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FIELD OBSERVATIONS OF LOWER MANHATTAN IN
THE AFTERMATH OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER DISASTER September 30, 2001
James K. Mitchell*
Peter Kabachnik**
Robert Donovan**
Junko Noguchi**
Tom Mitchell**
This brief report focuses on "perishable" information about the World Trade
Center disaster. Perishable information is information that is temporarily available and
would likely be lost if not collected quickly after the event. Among others, it might
include physical evidence such as high water marks on damaged buildings that are subject
to clearance or interview information about the performance of emergency management
systems during the disaster impact period. In this case it is information contained in
posters created by the impacted population and
observations by the investigators about changes in the physical environment. The
collection of perishable information has a lengthy pedigree in hazards research. In the
past, research teams from the National Research Council's Committee on Natural Disasters
entered disaster-affected places to record such information. The Natural
Hazards Research and Applications Information Center (NHRAIC) at the University of
Colorado also manages a small grants program for the National Science Foundation that
supports this kind of research. The present study is patterned after these initiatives
though independent of them.
A. Main objective
Posters created in the wake of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster (September 11, 2001)
were the focus of investigation. For the purposes of this study a poster is any text that
contains information about the event, its cause(s) or consequences or human responses to
such, which is affixed to an object in a publically visible location. Posters that refer
to persons who were missing in the aftermath of the disaster were of primary interest. No
information about the identity of individual victims was sought or collected during this
study.
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B. Methods
Information was gathered during a half-day field trip to lower Manhattan. The research
performed was not quantitative or systematic, but was based upon informed qualitative
observation and analysis of the newly transformed urban and social environment. These
observations are by no means exhaustive, but they provide a series of cogent threads and
responses, both informative and explanatory, objective and subjective.
Team members adopted a three tiered approach that involved collecting information about:
(1) specific objects/posters; (2) the contexts in which these objects were found ; and (3)
apparent gaps or silences. Notes were kept by the investigators and transcribed after
returning from the field. Photographs were also taken to provide more detailed
documentation than could be collected on a walking transect.
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C. Time:
9.45 a.m. - 3 p.m. Sunday, August 23, 2001(Canal Street to Union Square)
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D. Weather
Dry, sunny, warm, humid. Temperatures rose to 80sF with a light west wind.
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E. Route
Observers walked an west to east transect through Lower Manhattan, mostly along the line
of Canal Street, followed by a south to north transect roughly from the Financial District
to Union Square with detours to several other locations. The approximate distance was 5
miles. Parts of the route were inside police barricades that had been erected to prevent
vehicles entering damaged areas. The team did not attempt to cross pedestrian barricades
into the zone near "Ground Zero". Portions of the following neighborhoods were
visited: Tribeca, Civic Center, Financial District, Chinatown, the Bowery, Little Italy,
SOHO, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Gramercy.
Details: Canal Street Station, on foot west to West Street (Hudson River), return to
Greenwich Street, south on Greenwich to police cordon at Duane St. (4 blocks North of
WTC), back to Canal, east on Canal to Broadway, south on Broadway to Dey Street (1 block
east of WTC), east on Dey to Nassau Street, north on Nassau to Park, north on Park to
Lafayette Street, north on Lafayette to Canal; east on Canal to Bowery, south on Bowery to
Doyers Street (right turn), through Chinatown on Doyers, Pell and Mott to Canal, north on
Mott to Hester, west on Hester to Mulberry, north on Mulberry through Little Italy to
Bleecker, west on Bleecker to La Guardia, north on La Guardia to Washington Square South,
through Washington Square Park to Arch, north (Greenwich Village) on Fifth Avenue to 16th
Street, east on 16th to Union Square, through Union Square to Subway Station at south east
corner.
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F. A note on cordons
Security cordons were established around the site of the WTC and at various distances
beyond. These were intended to limits access by vehicles and pedestrians. During the ten
days after the twin towers collapsed, up to three or four layers of cordons surrounded the
site. The rigorousness of checking procedures varied widely from place to place. In some
cases persons who wished to proceed were required to have verifiable reasons, including
employment ID cards for premises located inside the cordon. Elsewhere, checks were more
cursory and it was possible for persistent and self-confident persons to proceed.
Checkpoints could also be bypassed simply by entering lightly patrolled streets. This
suggests that the cordons mainly functioned to prevent vehicular traffic and to reduce
pedestrian traffic but not to eliminate it. The vast majority of curious people who might
have sought access to the WTC seemed sufficiently deterred by a combination of: warnings
against entering the area; their own fears; and police officers stationed at streets on
the perimeter of Ground Zero (i.e. the devastated site).
