Marking a grim milestone at ground zero

A small group of anti-war protestors gathered near the World Trade Center site Wednesday, the day after the death toll of the U.S. military forces in Iraq reached 2,000 — 749 fewer than were killed at the W.T.C. on Sept. 11, 2001. The demonstrators estimate the number of Iraqi civilian deaths to be 100,000 although the estimates for that vary widely and a group called Iraq Body Count puts the number at between 26,000 and 30,000.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_129/markingagrimmilestone.html

Trip to the mall proves anything but pedestrian

By Daniel Wallace

Tempers flared Thursday on the Allen Street Mall between Delancey and Broome Sts. at a Parks Department scoping meeting to gather community suggestions for the development of the mall.


Parks Department representative Bob Redmond stood within a circle of 15 community leaders and activists on the mall’s crumbling concrete, between dilapidated benches and the steady roar of afternoon traffic, and initiated the meeting.


Things quickly turned hostile.


“Let’s go around the circle and hear everyone’s input,” Redmond shouted over the rumble of a passing bus.


Joseph Cunin, executive director of the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, stepped forward.


“There is a design already in place for this mall,” Cunin said.


He held up a large poster showing the wasteland of the current mall transformed into photos of a leafy walkway with a brick path between bushes and trees, Asian sculptures and a circular plot at the end of the mall with benches and a rest area.


“This design has been worked on for seven years,” Cunin said. “It involves a lot of community input.”


Cunin said his organization has secured $380,000 for the project and he couldn’t understand why Parks wanted to start from scratch. The circle erupted into applause.


Next Robert Weber, director of policy for Asian Americans for Equality, stepped forward.


“L.M.D.C. [Lower Manhattan Devel-opment Corporation] allocated $20 million for the development of parks in Lower Manhattan, and we want to know where that money has gone,” he said. “There is broad community support for development of all of Allen St. and Pike St. — ”


Redmond cut him off. “We want to limit the discussion to this particular mall,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”


“That’s the problem,” said Weber. “Where has the money gone? It’s not acceptable that we’ve seen none of it.”


Out of the trickle of applause that followed Weber’s declaration stepped Victor Papa, director of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, and who pointed his finger accusingly at Redmond.


“There was a process engaged on the subject of this mall,” Papa said.


Redmond nodded, and said: “I understand — ”


“No, no. You listen to us,” Papa said, his finger jabbing the air in front of Redmond. “Why did the Parks Department engage this community, get our input, if you were going to disregard it?”


“The decision was made to start the project over,” Redmond said. “I did not make the decision. I work for someone else.”


Cunin said that it would be useful for everyone present to hear from Parks why they scrapped the project when it was already bid out, the money was in hand, the work was ready to go and materials were ordered.


“In your very own words,” Cunin said.


“I’ll try to find out,” Redmond deflected.


Cunin shook his head. “All of us have taken time out of our day to be here,” he said. “We want an answer.”


A Parks Department landscape architect in a jean jacket, who did not introduce himself, offered an explanation.


“My understanding is that we don’t have a lot of space here,” the man said. “And the design was too complex, too intense, as well as the level of maintenance.”


But this was too much for Justen Ladda, the artist who together with a Parks Department architect worked for seven years to come up with the current design. Standing across the circle, he shook his head vigorously and then spoke out.


“The architect at the Parks Department and I worked for seven years,” he said. “We talked to the community, we found out what people wanted. We made 37 distinct designs. And this design fits perfectly. It’s bulletproof. To me, it seems completely insane to start this all over again. The project is in the can, it’s ready to go; we could start tomorrow. This is another waste of time.”


After the meeting Ladda explained that the Art Commission loved the design and gave it the go-ahead. But when it was submitted for final approval earlier this year a newly composed commission didn’t like it.


“It’s a really depressing project,” Ladda said.


Papa walked into the center of the circle and, taking the poster from Cunin, held it in Redmond’s face.


“The decision was made to start the project over — ”


Weber interrupted. “There’s no way this is going to happen; we will protest.”


“That’s right,” Cunin said. “We are not going to provide additional input; we are not going to have additional meetings. If there are adaptations that need to be made to this design, that’s reasonable and we’ll talk about it. But you’re not going to get the community on board to redesign this thing. I hate the expression, but it will be over our dead bodies. There will be protests. We’re so fed up.”


