VACUUM CLEANERS, CHEAP.(Clean Air Program offered by New York, New York after World Trade Center collapse)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 02-DEC-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

New York City may be facing steep tax increases and a generally diminished quality of life, but at least the federal government wants to buy everyone in town a new vacuum cleaner. Shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the New York State Department of Labor launched a joint disaster-relief initiative, providing millions of dollars in emergency aid to help New Yorkers repair damaged property, ride to work, and send their clothes to the dry cleaner. They have also been subsidizing the purchase of vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, air-conditioners, and replacement filters, to the tune of sixteen hundred dollars per household. The deadline to apply for reimbursement is November 30th; so far, few of the city's eligible residents have bothered.

Among those who...

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