Some 9/11 help....Was anyone in the 2nd tower?

[Mark Arbour]

I'm a long ways away from writing the next CAP story (at least a month or three), but it will encompass 9/11/01 and the tragedies that happened that day. I'm wondering if anyone out there is familiar with the World Trade Center, specifically with the building that was hit second? I need someone to help guide me through the events in that building on 9/11, but barring that, to at least help me get the building geography right. You can respond to this thread or e-mail me at: markarbour2000@yahoo.com. Or you can PM me...that works too...but my folder is almost full and I'm too busy to empty it out right now.

[methodwriter85]

Here's an article that talks about the Mall at the World Trade Center. Considering that the majority of this family loves to shop(save for Will and maybe Robbie), I figure they'd stop at the mall at some point.

 

http://www.labelscar.com/new-york/mall-at-world-trade-center

 

About five years ago, I was at the Metro D.C. station, which had an underground mall. People told me that was what the World Trade Center Mall was like.

[Matthew k]

Here's an article that talks about the Mall at the World Trade Center. Considering that the majority of this family loves to shop(save for Will and maybe Robbie), I figure they'd stop at the mall at some point.

 

http://www.labelscar...ld-trade-center

 

About five years ago, I was at the Metro D.C. station, which had an underground mall. People told me that was what the World Trade Center Mall was like.

 

There would be no reason to go down to the Financial District to shop and certainly not at a mall. Stefan and the shoppers would certainly be on the Upper East Side and Midtown East. NYC shopping is all about 5th Ave from 49th north and Madison Ave to a lesser extent.

 

Stefan would be a well know personality at Bergdorf Goodman, Christian Lacroix, Gianni Versace, Lord & Taylor, etc. Maybe Claire would be too.

[methodwriter85]

Except that at the time, the World Trade Center Mall was undergoing expansion, and I'm betting that since it was with a California firm called Westfeldt America, Stefan and Brad might have been interested in investing since the WTC Mall was one of the most profitable malls in the United States. It could have been a tip that Jordan Pfinster gave to Brad, being that Jordan's from the NYC area and most likely on top of the big investment deals in that area. Since the dot-com burst meant that Stefan and Brad have been looking at other investment opportunities outside of the tech market, commericial real estate doesn't look like a bad bet, especially considering that we're talking the WTC Mall, which had nothing but a bright future at the time.

 

It's also entirely possible that Jordan, deciding to expand the company, wants to move the headquarters to the World Trade Center, and he's having Brad and Stefan out on a business trip to explore the option and get a sense of the layout of Lower Manhatten. Since this was the week that the MTV Music Video Awards were going on, and apparently a lot of other fun stuff, I could see Brad wanting to take his kids and their friends to spend a fun week in New York City, culminating in Will's 15th birthday on Friday, September 14th, 2001.

 

Matt, I've been thinking this one over for like two years now. Trust me, I worked it out. LOL. While the mall in itself wouldn't be a destination for them, the WTC would be, as well as being a possible investment opportunity that looked very solid because the mall was very profitable.

Edited May 2, 2011 by methodwriter85

[Matthew k]

Except that at the time, the World Trade Center Mall was undergoing expansion, and I'm betting that since it was with a California firm called Westfeldt America, Stefan and Brad might have been interested in investing since the WTC Mall was one of the most profitable malls in the United States. It could have been a tip that Jordan Pfinster gave to Brad, being that Jordan's from the NYC area and most likely on top of the big investment deals in that area. Since the dot-com burst meant that Stefan and Brad have been looking at other investment opportunities outside of the tech market, commericial real estate doesn't look like a bad bet, especially considering that we're talking the WTC Mall, which had nothing but a bright future at the time.

 

It's also entirely possible that Jordan, deciding to expand the company, wants to move the headquarters to the World Trade Center, and he's having Brad and Stefan out on a business trip to explore the option and get a sense of the layout of Lower Manhatten. Since this was the week that the MTV Music Video Awards were going on, and apparently a lot of other fun stuff, I could see Brad wanting to take his kids and their friends to spend a fun week in New York City, culminating in Will's 15th birthday on Friday, September 14th, 2001.

 

Matt, I've been thinking this one over for like two years now. Trust me, I worked it out. LOL. While the mall in itself wouldn't be a destination for them, the WTC would be, as well as being a possible investment opportunity that looked very solid because the mall was very profitable.

 

Ah well consider this. Westfield's USA office is 30 minutes from Malibu, overlooking the 405 freeway. If they were going to go anyplace it would be Sydney where Westfield is headquartered, which in 2000 makes all the sense in the world since the Olympics were there in late September. If they were thinking of investing in Westfield, it would at the corporate level, not an individual mall level.