Carli Smith, a Parks Department spokesperson, released the following statement: “Parks remains committed to the revitalization of all of the Allen and Pike Street Malls. We received federal transportation funds several years ago to partner with the Department of Transportation, Lower East Side BID and other community groups to establish a demonstration project on one of the malls between Broome and Delancey Streets. After several years of planning and community meetings, it was decided during the public review process that the design principles we attempted to incorporate for each corridor were a bit ambitious, and that spreading these elements out throughout several corridors, while still maintaining the design intent, would be more appropriate for this space.”

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_129/triptothe%20mallproves.html

More doubts cast on fate of W.T.C. performance space

By Ronda Kaysen


Will the cultural and performing arts centers at the new World Trade Center ever be built, or have the plans been tossed out with the International Freedom Center? When NY1 sought out answers from Gretchen Dykstra last week, the Memorial Foundation’s president and C.E.O. ducked the question a few times.


The future of the cultural buildings has come into doubt since Governor George Pataki summarily removed the International Freedom Center, a museum planned for the Snohetta-designed cultural center, from the W.T.C. master plan last month. Pataki dropped the museums after some victims’ family members criticized the proposed content. With the Freedom Center gone and the Drawing Center, a Soho-based museum also slated for the cultural center, searching for a new home, the fate of the Snohetta building is anything but certain.


The performing arts center, the other cultural facility at the site, is now in a precarious position as well. Some are worried that the content questions which drove the museums away could be applied to the Signature Theater and the Joyce Theater, the two performance groups selected to be across the street from the memorial.


“That’s a real concern,” Carl Weisbrod, an L.M.D.C. board member and head of Trinity Real Estate, told Downtown Express earlier this month. “It shouldn’t.”


At an Oct. 20 press conference celebrating $101 million raised for the memorial, Pataki indicated that the families critical of the cultural institutions still have his ear and if they raise concerns about the Joyce or Signature theaters, he will heed their calls. “People appreciate that we have to be respectful to everyone and have to listen to the needs of everyone,” he told reporters. “We will continue to reach out and work with them [the family members] and engage them as much as possible.”


The foundation, a nonprofit organization free of the entanglements of political appointees, will eventually wield tremendous power Downtown. In addition to raising half a billion dollars for the memorial, museum and cultural facilities, it will own and operate those facilities, overseeing an estimated 7 to 8 million visitors a year.


In an Oct. 20 interview with Davidson Golden of NY 1, Dykstra avoided several opportunities to voice a firm commitment to the cultural buildings. “What will happen to that cultural building, the L.M.D.C. has not yet decided. We’re focused on the memorial and the memorial museum,” she said, adding later. “I think the [memorial] museum that we are in the process of designing and conceiving and shaping would be a wonderful sort of glue for the entire memorial quadrant.”


Later in the interview, she again backed away from committing to the Snohetta building. “Ultimately the foundation is responsible for the memorial, the memorial museum and possibly two cultural buildings. We have to see how it falls. At the moment L.M.D.C. and the foundation are crunching numbers, we want to see the costs.”


Lynn Rasic, a spokesperson to Dykstra insists her boss is simply being practical in discussing timelines. The foundation, she said, remains committed to the construction of the performing arts center. “There is a strong commitment to building this facility,” she said. However, “Our first priority is raising the funds that are needed for the memorial and the memorial museum.”


Rasic was less certain about what would ultimately be housed inside the performing arts building. The L.M.D.C. is “in charge of the plans and the selection of tenants.”


As for the Snohetta building, “We think this is doable and we can create a unified experience that will be very moving.”


Rasic said Dykstra was not available to comment for this story.


Meanwhile, the Memorial Foundation is full speed ahead on its mission to raise $500 million for the memorial. In July, the foundation announced that only after funding for the memorial is secured would the foundation begin to consider raising funds for the Snohetta building or the performing arts center.


The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which selected the four original cultural institutions and still governs the cultural content, maintains its commitment to the cultural programs. “The Snohetta building will be in the same place, we absolutely are committed to that and we are moving ahead with the performing arts center,” John Gallagher, an L.M.D.C. spokesperson told Downtown Express. The plan for the Snohetta building is to make it part of the memorial museum.


