What has changed in New Yorkers life since 9/11 ?

Might sound simple… but after two years gone. What has effectively changed in NY and New Yorkers lives ? I’m not talking of looking up “color codes” for terrorist danger or paranoia.

Are people living and thinking differently their normal lives ? More sex or less sex ? More or less entertainment ? Religious changes ? Has the infamous New York manners changed ? Are people more helpful and mindful of their fellow city members ?

Society is different ? Prices ? Jobs ?  Other factors....

(If your not from NY but you visited before and after 9/11 did you perceive a change ? Afterall sometimes it takes an outsider to notice these things…)

According to a documentary recently aired in the BBC (including many interviews with local New Yorkers and celebrities like Woody Allen), there is very little evidence of fundamental change on the surface.

With the obvious exception of those who suffered loss of family and friends or experienced trauma directly due to the attacks, (who will always be deeply affected) life seems to continue now much like it always did. People may stop to reflect for a few moments when passing or glimpsing Ground Zero, but it seemed resilience and fortitude has carried people through, and life goes on.

Of course, this second-hand opinion will be of no worth compared to the opinion of an actual local, which I too am interested in hearing.

I don’t know about the individual lives, but if you watched the New Yorkers during the major blackout they had, you would have noticed how calm they all were and how helpful they were to each other. I think 9/11 has made people a lot more caring and a lot more prepared for disaster. They look out for people now, and I don’t even think there was one break in during that blackout.

Actually, there were about five or six–most of the guys were caught.

Things have changed according to people’s personalities. We are very relieved when something bad happening, like the blackout, is “just” an accident. When the subway stops, when there’s an explosion nearby, everyone is as alert as a herd of deer, ready to run. Cops and firemen still get respect and the latter are usually stood a round of drinks if they’re in a bar. Almost all the firehouses have completed their plaques–names of up to fifteen guys out in front, tasteful but devastatingly sad.

On Thursday, the majority of people I saw in Manhattan were wearing black, some all black. Lots of flag pins and patches, flag do-rags, Old Nav flag T-shirts, worn without irony or politics, just with respect for the fact that we in NY and Washington represented America to those bastards, even though the WTC at that point was pretty much just an ordinary office building despite its name, and frankly a pretty outmoded one.

So many people lost their jobs due to 9/11 (including me) that all you have to say at an interview that you were laid off after it and everybody understands, with no stigma attached to you. For every person on Wall Street who’s now unemployed, there were tons of support staff–the guys who shined their shoes, the women who cleaned their offices, the dudes with the hotdog pushcarts, the Chinese garment workers whose workplaces were closed and inaccessible and lost weeks worth of wages they could barely afford. Things have largely come back down there, but the bar is set a lot lower for earnings, etc.

I guess we all had it drilled into our heads how live can change, no matter how innocent or apolitical you are, and how much we all have in common. The stockbroker from Greenwich and the Muslim Bangladeshi waiter at Windows on the World died together, in agony, and the widow/ers and children feel the same way. Community groups have strengthened a lot, but it’s harder because jobs are less secure and some of my friends have had to move out of the city, taking their charity and tax money with them.

Caught a play at the New-York Historical Society on Wednesday called “The Guys”, and there was crying aplenty at the end. It still hurts. And as the female lead said, “Yes, things are getting back to normal. But normal has shifted.”

As Mehitabel says, there are a lot of economic changes—the job market here is even worse than in the rest of the US, when it’s usually better here. The real-estate market has also shifted: businesses are moving out of downtown, thus, apartment prices have fallen in that neighborhood, so people are actually moving there.

Emotionally, hmmm . . . Remember, tens of thousands of people have moved away from NYC since 2001 and tens of thousands have moved here: so it’s not even the same “population.” I think those of us still here are maybe a tad jumpier and more cautious than before, because we know something’s gonna happen sometime—question is, where and when and what? There are still a lot of gun-toting soldiers around (I find it hugely amusing that they are in jungle camouflage in midtown Manhattan). Some of us avoid “target areas” when we think about it.

Mostly, life is back to normal on the surface, but everyone is thinking about it.

Interesting difference between New York and DC is that we in the metro DC area lost a lot of jobs after 9/11, but the increaswed government hiring has largely kept us from suffering as bad an economy as the rest of the nation.

Life is normal here again also, but after 9/11 and last autumn’s sniper shootings, we’re a bit jumpy here as well.

Adn now we’re faing Isabel.

Oy.

I’m not a New Yorker, but I went to college there, and my dad has lived there since I was in high school, so I’m there at least once or twice a year (and will fly there on Friday).

