Posted on 01/04/2013 8:44:22 AM PST by OddLane
Living in this city your entire life gives one the opportunity to experience things you would not normally encounter in any other part of the country. Many of these experiences are deeply unpleasant and disturbing, including periodic attempts, with varying degrees of success, by terrorists to blow up large sections of it, along with its inhabitants.
Putting aside the preternatural feeling that I’m living in a very bad Michael Bay film-as if there is any other kind-there aren’t many things that occur to or in New York that shake me out of the existential torpor which stems from spending most days trying to avoid 8 million people.
That said, if you had told me a decade ago that there would be another nationwide, star-studded telethon created with the intention of raising millions of dollars for relief and recovery efforts ostensibly helping the victims of an epic disaster in New York City, I probably would have scoffed.
Granted, New York has seen its share of momentous climatic events, including nor’easters, earthquakes, and even tornadoes. Yet not many people expected a natural disaster that would kill over forty people in this city, nearly half of whom came from Staten Island.
The idea that there would be scenes of devastation less than two miles from my home which echoed images from catastrophic tsunamis across the globe is something that I still have trouble reconciling with my conception of New York City. The dislocation experienced by thousands of New Yorkers was something that hadn’t occurred since September 11th, and which will probably persist well into the next decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at american-rattlesnake.org ...
Good article. It’s nice to hear of a former city guy realizing that people have to do a lot of the restoration work themselves.
Unfortunately, a lot of the buildings wound up being condemned, especially in some of the worse off neighborhoods.
I was going to help someone tear out some drywall in Queens but was told the entire house was going to come down eventually.
I imagine saltwater does quite a number on houses. It has to be be bad losing one’s house and home.
“It’s nice to hear of a former city guy realizing that people have to do a lot of the restoration work themselves.
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He’s not a former city guy,he IS a city guy.
.
Well, Staten Island isn’t quite the ‘city’ if you hear the residents tell it.
Brooklyn,where he used to live, has some beautiful,suburban type areas.
A city is a form of government,no more,no less.
.
Bump.
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