House bill would rename Oceanside post office for 9/11 first responder Luis Alvarez

Nearly seven years after NYPD Det. Luis G. Alvarez lost his battle with cancer, the 9/11 first responder’s legacy continues to grow with a bill introduced in Congress to rename the U.S. post office in Oceanside after him.

Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Garden City) last week introduced the bill that has 25 co-sponsors — the entire New York House of Representatives delegation — garnering bipartisan support.

Gillen said in an interview she hopes the bill will pass Congress and be signed into law before Sept. 11. 

"As we approached the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we've been very much focused on making sure that we honor those and we protect those who are lost ... who served in the aftermath of 9/11," Gillen said Wednesday.

She said she attended Alvarez's wake when she served as Hempstead Town supervisor and wanted to rename the post office as a tribute to his service.

"I remember what a hero he was for the 9/11 survivor community, how brave he was even just weeks before he died, going and testifying before Congress about making sure we take care of those who are suffering from 9/11-related illnesses," she said.

Alvarez’s widow, Alaine Alvarez, said Wednesday that renaming the post office at 80 Atlantic Ave. would honor and preserve her husband’s legacy of advocacy in the community where they raised their family.

"My hopes are that when people walk into that building, they'll recognize his name and they'll remember all the sacrifices that he and all the other men made — and all the sacrifices that people are still making to this day and all the illnesses that are coming out," Alvarez said.

She said that as her husband went through chemotherapy he would post online, "Still here, still breathing, still fighting."

"I'm so glad that people don't forget," Alvarez said. "I never want people to forget."

3 months at Ground Zero

Alvarez was a Cuban-born U.S. Marine veteran and NYPD officer who served as an undercover narcotics detective and later in the bomb squad. He spent three months at the World Trade Center site in 2001, searching through the rubble for survivors and remains after the terrorist attacks that destroyed the twin towers. He retired in 2010 and was diagnosed with colorectal cancer — attributed to his exposure to toxins at Ground Zero — in 2016.

Alvarez became a champion of securing funding to care for first responders who became sick in the years after 9/11. On June 11, 2019, he testified before a congressional committee in Washington about the need to extend funding for the Sept. 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which was due to expire the following year. Joined by comedian Jon Stewart, he gave emotional testimony about the service first responders gave and how they want to provide for their families after they’re gone.

“I did not want to be anywhere else but Ground Zero when I was there,” Alvarez said. “We were part of showing the world that we would never back down from terrorism and that we could all work together. No races, no colors, no politics.”

Alvarez testified that he was in Washington between his 68th and 69th round of chemotherapy.

“Now that the 9/11 illnesses have taken many of us, we are all worried about our children and spouses and our families if we are not here,” Alvarez said before the committee. He added, “This fund is not a ticket to paradise. It is there to provide for our families when we can’t.”

'Never Forget the Heroes'

Gillen said people have an obligation to strengthen programs like the World Trade Health Program and to “ensure we continue to support 9/11 first responders like him.”

Alvarez died fewer than three weeks after his testimony, on June 29, 2019, at age 53.

The following month, then-President Donald Trump signed “Never Forget The Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund” act into law, which extended deadline for filing a claim with the fund to 2090.

Since his death, Nassau County has named a park in Oceanside in his honor, and the Luis Alvarez fund, run by the First Responders Children’s Fund, gives scholarships in his name.

Gillen said renaming the post office that Alvarez's  family continues to use to this day was a fitting tribute "to make sure that everybody remembers him and what he did for our country."

During his testimony in 2019, Alvarez said he wanted to make sure that 9/11 responders would be taken care of.

“You all said you would never forget,” Alvarez said. “Well, I'm here to make sure that you don't.”