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Speaker Menin discusses the impact of September 11th on small businesses and her path to public service
1:31:10
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132 sec
Speaker Menin describes how the September 11th attacks transformed her life from a small business owner to a community advocate after her restaurant near Ground Zero was destroyed. She recounts the challenges faced by local owners and the resilience required to rebuild Lower Manhattan.
- She shares the personal story of her husband and mother narrowly avoiding the attacks on that morning
- She criticizes insurance companies for breaking promises to small business owners in the "frozen zone"
- Menin details her work chairing Community Board 1 and founding a non-profit that helped 600 small businesses stay in the area
Julie Menin
1:31:10
Now, I wanna personally say that I never in a million years thought I would be a politician and run for office.
1:31:17
In fact, after practicing law for seven years, I opened up a small business, a restaurant not that far from here in Lower Manhattan.
1:31:25
But when nine eleven happened, it changed everything.
1:31:29
Both my restaurant and my apartment at the time were located just a few blocks away from Ground 0.
1:31:35
And my husband Bruce was supposed to be at the World Trade Center that fateful morning for a 9AM meeting, and unbeknownst to me, he moved the location of his meeting.
1:31:45
My mother who lived with us had gone out that morning for a doctor's appointment.
1:31:49
We frantically tried to find her all day.
1:31:52
Thankfully, our family was okay, but my small business was decimated with every single window blown out and the shards of glass everywhere, and when the towers collapsed, the white grayish ash in every inch and crevice of my business.
1:32:06
When insurance carriers took out full page ads in the local papers, they promised New Yorkers that they were in our corner, And when insurance carriers gave us small business owners five days of business interruption insurance, and I know our attorney general's nodding her head, five days of business interruption payments despite us being in the frozen zone for months on end, they broke that promise.
1:32:32
But that broken promise forged a new one within me.
1:32:37
A promise to take on large corporations that engaged in predatory conduct.
1:32:43
While the windows of my restaurant were shattered, our spirit of resilience was anything but.
1:32:49
After founding a not for profit organization in Lower Manhattan that was focused on rebuilding downtown and growing it into over 30,000 members, I chaired as council member Marte said, community board one for over seven years.
1:33:03
From programs we launched like art downtown and music downtown, to building new schools and building the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center, to helping over 600 small businesses stay in Lower Manhattan.
1:33:15
We planted the seeds for Lower Manhattan's revival at a time when people quite frankly doubted us.