Flowers are left by the north reflecting pool at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum the day before the US' commemoration of the 18th anniversary of September 11, 2001. Photo: VCG

With crime on the rise, shops and apartments increasingly vacant and homeless people on the sidewalks, New York on Friday will mark the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter fight with the White House.

The city will hold its annual ceremony in memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the bloodiest terrorist attack in US history, punctuated by a minute's silence at the exact moments that Al-Qaeda jihadists crashed two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers.

Instead of reading out the roll call of the dead, the families of victims have recorded themselves in 2020. But they will still be present at the "Ground Zero" memorial. 

The site museum will also open for the first time since the novel coronavirus brought the city to a standstill in March. 

Almost two decades after the attacks, September 11 remains synonymous with New York's heroism and resilience. 

City leaders have emphasized the latter in the past months as the COVID-19 infection rate - which killed 2,300 people here, the early epicenter of the disease in the US - has been lowered to under one percent.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reminded New Yorkers that their resilience is likely to be tested once again by the social and economic "after-effects" of the pandemic.

Gale Brewer, president of borough of Manhattan, recognizes that the island renowned for its hustle and energy now faces an array of problems.

AFP