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G. Posters
Posters proved to be a rich source of information about many human dimensions of disaster.
Among others, they provided insights about: the disaster-impacted population; the role of
vernacular information and "grass roots" contributions to formal systems of
disaster management; informal information display and communication strategies; the
multiplicity of messages about hazard that are contained in everyday urban landscapes as
well as crisis ones; and differential neighborhood responses to disaster.
At least 17 different types of posters were observed (see list below). Some sources have
suggested that tens to hundreds of thousands of posters were created and affixed
throughout Manhattan in the wake of the disaster. The numbers of "missing
person" posters that were observed by the study team are in the range hundreds to
perhaps (low) thousands but this is only a very rough estimate. The relative frequency of
different kinds of posters is shown below. Posters ranged from those created by large
groups (hundreds of people) on lengthy sheets of brown wrapping paper to small
"post-it" style stickers affixed by individuals. Members of the team who visited
lower Manhattan between September 13 and September 20 believe that many of the posters
they observed earlier, had
disappeared by September 23. At the time of observation there was no evidence that posters
were being removed in any systematic fashion although it was also clear that some may have
blown away and/or destructed as a result of exposure to sun, wind and rain. The City of
New York announced plans to collect items of commemoration and put them on display in
Washington Square or archive them in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution. Whether
this will include "missing persons" posters is not known.
At the time of writing (9/30), many posters have disappeared from around Union Square Park
and other locations where they were formerly thickly distributed.
MOST COMMON
1. Mourning the event and its victims (Childrens' messages; poems; paintings; quotations;
expressions of empathy, commiseration, reflection, thanks and inspiration by individuals
and groups. These often complemented or accompanied other objects at informal vigils or
shrines (e.g. candles, flowers, icons or tokens).
VERY COMMON
2. Missing persons (see details below)
COMMON (not necessarily in order of quantity)
3. Religious (Tracts or pamphlets, extracts from holy scriptures, commentary on the
religious significance of events)
4. Political commentary on the event (Some of these were personal rethinkings of the event
in a search for explanations that connected with large causal factors and structures.
Others were statements by political parties, organizations or interest groups that favored
particular analytic, justificatory and/or policy stances on the event. )
5. Community announcements (meetings to discuss problems arising from the disaster;
scheduled parties for neighborhood children, establishment of memorial and assistance
funds for local fire department units)
6. Government safety information (advice for persons seeking to re-enter housing or
business premises affected by the disaster; environmental quality information; notices of
permits applied for)
7. Thanks to helpers
LESS COMMON (not necessarily in order of quantity)
8. Solidarity with vulnerable minorities
9. Election campaign posters
10. Appeals for customers
11. Requests for supplies
12. Solicitations of personal experiences
13. Assertations of defiance
14. Invitations for rescue workers to use facilities
15. Advertisments from helpers seeking employment
16. Directions to aid locations
17. Pets without owners
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H. Posters that mourned the event and victims
The single most prevalent type of poster is one that conveys a message of sympathy or
empathy with the victims. These are identified here as "mourning" posters. Most
of them carry brief text and are small is size or crowded together with many others in a
composite display.
This is a large and complex category with many different components. It overlaps with some
of the other categories because posters sometimes carried mixed messages. Many of the
mourning texts are not posters in the commonly accepted sense but informal tokens that
recall the event and the affected populations. For example some contained personal
messages of great intimacy which expressed deep sympathy and sadness as well as strong
personal connections to affected people and places. Others were fashioned by children in
apparent attempts to "make sense
of" the situation, often by means of hand-drawn visual representations. A third group
conveyed thanks to the victims and those who helped in the aftermath of the event.
Messages of love and peace to the world at large constituted a fourth group.
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I. "Missing persons" poster contents and locations
This is the second most common category of posters, only exceeded by the more
heterogeneous population of "mourning" posters. They are also perhaps the more
visually arresting of all the posters.
Missing persons posters were typically standard 8 x 11" white sheets that included
text (c.70-75% of area) and photographs (c. 20-25% of area). Some were larger (e.g.
enlarged photos with minimum text) and some were smaller (e.g. photocopies of workplace ID
cards).
Photographs generally included semi-formal posed portraits, often taken in a workplace;
there were also many wedding and party photographs; some casual photographs; and a few ID
photos from employment records.
Black and white prints were dominant but there were also many in color. A few photographs
showed more than one person. In these cases the image of the missing person was circled or
otherwise identified.
