By BRIAN MORENO
Residents, students and visitors of the Lower Manhattan neighborhood where terror struck on Tuesday carried on with their lives, though some are still shaken up.
On Thursday cyclists continued to ride their bicycles on the reopened bike lane, runners maintained their training for the upcoming New York City Marathon and the streets of Chambers and Greenwich were filled with students heading to their classes as the neighborhood is a learning hub for the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Stuyvesant High School, P.S. 234 Independence School, PS 150 Tribeca Learning Center, The Park Pre-School and P.S/I.S. 89, all with police officers patrolling the area.
In spite of the terrorist attack, life in New York though alerted, remained the same.
Sayfullo Saipov, a New Jersey truck driver who immigrated from Uzbekistan, allegedly committed the terrorist attack by ramming a Home Depot rental truck down a bike lane, killing eight people and injuring 12 others. The fallen victims include five Argentinians and a mother from Belgium, whose respective flags are planted in shrine across the community college in respect of the deceased.
Government officials, such Mayor Bill de Blasio, praised citizens that remain in a calm and collective manner who took measures of safety during the attack.
Mayor de Blasio among other elected and police officials praised the staff and students of Stuyvesant High School, located close to the attack, for their bravery and conduct during the ordeal.
“We talked a lot in the last couple days about the strength and resiliency of New Yorkers and it was on display here powerfully,” said de Blasio, standing outside Stuyvesant High School with Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina.
“One of the students told me that in the hours they were on lockdown, everyone was checking on each other to make sure they were okay, supporting each other> added de Blasio. “Students of all background, every nationality, every faith, standing up for each other, making sure everyone they knew will get through it.”
Other elected officials on Thursday addressed the media to confront the issues of terrorism in the city and called for direct actions to prevent another attack.
City Councilman Ydanis Rodríguez and other officials,held a press conference in City Hall Park advocating to install pedestrian safety bollards along sidewalks in key areas of high pedestrian volume and other pedestrian safety measures to protect New Yorkers.
“For the safety of New York City’s pedestrians, we need the installation of more bollards in the city’s most crowed areas,” said Rodríguez. “New York is one of the biggest target for these types of attacks and we will continue to work together to prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening.”
Rodríguez compared the installation of pedestrian safety bollards to procedures done in airports where one must take off their belts, electronics and their shoes, stating, “It must be done.”
New Yorkers are keeping their heads high, though still on alert, as they keep moving forward and not giving in to the terrorists’ demands.
“There are two different people when it comes to these sort of things, people who come together and people that are just so scared they just get shut off from everything,” said Vianelys Montero an 18-year-old student of Borough of Manhattan Community College. “I think we should go with the former, we all should come together and stay together as a community.
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