Dedication today for 9-11 memorial

News-Chronicle
The program for today's dedication of the 9/11 memorial at the foot of the Ray Nitschke Bridge has been announced.

The program starts at 11 a.m. with music from the Vic Ferrari Band and singer/songwriters Susan and Larry Wiseman.

The official program starts at noon with a color guard, invocation, welcome by Mayor Jim Schmitt, music and release of doves of peace.

That will be followed by the official unveiling of the monument, consisting of a replica of the World Trade Center towers on a pentagon-shaped base with names of the victims of the terrorist attack. The memorial also includes some debris from the trade center.

Families of 9/11 victims and project superintendent Mark Voight will handle the unveiling.

Also scheduled are a flyover by a U.S. Air Force refueling tanker, comments from Alexander Scott, director of the 9/11 memorial being built at the Pentagon, and state treasurer Jack Voigt.

On display will be a custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle dedicated to the events of that day. The ceremony concludes with the official giving of the monument to the city of Green Bay.

The monument was designed to be the first of a series, one in each state, although the national project is on hold. After discussion of putting it in Leicht Park across the street, the site next to the Neville Public Museum was chosen, where it will replace the "Receiver" statue, now in storage until a new site is chosen.

Today's event is open to the public. Those attending are asked to bring their own lawn chairs.

http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/page.html?article=131759

Absolutely Zero: New York divided over memorial
It has been four years since the World Trade Centre was destroyed. But work has yet to begin on the Freedom Tower and its architect has been all but edged out of the project. By David Usborne
02 June 2005

They call it "the pit" - hardly a heroic moniker for the hallowed ground in Lower Manhattan where so many died on11 September 2001. But that is what it has become. A huge and square sinkhole of barren grey cement and concrete with a few patches of green where a few hardy saplings have taken root.

Tourists still come here, even though high fences mean they can see little. They arrive to pay their respects and to see what is going on. It is nearly four years since the two airliners brought havoc and more than two years since the city selected a blueprint by Germany's Daniel Libeskind to repopulate the 16-acre site with shiny new edifices, including a signature building, the Freedom Tower, that was to rise to 1,776ft, to echo the year of America's independence.

Yet, the visitors will be disappointed and probably a little baffled. A part of the pit has been invaded by the already completed new Path train station linking Lower Manhattan to New Jersey. And just to the north is a new, 52-storey glass box to replace 7 World Trade Centre, which also crumpled and fell in 2001. It will be completed early next year.

Otherwise all is still.

Zero is exactly what is going on at Ground Zero, a state of affairs that has become a political crisis in the city and the state. Everyone knows this is no ordinary public-works project. While it is riddled with complicated engineering challenges, the emotional dimensions are equally fraught. And what emerges from the site will be more than just a collection of new buildings but a statement to the world of New York's resilience and its ability to stand up to terrorism.

Ground for the memorial is due to be broken early next year and it should be opened on 11 September 2009. Meanwhile, plans for a cultural centre next to the memorial, built by the Norwegian architectural firm, Snohetta, were unveiled last month.

If Mr Childs can come up with an alternative design to satisfy police by June, the political panic may fade a little. "The delay is being so overplayed, it's ridiculous," protested Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation. "If it's going to be delayed by a year, well, what can you do? It's going to be there for 100 years."

He has a point. The imperative to demonstrate that New York is not going to be cowed by terrorists creates a pressure to replace the void in Manhattan's skyline as quickly as possible.

But everyone wants to get this right; if it takes a while then so be it. But the hoo-ha of the past month has triggered a rash of soul-seeking about the entire enterprise. How many of us really liked the Libeskind vision and the Freedom Tower in the first place? (We have to assume that Childs is working on a version that will look roughly the same, even if it is in a new spot and a bit stronger, perhaps with less glass on lower levels.)

Are we right to cram the site with office and retail buildings, instead of, say, housing? First to the microphone was the property mogul Donald Trump, lambasting the tower as a "monstrous skeleton" and the overall blueprint for Ground Zero an offensive mess.

"It looks like a junk yard, a series of broken-down angles that don't match each other. And we have to live with this for hundreds of years?" he said. "It is the worst pile of crap architecture I've ever seen in my life."

Never mind that Mr Trump has never been described by anyone as a champion of imaginative or exciting architecture.

