Jessica

I thank all of the volunteer's who are coming to help out and the rescue workers for their gallant efforts.

But, for the curious, please remember that you are in someone's neighborhood when you come to Tribeca. We need to still live and work here.

We did not ask to become your tourist destination and are working to rebuild some normality into our lives. That is hard to do with crowds on every inch of space, cars roaming through the neighborhood on weekends, and tourist hawkers setting up their wares to cater to you.

Come if you must. But please show some respect for those of us who have been, and will keep living with this for some time. Not to mention the respect that those still buried at the WTC deserve.

One Visitor's View

In time the site will be cleared and life for you will get back to normal. But until that happens just remember, Jessica, that we, the Visitors to Ground Zero, are feeding your neighborhood's economy by eating in your local restaurants and supporting your local businesses. Without us, many of your shops would close. Then where would you be?

jessica

It is nice to see that you are so compassionate of other's situations. My point was that if you do come, please respect that this is home to some of us.

I didn't say to not come or that you are not welcome. All I asked was that you remember to please show some respect.

Obviously, from the nastiness of your response, sublty is lost on you.

Arlingtonian

I'm right there with you Jessica. I live a mile from the Pentagon and the people who pull off the shoulder of the freeway to take pictures disgust me. Today I saw a passenger in a taxi slow down so he could take a photo - clogging traffic while ignoring the Dept. of Defense's signs asking for no photos.
Obviously, the destruction at the Pentagon is not the same scale, but it's total disrepect of the dead and those of us who still live here.

SelfRighteous

I went to an orientation meeting for volunteering with he Red Cross for WTC disaster relief. They told us that they had to send home a number volunteers from other parts of the country home because they too were taking photos at inappropriate spots and times. These were volunteers who had been briefed just as I had to not take photos.SO GET A GRIP OF YOUR EGO AND LISTEN TO WHAT JESSICA IS SAYING.

Susan

Jessica, unfortunately your neighborhood has become an historical landmark, sacred place, place of pilgrimmage and American icon. That will not change for perhaps the next few hundred years. It is a public place and the scar that remains there does not just belong to the residents. My sincere and heartfelt sympathies. I am sure that is not easy to adjust to. When I do make my own pilgrimmage there next year I will conduct myself with the utmost respect. But, I am sorry you will never have your old neighborhood back again.

Dee

America has never gone through anything like this before. There is no rule book on how to react. Let's just try not to misdirect our anger.

jessica

To One Visitor:
"We the visitors are adults...know how to show respect..."

You know that to be true? I guess I didn't see the teenagers packed in their car on Sunday, music blaring while they stopped in the middle of Greenwich St. to point at the destruction. I guess those tourist touts trying to set up their FDNY knock-off t-shirts on the corner of Reade and West Broadway were figments of my imagination.

Again, thank you for reminding me that I'm being insensitive to your needs. Perhaps I can arrange to have stadium seating built on my apartment roof to help you get a better view next time.

Even better, how about I stay at my parents again for several more weeks so as not to get in YOUR way when I go home at night.

Jessica

Again to One Visitor:

"But please show some respect for those of us who have been, and will keep living with this for some time. Not to mention the respect that those still buried at the WTC deserve."

Again, sublty is lost on you. As the sister of a NYC Fireman who lost many of his friends, who do you think I'm refering to by those still buried there?

You really are self-absorbed.

Tim

Lighten up Jess

Kathy

Tim have some patience. I have friends in the Wall street area it is taking them longer on putting this behind them. They are just dealing with the senselessness of this act every single day.Some are getting sick from the fumes others are just depressed being forced to work in the environment. I have one friend that wants to quit a very lucrative job just to leave the area. YOU LIGHTEN UP TIM if you can't comfort Jessica in a more constructive way. Is it really so hard to let someone vent.

One Visitor's View

I wasn't aware that kids in N.Y. only blast their radios in front of Jessica's apartment.

It's just a little ludicrous to choose to live anywhere in Manhattan and then complain about the people. It's like living in the forest and complaining that you can't see the sun because there's too many trees. Jessica is nothing but the self-appointed Miss Manners of Ground Zero.

Phil

after reading your further comments, One Visitor, my only thought is that you are in serious need of therapy. You really have a problem with authority and a touch of paranoia. That or you are just delusional.