I definitely think New Yorkers are somewhat mellowed since 9/11. People are much more likely to be polite and offer assistance (and yes, even directions!) to strangers. Even cab drivers, cops, and subway token booth personnel are less grumpy. I think the whole thing reminded many in NY who had forgotten temporarily that we are all human beings, and should support each other.

I will say that one moment when 9/11 really felt weird to me was driving into NY for my grandfather’s funeral in Dec. 2001, when I saw the toll collector at the bridge was wearing latex gloves. That, and how empty Wall Street was during what should have been a prime Christmas shopping season Friday lunch rush. Then, of course, I walked up Broadway toward the Village, right past Ground Zero. Even months later, it was completely surreal.

Thanks for the DC perspective, Gobear, it’s often overlooked. Good luck with Isabel. So far, it looks like it’ll just be a nasty rainstorm for us, but who knows with a hurricane.

Rashak, are these the sort of answers you were looking for?

I asked because the reputation of pre 9/11 NYC people wasnt very pretty. Rough and uncaring. Worried only about work and money. A year ago some articles seemed to imply that New Yorkers had left aside a bit of their rough edge and that they were giving themselves more time to enjoy romance and life.

Any truth to that ? Or the previous reputation ? (I compare that to London, where I lived, which has loads of different people... and its a pretty friendly city.)

—Oh, we pride ourselves on being tough sonsobitches. Even if we did have hearts of mush, we’d die before letting anyone know.

Mehitabel, I found your post very insightful and moving. Thank you for writing it.

Is there any debate about this in New York? Any newspaper or magazine columns titled “No Change in New Yorker’s Attitudes Since 9/11”?

[SIZE=1]I’d love to be getting me some more romance right now…[/SIZE=1]

Ahem. Yes, that’s true, although most of us were never as tough and money-grubbing as portrayed, just as your Brazilians don’t prance around in Carnivale costumes kicking soccer balls all the time :smiley:

We’re still worried about work, but that’s because there’s not enough of it and those who have jobs are being made to do those of people laid off, too. But things are a bit more low-key, not exactly more relaxed because of the underlying tension, but there’s a bit more time being made for family and friends. People who have a lot of money are not as flashy or worshipped anymore by regular folks, and if you do go out and have decadent fun, there might be a slight “Screw you, Osama!” vibe to it.

Aw, jjimm, thanks
:o

I’d have to agree… little has actually changed. We were tested. There’s an awareness it can happen again… the most common comment on the blackout was, “Well, if this is the best they (the terrorists) can do, it’s pretty pathetic.” But generally, I’ve got to say that the biggest change was in the reputation of New Yorkers, and not in the New Yorkers themselves. Frankly, Rudy Giuliani has has a much larger effect on the character of the city than 9/11 did… I would not have like to have seen it happen during a previous administration.

I have occasions of low-level paranoia. Like sometimes I’ll see a truck or shipping container rumbling down the avenue and think what if it was stuffed with explosives. I think what would I do if they blew up such and such landmark/transportation hub. How will I get my wife and kids off the island? I was one of those people who got a little edgy when a bunch of fireworks went off in Central Park last night. All I saw were flashes and explosions a few blocks up from where I was because of the rain - none of the glittery fire-worky type stuff.

I often think about how life was when the towers were still there and how nothing can ever bring that back.

I heard those things going off all the way out in New Jersey! The radio station was explaining, “It was just fireworks—stop calling 911, everyone!”

Hey, I was at those fireworks! Just when they reached the climax, after three minutes, the rain was so hard that he never got the chance to do the big ring of fire. Very annoying and I got very very wet for nothing.

I put up a little Yahoo album of pictures from 9/11/03 here. Hope you like them.

. . . I have such a dirty mind . . .

New Yorkers are not “rough and uncaring”. They are:

  1. usually in a hurry
  2. used to tuning out the crowds of people and noise they must wade through every day
  3. brutally honest (“Hey MORON! I’m DRIVIN’ here!!” - well…he is)
  4. generally used to a lot more variety than the average tourist from Minnesota.

So, it seems to me that if you are from Smalltown USA where everyone knows each other and everyone is like you and you aren’t used to seeing bums and 1000s of people scurying about and buildings over 30’ tall, New Yorkers may seem uncaring.

Oh and not to mention the bars close sometime around 4am. New Yorkers give themselves plenty of time to enjoy life.
So if you say that again, I’ll cut ya!

I’m from Chicago, and New Yorkers frequently still seemed uncaring to me when I lived there and visited there before 9/11. One rarely sees such unprompted rudeness in Chicago, or in other major cities I’ve been to. NY has much more of an edge IMO than many other places.