While he was at it, Mr Trump unveiled a competing design of his own - basically a revamping of the original Twin Towers - Twin Towers II - though one storey taller than the originals, at 111 floors. Giving new life to the old designs, he said, would be the best way to repudiate the terrorists. (Though it is hard to imagine Osama bin Laden quaking over any of the designs.) Mr Libeskind's office tartly replied that Mr Trump had given his reborn Twin Towers an additional floor only to make room to place his name in bold letters.

But there are more basic questions to be asked. When the rebuilding is done, who will use all of these buildings? Is Ground Zero a place where corporations will want to be? Will even the public spaces work as envisaged?

For sure, there will be queues to visit the memorial, but less sure are the plans for a cultural centre on the site and a theatre space to be designed by Frank Gehry. No one doubts rebuilding there must be. But will what emerges turn out to be an exceptionally costly white elephant? Above all, is it necessary to cram the site with so much new office and retail space? The vacancy rate for commercial space in Downtown is at about 17 per cent. The glut will only worsen if Mr Bloomberg gets his way with the stadium project which also incorporates new office towers.

Strikingly, nobody has expressed interest in relocating to the Freedom Tower when finished. And Mr Silverstein has not been able to find a single tenant for 7 World Trade Centre.

On top of that there is the chill that has been cast over the area by the reluctance of Goldman Sachs to stick around. If the bank doesn't want to be there, then who will? "There is a sense, 'What does Goldman know that we don't know?'" remarked Mary Anne Tighe of CB Richard Ellis, the commercial estate agents.

Tellingly, when Mr Pataki recently pleaded with the Port Authority to move 2,000 of its employees into 7 World Trade Centre when it opens next spring, the agency demurred. Its response was not surprising - 75 of the agency's employees were killed on 9/11 and no one wants to go back. Cathy Pavelec, who retired from the agency in January, said "Somebody tried to kill me. Somebody tried to kill the people who sat next to me. Would you want to go back?"

Some are making the argument that now is the time to re-think the project. For while companies are reluctant to return to Lower Manhattan, residents are not. The area around Wall Street is having an apartment boom. "What lower Manhattan needs more than anything," says Paul Goldberger, dean of the Parsons School of Design, "is housing".

But it is almost certainly too late for such a wholesale change of direction. When the current bout of butterflies subsides, New York will doubtless proceed with plans not so far removed from those first tabled by Mr Libeskind.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americ...ry.jsp?story=643377

For Memorial, Oaks Are Tall Order To Fill

By Carl Glassman

In renderings they are towering, lush, and almost identical. That is the way that landscape architect Peter Walker imagined the life-affirming giant oak trees that he has proposed to grace “Reflecting Absence,” the winning World Trade Center memorial concept created with architects Michael Arad and Max Bond.

Walker’s plan, unveiled last December, calls for a grove of 300 matching oaks, crowning at a uniform height of 40 feet when the memorial opens in 2009.

It is a challenging vision.

Neither Walker’s office nor a spokeswoman for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., would comment on progress in selecting the trees, which was to have begun in April. But Tribeca-based landscape architect Signe Nielsen, who is a consultant to Walker on the project, said that there has been some uncertainty over how to realize Walker’s vision.

“Everything is in flux now as far as I can tell,” said Nielsen, who was the landscape architect for Route 9A (West Street), which runs adjacent to the memorial site.
 
Although landscaping plans are “still on target” for the projected opening of the memorial on Sept. 11, 2009, she said, the need for so many similar oaks poses problems.

“Oak trees are very hard to transplant and a lot of nurseries don’t like to carry old oaks because they occupy a lot of real estate for a long period of time,” Nielsen said. “And we need 300 of them that match.” Oaks offer the height, long life, magnificent canopies and colorful fall foliage that make them an ideal choice for the memorial. But they are prone to disease, which Nielsen said also has the planners worried. That may mean choosing different species, rather than the “monoculture” pictured in the familiar drawings of the memorial.

Chet Halka Jr., whose Halka Nurseries in Millstone, N.J., is one of the top tree growers in the east, said that he has been visited three times by architects and arborists who are scouting nurseries for the memorial. He said that he can supply the 300 oaks, but that the uniform height would pose a problem. “If they’re looking for one size, then they will have to hunt all over,” he said.

The height of the trees will be limited by available space for the roots and Halka said he was told that eight feet is the maximum width of a tree pit at the memorial site. That, he said, would limit the trees to about 30 feet.

