9/11: The Response to the World Trade Center Attacks

This research paper compared the experiences of recipients and non-recipients of aid from the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks on September 11, 2001. It hypothesized that there are distinct patterns of aid and exclusion from aid that help to clearly reveal an increasing bifurcated social and economic class structure in New York City (NYC). On one side, there is a contingent of a global financial elite that lives and works within NYC. On the other side, there are low-wage service workers, undocumented immigrants, and entire immigrant communities and other marginal groups, who have suffered from both the direct and indirect impacts of the attacks, but have received pitiful forms of assistance when compared to their counterparts. The response to the WTC attacks has mainly served the interests of the global elite based in NYC, whether in planning, economic and community development, or security at the expense of other City residents.