the World Trade Center. And so a group of leading architects met to discuss what could be done.

This came after the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the organization formed by New York Governor George Pataki and then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to oversee the rebuilding of the WTC site, came up with six proposals.

The six proposals were rejected, and now the LMDC has initiated a month-long design study for up to five teams of architects, developers, and artists.

Rebuilding the site of WTC isn’t going to be an easy task. Much of the city divided between whether to create two tall buildings (to replace the WTC) or avoiding tall buildings. Then there are other issues (the site has a combination of owners with differing interests, from New York City and State to New Jersey to private enterprises Westfield America and Larry Silverstein).

Replacing the WTC wouldn’t be easy either. World Trade Center’s Twin Towers were both 1350 ft high (110 stories tall). This made them the fifth and sixth tallest buildings in the world. Architects Minoru Yamasaki and Emery Roth designed the seven buildings of the WTC, though their names seem to be absent from the list of architects vying to rebuild the site.

The architects in the NY Times Magazine article envisioned more than just rebuilding or replacing WTC. They looked at the rest of Lower Manhattan as well.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, Greenwich Street ran south from Greenwich Village down to the southern tip of Manhattan. Then businessmen David and Nelson Rockerfeller approached the Port Authority, a NY-NJ-owned transit organization, to build a towering financial center in Lower Manhattan and stem the tide of business leaving downtown to for the livelier midtown.

Now that the WTC no longer stands, it is possible to look down Greenwich Street again and see the shore. All of the architecture plans for this project intend to keep this street open.

The visions for Lower Manhattan extend even further than that. The Civic Alliance, a group formed by the Regional Plan Association, is tackling this issue through a coalition of private and public organizations, including New York University (my alma mater and one of the largest landowners in NYC)

In the past, it was the wealthy that dictated what would be built in the city. Now organizations like LMDC and the Civic Alliance are turning to the community for their opinions. And the result is a lively yet widely varying set of voices, leading to the formation of other groups, like New York New Visions, Rebuild Downtown Our Town, and Community Board 1.

The NY Times Magazine architects interjected artistic values into the construction as well. Even Maya Lin was consulted on the memorial design. Their designs range from contemporary to Art Deco.

But whatever the aesthetic, there’s been a consensus to keep the major streets open, like Greenwich, to have a cultural institution (whether it be an opera house, museum, or something else), and to have a memorial designed by some kind of public process. Other top plans include expanding residential housing and providing better commercial venues.

Lower Manhattan in the 20th Century has typically been about the hustle and bustle of Wall Street in the daytime and quiet, empty streets at night and on weekends. Through developments like Battery City Park and South Street Seaport, both built on landfills, some weekend commerce and residential living has come about.

This disaster has brought about a renewed interest in NYC and it’s history. The site of the WTC will undoubtedly be a tourist attraction for years to come, but it will also serve as a symbol of the resilience of the city as well as become a cultural center for our grandchildren.

All of these ideas give me a lot of hope. September 11th, 2001 came during the tail end of the Dot-com bubble, just as many businesses were leaving Lower Manhattan and NYC. Even more have left since 9/11, but out of this disaster is coming hope.

Hope that a more united community will have a voice in rebuilding and improving a treasured and historical part of the New York City.

What do you think of the new WTC development?

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What They Saw

The BOOM of the impact must have been deafening. Yim, my cousin’s wife, ran out of the World Trade Center lobby and into the courtyard. The shock waves shook the entire building and debris fell to the earth.

She looked up and glass fell into her face. Several shards cut her cornea. She covered her face and ran from the building.

Startled by the sound, my friend Amanda looked out her office window. Her coworkers crowded to see what had happened. They could see black smoke pouring from a gash in one of the towers.

Someone gasped. Alongside the debris that was falling, were bodies. Live people. Amanda looked up and saw tiny figures climb out the windows and leap to their deaths. She watched them fall to hundreds of feet to the pavement below.

Down the street, my friend Laura climbed out of the subway station. The subway riders all felt the tremor but didn’t know what had happened. As she emerged from the underground, she saw the smoking wound.

Believing that it was just a single accident, she and dozens of office workers filed into the other tower, ready for a day’s work.

After arriving to her office, she received an announcement to evacuate. She walked out the door and saw a few hardy souls refusing to leave. They returned to their offices as she left the building.

As soon as she was clear of the buildings, she looked back up again. Both Amanda and Laura watched on, silent, as the second plane struck.

More debris and bodies fell. Amanda probably turned away at this point. Laura and hundreds of other people were fleeing the site, making their way uptown or over the Brooklyn bridge.

Some people lingered to watch. My cousin Kenny was among them. He stood at the police barricades, gazing numb up at the disaster.