Nina Bassuk, professor of horticultural physiology at Cornell University and a consultant to the memorial planners, said she has recommended that the planners lower their sights and look for smaller trees.

“They’re all going to grow,” said Bassuk, a leading expert in urban horticulture. “But there’s the question of finding those trees and, more importantly, the care they would need to get over the shock.”

Bassuk said that for every inch of caliber of trunk it takes a year to overcome the shock of transplant. “Eight inches would take eight years,” she said, “and that’s a long time.” (An 8-inch calibre oak is roughly 30-feet tall.) Bassuk said she recommended that the architects select trees that are half that caliber.

“These trees have a tremendous significance to everyone,” said Bassuk, “and the last thing anyone wants is to see them fail.”

In /m695 did you want to let everyone generally know where
motions and decisions are posted, or did you want to
point to a decision or two regarding recent developments with the WTC? Memorial?

Bill seeks dignified site for WTC victims' ashes
By BOB BAIRD
rbaird@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 2, 2005)


State Sen. Thomas P. Morahan says passage of his bill directing removal of the ashes of World Trade Center victims from a landfill on Staten Island is just the first step in a process.

"Step A is to get the ashes removed. Step B will be to determine where they should go," says Morahan, who sponsored similar legislation last year after meeting with Rockland members of World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial.

Last year's bill, and a companion measure in the Assembly, called for what the families originally wanted — return of the tons of ashes to Ground Zero to be incorporated in a memorial there.

To many of the WTC families, Ground Zero has been sacred ground, the last place their loved ones walked the earth before being returned to it in the ash of the crumbled Twin Towers.

But as soon as families in New Jersey banded together to form WTC Families for Proper Burial, they met resistance to bringing the ashes back to lower Manhattan. Developers, city officials and even neighbors of Ground Zero expressed concern that the Trade Center site not be turned into one sprawling memorial.

With plans for the Freedom Tower moving forward, even if temporarily delayed over security concerns, the families have become more flexible.

They still insist that their loved ones' ashes be removed from the Fresh Kills Landfill, where authorities sifted out remains and evidence.

But now they insist only that they be given a dignified resting place in a cemetery-like setting — a place families can visit without making appointments with New York City's Department of Sanitation and without having to drive past garbage trucks.

Morahan has responded to the families' flexibility, submitting a bill that says, "This ash should be protected and eventually transported to another suitable site to be determined by the governors of New York and New Jersey, to become a part of a memorial that will be built at that location." The families like the idea of using property on Governors Island, although legislation doesn't address that.

The bill passed Tuesday in the Senate on a vote of 42-10, with most of the negative votes coming from senators representing New York City. Last year, and again so far this session, opposition from city representatives has stalled consideration of similar legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Ryan Karben.

Morahan says he'll now turn his attention to helping win passage of Karben's companion to his bill.

"We'll be working with the Assembly at the leadership level to try to get passage there," Morahan says.

Karben's now hoping that action in the Senate might bolster support and bring movement in the Assembly. Bills already passed in New Jersey would have to be modified to remove Ground Zero as the destination of remains, but New Jersey families don't anticipate getting revised bills approved.

"The city's not enamored of this legislation," Morahan says, adding, "We changed it specifically to accommodate the city. Now we're trying to get the city to accommodate the families."

Laura Walker of Airmont, who lost her husband, Ben, in the terror attacks, began the local effort to win support for removing the ashes from Fresh Kills, where families say the ashes have been mingled with household garbage.

Walker and two other women who lost loved ones, Sneh Jain of New City and Margaret Cruz of Pomona, in 2003 lobbied Ramapo, Orangetown and Clarkstown, all of which passed resolutions calling for removal of the ashes, as did the Rockland County Legislature.

Walker was thrilled yesterday to hear that the Morahan bill had passed.

"That's so great," she says, adding a note of realism about how things work in Albany. "I still don't know who's going to do it or who's going to pay for it, but that doesn't matter as long as it gets done."

For two years, getting it done meant going to hearings in New York City with her three children in tow. Walker would often wear a sign saying, "Their daddy isn't garbage."

In January 2004, six other Rockland women — all of them mothers who lost children on Sept. 11 — formed a local chapter of WTC Families for Proper Burial. They have been pressing for the legislation ever since. Just two weeks ago, one of them, Mary Novotny, told me she's sure some of her son's remains are in the Fresh Kills Landfill. Like Walker, she has received partial, identified remains. But both want their loved ones' ashes removed from what amounts to a dump.