 

So why on earth would anyone leave low tax Connecticut to go to outrageously taxed New York, specifically even worse taxed New York City? Especially given that major partners like GE, United Technology, etc. are headquartered in CT. Why do you think so many companies are headquartered in Stamford, Greenwich and Norwalk?

 

A week in New York for the kids, two weeks after school starts???

 

Back to the storyboard.......

[methodwriter85]

You mother-effer. Damn. And I had that in my mind for two years.

 

Alright. It's summer, and Stanford doesn't start school yet. Wade's working in D.C. on an internship his dad set up. To be within commuting distance, Matt took an internship in New York City with a prestigious business firm. To make things interesting, John Carullo's in New York City as well, either on internship or having already graduated and settled into a job. I hope Mark uses him for the 9/11 story...his perspective as someone from that area, and someone who will likely know people who die,(I'm guessing firefighters and the like given his blue-collar background) definitely shouldn't be passed up.

 

There's hockey, but since it's a club, I think the coach might have been relaxed about them starting practice a little later than the other guys.

 

I think Jordan's still going to be some kind of catalyst for getting the guys out to New York City for that Indian Summer week. I don't think all those scenes of the guys in NYC during Millenium were for nothing.

 

I don't think it's that outlandish of an idea for the kids to get a week off from school, if they planned on keeping up with their assignments. Kids constantly got away with going on family vacations.

[Matthew k]

You mother-effer. Damn. And I had that in my mind for two years.

 

Alright. It's summer, and Stanford doesn't start school yet. Wade's working in D.C. on an internship his dad set up. To be within commuting distance, Matt took an internship in New York City with a prestigious business firm. To make things interesting, John Carullo's in New York City as well, either on internship or having already graduated and settled into a job. I hope Mark uses him for the 9/11 story...his perspective as someone from that area, and someone who will likely know people who die,(I'm guessing firefighters and the like given his blue-collar background) definitely shouldn't be passed up.

 

There's hockey, but since it's a club, I think the coach might have been relaxed about them starting practice a little later than the other guys.

 

I think Jordan's still going to be some kind of catalyst for getting the guys out to New York City for that Indian Summer week. I don't think all those scenes of the guys in NYC during Millenium were for nothing.

 

I don't think it's that outlandish of an idea for the kids to get a week off from school, if they planned on keeping up with their assignments. Kids constantly got away with going on family vacations.

 

You are way over thinking this. The WTC was in the financial district, the twin towers were probably 80% financial firms. Anyone you want to knock off could have been visiting Cantor Fitzgerald, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Fred Alger Asset Mgt, or any other financial company there. Or they could be attending the Risk Waters Financial Technology Congress that was in the Windows on the World banquet room on the 106th floor of 1 WTC. If you don't want to kill them off you could have them on their way to the meeting and being delayed by a phone call from CA and pissed off they are missing the meeting.

 

There are any number of ways to address it.

 

Yeah parents do take kids out of school for things, but usually not just two weeks into school especially with sports, etc. going on.

[methodwriter85]

That's actually a pretty damn good idea.

 

So let's say it's summer 2001. Wade's in D.C. on his internship. Matt's in New York City at his capital venture investment firm internship. His good friend, John Carullo, is working at Cantor-Fitzgerald. (His major was never specified, so it's possible that he could have been in finance.) Matt intends to attend the financial meeting you're talking about.

 

That would be a good set-up. I guess maybe the Cramptons and Schluters could just watch in horror on the West Coast, but knowing Mark, there's no way they're just going to be standing 3,000 miles away when 9/11 happens. They're somehow going to be in the thick of things. He always figures out a way to bring people to major historical events, such as the Paris riots of 1968 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

 

How would you bring Brad, Stefan, JP, etc etc to New York City? Not necessarily Lower Manhatten, but just the City itself.

[Matthew k]

That's actually a pretty damn good idea.

 

So let's say it's summer 2001. Wade's in D.C. on his internship. Matt's in New York City at his capital venture investment firm internship. His good friend, John Carullo, is working at Cantor-Fitzgerald. (His major was never specified, so it's possible that he could have been in finance.) Matt intends to attend the financial meeting you're talking about.

 

That would be a good set-up. I guess maybe the Cramptons and Schluters could just watch in horror on the West Coast, but knowing Mark, there's no way they're just going to be standing 3,000 miles away when 9/11 happens. They're somehow going to be in the thick of things. He always figures out a way to bring people to major historical events, such as the Paris riots of 1968 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

 

How would you bring Brad, Stefan, JP, etc etc to New York City? Not necessarily Lower Manhatten, but just the City itself.