The L.M.D.C. committed $55 million to the performing arts center, Gallagher added. In contrast, the corporation set aside $300 million for the Memorial Foundation.


The cultural and performing arts centers are estimated to cost as much as $200 million a piece. Eventually, the L.M.D.C. will hand the reins of the cultural and performing arts centers to the foundation, ceding control.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_129/moredoubtscastonfate.html

Audience members shouted at Lower Manhattan Development Corp. officials Monday

Does anyone remember PACE university?




L.M.D.C. pummeled at public meeting

By Ronda Kaysen

The last thing the embattled Lower Manhattan Development Corporation needed this week was a public relations snafu. But that is exactly what the agency got when it hosted an “open house” about the demolition of 130 Liberty St.


Michael Haberman, community liaison for L.M.D.C., the agency vested with the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan, was dramatically interrupted as he explained the evening’s agenda. Protestors with blue tape covering their mouths wielding yellow signs that blasted “L.M.D.C. wants to silence the Lower Manhattan community” shouted questions and accusations through Haberman’s introduction.


The Oct. 24 event at the Marriott Financial Center on West St. was intended to serve as an information session about the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank, a building at 130 Liberty St. that was badly damaged and contaminated with debris on Sept. 11.


L.M.D.C. purchased the 40-story structure more than a year ago from Deutsche Bank so it could dismantle it and expand the World Trade Center site. The Environmental Protection Agency approved the corporation’s deconstruction plan three days before the fourth anniversary of Sept. 11, bringing the protracted approval process to a close. Contractors began erecting scaffolding in September. The floor-by-floor demolition will begin in early 2006.


Critics protested the meeting not for its content so much as its format. In lieu of the traditional “open mic” format where speakers ask their questions publicly, L.M.D.C. opted for an “open table” setup where members of the public individually approach various experts and agencies seated at tables and ask their questions privately. L.M.D.C. would then publicly answer a selection of the questions.


L.M.D.C. first used this format at a 130 Liberty St. presentation last spring and chose to use it again on Monday in the hopes it might draw people who don’t attend Community Board 1 meetings on the Deutsche deconstruction.


But critics blasted the arrangement as undemocratic, saying the format would allow the agency to cherry pick questions. Last week, C.B. 1, the event’s co-sponsor, withdrew its sponsorship in protest. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler and New York State Senator Martin Connor sent a joint letter rebuking the agency, calling the format “unacceptable and inappropriate.”


“The people who have questions are not going to have a full opportunity to ask them in a proper venue,” Linda Rosenthal, an aide to Nadler, told Downtown Express shortly before the meeting.


Many local residents worry the current deconstruction plan does not include an adequate community action plan if an emergency were to occur at the site. Several residential buildings lie within 100 feet of the shrouded tower. Others worry about the possibility of recontamination to the neighborhood and workers should some of the toxins escape the structure.


Monday night’s outburst is the latest example of escalating friction between the development corporation and the community board. C.B. 1 members hammered Haberman at a recent board meeting about the demise of the International Freedom Center, a museum planned for the new World Trade Center. The following night, the board passed two resolutions scolding L.M.D.C. for the slow pace of the redevelopment and the lack of public input in the process.


“This is a broader issue of a lack of community input. We, as a community, cannot sit idly by and let our voices not be heard,” C.B. 1 chairperson Julie Menin said in a telephone interview. “It goes to the selection of the cultural institutions, it goes to the issue of retail. The community must have a voice at the table.”


Evidence of tension between the agency and the board began this summer, after Menin was elected C.B. 1 chairperson in June. She filled a vacancy left by Madelyn Wils, who sits on the L.M.D.C. board.


Monday night’s debacle points to a larger question haunting L.M.D.C.: What, exactly, is going on in there?


Governor George Pataki removed the International Freedom Center last month before L.M.D.C. or the public could weigh in on the museum’s content. Pataki’s decision — a response to calls from some victims’ family members to limit cultural activities in the memorial quadrant — evoked the resignation of L.M.D.C. board member Roland Betts.


