Tower Stories by Damon DiMarco

Author:Damon DiMarco [DiMarco, Damon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The canteen upstairs at Stuyvesant started looking like a Costco. We had cans of fruit and vegetables, bottled water, cans of coffee, bales of rice—boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff.

I thought, what are we gonna do with all this? We had it stacked up in boxes so you could walk through with a hand truck and off-load whatever you needed.

We’d get a food donation from Pier 40 and the driver would say, “Where do you want it?”

“Fourth floor, please.” The Guardian Angels were stationed upstairs and they knew where we needed everything. They’d take care of it.

It got to the point where we were self-sufficient. But it was still frustrating that we couldn’t always get what we needed when we needed it. We never knew where things were coming from. Also, the distribution centers started to get shut down as time went on. Chelsea Piers Market was shut down first, and then I think Chelsea Piers, and then Javits. Pier 40 was last, I think.

Chelsea Food Markets needed to get back to business as usual; Chelsea Piers, too. As these sites shut down, we had less and less opportunities to get resources. Suddenly, I wouldn’t have a source for coffee anymore. Or medical supplies.

We had phone lists ten pages long that read: “Bob: Coffee Guy” or “Mark: Soda Guy.” “Rick: Ice Guy.” If we figured out a person’s specialty, we didn’t need their last name. We had a phone number, and that was sufficient.

I’d call them: “Hey, it’s Nicole at Stuyvesant.”

“Right. What do you need?”

The whole network was done in shorthand, like CB handles. You didn’t know any normal things about people on the list. Like: “Oh, Bob? Sure. He works in advertising. Five-nine. Dark hair. Tennis player.” Nothing like that. He was Coffee Bob. There was Leo the Driver.

But as sites kept getting shut down, we had to find new ways to get supplies in from the outside. My friends were beginning to report things to me like, “We brought donations to this site, but there was no one there to receive it. Javits got rid of their receiving area to house the National Guard, who are sleeping on the floor.”

Right around then, the DMZ contracted and moved from 14th Street to Canal. A little while after that, it pushed even further south to Chambers, and closer to us. Even still, a lot of donors found they couldn’t get through the gates to resupply us.

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