Customers slow to return to New York businesses

NEW YORK -- The sun came up over the east side of Lower Manhattan just like it did every day. Fishing boats were coming in and out of port, shop owners flipped their "open" signs and Wall Street traders buttoned up their color coded vests in preparation for the opening bell.\nBusinesses all over the country were affected by the terrorist attacks in some way, as has been evident in the response by the stockmarket and the unstable economy. Most establishments were able to keep going, and some even started up after Sept. 11, but in Lower Manhattan it was literally a struggle to survive after 8:46 a.m.\nWilliam Barthman Jewelers, nestled into a building just around the corner from Ground Zero, had a full staff working the morning of Sept. 11. The brick building trembled when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into 1 World Trade Center. Assistant Manager Valerie Santana and her co-workers intensified their efforts to put merchandise back into the safes when they watched United Airlines Flight 175 tear through the south tower.\n"We were all pretty much set up and we had to put everything back away," Santana said. "It takes an hour to set everything up, and usually the same to take it down, but it took maybe 30 minutes to put everything away. We were out of here before they came down, thank God."\nDespite the utter chaos that resulted when debris filled the streets, looters made their way into Barthman's to spill the contents of drawers out onto the floor and destroy display cases in search of valuable jewelry. But the looters found nothing but empty shelves and shattered glass due to the sheer force of the collapse bringing everything to absolute ruins.\nBut the thieves still managed to do a good deal of damage.\n"Our once familiar work setting torn apart by ransackers. White jewelry displays cloaked in ash. Elegantly structured showcases, more than 100 years old, nicked and bruised," was a description by Jerilynn Caliendo in a free brochure she wrote for the company.\nBarthman's had been selling fine jewelry for 118 years; through wars, the Great Depression and the 1993 bombing of the WTC. The store reopened 11 weeks after the attacks to an almost non-existent influx of customers. But throughout the months following the reopening Santana kept faith that the jeweler would survive.\n"We went through the Great Depression, which I think was probably the thing that would most affect this area at that time…besides that we had a big task ahead of us. We can't give up," she said.\nSince Sept. 11 many of Barthman's most loyal customers have not returned. \n"A lot of our own clientele was up in those two buildings so we lost a lot of business right there," Santana said. \nBut "open" and "reopening" signs would soon be spattered on windows in the area surrounding Ground Zero as store owners and employees were allowed back downtown to clean up what was left of their stores.\nThe entrance to David's Cookies could be found under scaffolding near Battery Park. A "Welcome Back" sign was draped on the wall behind the counter. Expediently doling out a saran-wrapped turkey sandwich to a customer, the cashier said, "We opened five or six months ago. We have the sign up because we want people to know it's okay to come back -- not all of our regular customers have come back, yet."\nIn order to bring business back to Lower Manhattan, the city government started several initiatives. There are periodic "tax-free" days in businesses south of Canal Street to bring the money back downtown. But for some, a gift became more sentimental when it came from Lower Manhattan.\n"We've had people that were relocated who came out of their way to shop here, saying that a gift from here wrapped up in this paper would mean something more than it usually does," Santana said. "People are shopping in downtown whether they knew the stores or not to support the area."\nBarthman's hoped that over the Christmas holiday, and as people sought to buy something special for their special someone, they would think of making a special trip just to have a ring box wrapped up in Barthman's signature gold trellis paper.\nEven the Century 21 shopping center, a New York institution, had trouble bringing business back downtown. It used to be packed with bargain hunters from open to close, but the four-story department store had to undergo $10 million in renovation before it could reopen Feb. 28. \nLocated at 22 Cortlandt St., across the street from Ground Zero, Century 21 had been closed for extensive cleaning and restocking of merchandise. \nPieces of airplane fuselage shattered windows and tore into the building. The windows were blown out, furniture was destroyed and merchandise was damaged.\n"Everything had to be replaced," said a store manager who wished to remain anonymous. Employees trying to return to work had to wait for clearance. \n"The building was so shaky and dangerous," the manager said.\nIn a press release for the grand reopening of his flagship store, owner Al Gindi said, "Our family began this business forty years ago and our roots are here in Lower Manhattan so leaving was not an option."\nCentury 21 brings a large portion of the total business into Lower Manhattan. Other stores were encouraged by the major retailer's progress and dedication to rebuilding.\nAs holidays come and go and tourists flock back to the Big Apple, the businesses on the southern tip of Manhattan will remember all they went through after Sept. 11. The sun will once again spread its rays over New York City as merchants begin each new day, peering out of store windows to greet customers as they continue to make their way back downtown.