Betts, one of the original — and most influential — members of L.M.D.C. board and a close friend of President George W. Bush, quietly handed in his resignation letter last week. At his final L.M.D.C. board meeting, Betts told fellow board members, “There’s no question that L.M.D.C. has been deeply wounded here,” according to the New York Times.


L.M.D.C. has been hemorrhaging employees since president Kevin Rampe resigned last May. The new L.M.D.C. president, Stefan Pryor, wields far less power than Rampe because on the day Pryor was promoted, Pataki appointed his right hand man, John Cahill, as Downtown redevelopment czar, a position that reports directly to the governor.


Since the spring, many of the key staffers surrounding the 130 Liberty St. deconstruction have bowed out, including Amy Peterson, who directed the deconstruction plans, L.M.D.C. spokesperson Joanna Rose, who took a post as Pataki’s spokesperson and Kate Millea, who developed the controversial community action plan.


At Monday night’s meeting, L.M.D.C. president Pryor was nowhere to be seen, leaving Haberman and two L.M.D.C. press officers to steer the meeting, which quickly devolved into near mutiny.


“We didn’t necessarily anticipate it being a heated meeting,” L.M.D.C. spokesperson John Gallagher told Downtown Express the following day. “We thought this was really going to be an open house where people get information in a different setting.”


L.M.D.C. might not have “anticipated” the outcome, but it was aware of the criticism. Pryor “blew a gasket” when he received the critical letter from U.S. Rep. Nadler and Senator Conner, according to one source close to the conflict. Menin told Downtown Express Pryor was also angry when she told him C.B. 1 was withdrawing its support.


During the 45-minute table session, L.M.D.C. officials nervously milled about the Marriott lobby, whispering amongst themselves. City and construction officials staffing the tables stood idly by while the majority of audience members sat inside, refusing to participate in the table session and making impromptu speeches of their own at the abandoned podium.


“You might be shocked to know that the questions at the table were fewer than we expected,” a beleaguered and sarcastic Haberman told the audience at the end of the boycotted table session.


With that, L.M.D.C. acquiesced, opening the floor up to the public.


Although Pat Evangelista, W.T.C. coordinator for E.P.A., refused to answer questions directed toward him, government and construction officials answered most questions. Evangelista told Downtown Express after the meeting that he declined to answer questions because of the protest.


Many of the questions circled around E.P.A.’s September approval of L.M.D.C.’s deconstruction plan. Last summer, E.P.A. responded to L.M.D.C.’s revised plan—the original plan was summarily rejected by E.P.A. last January—with extensive written comments. By September, the agency had approved the plan, with no public paper trail in sight.


Critics wonder if the sudden Sept. 11-anniversary approval was more than a coincidence, a theory Evangelista did not reject. The two agencies decided to hammer out an agreement through a series of meetings over the summer, Evangelista told Downtown Express. “It was a result of a lot of frustration related to all of those involved in that process,” he said. “We decided that it was important to get down to business.”


In the end, the questions the public asked of L.M.D.C. differed little from those asked at most 130 Liberty St. presentations. The remaining audience members — nearly half of the audience left early on in the evening — asked questions about evacuation plans, environmental safety and dissemination of information. The meeting was ultimately “productive,” L.M.D.C.’s Gallagher told Downtown Express.


“Was this so painful?” Rosenthal asked Haberman near the end of the meeting. Haberman handed the microphone to the next audience member.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_129/lmdcpummeledatpublic.html

 FDNY EMT, WTC Veteran, Dies

SUSAN NICOL
Firehouse.Com News

Felix Hernandez, 31, an eight-year FDNY EMT veteran, died on Oct. 23. reportedly of complications related to his work at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Funeral services were held Friday.

His death is listed on the National EMS Memorial website. For him to be included for recognition during the annual service in May, he must meet certain criteria. The application will be reviewed by the memorial's board.

In 1998, Congress designated the Virginia site as the official EMS Memorial in the U.S. Pre-hospital providers who make the ultimate sacrifice are honored during services held during EMS week in May.

Unless he was also trained as a firefighter, he is not eligible for recantation by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, said Ron Siarnicki, executive director.