Morahan says some people don't understand why the families won't let this drop. "It's an emotional thing," he says, adding that for some people, "It's very hard to put your arms around it logically."

But after meeting with families, he understands. "It's the concept that 'my loved ones' ashes are in a landfill' that's so painful," he says.

"Is it going to be a perfect resolution?" he asks rhetorically. "They lost someone they love. There's no changing that. But we're going to do what we can."

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...6020302/1019/NEWS03

TriBeCa Tower Site Survives Many Years of False Starts

BY JILL GARDINER - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 2, 2005

Amid the hubbub of dozens of newly announced projects for Lower Manhattan, one vacant property known as site 5C has a particularly long history of on-again, off-again development proposals that predates the World Trade Center attacks.

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg held a ceremonial groundbreaking at that property, 200 Chambers St., where a 30-story tower is planned.

http://www.nysun.com/article/14783

Real focus should be on life

Justin Davidson

June 2, 2005

While the building has yet to begin in earnest in the hole we call Ground Zero, a new conventional wisdom about it has been born: the disaster of destruction has been made worse by the disaster of reconstruction.

"Ground Zero, sadly, has become not a place of vision, but, rather, the site of a planning and political catastrophe," wrote The New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger, echoing a chorus of opinions.

But it is not a catastrophe, and the process under way could still result in a concentration of magnificent architecture. Yes, much of what is happening downtown is lamentable, secretive, unpredictable and slow. But nearly four years after the attacks we have a plan that, for all its flaws, represents a workable compromise. We should keep prodding it toward reality.

In the year after the attacks, architects, writers, planners and amateur visionaries produced a torrent of ideas, ranging from the bland to the fantastical. But the time for utopian chimeras has passed. The worst thing that could happen is for all those who insist on perfection to drag Ground Zero back to Square One.

The problems we see now were there from the start. The please-everybody approach that guided the early decisions at the site resulted in a deeply conflicted agenda. Has a development project ever comprised a more dubious stew of symbolism and profit, sanctity and profane bustle, skyline and subway, civic values and political careerism?

In the context of these fissures, the events that prompted the recent bout of hand-wringing seem piddling: a change in leadership at the rebuilding agency, a new design for the skyscraper.Still, the cries of catastrophe can be persuasive because the public is justifiably confused. It can be difficult, amid all the piecemeal announcements, disbursements and design presentations, to keep the whole site in mind, or to distinguish between commercial development and public works. It's complicated, but it's also very New York.

From the time when Dutch West India Company employees began slapping together the first cabins and taverns, Manhattan has been a state-aided corporate domain. This city was built by private money, often juiced by subsidy. Gov. George Pataki is tied to developer Larry Silverstein, not just by Silverstein's lease and the $4.6 billion he received in insurance payments after the attacks, but also by a history that proscribes politicians from decreeing the birth of an entire neighborhood and funding it with taxes alone.

Critics charge that there is no demand for the office space he wants to build, and point out that the rebuilt 7 World Trade Center, which is nearly complete, still has no tenants. But Silverstein has 96 years left on his lease, and he appears to be thinking beyond his own immediate prospects. Despite his unctuous, hand-on-breast-pocket vows, there's a chance that he really is doing some good, helping to ensure that lower Manhattan regains its status as a business center.

Businesses are jittery about moving to lower Manhattan for many reasons: because nobody wants to be the first to jump into a bog of uncertainty; because America thinks in sequels, so the World Trade Center's replacement is currently starring in scenarios of tomorrow's Sept. 11; and because there are plenty of alternative locations, especially in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's current area of focus, the western slab of midtown. It's worth wondering whether the promise of glossy new midtown towers isn't depleting the prospects of lower Manhattan.

But perceptions and priorities change faster than architectural designs. And downtown can never be rebuilt without a certain amount of unreasonable optimism. Let's remember that the Empire State Building started its high-speed climb into the skyline in the spring of 1930 - five months after the Black Tuesday stock market crash.

Whatever the next version of the Freedom Tower looks like, we should all be paying more attention to what will happen on the surrounding sites while Silverstein (or his successors) waits out the market. Will downtown be pockmarked with parking lots or nondescript placeholders, or will interim buildings have strong enough personalities to help bring the neighborhood back to life?