A former coworker of mine, Jason, pointed his camera at the World Trade Center from his office blocks away and tried to capture as much of the incident as he could. He couldn’t hear the first building begin to crumble, but he could see the antenna wobble back and forth.

Kenny could see it too. And he could hear it. Then it happened. The thunderous BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM of each floor collapsing.

The crowd turned around and scrambled down the street. The first tower of the World Trade Center was falling. Pursuing the crowd was a black cloud of dust. Down the blocks of Lower Manhattan they blindly ran. Some didn’t stop until passing Houston.

Others slowed down and gaped in disbelief. Where one of the World Trade Centers once stood was now open sky.

My family and friends were all cleared out of the vicinity soon after the second World Trade Center tower collapsed. I didn’t find this out until days later, when I was finally able to get through by phone and hear their voices again.

The only person I talked to in New York after the disaster was my father, who called me before the phone lines died to tell me what happened.

Do you know anyone who saw the World Trade Center fall?

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Remembrance

Sometimes people tell me that I should forget it and move on with life. Well, I don’t want to forget it.

I have pictures of the World Trade Center’s Memorial up on my desk at work. It’s two bright shining lights stand tall among the Heavens, like two majestic sentinels watching over the countless brave heroes that lost their lives there.

I have family and friends who were directly affected by this tragic incident. Some were caught in the ashes of the first building’s fall, others watched from their office windows desperate lives jump from the towers.

To this day, these images are still burned in my mind as harshly as they are in the minds of my family and friends’.

Some of the pictures at my desk are of people holding daffodils at the World Trade Center’s Sphere, now in Battery City Park. A part of me feels incomplete because I can’t be standing there, paying my respects as well.

It’s different out here in California. Understandably enough, people don’t talk about 9/11 as much here as they do in New York. When I talk to my friends in NYC, they tell me how the companies near Ground Zero are opening up for business again, how uneasy they feel going back to work down there, how they still lie awake and cry at night.

The distance makes it difficult to feel the same impact. The impact of Hurricane Andrew or the Oklahoma City bombing incidents didn’t impact New Yorkers the same way they impacted Floridians and Oklahomans.

So it’s not surprising that my friends here tell me to stop thinking about 9/11 and move on with life. No one of us should let such a senseless act paralyze us.

But to me, remembering it doesn’t mean paralysis. To me, the remembrance of this incident is akin to the remembrance of a death in the family, because to many of my friends, that’s exactly what it is.

The part of me that feels incomplete yearns to see the WTC Memorial for my own eyes. Maybe it’s the distance that’s the real issue. Maybe it’s partly homesickness. I don’t know.

All I know for sure is that this is something that I don’t want to, nor can, forget. Ever.

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Goodbye 2001

2001 was the year Life tore a gash and poured salt and lemon juice into the wound.

Is there anyone who isn’t happy to see this sorry year end?

First the California energy crisis burn businesses like a moth on a flame. Sure, some people got some days off from work. That was good. But have you ever tried taking a pee in the dark? The clean-up afterwards just plain sucks, let me tell you.

Next the Internet companies die faster than Clinton’s credibility on Monica’s stained dress. The Internet downfall left scarred, deserted battlefields in much of Silicon Valley and other hi-tech locales.

Finally, maniacal, cowardly terrorists launch an attack on the non-Muslim world. How the deaths of thousands will help feed and clothe their people still confuses me. Worse, they hide behind religion as their excuse. As if the Koran really says, “Allah commands you to destroy the World Trade Center by hijacking planes with paper cutters.”

I guess Life figured one bad thing wasn’t enough. Just an energy crisis? Nah, let’s give them a recession and disaster too.

Who was it that said bad things come in threes?

So 2001 is finally over now. All gone. Bye bye. Time to start thinking about a new year, a new beginning. Life, let’s start over and try this again, huh?

If bad things come in threes, maybe good things will come in threes too.

Maybe the economy will rise again. Maybe we’ll find the hole in which bin Laden is hiding. Maybe we’ll rebuild the WTC bigger and better.

What exactly the future holds I don’t know. But what I do know is that this new year brings new hope. Good things are going to come. I can feel it.

I’m pretty psyched about it, in fact. New beginnings are always refreshing.

Goodbye 2001. Happy New Year! Hello 2002!

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Ground Zero

“I love you Daddy,” says the message scribbled above the face of a gentle-looking man. A pot of flowers sits below the picture.

Next to it is a mural from a church. Dozens upon dozens of messages adorn it. “God Bless America.” “United We Stand.” “Our thoughts are with you, New York.”

I pause and look up between the buildings. It’s been a year since I’ve been back. The memory of how the Twin Towers looked from this street have since faded from my mind.

Despite that, I can feel a void in the sky.