 

JP could do a guest lecture at Columbia, Robbie could do a guest lecture (or receive an award) from the NYU film school, JJ could have a performance at the Ice Theatre of New York, Brad of Stefan wouldn't likely have been at Windows on the World for the Risk Waters meeting, a lower level person from their organization would be attending and Matt would have been too low. And to be honest, it is unlikely that Brad or Stef would meet a money manager in the manager's offices, the manager would have gone to their suite at The Lowell or The Carlyle.

[methodwriter85]

I like the guest lecture at Columbia idea. Maybe Columbia is teaching a class on the 1960's, and they got JP to do a lecture on his involvement in the anti-war campaign?There ould be a delicious irony to that- JP talking about using peace to avoid war, when the United States is about to head into a decade-long war.

 

As for NYU, maybe the film class is a "GLBT In Film" elective, and Robbie got invited to speak because of his prominence as an openly gay movie producer who had just seen the movies he bankrolled sweep the Oscars. Although I'm not sure how big of a deal it would be to be an openly gay movie producer. Openly gay actor with a major film career would be one thing, but I dunno. Maybe he's just getting an award for being a positive role model for gay youth as an openly gay movie producer?

 

And I like the idea of JJ skating in New York. I get the feeling his personality would fit well there.

Edited May 3, 2011 by methodwriter85

[George Richard]

Since I've always worked in Chicago's financial district, my business trips to New York have been to the area of the World Trade Center, I was in the mall a few times (I still have a tie I bought there when I forgot to pack one). Most of my experience is with the North Tower though, and that's limited, just a visit to Window on the World. I don't recall anything memorable about the Twin Towers--they were just tall office buildings like the ones I'm used to in Chicago. And the mall was pretty much geared to meeting the day-to-day needs of the people who worked in the vicinity, not especially noteworthy either. I had a young relative who worked for a big financial firm in the area, and she eventually walked home through the dust to Brooklyn. Her immediate family was pretty concerned until they heard from her. The trading desks in the Twin Towers had open phone lines to some of the Chicago Exchange floors, so before communications stopped people in Chicago could talk to their co-workers in peril in New York. I saw the first news reports on a tv monitor in the train station. We spent the first part of the morning waiting to hear what was going to happen in the Chicago loop. Since our office was a block from Sears Tower, we were sent home before the morning was over out of concern of an attack against Chicago.

 

Mark may already know why people in the story are in New York, since he's asking about the towers, rather than how to get them there. But there's a Hollywood connection to one of the firms in the Noth Tower. Cantor Fitgerald earlier in 2001 had bought the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which was not a real exchange, but more of a game that lets people bet fake money on the success or failure of movies, stars, etc. HSX was a startup from the 90's that could have been invested in by Stefan and Brad, and that would have given them a link to Cantor, which lost more employees than any other tenant. HSX still exists. They tried to launch movie futures, which were approved a couple of years ago, but then outlawed by congress.

[Mark Arbour]

Since I've always worked in Chicago's financial district, my business trips to New York have been to the area of the World Trade Center, I was in the mall a few times (I still have a tie I bought there when I forgot to pack one). Most of my experience is with the North Tower though, and that's limited, just a visit to Window on the World. I don't recall anything memorable about the Twin Towers--they were just tall office buildings like the ones I'm used to in Chicago. And the mall was pretty much geared to meeting the day-to-day needs of the people who worked in the vicinity, not especially noteworthy either. I had a young relative who worked for a big financial firm in the area, and she eventually walked home through the dust to Brooklyn. Her immediate family was pretty concerned until they heard from her. The trading desks in the Twin Towers had open phone lines to some of the Chicago Exchange floors, so before communications stopped people in Chicago could talk to their co-workers in peril in New York. I saw the first news reports on a tv monitor in the train station. We spent the first part of the morning waiting to hear what was going to happen in the Chicago loop. Since our office was a block from Sears Tower, we were sent home before the morning was over out of concern of an attack against Chicago.

 

Mark may already know why people in the story are in New York, since he's asking about the towers, rather than how to get them there. But there's a Hollywood connection to one of the firms in the Noth Tower. Cantor Fitgerald earlier in 2001 had bought the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which was not a real exchange, but more of a game that lets people bet fake money on the success or failure of movies, stars, etc. HSX was a startup from the 90's that could have been invested in by Stefan and Brad, and that would have given them a link to Cantor, which lost more employees than any other tenant. HSX still exists. They tried to launch movie futures, which were approved a couple of years ago, but then outlawed by congress.

 

Thank you, George.

[methodwriter85]

Thank you, George.

 

9/11 is now less than a year away in CAP World Time. God, I can't wait to see how you address it. I'm sure it'll be great.