Life: That's what the redevelopment process should be about. Some have complained that the gorgeous museum designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta to house the Drawing Center and the International Freedom Center will loom over the memorial and crowd the landscaped plaza, threatening the area's contemplative integrity. Fine: Let the city reclaim its ruined turf just as the jungle swallows neglected towns.

In the arguments over process and concept, we cannot gloss over the details that will make the difference between a dour campus of commemoration and a vibrant neighborhood. Snøhetta's proposal to stud the museum facade with light-refracting prisms; the landscaping in front of Santiago Calatrava's station; the transparency of the glass in the Freedom Tower; the placement of street-level stores - these are questions that the public should keep scrutinizing until the last ribbon is cut.

But we should accept the project's overarching framework, even if not everyone is happy with all of the project's givens. For example, I have always thought it was a mistake to set aside such a large tract of urban fabric to a memorial commemorating an event whose historical significance we cannot measure yet. Yet I understand, too, that from the beginning, trauma demanded - and politics confirmed - that the neighborhood would have to heal around, but not over, a five-acre scar.

What matters now is that the city re-form, on a scale at once pedestrian and grand, and that people once again begin to course among the monuments. The real planning catastrophe would be to let that crater sit unfilled any longer than it must.The worst thing that could happen is for all those who insist on perfection to drag Ground Zero back to Square One."

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/n...ll=nyc-nynews-print

City's 9-11 memorial dedicated
 
By Adam Hardy
News-Chronicle
At the foot of the Ray Nitschke Bridge accompanied by the crescendo of a trumpet and white "peace doves" circling overhead, relatives of the 16 Wisconsinites killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks unveiled the granite base of the Green Bay 9-11 Memorial on Wednesday.

Along with the names of the 3,030 Sept. 11 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the stone base supporting a replica of the World Trade Center and scrap from its rubble has an inscribed dedication:

"Sept. 11, 2001, memorial in loving memory of the known and the unknown, the found and the unfound."

More than 300 people came to observe the unveiling and to have a little bit of fun as the Vic Ferrari Band established a festive mood before the dedication ceremony.

The tone turned more sober with the entrance of the color guard accompanied by the somber tones of bagpipes.

The first speaker of the day was Abraham Scott, a Washington resident who lost his wife, Janice, among the 184 who perished when United Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Originally from Milwaukee, Scott donated $2,000 to the memorial in an effort, he said, to keep the memory of his wife alive.

Mayor Jim Schmitt spoke next, lauding the city of Green Bay for erecting what he said was an excellent addition to the area waterfront.

"I am not just reminded by the sadness and the terror that we experienced on 9-11," said Schmitt. "More so, what I feel is the post 9-11 unity that we all felt on that tragic day. That is the feeling I want people to experience when they look at this memorial. A feeling that we are the greatest country on earth."

Fresh from his visit to Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, U.S. Rep. Mark Green discussed the U.S. response to the attacks.

"Over the last few years we have scored some major victories and we've extended freedom to regions of the globe once dominated by terror and oppression," said Green, R-Green Bay. "Just as the enormity of the attacks upon the twin towers and the Pentagon revealed itself not in an instant but in a series of moments, so our response will develop as a series. Sadly, perhaps, an unending series of actions."

Joe Torillo, a police officer from New York City who was buried under tons of World Trade Center rubble, gave an emotional speech that received a standing ovation as he thanked Green Bay for the memorial.

"This is a small town obviously when compared to New York City," said Torillo. "But you people today stand very tall in my eyes."

Chris Lyons, a search and rescue worker at Ground Zero, also made the trip from New York City to thank the people of Green Bay for the memorial.

The dedication represented an official change of ownership for the memorial between the memorial committee and the city of Green Bay.

"Our job ends today," said George Ecker, member of the planning committee for the memorial. "The memorial now becomes property of the city of Green Bay."

http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/page.html?article=131773

NEW HAVEN — When David Read Johnson sees people pause beside the steel beam from the World Trade Center outside his Edwards Street office, he realizes his search for that heavy piece of metal and his harrowing journey driving it to New Haven were worthwhile.

Finding, acquiring and mounting the "Victims of Violence Monument" took nearly a year of work after many false starts.
  
But it’s there now, with a plaque that says: "After our world collapses, truth still stands."

Another inscription states: "Dedicated to all victims of violence and those who come to their aid."

In addition, there is an explanation on the base: "This steel beam was originally part of the external wall of the World Trade Center, which fell on Sept. 11, 2001."

