Reporters on the Job
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Underground, Unchanged: As correspondent Mark Rice-Oxley traveled some of the routes on London's Underground recently in anticipation of the first anniversary of the 7/7 bombings (
see story), it struck him that the aftermath differed in several ways from that of Sept. 11.
"There's no sense that people have forgotten," says Mark, who traveled by Tube from King's Cross to Russell Square, and then from Edgeware Road to Paddington. But, he notes, there are no physical reminders. "New York was left with this huge ground zero. Britain's 'underground zero' was in the tunnels," he says.
Friday, there will be a two-minute silence to commemorate victims. But, Mark says, people generally seem to have moved forward, even if they haven't forgotten.
One impact of the attacks is the recurrence of a particular dinner-party topic. "It has become fashionable to tell people how you avoid going by Tube," Mark says. "The Tube still carries about 1 billion people a year, but anecdotally, people will say, 'I went for a whole week without getting on the Tube.' Or they'll tell you that they now have a bike, and cycle everywhere, or that they have a new bus route."
Mark notes that there are plans for a memorial in Tavistock Square, where a bus was blown up. But designs are still under consideration.
Amelia Newcomb
Deputy world editor
Cultural snapshot
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CIRCLES OF GRASS:
David Gallaugher, a student at the Dalhousie School of Architecture in Halifax, Nova Scotia, created a grass-lined wheel to simulate an eternal lawn environment and to draw attention to what he considers a North American obsession with manicured lawns.
PETER PARSONS/HALIFAX CHRONICAL-HERALD
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