Jessica didn't come close to making the kind of comments that you seem to think she did. Even if she did, as you weren't engaging in the behavior she witnessed, what does this have to do with you.

I really do hope you have a prescription drug plan in your health insurance. I'm sure there are medications that can help you.

NYer

Jessica, Sorry that the replies to your well meant and very true post are so unpleasant.It's funny how some people are reacting, they are awfully defensive,don't you think? So quick to call your post "preaching", anxious to be sure to let the rest of us know their "right " to visit the neighborhood and look and take pictures.There have been posts like this since 9/11-there are two camps, the ones who live in the city/neighborhood and have such deep feelings --and the "others" who cannot wait to "pay their respects,record this Historical image," whatever their excuse is for wanting to come rubber neck and buy a souvenir.It is bad enough to know that there are people out there that think and act like these, but it is really unpleasant to have to read their posts and attacks on this site.We can see things from where we live too, nothing will ever be the same.Even when we leave the area and look back, the absence is there,always reminding us.As they say-Time heals all wounds, I hope all of our wounds heal quickly-

x

If you don't like the tourists in your neighborhood, then move. 10 years ago you wouldn't have been caught dead in that neighborhood. Just because it's trendy at the moment, doesn't mean that you have the right to dictate what other people do in that neighborhood. Go live in the suburbs where you belong.

Arlingtonian

How would you like it if your neighborhood smelled like a backyard barbeque for a week and you knew it was burning bodies. Or if you had to see the destruction every day on your drive to work/school/where ever. And then on top of that, people are treating it as a tourist sight, like the Eiffel Tower or something. I can only guess you really haven't felt the magnitude of what has happened. Thank God for that. We are having a really hard time wtih this, I can't imagine how Jessica must feel if her brother was killed too. Life will never get back to normal, One Visitor's View.

relocated

Jessica,I do feel for you and what you must experience now. Just this summer, I moved from NY after having grown up there and worked in Manhattan. I have family who lived across the street from WTC, too, who luckily were not hurt. I was one of those visitors who came into NYC just because I had to,to help me see for myself the devastation and to grieve for my former community and all the people who lost loved ones. I had a few coworkers in the state I now live in who lost family on 9/11. My surprise was that while I was standing and yes, staring, at the incredible sight, NYers all around me were back in their routine going to work and school. However, many were wearing all black and almost everyone I was near was attending a memorial. It is sad and I think those Americans who were not actually there need to see with their own eyes to feel with their hearts. Enuf said. It will take time.

Myer

I was in NY last week and found myself only a few blocks away. I felt I wanted to see up close what must be very different from what you see on tv.

There were many people (a Saturday) there. Some were curious and others were there to pay their respect.

Personally, I had a harder time passing a fire station on the Lower East side and seeing the pictures outside and later reading a note on the door of a store on the Upper East side that thanked those in their local fire station. It named 1 fireman confirmed dead and 7 others missing. These are local people, neighbors of those who live in the area.

Ground Zero has many meanings to many different people. There are also many reasons for wanting to see it. I'm sure over time the crowds will reduce and those who live in the area will continue their lives. Until then have some patience.

TJ

To never forget what has happened is much more important than pettiness.

http://attacked911.tripod.com/

jessica

I do have patience and I'm sorry if my original post offended some people. That clearly was not my point and I trust that if you read it again, you'll see that I was asking people to respect the meaning of where they are.

I didn't say don't come, I said if you must come please show some respect and remember that people who were personally affected live here.

To clarify another point, I'm very comfortable with the noise in the city. Normally, it is a part of the cost of living here. However, forgive me if I find teenagers blaring their music just a few blocks from that horrible sight without regard for others a bit offense. 3 months ago it would have been rude, today it is disrespectful.

For the person that mentioned my brother, he, thank God, wasn't hurt physically. Of course, going to 300 plus funerals, many for friends, does take an emotional toll. For anyone that has had the experience, I'm sure you'll attest that the members of FDNY are a unique breed. He'll move on.

Last, let me address those that tell me to just move. I love my neighborhood and want to stay. I would view leaving as giving into those bastards. I guess it is to much to ask for people to show a little compassion and respect for the walking wounded and the dead, when visiting.

Peace to all.