Chief Siarnicki said the NFFF has specific criteria about its honorees being members of fire departments.

 http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/a...ctionId=39&id=45435

Bone fragments found near WTC site are human
 
By AMY WESTFELDT
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- Ten bone fragments discovered more than four years after the World Trade Center attacks on the rooftop of a nearby skyscraper are human, officials said Friday.

The pieces of bone, ranging in size from half an inch to two inches, were found on three days last month by construction workers sifting through gravel on top of the former Deutsche Bank building, officials said.

 Parts of the trade center's south tower carved a huge gash in the 41-story building's facade when it collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. Deconstruction of the building, which is known to be contaminated with asbestos, lead, and trade center dust, began in September.

The city medical examiner will try to identify the remains by extracting DNA and checking it against a database of World Trade Center victims, said medical examiner's spokeswoman Ellen Borakove.

"We're hoping to be able to create some profiles," she said.

Borakove said test results returned last week indicated the fragments were human. She said it was too soon too tell whether the remains came from one person or more than one.

The city has recovered 19,964 pieces of human remains from the trade center attack and identified 9,100 of them, Borakove said. Of the 2,749 people who died at the trade center, 1,152 victims have no identifiable remains.

The medical examiner's office has said that more sophisticated DNA technology may someday develop to help identify the remains. Until then, they will remain in city custody and will eventually be encased at the trade center memorial.

Mary Fetchet, whose son, Brad, died at the south tower of the trade center, said Friday the discovery reopens old wounds.

"It's just a reminder of the horrific nature of the event," said Fetchet. "When you talk about identification of bone fragments, it just brings you back to what really happened that day."

The former Deutsche Bank building was purchased by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. last year and is scheduled to be completely dismantled in 2007.

LMDC president Stefan Pryor said that after construction workers found the fragments, "our rigorous protocols automatically assume findings of this nature to be human remains and therefore require that they be treated with the utmost care, dignity, and respect."

The city inspected the entire building in the months following the attacks before turning it over to the building's owners, the LMDC said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/new...ny-region-apnewyork

May 31, 2003

Memorial Jury to Decide How to List 9/11 Rescuers

By EDWARD WYATT

A top rebuilding official said yesterday that the guidelines for the World Trade Center memorial were flexible enough to allow the professional affiliations of firefighters and other rescue workers to be listed on it with their names, if the memorial jury chose a design that did so.

The issue has been the subject of aggressive lobbying and demonstrations by firefighters and other rescue workers in recent weeks. While some firefighters have campaigned for a separate memorial for rescue workers, a larger number have asked that "F.D.N.Y." or other such affiliations be listed with the names of rescue workers who were killed at the trade center.

That request has been opposed by many relatives of other victims of the Sept. 11 attack. Some who oppose the idea have said that those identifiers set apart some victims as more worthy of recognition.

The issue is addressed ambiguously in the memorial guidelines; these say the memorial should "honor the loss of life equally and the contributions of all without establishing any hierarchies," but they also say it should "acknowledge all those who aided in rescue, recovery and healing."

Kevin Rampe, the interim president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing the memorial design competition, said yesterday that he wanted "to correct some misperceptions about the memorial guidelines, particularly about individual recognition of victims."

"The term `hierarchy of life' means that the memorial should not place a higher value on one person's life over another," Mr. Rampe said. "Beyond that, we leave it to the memorial designers and the jury to interpret."

In addition, "names of victims need not be listed alphabetically or, for that matter, even listed at all," he said. "The program calls for each individual to be recognized in the memorial. How to do so is best left to the creative minds of the thousands of designers and, ultimately, to the jury."

Mr. Rampe also spoke skeptically of a proposal to raise the site of the memorial to ground level from its proposed position 30 feet below street level, where Daniel Libeskind, the architect of the site plan, wanted it to be surrounded by the foundation walls of the original World Trade Center site.

The proposal to raise the memorial to street level was made at a public hearing this week by Carl Weisbrod, a director of the development corporation. He said it was favored by downtown residents and businesspeople who want to make it easier to navigate the memorial site on foot.

Yesterday, Mr. Rampe said that while the competition guidelines called for designers to be mindful of the memorial's urban setting and the need for people to get easily from one side of the site to the other, "it's important that the ultimate memorial design be consistent with the overall site plan and the spirit of that site plan."

