As University Settlement observes 25 years since September 11, 2001, we are sharing our former CEO Michael Zisser’s reflections on the day.
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The visitor was late for an early meeting with me at University Settlement, no phone call or email to explain. Then screaming from out in the hallway. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, which was now on fire. I rushed up to the roof of our building on Eldridge Street, along with many other staff. We had an unobstructed view of the WTC burning. Minutes later, a second plane hits the other tower, also now in flames. How could this be happening?
The news came in fast and furious. The staff, excellent as always, went into action. Were all our staff and program participants safe, since a large percentage lived below Canal Street and in the Chinatown area? Could we contact all the parents of our preschoolers to make sure they were safe, reassuring them that we would take care of their children until they could be picked up and taken home? Almost immediately, parents began showing up, needing and wanting to take their children home. Many of our staff left to deal with their families. Many stayed to take care of all the others. Windows were closed to keep out the smoke, a rushed visit to the hardware store to pick up masks. Professional and personal fears and challenges spontaneously emerged and overlapped.
The neighborhood was immediately locked down, almost impenetrable from Canal Street south, difficult to access from Houston Street south.
People were streaming north from Lower Manhattan. After making sure that University Settlement programs and staff were responding to the crisis as well as possible, I walked east to west, needing to get over to The Door (the other organization where I also served as CEO), sitting just one block north of Canal, much closer to the site of destruction. The Towers were now down. The blocks surrounding The Door were immediately claimed by all the emergency services as a staging area. The Door also immediately swung into action with the disaster, going into lockdown mode, making sure our kids were safe, trying to figure out how to get them home with the subways which were still running, and keeping those who could not see a way home. Most of the staff stayed at our building, a few deciding to head home to take care of their own children. Again, windows closed, emergency gear handed out.
People on the streets were covered by dust, affecting me much less, trying to find a way home. I spent the day walking back and forth among our buildings, east to west, west to east. The staff were remarkable. We made the decision that irrespective of government orders, University Settlement and The Door would open again the next day, asking our staff to cross the guarded streets south of Houston to get to work, being there for those who needed us. The most remarkable staff, as always, were those who delivered meals to the elderly. Even this unheard-of disaster would not stop them helping their clients and neighbors.
The Lower East Side community would hurt for years, businesses and jobs lost, air-born toxins lingering, but University Settlement’s programs were needed more than ever. Kids and staff at The Door would return almost immediately despite the transportation hassles. I wasn’t able then, nor am I able now, years later, to comprehend what actually happened that day, or how it would affect all of our lives. What I do know is that in the worst of times, peoples’ altruism, dedication, commitment to actions which extend well beyond their own immediate needs or concerns, shape who we are as a people, as a country.
The world changed in so many subtle and obvious ways, but the people and the institutions I was involved with survived the recovery period and became even more essential to the future of NYC.