Public Employee Press

Downtown Recovery

New Amsterdam Library reopens near Ground Zero

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Circulation is still down at the New Amsterdam Library at 9 Murray St. in lower Manhattan, the closest branch library to Ground Zero.

The library reopened Dec. 4 after it was shuttered for nearly three months in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

As the community nearby springs back to life, the library has become a symbol of the neighborhood's revival.

"The library makes me feel like I am a community member, not just a business person who works in the area," said Robert Karr, an administrative law judge whose office is across the street.

"Returning to work here wasn't the same when the library was still closed," said Mr. Karr, who happens to be a former member of Rent Regulation Services Employees Local 1359. "I missed the library because it gives me a break at lunchtime from my very busy schedule and a chance to talk to people in a non-business atmosphere."

Boxes, boxes, boxes
About 20,000 volumes lie packed away in the lobby, filling nearly 100 gray plastic bins and more than 70 cardboard boxes. The boxes contain the backlog of items due for return to the shelves during the period while the library was closed.

Until circulation - now down about 25 percent from its normal level - picks up, the library won't have enough room on its shelves for the books, compact disks and videos in the boxes. "Circulation is improving as word gets around that we are open again," said Branch Librarian Lynn Taylor, vice president for librarians of New York Public Library Guild Local 1930. "We are used to a very busy pace here, and we are eager for the public to come back."

Great to be back
Frank Brathwaite, an Office Aide 3, said he was glad to return to his job after being uprooted by the Sept. 11 attack and assigned to other branches. During the closing, DC 37's Health and Safety Dept. tested for contaminants, and the New York Public Library did a major cleaning to ensure workers weren't at risk when they returned.

"It's a good feeling to be back," Mr. Brathwaite said. "You see how important the library is to the people here and how it's a big part of their life."

"It was a huge loss for us when the library closed," said Pauline Ores, who was accompanied by her 10-year-old daughter, Lia McCaffery, and lives with her family in an apartment above the library. "The reopening means that our neighborhood is getting back to normal."


Union members help Sept. 11 attack victims with housing problems

Rent Program Specialist Darryl Lambright is a foot soldier in the army of government workers arrayed to help the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

Working at the Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Assistance Servce Center at 80 Center St. in Manhattan, he and other Rent Program Specialists take applications for housing assistance from destitute people. The attack on the World Trade Center has caused the loss of at least 100,000 jobs.

Each day, victims of Sept. 11 - including the unemployed - line up outside the disaster relief center to seek government support for their problems, such as applying for unemployment benefits, food stamps, small business loans, Medicaid, Social Security and housing assistance.

"I've seen the full spectrum of people from the executive to the street vendor and the homeless," said Mr. Lambright, a member of Rent Regulation Services Employees Local 1359, describing the range of people he has interviewed.

It's not the type of work that Mr. Lambright, who sits behind a desk in an open area in the center, can do with a feeling of detachment. "I try to reach out and uplift people," he said.

Mr. Lambright is part of a team of Rent Program Specialists that includes Doris Crespo, Beverly Copney and Vern Williams. The group includes attorneys, also members of Local 1359, from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, who have volunteered to be reassigned temporarily to work with Sept. 11 victims.

The DHCR group works at both 80 Center St. and 51 Chambers St. The division anticipated that the workers would carry out the assignment until the beginning of the year. But the team now expects to continue the relief work through February or March, an indication of the depth of the economic devastation caused by the terrorist attack.

"Everyone in the city was touched by the tragedy on September 11," said Local 1359 President Ralph Carbone. "Our members at the disaster center are playing a crucial role in helping our community on the road to recovery."

As Mr. Lambright interviews applicants to determine whether they qualify for housing assistance, he often winds up becoming a counselor of sorts. Many of the applicants have been displaced from their homes. Others face eviction.

"I run into a lot of depression," said Mr. Lambright, who has worked 14 years for the division. "There's a lot of fear, and people don't have answers for how they are going to make it from one day to the next."