The monument will be dedicated outside the Post Traumatic Stress Center, 19 Edwards St., at noon June 13.

The memorial is owned and funded by the Foundation for the Arts and Trauma Inc., a nonprofit public charity.

Johnson is the group’s secretary.

Johnson and Dr. Hadar Lubin, directors of the Post Traumatic Stress Center, believe the monument will honor their clients and inspire many others who just pass by.

Five years ago, Johnson began his quest to create a sculpture outside the center. His first idea was to install a monument dedicated to New Haven firefighters, because the center was originally a firehouse for Engine Company 8.

But after years of frustration and problems raising funds, Johnson abandoned the idea.

"Then, last summer, it came to me," he said. "Maybe we could put up a steel beam from the World Trade Center.

"It would be not just for firefighters, but connected to our work here at the center," he added. "It would honor all victims of violence and those who come to their aid: firefighters, police, emergency workers, psychotherapists, hospital workers."

Johnson had read there were 300,000 tons of steel from the World Trade Center sold as scrap metal.

"I figured, ‘If there are 300,000 tons of it, there’s got to be one piece of it somewhere,’" Johnson said.

His first step was calling the main line of the New York City government.

"I told them, ‘I’m looking for a piece of the World Trade Center,’ ’’ he recalled. "They laughed at me."

Then they told him, "It’s gone." But he didn’t believe them.

Lubin admitted, "I thought it was crazy. But I knew if there was a piece, he would find it. I felt that if it were possible, he would do it."

After an exhaustive search, aided by the Internet, Johnson finally tracked down that piece of precious metal, and a donor.

During the week after Christmas, Johnson rented a truck and drove to New York to pick up the beam. "It was my own personal journey."

But when he got there, he learned the beam weighed 3,500 pounds.

"When the crane loaded the piece in, the truck sank down," Johnson said. "The workers said, ‘Oh man, we’re not sure you’re going to make it.’ "

Johnson asked them what might happen. "They told me, ‘One of your tires could blow and the truck could tip over.’ "

Johnson was frightened and it was starting to rain. But he had come too far to give up.

"I drove very slowly," he said. "It was emotional. I was thinking about 9-11 and I was sitting in this truck with this huge piece of metal. I was bringing to New Haven something linked in a concrete way to that horrible event."

"And I was thinking: ‘Am I going to make it?’ "

He made it. Lubin said when she saw the beam, "I was quite moved. I was filled with extreme emotion: the terror, the grief and how it connects so much with our work. There is a sense of bearing witness to something so monumental."

Johnson said it was important that the beam be straight, not twisted. This is in keeping with the monument’s theme: "Truth still stands."

"The steel beam of the World Trade Center represents the strength of the victim and the strength of the people who help the victim," Johnson noted.

Johnson said he doesn’t know anybody who died on 9-11, but he counsels people who were there that day.

Even those who weren’t there are moved by that still-standing beam. "People walk by, they stop; there’s a mourning, even for only 30 seconds," Johnson said.

"You can put your hand on it," he added, "and feel its weight."

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?ne...ept_id=517515&rfi=6

Moving Forward In Lower Manhattan
 
by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg,   June 02, 2005
   In December 2002, I set out our administration’s vision for transforming Lower Manhattan into a vibrant commercial and residential community. Revitalizing the World Trade Center site is the most significant part of that plan—but it’s only part. Our blueprint calls for knitting together Lower Manhattan’s fabric of life by investing in great public spaces, creating and supporting neighborhoods and improving downtown’s mass transit links to the region and the world.
   Over the last two and a half years, we’ve moved forward on every element of that vision. And clearly, we’re seeing results. Downtown’s population continues to grow, the commercial vacancy rate continues to fall, and the area teems with visitors—including thousands of sailors, Marines and members of the Coast Guard here for Fleet Week. And last week, we joined Governor George Pataki in allocating more than $800 million in Federal funds for projects that will continue to make Lower Manhattan an even greater place to live, work and visit.
  
