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For some, 9/11/2001 is distant history.But for many families that lost a loved one, 9/11 is — even now, 25 years later — as present and immediate as yesterday.Early that morning, I walked to my polling place to vote in New York City’s mayoral primary.
Shortly afterward, we heard the news: a small plane had struck the World Trade Center.When we saw the size of the gash on television, my heart sank: I knew it couldn’t have been a small plane.
And then the second plane hit.Three Bloomberg LP employees — Peter Alderman, Bill Kelly and Paul Ortiz — were at acustomer conference at Windows on the World in the North Tower.They never made it home to their families.
Neither did nearly 3,000 others.The scale of the loss and depth of the grief our city suffered remains hard to put into words, but it is seared into our hearts.And it is not just the sadness we remember.In the dark days following 9/11, our city and country came together like never before.
We gave blood.We donated food.
We volunteered.We prayed.
We hung American flags.We thanked those in uniform.
We attended vigils and funerals. We all did all we could, though it never felt like enough.That spirit of unity was unlike anything most of us had ever experienced.It was patriotism at its best: love of country in action, through service to one another.
And it was a spirit I was determined to keep alive as I began the greatest challenge and privilege of my life — leading our city forward as its new mayor.When I took the oath of office, many wondered whether the city would ever recover.People worried that residents and businesses would flee and crime and decay would return.
And the most pressing question of all hung over us: what to do with the World Trade Center site.Some wanted the whole 16 acres to be a memorial.Others wanted cultural buildings but no commercial ones, while others wanted to rebuild exactly what had been there.
After attending so many funerals and seeing so much grief, I made a s...