"A memorial design that took away from the spirit of the Libeskind plan would not be an acceptable design," he added.

Mr. Rampe's remarks came at a news conference announcing that 13,683 people had registered to submit designs in the memorial competition, nearly three times the number that registered for the competition for the Oklahoma City National Memorial and five times as many as registered for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition.

About 13 percent of those registered in Oklahoma City and 55 percent in the case of the Vietnam memorial actually submitted designs.

The registrants come from all 50 states, several United States territories and 93 other countries. Submissions are due by June 30, and a winning design will be selected in the fall.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Today the 9/11 Family Member Coalition released the following statement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Anthony Gardner, Coalition of 9/11 Families
973.216.2623
amg@wtcufg.org

Alliance of Major 9/11 Family Groups Calls on LMDC to Fulfill Gov. Pataki’s Mandate

New York, N.Y.—October 26, 2005—The alliance of 15 major 9/11 family groups calls upon the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and its chairman, John Whitehead, to move forward with Governor George E. Pataki’s historic mandate that the World Trade Center Memorial and memorial quadrant be solely devoted to honoring the victims and heroes of September 11, 2001 and telling the story of that day and of those who came to our aid, as well as the story of the first attack on the Trade Center in 1993.

It has been one month since the governor took the decisive step of removing the International Freedom Center from the memorial site and called for the memorial quadrant to focus solely on the story of 9/11, yet the LMDC has refused to affirmatively declare that it will abide by the governor’s decision and to announce that the so-called Snohetta building will be reserved only for 9/11 exhibits and programming. Instead, LMDC president Stephan Pryor has revived the misapplied term, “public process,” to describe its closed-door plans, including whether the Snohetta building will be reconfigured in its currently planned location, whether it will be moved to another part of the quadrant, or even built at all.

9/11 families, first responders, survivors, residents, and tens of thousands of Americans have clearly demonstrated their wish-through countless public meetings, rallies, petitions, letters, emails and phone calls-that the LMDC preserve the important history of September 11, undiluted and without distraction, for future generations. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation’s recently commissioned poll clearly illustrates that the nation remains personally touched by the events of that day, believes the memorial must be built and plans to visit it in record numbers.

We urge the LMDC to give the American people what they want, deserve and are contributing to by their tax dollars and private donations: a memorial which honors the lost, tells the true and inspiring history of that day and conveys a message of hope which survives the survivors. We believe that story would fill several Snohetta buildings. Further, we urge the LMDC to turn over all curatorial decisions pertaining to the memorial quadrant to the institution responsible for building, operating and paying for the memorial: the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently come forward and declared the previous LMDC decision-making process moot, telling the New York Post that “there is no reason for us to feel obligated to build what we talked about before” if things have changed. While we remain committed to the unmitigated success of the rebuilding effort and the robust economic revival of Lower Manhattan, we believe the mayor has hit on something.

Though the number of commercial tenants, regrettably, remains in question, one thing is certain: pilgrims to the memorial will be coming in droves, upwards of ten million visitors per year according to conservative estimates, leveling out to more than five million per year by 2015. It is counterintuitive to plan for tens of millions of square feet of commercial space in anticipation of hoped-for tenants while sending tens of millions of certain-to-arrive visitors into an underground space that can neither accommodate them or the thousands of artifacts and exhibits that will have to be warehoused, farmed out or circulated to 9/11 memorials all over the globe.

Just as disturbing is the LMDC’s insistence that thousands of visitors per hour can be shuttled underground through one entrance and one exit, all without regard to New York City building and fire codes. We do not understand why the Port Authority, which owns the land at Ground Zero and which holds exemptions and immunities from the city’s legal jurisdiction over such codes, would assert them on these 16 sacred acres, given the fact that the World Trade Center site will continue to be a fertile target for those who would like nothing more than to return to the scene of this mass destruction and inflict more carnage.

We remain eager to join with the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation to engage the public in raising funds for this historic and life-affirming memorial, but we find ourselves stymied by these unanswered questions. Ultimately, the public has a right to know what they are paying for. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation is not yet in a position to tell them.

In keeping with these and other outstanding questions and in light of our continuing obligation on behalf of the public trust to safeguard this historic memorial, we announce today our renewed effort to monitor the progress at Ground Zero through the website, www.takebackthememorial.org.