   Building on the $96 million in open space improvements we’ve already made, we will, for example, invest another $240 million in Lower Manhattan parks and open spaces. That will include developing the Tribeca section of the Hudson River Park, as well as opening up Downtown’s East River waterfront to greater public use and enjoyment with a new shoreline esplanade, bikeway and other attractive recreational opportunities.
   We’ll also make major investments in Lower Manhattan neighborhoods. To bring more shoppers and lunchtime visitors to Chinatown, we’ll build a new pedestrian walkway between Chatham Square and the City Hall area. To help downtown families with school-age children, we’ll create a new 600-seat elementary and middle school on Beekman Street. By creating attractive new streetscapes and restoring historic building facades, we see Fulton Street becoming downtown’s new “Main Street.” As the site of up to 2,700 new apartments, Greenwich Street south of the World Trade Center site will become a whole new community. And because it must be home to people of all income levels, we expect to commit $50 million to preserving and creating affordable housing in downtown neighborhoods.
   Lower Manhattan’s major transportation projects, from the ongoing reconstruction of the South Ferry subway station to the expected groundbreaking for the new PATH terminal, are all moving forward. To support them, we’re going to take a fresh look at the way that pedestrians and vehicles use downtown streets, and also continue to improve traffic circulation around the New York Stock Exchange.
   The biggest investment we’re making—$300 million—is for establishing the World Trade Center Memorial. Called “Reflecting Absence,” it will be a moving tribute to all those we lost on 9-11. This Memorial Day, I reflected deeply on their absence, and also prayed for the success, safety and swift return home of all those who continue to defend us and our way of life.
 
http://media.travelzoo.com/tmp/

SOME PERSPECTIVE, PLEASE!
• Written by Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell (ret.)
As people all across the nation—and the world—have now heard the recent Amnesty International report which accuses the U.S. military of running a gulag, I believe we must seriously pause for some much needed perspective on the War on Terror.

It is vital that we as Americans learn to recognize the all-out effort that is currently underway to discredit America and its military. Be it photos from Abu Gharib, the latest ranting of a college professor, or the disapproval of Amnesty International, they all give opportunity for those who detest our nation, foreign or domestic, to portray the United States as being without the moral clarity to conduct the War on Terror. Even more unbelievable, however, is their twist that perversely argues that we are in fact the cause of terrorism, rather than the solution. Words like “atrocity” and “gulag” are bantered about for effect, without any real understanding of the gravity of their meaning. Are we not forgetting what and why the cause which we’re fighting?

On the morning of Sep 13th, 2001 President and Mrs. Bush went to the Washington Hospital Center to visit nine Americans who had been grievously burned at the Pentagon two days prior when an 80-ton 757 slammed into the building. I was one of those Americans. Let me say it clearly. The pictures of the Pentagon, rubble in a field in Pennsylvania and the World Trade Center in flames, and those of the people who were injured, portray a real brutality. Video footage of people jumping in desperation from the top of the Twin Towers represents true violence and cruelty. “Atrocity” is being confronted daily by the countless American troops and civilians that are being brutalized, maimed, and killed by our enemy.

It is beyond laughable to the point of pathetically devoid of any intellectual or moral rigor to think that while those who are detained at Guantanamo are provided meals appropriate for their faith—and the opportunity to practice it along with medical care—that somehow this is the new definition of gulag. All the while Americans, coalition forces and civilians are held captive, murdered, and desecrated while being denied the same amenities we afford those we detain. I believe this thinking and logic is not only an anathema to the American spirit of right and wrong, but grossly offensive.

Instead, the average American and, more importantly, those who wear our uniform should not be concerned with making our enemies mad, but instead with insuring that no enemy ever dare to make us mad. The United States faces a culture of despotism and death that believes it rational to crash planes into buildings, steer bomb-laden boats into our naval vessels and measures success by the random and wanton slaughter of human life. We have two choices. We can drain the swamp of despotism by championing liberty and governments accountable to the citizenry. Or, we can continue to tolerate indefinitely the mosquitoes that emanate from the swamp.

After observing another Memorial Day this past weekend, we would be wise to recall the motto inscribed on the nation’s Korean War memorial: “FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.” May we clearly maintain our perspective so that we neither fail to identify true evil, nor forget why Americans are always prepared to pay the price for freedom.

Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell (ret.) is one of the few survivors from the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001

http://gospel-net.com/cgi-bin/newspro/view...id=1117828274,76859,

Trying to move from here to a rebuilt W.T.C.

