On Friday afternoon, while asking East Villagers to reflect on the events of a decade ago, The Local happened upon a Roman Catholic priest and a Villager who asked to be identified as Monsignor Donald, blessing the home of Engine Company 28 and Ladder Company 11, at 222 East 2nd Street. The firehouse lost six members at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2011, and earlier this year, it lost another firefighter, Roy Chelsen, to bone-marrow cancer said to be linked to his work at Ground Zero in the weeks following the attacks. Here, Monsignor Donald talks about his work blessing local firehouses.
SEPTEMBER 11 2001
Hear The Raw Reactions of New Yorkers in the Days Following 9/11
By DANIEL MAURER
jdx View from the East Village, September 11, 2001.Last week Susan Keyloun reviewed “nine/twelve tapes,” a play that reenacted man-on-the-street interviews conducted in the days following September 11, 2001. Now The Local has acquired clips from the tapes, which you can listen to for the first time below. Collin Daniels, 40, had been living in New York City for just three months when the World Trade Center attacks occurred – he had moved here along with eight other Ohio University theater-program graduates, and was working a temp job in publishing. “I was feeling out of place and alienated,” said Mr. Daniels over the telephone today, “and when 9/11 happened, it heightened my sense that I didn’t belong to this city yet and I wanted to do something to heal and process this.” Read more…
The East Village Remembers 9/11
By THE LOCALOn Friday, we shared John Vaccaro’s memories of September 11, 2001. Because he isn’t the only the one looking back on that day, The Local asked other Villagers some of the same questions that The Times posed to its readers: What was their strongest memory of 9/11? How did it change them, and America? What did they lose – or gain – because of it? Share your own reflections or reactions here, and if you’ve posted a video to the New York Times YouTube channel, leave that link in the comments.
After Escaping Ground Zero, John Vaccaro Became a Villager Again
By JOSHUA DAVISBack in June, The Local visited the home of John Vaccaro, one of the residents above Mars Bar who was being temporarily relocated so that his building could be replaced by condos. It wasn’t the first time the retired theater director had been displaced. On September 11, 2001, he was living just a few blocks from the World Trade Center while also keeping his loft on Second Avenue. In this video, Mr. Vaccaro describes fleeing ground zero and making an unexpected return to the East Village. Nearly ten years later, on July 21, he would officially move back to John Street, with a clear memory of that fall day.
