Williamsburg

Yeah.

By the way, just as an aside, you know, when I moved to Williamsburg years and years and years ago, I was, like, a baby, and that place was, like...

You, you couldn't, like, you couldn't go down Kent Avenue.

It was, like, drugs and, like, s- street walkers.

Okay, our final thing, you know, you and I, this occurred to me, um, because I was asked to write about my recollections of September 11th for the Daily Mail, and, um, you and I really have never talked about that day.

I don't think we've ever had a real conversation, and, um, my recollection, I was getting ready for work.

I was in, living in Williamsburg at the time, and I had this fifth floor walk-up that, because it was pre-gentrification, I had the, this, like, unobstructed view of the New York City skyline.

I could see from the World Trade Center to my left at the south all the way up to the Chrysler Building, and, uh, you called me and you said, "The World Trade Center has been hit, and, um, do not go into the city.

Nico, I believe a couple of months ago you spoke to one of my, my colleagues at Glossy about, uh, even within certain markets, it seems like Uniqlo sometimes has different sor- store strategies.

Like in New York City, I mentioned the Soho store is this big, beautiful flagship, but you also have stores in Williamsburg and other parts of the city that are more of like a neighborhood approach.

They're not these massive flagship stores.

You mentioned the store being kind of a marketing platform too.

We approach it differently.

Like again, based on the research we make, you know, uh, we anticipate what customers will want.

So for instance, you know, we open a new store in near Bryant Park or in Williamsburg, which are, you know, neighborhood within the city.

Um, so we don't wanna have the same approach for every store.

And so today what I'm going to do is I'm going to share a way that you can tap on those sorts of issues without having to stir up all of the details and what is going on.

This is Gene Montrastelli, and welcome to the Tapping Q&A podcast, recorded live to tape from Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

This is episode 725, originally aired September 11th, 2026.

Most of us are taught at the beginning, when we learn tapping, to be as specific as possible.

Speaking at today's ceremony in Clovis, California, Andy Isolano, a retired New York firefighter, Brooklyn Ladder Company 108.

On the morning of 9-11, I was on duty at my firehouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Ladder 108.

I had just finished a 24-hour shift and had gone into the shower to get ready to go home when someone came upstairs and said, Andy, a plane just hit the towers.

With that, The day shift got toned out, and they went into Manhattan.

They show a scene of her entering Manhattan.

And it is on the Williamsburg fucking bridge, which implies that somehow her Greyhound bus went to Brooklyn and then drove back into Manhattan.

It came around.

Because they clearly are implying that the bus is driving over the Williamsburg Bridge, not through the Holland Tunnel, not over the George Washington Bridge, which are two ways that you might come from Ohio.

You definitely are not coming from Brooklyn if you're coming from...

Look, unless you fly.

Southbound Van Wick shut down from the Grand Central down to the Nassau Expressway.

And closures in both directions still at the Battery Tunnel, the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges.

We have trebles in New Jersey.

Northbound 440 closed in Perth Amboy.

The Midtown Tunnel and the 59th Street Bridge are closed into Manhattan.

They are open into Queens.

We are still closed in both directions for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges.

The southbound Van Wick is shut down from the Grand Central on to the Nassau Expressway.

I mean, every party, every cool event is in Brooklyn now.

Williamsburg is basically a mall anyway.

So it's an extension of Manhattan.

I didn't see any of the people saying, we don't want Housewives moving their own car.

People were telling me about Blue Ruin, but my thing where I forget to watch things people tell me about was still very much, and still is, very present.

Um, I went to see Green Room at the Nitehawk in Brooklyn, at the Williamsburg one, with a big group of people, one of whom worked there, so we got to go to the employee brunch screening before it was actually out.

And, uh, everybody liked it, and then when we sat down at the bar after, they were like, "Ah, that movie was really good, but I'd have questions for anybody that wants to watch that a second time because of how brutal it is." And in my head, I was like, "Well, that is me, because I definitely want to watch this again."

[laughs]

... exactly where that's at

...

I'm pretty sure that's, like, an area of Williamsburg that is literally now condos, like a character later says will happen.

Um-

... like, in Brooklyn.

It was like when Williamsburg started to blow up-

Yes.

Yes