Postcard Sales Reflect a City Moving On

Photo Courtesy Debbie Nathan
Long Island–based Alfred Mainzer, Inc., has been making post cards since the late thirties. Eric Schwarz, Alfred Mainzer's vice-president, says they produce 2 million a year, including many with New York City scenes. For a while after 9/11 there was a run on WTC images "like you wouldn't believe," Schwarz said. But during the past couple of years, demand has evaporated. "Accounts call and say, 'Don't send any more! They're sitting on the racks!'" So the company recently switched to images of the current skyline. Schwarz said they've still got a night shot of lower Manhattan with the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground, taken before the Trade Center was ever built. They're thinking of rereleasing this card without getting noisy about the fact that it's almost four decades old. "You'd never know," Schwarz says. "It looks exactly like the skyline today. It's beautiful." —Debbie Nathan
Related: What if 9/11 Never Happened?

Tantrums Erupt Over Wall Street Pay
What's Bill Bratton's Next Career Move?
The Political Fictions Project
Smith on the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Trial 