9/11 20th Anniversary Roosevelt Island Community Remembrance And Tribute Saturday Morning And Evening Taking Place At Good Shepherd Plaza Memorial Tree - Main Street Wire Reports Residents Stories Of 9/11

Hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, Pentagon, and the downing of Flight 93 in Shanksville Pennsylvania. This is the view that day seen from Rivercross building.

                                                          Main Street Wire Image of 9/11 Smoke Burning From World Trade Center by Vicki Feinmel/Linda Heimer 

Anticipating the upcoming 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack, several weeks ago Matt Katz, who was the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President at the time of the 9/11/01 attack, asked Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Shelton Haynes:

Hope you are coping with the heat and humidity today. It occurs to me that this September 11 will be the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy we memorialized with a plaque, plantings, and, for ten years, annual events at the site. While the original impetus was exclusively a RIRA project, RIOC has played a significant role in maintaining the memorial over the years. I thought it might be appropriate if the two organizations combined forces this year to offer the community something approaching our earlier efforts to honor the residents and special ops firemen that we lost. Does this seem feasible to you ?  

Mr Haynes replied:

RIOC will acknowledge this important day, commemorating those lost, by lowering all flags at half-staff and participate in the nationwide moment of silence at 8:46 AM, led by Chief Brown and our PSD department. Our Grounds team will beautify the area around the 9/11 tree with new plantings & flowers and place a special memorial wreath next to the plaque. We will also encourage the community to place flowers, small flags, and notes at the site as well, to pay tribute.

RIOC announced this week:

Saturday will mark the passing of two decades since New York and the world were forever altered by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as the crash of Flight 93.  

Under flags flown at half-staff, Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) will be holding a commemorative tribute on the morning of Saturday, September 11th, honoring the lives lost. As the concerning Delta variant of COVID-19 remains widespread and accounts for 98% of tested cases in our area, we are not encouraging a gathering. However, we do urge the community to join the tribute by placing flowers, small flags, notes, and other significant mementos around the 9/11 tree, located on the northwest side of Good Shepherd Plaza. Additionally, we invite community members to submit names of loved ones who were lost on that weighty day to be read aloud. 

To submit names, please email info@rioc.ny.gov with the subject line “9/11 Tribute | Reading of Those Lost”. A full schedule of the tribute will be made available this week. We look forward to your participation in this poignant tribute.

Matt Katz and his wife Sherie Helstien are organizing a Roosevelt Island 9/11 Remembrance later in the day too. According to Mr. Katz:

We are inviting the community, which includes our neighbors at the Special Ops branch of FDNY, to come together at 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening. 

Our event, which is centered on community members' remembrances, not flags and wreaths, will take place at the Memorial, conceived and built by RIRA 20 years ago, and honored for ten years with annual commemorations also produced by RIRA. 

We believe that RIOC's concerns for crowding during the pandemic is unnecessary, especially in light of their FDR Hope Memorial ribbon cutting in mid-July, orchestrated by RIOC, which brought several hundred Islanders together seated under a tent, as well as the many outdoor events all summer, including the farmers market and flea markets held every Saturday at the Good Shepherd Plaza, also the site our our 9/11 Memorial. 

Our posters suggest the wearing of masks at our event. We feel that this event is more in keeping with the sense of community and mutual loss that characterized our past remembrances, is not competing for attention with the farmers market given the evening start time, and we urge our neighbors and friends to join us.

Roosevelt Islanders who died in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center are honored at the Roosevelt Island 9/11 Remembrance Tree

and Memorial Plaque 

 at Good Shepherd Plaza.  Those Roosevelt Islanders who died on 9/11 are:

Ed Beyea,
Anthony J. Fallone,
Taimour Khan,
Scott Larsen,
Kevin J. Smith and the firefighters who were based on Roosevelt Island
Deputy Chief Ray Downey,
Deputy Chief Charlie Kasper,
Battalion Chief John Moran, and
Battalion Chief John Paolillo.

Former Roosevelt Island Public Safety Chief and NYPD Assistant Chief Jack McManus died of 9/11 World Trade Center related cancer.  

Retired Assist.Chief John (Jack)McManus retired in 2006. After a stellar 26yr career he served as Director of Security @_WTCOfficial then as Director of Public Safety @RIOCny. A 2019 Liberty Medal Recipient & NYPD Legend was mourned today.#NVR4GetJackMcManus #FidelisAdMortem pic.twitter.com/d60cUWKQRi

— NYPD Ceremonial Unit (@NYPDCeremonial) May 2, 2020

Unknown how many other Roosevelt Islanders may have died  from 9/11 related illnesses.

Take at look at how Roosevelt Island's Main Street Wire local newspaper reported on the 9/11 attack at the time.

September 12,2001

September 22, 2001


September 7, 2002

UPDATE 9/12 - Scenes from both of the Roosevelt Island 9/11 Remembrance gatherings.