Rising to the Occasion: The Alliance and September 11, 2001
It’s our 30th anniversary, and we’re self-celebrating. Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out 30 stories about 30 of our biggest accomplishments, including everything from our daily public safety and sanitation work, to our small business outreach, to how we helped the neighborhood navigate challenges and even tragedies. You’ll be able to find these stories on our website, as well as in our weekly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.
The story of September 11 in Lower Manhattan is one of tragedy but also one of exceptional resilience. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the Downtown Alliance turned its Downtown Center (just two blocks south of the World Trade Center) into a triage ward, tending to the wounded and giving refuge to those who needed it. As former Downtown Alliance Senior Vice President of Operations Joe Timpone recalled, “We let people take showers, we turned our conference room over to the first responders, we gave the fire department our radios.”
In the days that followed, the Alliance and its partners then quickly launched a $10 million program to help small neighborhood retailers rebuild and reopen. A print ad campaign called “Remember. Rebuild” began, and a TV ad narrated by Robert De Niro encouraged New Yorkers to help Lower Manhattan businesses by eating and shopping downtown.
In order to keep area small businesses afloat, the Alliance worked with another nonprofit, Seedco, to create a grant, loan and wage subsidy program. All told, $37.5 million in aid was distributed under the program to repair or rebuild small businesses crushed in the terror attack. This money was essential in filling the gap before government aid was available at all.
There were some who said Lower Manhattan would never regain its footing after September 11 and would never come back as strong as it was. But the unique character of this resilient neighborhood proved them wrong.
main photo: Former Downtown Alliance president Carl Weisbrod in Lower Manhattan on September 12, 2001.