Poster text supplied standard "missing persons" details: names, employment,
gender, height, weight, hair and eye color, distinguishing marks, location and
circumstances when last seen; WTC workplace location by floor; as well as
"contact" information such as telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Many
telephone numbers were 800 area codes and e-mails often included large popular servers
(e.g. hotmail) but others were more location specific.
Less usual, but still common, were additional data: ethnicity, skin color, place of origin
(e.g. Honduras, Bermuda, Poland), and lists of possessions. In some cases the latter were
highly specific, including brands and models of clothing, purses, jewellery, watches, cell
phones etc. It was noticeable that a significant number of posters appeared to have been
created and placed by persons from churches with which immigrant minority victims had been
affiliated.
Missing person posters were mainly affixed to flat vertical surfaces such as walls,
fences, doors, bus shelters, mail boxes, telephone booths, and upright poles of
significant diameter. A small minority were placed inside the windows of buildings. All
were in ground floor sites. Most were intact, although many showed signs of wear and
weather damage (rain, wind). A few had ragged edges that marked places where strips had
been been torn off by note writers. A small minority of missing person posters were
covered with transparent film as a protection against weathering. There was no evidence
that early missing persons posters had been covered over by later additions or crowded out
by other types.
Multiple examples of missing person posters were common, almost always in separate
locations. Certain posters showed up in widely separated areas or in almost all places
where posters were common. In at least two cases more than a score of copies of the same
poster were observed along the observation route.
Posters were located in some neighborhoods and routes but not others. For example, there
were relatively few missing persons posters inside police lines but many elsewhere in
Tribeca, Civic Center and around Union Square. Scattered posters occurred in Little Italy
and Greenwich Village (apart from Washington Square where they were thickly clustered).
Individual posters and small clusters (3-6) of posters were located in subway and train
station corridors. There were virtually no posters in Chinatown - but very many U.S.
flags. (see below)
Members of the team who visit Manhattan frequently reported the presence of different
missing persons posters in locations that were not visited during this field
investigation. For example, several posters that pertained to missing Japanese citizens
were observed at Grand Central Station in mid-Manhattan. None of these were observed in
Lower
Manhattan.
The largest observed concentration of all kinds of posters occurred outside the Subway
station at the west end of Canal Street (Varick Street). At this site c. 2,000-3,000
posters appeared on windows and portable wooden boards stretching along the front of a
building (identified by a larger temporary "Windows on the World" banner) that
served food and rest needs of rescue personnel. Here the Southern Baptist Convention
invited passers-by to contribute messages that could be written on small post-it stickers
and affixed to display surfaces. The great majority of posters here were
"mourning" messages and most posting surfaces were covered with transparent
plastic when they reached capacity. An estimated 100+ missing persons posters were affixed
at this location.
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J. Characterizations of poster-viewing populations
Audiences for posters varied, to some degree, by location. Disaster relief workers,
members of public safety services and children were prevalent in Duarte Park (West Canal
Street). More than a few of the mainly adult population in Union Square Park sported
insignia that echoed nearby political messages. Disaster tourists of all ages were common
behind the vehicular barricades in Tribeca and near City Hall. Viewers in Washington
Square Park included a broad cross-section of people from the adjacent residential
neighborhood as well as tourists
who appeared to have come specifically for purposes of visiting the disaster
commemorations.
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K. Environmental changes
Modifications of the physical environment were noticeable in many parts of lower
Manhattan. Disappearance of the World Trade Center's "twin towers" was the most
obvious of several dozen such changes. These included, among others:
1. Disappearance of the World Trade Center's "twin towers"
2. Giant piles of rubble
3. Damaged buildings
4.. Smoke above disaster impact site
5.. Soot on cars, windows, streets
6.. Unfamiliar smells - cement, fire, soot
7. Air difficult to breathe
8. People wearing breathing apparatus/air filters
9. Heavy machinery - cranes, flatbeds, dump trucks etc
10. Trucks hauling debris and unclaimed vehicles from disaster site
11. Spot lights on WTC site (at night)
12. Police barricades and increased police presence
13. Increased presence of military personnel and vehicles
14. Cordons and other security measures around government buildings
15. Rescue workers: firemen, construction workers, volunteers ,
EMT's
16. Stands and vans of disaster relief and charitable organizations
17. Stands and vans of religious/church groups
18. Stands and vans of community organizations
19. Stands and vans of insurance companies
20. Portable toilets for disaster workers
21. Press presence - vans, satellites, reporters etc
22. Staging areas & camps - military, public utilities, Red Cross
(in streets & parks)
