Building a Better City

The Saturday morning before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Brevard Caribbean American Sports & Cultural Association held their 9th annual breakfast in honor of the civil rights figure. Deputy Mayor Paccione and some of her campaign staff were privileged to be in attendance.

“It was an honor and pleasure to attend the 9th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Program and Breakfast,” said Mrs. Paccione. ” Thanks to BCASCA for hosting this inspiring event and always teaching us valuable lessons. I was inspired by their speaker Dr. Doreatha J. Fields who spoke about how it is not the end, but only the beginning. Every day is a new beginning for each and everyone of us and we have to thank Dr. King for giving us that hope, the hope for new beginnings.”

Hometown News reported that the Palm Bay Firefighters will be supporting Michele in the upcoming 2012 election.

Mr. Ginsburg said the firefighters union will remain solidly behind Ms. Paccione and Mr. Capote – even though they ultimately voted to kill the fire fee.

“We’re still behind them 100 percent,” Mr. Ginsburg said. “They did what was right for the people. That’s all you can ask of an elected official.”

Councilwoman Paccione was in New York during the 9/11 attack. She talked about the experience with Hometown News.

Palm Bay city councilwoman Michele Paccione recalls flying into New York City on a beautiful day on Sept. 9, 2001, and seeing the World Trade Center shimmering grandly as her plane approached Newark, N.J., International Airport.

Eight days later, as she rode on an Amtrak train leaving New York, tears flooded her eyes as she saw smoke shrouding the Twin Towers.

Later in the article, Michele told her story.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Ms. Paccione had planned to take the subway to the World Trade Center from her brother’s home in suburban Westchester County, N.Y. She had frequently shopped and dined at the Twin Towers when she worked as a saleswoman on Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

Instead, Ms. Paccione watched from her suburban enclave as the towers became pillars of smoke.

Ms. Paccione had arrived in New York for her godson’s christening, and first visited her sister in New Jersey.

“It was a beautiful Sunday, and we took the New Jersey Turnpike to New York,” Ms. Paccione said. “As we passed by Manhattan, you could see the Twin Towers, so beautiful.

“I used to sit outside the towers for lunch. They had a mall and a subway stop,” Ms. Paccione recalled.

“My husband and I got our marriage license in New York, so we went to the top of the observation deck of one of the towers. I have a picture of that. It’s a very special memory.”

On Sept. 11, her husband, who had remained in Florida, woke her up to tell her: “Don’t go into New York today.” In Florida, her husband was listening to the popular New York-based Howard Stern radio show – thanks to Sirius Radio – and learned of the first plane attack.

“Like the rest of America, we saw the second plane hit. Of course, we were devastated,” she said.

Ms. Paccione, a native of Queens, N.Y., remembers being filled with sadness as her train pulled out of New York.

“The train goes through a tunnel and comes out on the New Jersey side, and when it did, all I could see was the smoke,” Ms. Paccione recalled.

“It put tears in my eyes, and I cried leaving New York. It was sad, knowing I had gone there on Sunday, seeing the beautiful towers, and leaving a week later and seeing the smoke and knowing the towers were gone.

“The people that worked there died. That part really brought me to tears,” Ms. Paccione said.

She hasn’t been back to New York since.