Behind me is a bold peace symbol. “War is not the answer,” are the words below it.

Right next to it is a poster saying, “Do not forgive. Do not forget.”

There are crowds moving on the sidewalk. A couple with a southern twang passes in front of me. The wife poses in front of the posters and her husband takes a photograph.

I try to swallow a knot in my throat. When I moved to San Francisco, I took dozens of photographs during a walk around the city. I told myself that I would do the same for New York City someday.

I will fulfill my promise this week. Unfortunately, I’ve lost the chance to photograph the proud Twin Towers.

Another tourist poses in front of the posters. I don’t have my camera right now; I don’t want to make my first visit here a tourist visit. Respects need to be given first.

The wind blows violently down the street. Tourists are practically blown down the sidewalk. I turn up my coat’s collars.

Crowds flood me as I try to maneuver down the sidewalk. Hearing the click of a camera is just as frequent as the honk of a horn.

All streets leading into the site are blocked. Most of the wreckage has been cleared. The memorial posters and the void in the sky is all that is left.

I turn to face the site, bow my head, and whisper a prayer. My eyes blink from the swelling of tears. I try to swallow the knot again. Then I open my eyes and walk back uptown.

Have you been to Ground Zero?

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Feeling Removed

I was 3,000 miles away when it happened. So I can’t truly understand how my fellow New Yorkers felt, can I?

My friends tell me how they’re constantly nervous, anxious, and depressed to the point of crying. They tell me of the languishing dust and stagnant smell of the dead. They tell me about the relentless rumors of bomb scares and (unfortunately now somewhat justified) bioterrorist attacks.

They tell me all that, and how am I to really understand all the way here in California?

I can sympathize. I can weep. I can try to imagine myself in their situation.

But despite all that, I can’t truly understand. I wasn’t there. My heart feels almost numb to some of these stories. Numb and distant.

I don’t know how to really explain it. I don’t even know if this makes any sense.

I told some friends that I wanted to see what’s left of the WTC, just to “touch base.” It’s been almost two years since I moved from New York, and almost a year since I’ve been back. All of this distance seems to have removed the feelings from my heart.

Then I came across Jonathan Corum’s photos of the disaster.

And holy shit, I… I…

I just had to stop what I was doing to take a pause and hold myself from falling apart.

His site is one of the most thoughtful personal accounts of this disaster I’ve seen. The photography is beautiful and startling. He starts with photos of the WTC, pre-disaster. Then he narrates through a collection of thirteen days worth of photos.

It was the photo of Ray’s Pizza in Greenwich Village that first began to tear at my heart. Like a pin jab to test whether I am really numb or not.

I used to eat at this place. Ray’s Pizza is, in my New York Centric Viewpoint, makes one of the best pizzas in America. Plastered all over the walls are photos of missing persons.

The next few days show more photos of missing persons, the military, people holding American flags, and the remains of the WTC.

I didn’t see many of these kinds of candid, day-to-day images on the media. Maybe I just missed them.

I went to school right around Union Square. There’s a photo of a mound of flowers, candles, flags, notes, and other assorted objects under the statue of George Washington. It’s a memorial created by the people of NYC for the people of NYC.

Shit, my hands are shaking as I write this.

There are pictures of the attack drawn by kids who are too young to understand the politics behind this senseless violence. And apparently a new statue was unveiled at the Square—a statue of a fireman, kneeling in grief or smoke, or both, as Jonathan puts it.

On day ten he shows us the Armory, which looks to have become a center for missing persons. There are so many faces, so many people.

Finally, he ends with a collection of very personal and thoughtful comments sent to him by other viewers. There’s no way I’d be able to read them all without a beer in my hand.

It’s finally sinking in. I’m finally letting my heart feel it. I’m finally coming closer to understanding.

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Is That Anthrax On Your Shoulder?

“What if you walked down the street and someone pricked you with an infected needle? You might get anthrax!”

About a dozen friends asked me something like that when I told them I wanted to take a trip back to Manhattan.

Everywhere around me, I hear people talking about the anthrax epidemic.

In the supermarket, a lady was telling another lady how licking an envelope could give you anthrax.

A guy on the street coughed, and his friend backed away from him and told him to run to the hospital, “…in case you have anthrax.”

I think the terrorists are winning.

With a few letters and a handful of people in prominent sites infected, the rest of America seems to have gone bonkers. People are taking the news and blurring the facts into fantastically horrible rumors.

To get to the real facts, I checked out a few web sites. And came across some opinion pieces from the NY Post and Time Magazine.

The facts state that anthrax, also known as bacillus anthracis by its scientific name, is not highly contagious. You cannot get it from someone coughing on you, and certainly not from licking an envelope.

It really isn’t as bad as the news makes it out to be.

The Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison had some pretty good advice on how to protect yourself from bioterrorism:

• Stop Worrying
• Stop Smoking
• Don’t Drink Too Much
• Eat Right
• Exercise
• Stop Worrying

In other words, don’t give in to panic. Otherwise, the terrorists win.

Ironically, do you know who is helping the terrorists win? The American media. Either it’s ignorant or misinformed news reporters giving the public the wrong information (no, anthrax is NOT a virus), or unscrupulous reporters trying to sensationalize the incident to make money.

Sound crazy, huh? Why would anyone sensationalize such a horrible event? Think about it. Every news source is reporting on the same event. How can you get readers to buy your media over a competitor’s? Make it sound more horrible, more terrifying, more sensational.

And in doing so, scare your public into reading more news media. To make more sales. To make more money.

The public: 0. The terrorists (with the aide of sensationalists): 1.

Of course, not all news sources do this. And not all of the public is taken in by sensationalized news. But enough of it is happening to cause a general panic.

And that’s when the terrorists win.

Do you think the terrorists are winning?

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Been Thinking

It’s not so easy anymore. Coming up with a ramble that isn’t about the terrorist attacks on American soil, I mean.

It’s been one of the main topics of conversation. More so with my family and friends from New York, who still endure waves of other terrorist scares (like bomb threats, poison gas threats, second terrorist strike threats, etc).

From all these talks, I’ve heard alot of differing viewpoints on this situation, from anti-American to pro-American. They’ve given me a lot to think about.

One thing I’m impressed with is how history hasn’t entirely repeated itself. The horror of the Japanese American internment during World War II seems to have taught us a lesson.

Though there have been many horrible hate crimes against people who look even remotely Middle Eastern, the United States government hasn’t ordered any kind of internment. And that’s a good step forward.

Another thing that impresses me is the careful seeking of understanding by many Americans. After WWII, Americans were quick to paint all people of Russian descent as the enemy.

This time, thousands are scouring the web for more information on the terrorists to try to understand how they could do this.

I think the United States as a whole has come a long way from the aggressive paranoia of our past. It’s still got a long way to go, but every baby step is a step in the right direction.

One of the opinions I’ve heard is that the US deserved this attack. That the US is so arrogant that this terrorist attack will humble us. That many other countries in the world have so much suffering, now it’s the Americans’ turn to suffer.

That’s a really sad opinion. At the core, that opinion is rooted in jealously. Some are jealous of the perception that Americans have a better life than they do, and therefore must be made to suffer.

I’m sorry, but that’s just plain bullshit. Jealousy is a poor reason to kill thousands.

Another opinion I’ve heard is that this is in retaliation to US’s foreign policy. That the inconsistent support the US has given to various militants and governments in the Middle East betray a lack of loyalty.

So nearly seven thousand innocent lives must be punished for what a few policy makers have decided? That’s just as stupid a reason as jealousy.

Now President Bush says that we must wage a war against terrorism.

What exactly is terrorism? Terrorism is an act, a way of intimidation and coercion. How do you wage a war on that? (This coming from the same country that’s waging a war on “drugs.”)

We can’t fight the act of terrorism. I don’t think we can ever abolish it. Terrorism can come from anywhere. It’s not just religious extremists that can be terrorists. As Timothy McVeigh has shown, political extremists can be just as dangerous. Not only that, terrorists don’t necessarily have to be outside our borders either.

In an open society, I really don’t know how we can fight “terrorism” in all its forms without remaining an open society. Heck, even closed societies face terrorism. So the issue isn’t that we’re an open society, as many politicians were eager to point out early on.

I don’t have the answer. I have no idea how to stop terrorism. I don’t even think it can ever be stopped. Like what every security expert will tell you, there’s no completely foolproof lock out there. If a thief wants to break in badly enough, he’ll find a way.

But I suppose we can just decrease the likelihood of it happening. And I think our country is beginning to do a good job of that with the heightened security checks everywhere.

I for one sure don’t mind those extra security checks. Even if this terrorist attack never happened, I actually wouldn’t mind.

Which brings me to the next opinion I’ve heard. That our privacy will be compromised with the heightened security, showing the terrorists that they’ve really won.

I think that some increase in security measures doesn’t mean that the terrorists have won. But compromising our privacy definitely will show that. And that’s scary.

I’m probably not the best person to be arguing about privacy, because my views on privacy and personal data for marketing are pretty lax. I use NetZero and Morpheus, knowing very well that they both sell my usage data to other companies. (I oughta write another ramble about my strange views on this one day—that way, you’ll know I’m totally wacko.)

But if we start walking around, fearing that planes will fall out of the sky, then yes, the terrorists will have truly won. And I for one ain’t about to let them win.

What have you been thinking about?

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