23. Security checkpoints for vehicles and pedestrians
24. Altered traffic flows and controls
25. Helicopters over WTC site
26. Fighter jets overhead
27. Diminished or absent commercial aircraft traffic
28. Subway lines and stations closed/altered
29. Suspended ferry services
30. Closed tunnels & bridges
31. Altered uility services - no lights, phone service etc.
32. U.S. flags on buildings and vehicles
33. Posted information and materials; posting boards
34. Informal disaster shrines and commemorative displays
35. High concentration of NY/WTC/America consumer items for sale
36. Piles of water, supplies, food etc. (underutilized)
37. Candles
38. Flowers
39. Ribbons
40. Empty streets in cordoned off areas
41. Entertainment shows cancelled
42. Closed stores
43. Empty residential buildings and displaced residents
44. Moments of silence
45. Official flags at half-mast
46. Tourists (both local and non-local) interested specifically in
"Ground Zero"
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L. Complex information: Missing voices, ambiguities & contradictions
a) Posters and U.S. flags.
Some neighborhoods contained many posters and others many flags but none with both
together. The landscape of Chinatown was most striking. It featured few posters but was
festooned with flags and related symbols. They hung from walls, sat in holders, decorated
service vehicles, were attached to the insides of windows, lined porticoes and
ledges above doors. This was the only area visited where U.S. flags were available in
large numbers for purchase. Canal Street also had many stalls that contained WTC
post-disaster T-shirts and postcards illustrating the WTC before the disaster. In
contrast, Little Italy contained fewer flags and posters, though some of both; relative to
posters, flags were much less in evidence elsewhere. Along lower Broadway (between SOHO
and Little Italy) it was common to find U.S. flags used as backdrops to sidewalk sales
displays.
b) The missing buildings
Members of the team who are frequent visitors to NYC, reported feeling disoriented by the
absence of the Twin Towers. The towers appeared to constitute a "silent voice"
of a special non-human kind. On the other hand, the pervasive smell of powdered concrete
and scenes of freshly washed streets rimmed with dust deposits acted as sensory reminders
of the event near the Civic Center and Financial District.
c) Arresting images and jarring juxtapositions
The following items were representative of the often contradictory visual information
about the WTC disaster and its societal context that was present in the Manhattan
landscape. They are presented here without formal analysis or comment.
(i) In a single line of sight were: a large advertising poster for a TV movie, "Band
of Brothers", flanked by a lushly vegetated City Hall and backed (in order of
distance) by a line of portable toilets, a church spire, the blackened remains of WTC
buildings, smoke from the debris, and apparently undamaged skyscrapers.
(ii) The serene, gleaming, modern, glass and steel highrise U.S. Court of International
Trade stands in marked contrast to the WTC site only a few blocks away. The Court,
surrounded by a carefully landscaped plaza, was entirely without human presence, cordoned
off and flanked by a U.S. flag at half staff.
(iii) On Canal Street, retail outlets often sold WTC-related postcards, T-shirts, and US
flags alongside non-WTC-related novelty items such as auto licence plates. In some cases,
images of the WTC competed for
space with tourist goods carrying messages about various pathologies of New York City
(e.g. crime, insulting epithets).
(iv) Reminders about the ambiguous complexity of urban social pathology, both in Manhattan
and elsewhere, were readily visible. These included: diners lunching at a branch of the
same pizza firm that was devastated during a recent suicide terror bomb attack in
Jerusalem and in a restaurant that was the scene of a highly publicized organized crime
murder; copies of a poster for a person who went missing before the WTC disaster; and
emergency vehicles with blaring sirens speeding into parts of lower Manhattan that already
had a heavy public safety presence.
(v) Residents of Battery Park City who sought to retrieve belongings from their apartments
passed within sight of Ground Zero and a giant billboard that portrayed President Franklin
D. Roosevelt.
(vi) Military rescue personnel snapped tourist-like photographs of "wanted"
posters for a suspected terrorist leader that had been affixed to the rear of an oversized
sculpted bull in the Financial District.
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M. POSTSCRIPT
This report is intended mainly to identify, describe and classify posters and other
changes to the urban landscape that were observed in the aftermath of the World Trade
Center disaster. It reflects the views of researchers whose professional and scholarly
interests focus on human responses to environmental hazards. We plan to examine the
significance of these observations and to comment on their implications for research and
public policy at a later date.
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* Professor, Department of Geography, Rutgers University, 54 Joyce
Kilmer Ave., Piscataway, NJ 08854-8045. Tel: 732-445-4103; Fax:
732-445-0006; E-mail: jmitchel@rci.rutgers.edu
** Graduate students in Geography, Rutgers University
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