The Broadsheet - Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Charles Frederick led his son Uriah out of Gateway Plaza. Photograph by Robert Simko.

An online meeting today (Wednesday, June 21) will mark the beginning of the next chapter in the fight to secure healthcare for survivors of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. To date, all such efforts have been focused on the adults who responded to the site, along with those who lived or worked in Lower Manhattan on that day or in the months that followed.

Last December, however, Congress amended the law governing the World Trade Center Health Program. The primary purpose of that new legislation was to provide continued funding for the Health Program. But the new language also contained a mandate, for the first time, “to establish a new research cohort to conduct future research studies on the health and educational impacts... on the population of individuals who were 21 years of age or younger at the time of exposure.”

The youngest children in the vicinity of the World Trade Center, newborn infants 22 years ago are now graduating college. Children who were in elementary or high school are today in their 30s and 40s. Virtually no data exists about how their health has been affected by their exposure to more than 2,500 contaminants (including asbestos, lead, mercury, dioxins, crystalline silica, cadmium, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, along with pulverized concrete and glass) now known to have filled the air and coated every surface for hundreds of yards in all directions. There is not even a centralized list of names and contact information for such young people.

But there are troubling clues. At a Community Board 1 (CB1) discussion last December, when Congress was debating the legislation that renewed Health Program funding, Wendy Chapman weighed in with a viscerally personal insight: “I was pregnant and also had a baby who was less than a year old when September 11 happened. My oldest daughter had a cancer removed last January. And I think back on the time when we were playing in Washington Market Park, which had been cleaned up after September 11, and all the sand had been removed when the park was cleaned. And then all of our babies were out there playing a few months later when emergency personnel in haz-mat suits showed up and told us our children couldn’t play in the park, because they had to remove all the sand again. I'm concerned that we’ll have additional cancers in the future.”

Today’s meeting will be hosted by the Scientific/Technical Advisory Committee of the Health Program. The agenda will include a presentation on establishing the new youth cohort and an overview of young survivors. In addition, the WTC Survivors Steering Committee will lead presentations on young survivors’ views and community-based participatory research.

Mariama James, a CB1 member who has led the charge for accountability, transparency, and support for survivors for almost two decades, said, “this cohort of young people, many of whom aren’t even in the World Trade Center Registry, let alone the Health Program, are now in their own child-bearing years. It is so important that they are tracked for emerging conditions—that their physical, mental and emotional health needs are met and treated in ways that work for them. And that often doesn’t look as it would for responders or older survivors. It’s critical that these efforts start now, while some of us older folks are still around to help them to be certified or otherwise navigate the system. These are 20- and 30-year-old ‘kids’ who tend not to remember, or have ever known, a lot of the details sought from them. Being asked is just another trigger and stressor that they don’t need. Developing this cohort will create an opportunity for data collection to help them and their peers for many years to come.”

Kimberly Flynn, the director of 9/11 Environmental Action, a non-profit advocacy group whose mission is to ensure that those who were affected physically or emotionally by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, get the health care they need, said, “the effort to track the health of people exposed as children is critical and long-overdue. Without it, the Health Program will be completely in the dark about the health impacts of September 11 toxins on Lower Manhattan residents and students who were children at the time, and who are most vulnerable to harm and whose health has not been tracked to scientific standards.”

No prior registration is required to attend today’s online meeting, which begins at 11am. Click here to attend the session.

Community Board 1 is welcoming a new tour bus operator to Lower Manhattan, but asking City regulators to locate its stop anywhere but Broadway. Read more...

While many Lower Manhattan residents know that their community was once the site of a slave market (and that the wall for which Wall Street is named was built partially with the labor of enslaved persons), few have a specific sense of how, or even where, the buying and selling of human beings took place. Read more...

[Re: A Lot to Consider, June 15, 2023]

To the editor,

Thank you very much for your article on June 15th about the construction hazards at 111 Washington St. I would hope that others who read the article can take heed when it comes to the vagaries of construction issues in the city.

I cannot stress enough that dangers from construction itself in varying degrees can lead to serious consequences like building and structural damages from nearby sites. My neighbors and I experienced this first hand when the parking garage at 111 was demolished next door to me and destabilized my building in 2009. Even worse than that for the community at large is the possible fallout from the brownfield next door. As Matthew Fenton thoughtfully pointed out, the city encourages developers to declare brownfield sites in order to get tax revenue from the cleanup which they can potentially make a profit on. It’s a clear case of the foxes guarding the henhouse. Only last week when the fires from the north filled our skies my air monitor displayed hazardous levels, nearly pinning the scale at 469 with a meter that tops out at 500. Throughout all of this the construction crew at 111 Washington continued to work with impunity. When I talked to a project manager at the DOH he assured me that they are very conservative with their air monitor readings and will shut the work down at the slightest exceedence. Why is it then, when readings were high all over the city, that this site was not shut down?

I urge my neighbors to take this issue very seriously and to take action. Those of you who live nearby, within just a few blocks of this site could be putting your children and yourselves at risk. We need to call on our elected officials to do better. I urge everyone concerned to take a stand.

Residents who live adjacent to a Financial District construction site are raising concerns about air quality and environmental pollutants, prompting a call from City Council member Christopher Marte for stronger protective measures. But a spokesman for the project disputes that the work poses any dangers to nearby dwellings. Read more...

A model will strike poses for participants to draw. Materials provided. Free.

See news story above. Open to all.

Livorno, Italy, is a port city on the west coast of Tuscany with a Jewish community that dates back to the sixteenth century. $25.

Create with drawing materials, pastels, and watercolors. Materials provided. Free.

Outdoor yoga. All levels are welcome. Bring your own mat. Free.

Open to all.

Staffan Scheja will perform a program including two fantasies from op. 11 (B minor/E minor) by Wilhelm Stenhammar, Fantasy op.17 by Robert Schumann, and Handel-variations op. 24 by Johannes Brahms. $10 suggested donation.

Every Thursday, the net at Esplanade Plaza will be lowered to allow for pickleball games, on a first-come first-served basis. Free.

Tour of the urban vegetable farm and perennial forest farm, led by park staff.

Six of America’s most celebrated playwrights provide a journey through the first of the 527 momentous days when New York City was the first capital of the revolutionary United States government. The presidency was new, the slave trade was in debate, and the Constitution—and the rights of all this land's inhabitants—hung in the balance. The play will be performed over the next month, on most days, at varying times. Reservations required. Free.

This charming show not only celebrates the beauty of the LGBTQIA+ community through true stories but also explores the power of love and the journey of finding one’s place in the world. $36.

Learn and practice calligraphy, an ancient art that incorporates brushwork, composition, and balance, and cultivates appreciation of culture and language. No experience is required. Ink, paper, and brush will be provided. $5.

Following her sister's disappearance, Jax, a Native American hustler, kidnaps her niece Roki from the child's white grandparents and sets out for the state powwow in hopes of keeping what is left of their family intact. Free.

Seaport Square

Shake your groove thang. Live music from DJ Whitney Day and DJ Dawson, and performances by host, Jasmine Rice LaBeija. Prizes for best dressed. Free.

Concert.