The Friday Flyer, September 15, 2006 - Article: CL family sees 'Ground Zero' five years later

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Above, Christy, Trevor and Mark Novins hold up The Friday Flyer in front of the 9/11 Memorial Wall that runs along the west side of the Firehouse 10 in lower Manhattan, revealed to the public in June 2006. As a tribute to the 343 members of the Fire Department who perished, it is modeled after a famous piece of ancient Roman artwork that depicts the unfolding of an event across a column. Inset, Trevor talks to a fireman from Fire House 10. Below, the Novins came across this street-level memorial filled with patches, hats and other memorabilia from whom, they think, were firefighters and other personnel who served in the rescue efforts of 9/11.

CL family sees 'Ground Zero' five years later

By Sharon Rice
The Friday Flyer Assistant Editor

     For the Novin family, watching last week’s television specials commemorating the events of 9/11 was especially poignant because they happened to be in New York City one week earlier and got a chance to gaze into the yawning chasm of Ground Zero.
     Mark and Christy Novins and their son, Trevor, 7, traveled to Long Island, New York, for a family get-together over the Labor Day weekend, August 31 to September 4, and decided to spend the day on Friday in Manhattan. Christy says it wouldn’t be honest to say she wasn’t frightened about taking a United flight to New York so close to September 11 and so soon after the terrorist plot was uncovered in England. But once they arrived in New York, they never felt any trepidation – even walking around the city late at night – since security seemed to be tight everywhere they went.
     She noticed two things different from her last visit to NYC 13 years ago: It’s still a “concrete jungle,” but the streets are now extremely clean and the people are noticeably friendlier.
     Although there wasn’t enough time to visit Central Park, Fifth Avenue, and a few other notable destinations like the Statue of Liberty, the Novins’ walking adventure took them primarily to Lower Manhattan and the blocks surrounding “Ground Zero.”
     Their day began with an early-morning commute from Long Island on the train, which took them to Penn Station, directly beneath Madison Square Garden.
     According to Mark, Penn Station is like an underground city with its’ expansive shopping center. From there they walked to Times Square with its towering buildings and billboards. A new centerpiece of Times Square is the 110,000 sq. ft., multilevel flagship store for Toys R Us. The store boasts a working 60-ft. Ferris wheel, a two-story Barbie dollhouse, and a five-ton, 20 ft. high, 34-ft. long animatronic T-Rex dinosaur. It’s no surprise this was one of the places Trevor remembered best.
     Next stop was the Empire State Building, a walk of several blocks. Once again, the site played into Trevor’s interests since he wanted to see the building from which King Kong fell in the movie. They took a tour to the top and the second-grader stood next to a telescope on the upper deck, looking very much like the character, Jonah, in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.” Mark and Christy took several pictures of the New York skyline, noting in particular the absence of the Twin Towers.
     After that, they walked across the street to the subway, asking for directions to “Ground Zero.” They discovered friendly locals still refer to that area as the World Trade Center, and were kindly given directions. They looked into the cavernous hole now being rebuilt into a memorial, but could find no indication of what the future memorial would look like. In fact, they found surprisingly few indications of the ceremonies that would take place in exactly one week, aside from a few notices on church buildings.
     With a little more exploration, they came across a temporary street-level memorial filled with patches, hats and other memorabilia from whom, they think, were firefighters and other personnel who served in the rescue efforts of 9/11.
     They also discovered Fire House 10, located across the street from the World Trade Center site, is a sort of museum to the rescue efforts, although it still serves as an active fire station. A 56-ft. long bas-relief bronze sculpture on the outer wall provided a depiction of that infamous day, and items inside the station consist of pieces of fire engines and street signs retrieved from the wreckage of the Twin Towers, as well as items that had been sent to FDNY from all over the world. The firefighters were friendly and accommodating to the hordes of tourists that visited the station.
     After visiting Ground Zero, the Novins walked to Old Seaport Village, near the Staten Island Ferry, and enjoyed the free entertainment in the smaller version of San Diego’s Seaport Village. Another 20-block walk took them back up Manhattan to Chinatown and Little Italy, where they decided to try authentic New York pizza. “It wasn’t as good as we expected,” says Christy.
     From there it was to the off-Broadway show, “Stomp,” which is another one of Trevor’s favorite memories. The high-energy, percussive symphony, coupled with dance, is played entirely on unconventional instruments, such as garbage can lids, buckets, brooms and sticks – Trevor still drums the air to mimic the sights he saw and heard in the popular show.
     At the close of the long day, the Canyon Lake family took a taxi back to Penn Station and headed home, their hearts and minds filled with fresh images that would enrich their viewing of the 9/11 shows they would see the following week on television.