CDC press conference notes regarding anthrax investigation, undated

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document nis | eR OEORNAY WENMPENAY OCTOBER 3. 2001 EO AMERICA’S ORDEAL NYC-WTC_000152050 Access Denied Residents hava been allowed to move back Into alt buildings In. Battery Park City except Gateway 500 and Gateway 600. Ris -Rot known when they will be reopened. eae Some Neighbors By Roni Rabin STAFF WRITER, Alastair Onglingswan d 't like to complain — he Keows he's one of the , lucky ones, But his Gateway Plaza stu- dio apartment in Battery Park City looks like Pompe peii, he's running out of clothes and he’s been sleeping on couches since Sept. 11 Gateway Plaza, which has 1,712 apartments in five residential build- . ings along with a sixth commercial building, is the only section of Battery Park City that has yet to be opened for reoccupation. Though most services have been restored, confusion was the arder of the day, and it was still not clear yesterday when the Gateway sec- ‘ tion would be rehabit-ted. “We know the ci' ir overburdened with the rescue ef- now recovery - fort. But being left in the dark now is really taking a toll,” said Ongling- swan, 33, whose apartment is in Gate- way 500, on 385 South End Ave. t would be great if someone would say, ‘Look, you're at Ground Zero, 1 should expect it to take t fee mo! But po ane’s making that determina- A eart of the confusion is ‘rooted i in the Gordian knot of landlords and city, state and federal agencies that are all jointly involved in clearing the area for itation,’ Yesterday, for example, Gateway -\ Plaza manager J: Jamie Lefrak indicated most apartments could be reoccu; ied and the only holdup was the lack jproval by the city’s Office of Emergen- cy Management and the Department of Environmental Protection. Yet DEP Chief of Staff Charles Sturcken said the landlord had yet to complete a cleanup operation. The cleanup was stalled, Lefrak explained, because resi- Still Homeless | Battery Park City tenants wait for word dents insisted on being present di the maintenance work, having hee that some apartments had been ran- Going home isn't the only question on Gateway residents’ minds. nant women and families with dren are concorned al about air quality. he gets headaches every time he by his apartment to Pick aor despite repeated assurances ty and federal environ- der whether thet some residents won- der w] their proximity to Ground Zero devastation will be detrimental to. their physical or mental health. _- The concern over Battery Park City may be reflected in the rate of return of tenants: Only 61 percent of the occu- pants of n Battery Park City, which reopened Sept. 21, have re- turned home, and a mere 36 percent of south Battery Park City residents have come home, according to Battery Park City Authority president Tim Carey. and local supermarket j just Kiel ppened ar transportation Though a shuttle bus from the Bowl- af Batten subway to the southern end of Battery, Park City has been intro- ced, and the M20 bus route has ex- peer a spur into the northern neigh- borhood, cars, buses and taxis are still ermeht the hurdl: now le we must over is access,” said Carey, who eet ed it could take several months before residents of the most severely dam- aged Gateway 600 building return “home. “We have problems with access for child care, access for home health care.” pt carey said, he was optimistic. ubey, had a moving van there [in Bat- tea ark City] yesterday,” he said. “I assumed people were moving out. They were moving in.”