NEW YORK, NY September 09, 2002 — Vendors selling World Trade Center trinkets will have to move further away from Ground Zero on the one year anniversary of the attacks... because of heightened security that day. Some people wish these peddlers would disappear for good. But as WNYC's Beth Fertig reports they're probably here to stay.

You can buy all kinds of 9/11 merchandise along Lower Broadway. There are colorful baseball caps with logos from the city's police and fire departments. T-shirts of the Invincible City. And books of photographs with names like Day of Tragedy. At one table, computer screens show the Twin Towers collapsing again and again on DVD.

VENDOR: Twenty dollars, 2 hours, hour of video first screen, 3500 pictures which is middle and 20 minutes tribute to rescue workers. DIP UNDER

The images are mesmerizing. A crowd of people has gathered to watch. But Tim, the vendor - who didn't want to give his whole name - says photos aren't selling so well.

VENDOR: Yeah. A lot of people want T shirts now, T shirts sweatshirts and hats. BETH: Why do you think that is? VENDOR: Um, I really don't know to be honest. I think they're more into showing support for firemen and policemen than actually taking pictures that show the towers coming down, people in distress and dismay.

Robert Norman has a table full of THOSE pictures, just down the street. He's got the planes hitting the buildings, and shots of the wreckage from every conceivable angle.

NORMAN: Are you kidding me, I would come out here with a table like this four months ago five months ago, five minutes it would be gone. Now we have to sit out here all day to pump maybe 30-40 booklets.

Maybe it's the competition. Or a lull in weekday tourism. There are no hard figures on street sales. But one year later, New Yorkers and tourists alike have mixed emotions about their role in this industry based on grief. Nineteen year old Craig Law, of England is one of those looking - but not buying.

LAW: I think it's a bit strange buying pictures of the actual event. I certainly wouldn't buy the ones of the smoldering buildings I think that's a bit wrong.

But for every person like him, there's also someone who wants a moment of history.
Anna Rodriguez works in the neighborhood and fled for her life on September 11th. She's just bought a collection of disaster photos.

RODRIGUEZ: I don't want to keep it fresh but when it fades away I want to look back and know it wasn't a dream, a nightmare.

Yet, Rodriguez also feels conflicted as she stares at tables filled with key chains and snow globes of the Twin Towers swirling in glitter.

RODRIGUEZ: I don't buy the trinkets, I don't buy the little things I don't do that. To me it's not a tourist attraction, not something to make money off of.

Family members of the victims objected when the peddlers first opened shop. Kerry Watkins understands. She's visiting from Oklahoma City, where she's executive director of the national memorial to commemorate the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. Vendors in her city were banned.

WATKINS: The first anniversary was really the impetus to say there will be no street peddling, to try to put it into the stores downtown or around the city. And we don't sell snow globes and spoons and thimbles we try to have things that are more respectful and honoring of those killed in Oklahoma City.

But with all due respect this is New York. A city that was built on commerce says Kenneth Jackson, Director of the New York Historical Society and a professor at Columbia University.

JACKSON: The negative thing about NY is that it's a city about greed and aspiration and entrepreneurial activity but that's also the good news.

So as downtown recovers, he says, vendors are leading the effort. Avi Lugasi of Israel is showing his latest product: a big blue candle shaped like the Twin Towers.

AVI: You're not going to light it. This is just as a stand. BETH: Yeah, I guess it would look kind of weird lighting the World Trade Center. AVI: Right. But I think it's beautiful piece.

Robert Norman, the vendor whose photo sales are hurting, recently changed his material. He's now selling those hunky Fire Department calendars, and a booklet of photographs of the different memorials that sprouted up last September. He says proceeds from that book are going to charity and that's all he plans sell on the anniversary.

NORMAN: Most likely yeah, that and the calendars. I'm abolishing the destructive type material out of respect for those who lost loved ones.

But Norman admits he's not just driven by his conscience. If he sticks with more positive merchandise on Wednesday, he says, maybe the police will leave him alone. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.