Lower Manhattan...Blues

I sing the body blue. 

It was September 11, 2002, when the new website launched. Its purpose: To bang the drum loudly and get people back downtown after the terrorist attacks. I was new in town -- a one-year New York rookie. I was a trivial PR hack in a mega PR firm, and this was a shiny new "showcase" account for us.

I had no idea what I was doing.

Lower Manhattan sings the blues

My first assignment, in hindsight, was one of the most substantial opportunities I could have gotten. I was to interview the head of capital construction at a major public authority. It was specially arranged by a colleague/client who knew the man personally, and so she attended the interview. She herself went on to an appointment as a city commissioner.

I’d been a student of journalism since the 7th grade, when my piece on jazzy earrings ran in the Hamilton Middle School paper.  But the PR biz had worn down my natural research-then-write ability. My cutting style was now a dull blade.

I sat down with this VIP in his corner office—this uber professional that a Times would have spun into a font of revelation about the whole of New York City—and sat there stammering, drawing a blank on a good opening question. 

The future commissioner jumped in. My initial resentment towards her mere presence then pushy interjections quickly gave way to relief that she was ready with both the hard-hitting and colorful questions that would make my Q&A later earn praise.

Later when I listened to the interview I recorded, I heard my voice only about four times. Two of those times where opening and closing salutations.

I was lucky. I didn’t realize how much so, even with the herald of this auspicious beginning

The next week I volunteered for the construction and transportation beat. I was to cover World Trade Center rebuilding, as well as the other many dozens of projects springing up all over downtown as the cash cow of Liberty Bonds were dispersed to hungry private developers and public agencies.

Now, every time I interview some rebuilding bigwig, I conjure that first Q&A, and imagine what questions I wished I’d asked.