BUILDING CODES
NIST Releases Final Report on World Trade Center Collapse 10/27/2005
By Tom Ichniowski
 
 
Director Jeffrey says NIST is working
"to turn the recommendations into action."
 
After more than three years of study, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued its final report on why New York City's World Trade Center collapsed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and recommends 30 actions aimed at making buildings stronger and safer. But critics charged that the voluminous report, released at an Oct. 26 House Science Committee hearing, took too long to produce and that its recommendations aren't specific enough to be translated quickly into changes in building codes and standards.

Those recommendations don't differ substantially from those in an earlier draft of the report. They cover nine areas, including increasing buildings' structural integrity, enhancing structures' fire endurance and fire protection systems and improving evacuation and emergency response. Specific recommendations include developing standards and code provisions to prevent progressive collapse in buildings and installing "fire-protected and structurally hardened elevators" in tall buildings.

Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) praised NIST for taking seriously its congressional mandate to probe the buildings' collapse and for producing "a comprehensive and impressive report." But he said it appears that NIST's recommendations aren't written in a way to ease adoption by code-setting groups and that "the jury necessarily is still out" on whether the code groups are ready to review the recommendations fully.
 
Rep. Anthony D. Weiner (D-N.Y.) was more blunt, saying, "It took too long for NIST to produce a report that really doesn't get us anywhere past the 50-yard line." He contended, "The study doesn't include the level of specificity that would truly make the report a handbook for those who need to come up with building codes in the future."

NIST Director William Jeffrey said, "This was no academic exercise." He said, "NIST is working vigorously with the relevant communities to turn the recommendations into action." NIST, which is part of the Commerce Dept., has awarded a contract to the National Institute of Building Sciences to bring together building code specialists to turn its WTC recommendations into language that can be submitted to code-developing bodies.

Henry Green, president of the International Code Council, noted that for his group's next code cycle, proposed changes need to be submitted by March 24. Jeffrey said NIST is committed to meeting that deadline for at least some of the WTC report's recommendations.
 
James Harris, a Denver structural engineer representing the American Society of Civil Engineers' Structural Engineering Institute, said that "the work to come will take more time than might seem necessary...." For example, Harris said that developing steps to combat progressive collapse "is not an easy nut to crack."

Among the report's many findings is that "The WTC towers would likely not have collapsed...if the thermal insulation had not been widely dislodged or had been only minimally dislodged by aircraft impact."

More than 2,000 WTC occupants died in the attack, when the buildings were one-third to one-half occupied. NIST said if the buildings had been fully occupied, with 20,000 people in each tower, about 14,000 might have died because the stairwells did not have the capacity to evacuate those additional thousands in the time available.
 
http://enr.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0271-22468_ITM

Amid Plans for the Trade Center, a Revived Call for Housing

 
By DAVID W. DUNLAP

HOUSING in the World Trade Center project? Who ever heard of such an idea?

Actually, anyone who paid attention to the planning concepts presented in 2002 by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Five of the six plans identified 130 Liberty Street, where the badly damaged former Deutsche Bank building stands, as the location of "potential residential development."
 
Forum: Redeveloping the World Trade Center Site
Though all six concepts were later rejected, the notion of residential development at 130 Liberty Street endured through 2003 in Daniel Libeskind's master site plan.

In other words, despite the surprise that greeted Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's recent call for housing at ground zero, he was simply reviving one of the longest-standing ideas about creating a community around the trade center's commercial, memorial and cultural core.

It may not be easy to achieve. But it may not be impossible, either.

"The kind of mixed-use, 24/7 development he's proposing is exactly right," said David Dyssegaard Kallick of the Labor Community Advocacy Network to Rebuild New York, an organization that, by its own description, seeks social justice in post-9/11 redevelopment. "It's what the public, the advocacy groups and the market have favored for four years now. What's puzzling, though, is where he's been these past years."

Mr. Bloomberg offered a detailed plan for Lower Manhattan in 2002. But he then turned his attention to the Far West Side, and never pushed his vision for downtown.

