and many new york businesses are organizing volunteer groups to try to get the city back on solid ground. one of our volunteers came from as far as north carolina to help out today. so it s bond if i recall to see. i think again it just confirms and validates that we are one big city and we are all in this together. community leaders say that downtown businesses, about 35% of them, have business interruption insurance but of those that do have that insurance are having a hard time accessing it. the resilience of the downtown community, of course, has been tested before. never been evacuated on 9/11 and also hurricane irene and now super storm sandy and they say they will come back stronger than ever. an ma is live in lower manhattan. thank you. across the hudson river vice president joe biden surveying the damage that new jersey suffered during sandy. vice president taking a helicopter tour of the state s
better if they went to colorado or washington. gregg: you can catch brenda every saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. week after sandy roared on shore, parts of new york city are still recovering. anna is live in lower manhattan with what is happening now. many of residential towers and business towers still have no power, no water, no heat. we re in a historical area. this is south port sea area. many were built in the 1700s and 1800s now all you here is generators. you see crews pumping water out some of the businesses. those that were able to reopen is significantly less sales. we spoke to the owner of one bike rental shop.
problems. it s legal in two states. it s illegal in 48 states and it s illegal nationally under federal law. under the bank s secrecy banks have to report any secret activity. so you could get shut down so why would a bank wanted to deal with you anyway. it s hard to get any kind of credit. there is no way they are going risk their reputation and pay civil and criminal penalties if they lend to these businesses. if you can t get money, how do you do it? gregg: i think they are waiting for doj to either seek a federal could court injunction or dea. i have a sense you are not going to get either one from holder and they are expecting a statement as to what they are going to do here. here is the issue largely by economics. we ve got states and local governments that are cash strapped. they have deficits.
he went from hundred rentals a day to just five. we wish to stay so we don t know yet. our business is based on tourism. it doesn t make sense to hang around for a year making very little. reporter: according to a brokerage, quarter of lower manhattan office space was out you of business because of the storm. 35% of businesses do have business interruption insurance but of those that have it they are having a hard time assessing it. in community ease resilience has been tested before. after 9/11 we faced a 16 acre hole in the heart of our neighborhood and we did rebuild. we have been down this road before. it will take a long time. it will be very challenging but we will rebuild our neighborhood. reporter: some of these
home early today and city officials also forced downtown businesses to close early in anticipation of the protesters. so far, there is no word on arrests in oakland. there was little police presence earlier in the day as 4500 occupy oakland demonstrators marched on big corporations and banks in the area like this chase branch. joining me now from the occupy oakland headquarters, a journalism graduate student at uc berkeley and reporter for the oakland north news site. thank you for joining me tonight. hi. there is going to be a satellite delay. and it s going to feel like very, very long distance phone call here. we ll put up with it. what is the feeling in oakland tonight? is there is it a peaceful atmosphere? is there a sense of more possible clashes with police?