Lately, however, Mr. Bloomberg has been articulating ground zero policy in bits and pieces, at a speech in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, at a meeting with the editorial board of The Daily News, and during question-and-answer sessions with reporters at campaign stops. So it is a bit tough to form a comprehensive impression.

When you add the statements up, however, the mayor is not calling for a total reversal of plans to rebuild the trade center as a predominantly commercial complex. In fact, he has reiterated his support for office space by urging the Port Authority to move its headquarters there. Nor, for that matter, is he calling for the complete removal of the commercial leaseholder, Larry A. Silverstein.

What he is focusing on are the future Towers 3 and 4, along Church Street, and Tower 5, at 130 Liberty Street. And he is clearly saying that he thinks Tower 5, which has formally been part of the trade center project since its acquisition last year by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, "will wind up being residential."

That would be at odds with the general project plan, a document that the city acknowledged as binding in a Nov. 24, 2004, agreement with the Port Authority.

Under the general project plan, Tower 5 is to be an office building with 1.2 million to 1.5 million square feet of space. The rest of the commercial development - 8.2 million to 8.8 million square feet - is to be built on the original trade center site.

THE mayor has not yet said how he proposes converting Tower 5 from commercial to residential use. At the maximum density assigned to the site, roughly 1,900 rental apartments or 1,400 condominium apartments could be constructed.

Mr. Silverstein is no stranger to large-scale residential development, having undertaken the River Place project on West 42nd Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues.

But he cannot easily change the trade center to a commercial-residential mix, not while seeking multibillion-dollar insurance payments to fulfill what he says is his obligation to rebuild 10 million square feet of office space under a lease signed with the Port Authority while the twin towers still stood.

In theory, all 10 million square feet of commercial development potential could be reassigned to the original trade center site, but that would mean an increase in the size of the buildings around the memorial. And changing the Tower 5 site to residential use would certainly trigger some form of environmental review.

If Tower 5 winds up in the hands of the Port Authority, under a swap with the development corporation for the memorial site, that would add a further complication, since the authority is barred by its charter from residential development.

On the other hand, the authority was permitted in 1984 by the Legislatures of New York and New Jersey to enter into leases with residential developers for sites on the Queens and Hoboken, N.J., waterfronts.

There is still plenty of time to sort through these issues. Construction of the foundation under the Church Street sites, including Towers 3 and 4, is not to begin until the middle of next year, with completion in mid- to late 2008. Demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building is not scheduled to be finished until early 2007. Underground work at that site might extend until 2009.

And Mayor Bloomberg may still be in office. So the idea of housing in the World Trade Center project is not likely to be forgotten again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/nyregion/27blocks.html

Port Authority Found Liable in 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
 
A New York jury said the owner of the World Trade Center was legally responsible in the 1993 terrorist bombing that killed six people and injured 1,000.

The civil trial jury found the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 68 percent liable for the attack, in which terrorists detonated explosives in a rented van in the 400-car garage under the former twin towers. The terrorists were 32 percent liable, the jury said.

The trial consolidated more than 400 cases, including suits filed by people injured by the blast, the families of the dead and businesses. There will now be separate trials to determine damages for the various parties affected by the attack.

At the month-long trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs argued the Port Authority bore primary responsibility for the death and destruction by ignoring five reports that said the underground parking garage was a prime target for a terrorist attack. The Port Authority, a two-state, quasi-governmental agency, didn't close the garage because it would have inconvenienced tenants and lost money, lawyers argued.

Port Authority lawyers said attacks at the World Trade Center were inevitable, given the towers' status as a symbol of American capitalism. The agency contends it acted responsibly and that almost nothing could have prevented terror attacks against the center.

Port Authority lawyers were not permitted by the trial judge, Justice Nicholas Figueroa of state Supreme Court, to discuss the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the skyscrapers.

`Attractive Terrorist Target'

The trial focused on a 1985 report commissioned by the Port Authority that called the World Trade Center a ``most attractive terrorist target.''

The report's author, Edward O'Sullivan, a former Port Authority mechanical engineer, testified that executives of the authority rejected his recommendations including closing the parking garage.

O'Sullivan said the former Port Authority executive director, Stephen Berger, told him the recommendations wouldn't be implemented and another study would be done by a different group.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...efer=top_world_news