By David Stanke

A series of unfortunate events have left the World Trade Center site an empty pit nearly four years after the attack. As painfully obvious and symbolically significant as this is to those with a daily view of the site, the outside world has only recently become aware of the problem. The issue broke with the pullout of Goldman Sachs from a plot just off the W.T.C. site. Sen. Chuck Schumer then leveled criticism at Gov. Pataki for the delays. Mayor Bloomberg added fuel to the fire by charging that security concerns had been ignored. Donald Trump, the master publicity machine, fanned the fires into a blaze with his reintroduction of the “Rebuild the Towers” movement. Finally, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver delivered a clear and focused plan of action that addressed the real issues and squarely acknowledged the serious challenges facing the recovery of Downtown Manhattan. Building parks is all well and good, but it can’t substitute for refilling one big hole at the spiritual and economic center of Lower Manhattan.

The most immediate issue for the W.T.C. is who should be driving this project of national significance forward. There is such a complex web of interactions that the bogged down efforts should not be a surprise. Reviewing the performance and positions of various players over the last four years, there is no white knight in sight to save the day.

George Pataki, despite poor performance and numerous mistakes, is the only man for the job. His long overdue addition of John Cahill to oversee Lower Manhattan could quickly right this listing ship. But tough issues must be faced and past mistakes reversed. Speaker Silver, as a representative of the W.T.C. district, has been on target in recognizing real issues. He has effectively maneuvered behind the scenes, but he should be given an official and permanent role in all decision-making concerning the site. Some seats on the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board and any future decision-making bodies, should be transferred from Pataki and Bloomberg to Silver, more appropriately balancing the concerns of state, city, and local communities. Rumors of disbanding the L.M.D.C. may be premature. A wide-range of decisions regarding the site are still in play.

Pataki wants to have the W.T.C. as his legacy. To do this, he has to be a leader and do the painful work of overriding those whose fundamental purpose is to prevent the site from ever being rebuilt. Instead he has avoided responsibility for the tough decisions behind his front organization, the L.M.D.C. He has over-ridden his experts at critical junctures in favor of directions that would create the least publicity flack (read: Daniel Libeskind site plan). Even in this latest publicity crisis, when everyone has focused on rebuilding, Pataki’s most significant action was to throw $300 million at the memorial.

The role of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, with his demonstrated lack of focus on the W.T.C., should be dramatically diminished. He is dedicated to the West Side Stadium and his actions at the W.T.C. site demonstrate negligence at best, and negative intent at worst. The two most noteworthy contributions to site design by the mayor and his appointees are directly in conflict with each other. First they have insisted that Greenwich and Fulton become vehicular streets, and are pushing for additional streets between Church and Greenwich. Second, for security concerns, they want to keep vehicles away from the commercial buildings on the site. If building security is critical, public vehicles must have limited access to the site, like they did before 2001. Consider the Freedom Tower that is being relocated further from West St. How will it be protected on Fulton and Vesey Sts.? Will the terrorists not know how to turn right off West Street with their suicide bombs? The only real security for the W.T.C. is a 16-acre super block, like it was before 9/11/2001. The timing of the complaints about Freedom Tower security in relation to approvals of the stadium and Bloomberg’s failure to more appropriately escalate these issues before going to the press suggest less than straightforward motivations.

Bloomberg says that Downtown can survive without Goldman. I’ve got news for him. New York City can survive much easier without the Stadium or the Olympics.

The best parts of the future W.T.C. have been designed without a “democratic process” and without listening to the people. The Port Authority commissioned the widely-acclaimed Calatrava PATH station, rewrote the Libeskind vision for the area, and miraculously escaped criticism.

The International Freedom and Drawing Center Building is a L.M.D.C. success. Snohetta, a Norwegian firm, designed this building on commission. The work was done without public oversight, and yet it has received negligible criticism. It is a great design that will add to the site and the memorial. It is another sign of the L.M.D.C. learning as it moves forward.

The L.M.D.C. has done a stellar job at what it is assigned to do. It has to balance diverse, determined, and opposing interests to get the site developed. But foot soldiers more often end up dead than heroes. Employees of the L.M.D.C. show up at meeting after meeting to take emotional and personal criticism. Some is based on real challenges, and some on raw self-interest. For these people to keep showing up, collecting “public” opinion, and moving forward is a heroic task. Kevin Rampe is a prime example of the personal cost of a job at the L.M.D.C. While I had my own confrontations with him early on in the process, he played a solid role in standing behind the decisions and moving planning forward. It is unfortunate that he is no longer president of the L.M.D.C.

Silver has realized, better than any other leader, that rebuilding is a human issue, perhaps more than an issue of steel and concrete. An empty building revitalizes a city no more than a hole in the ground. The W.T.C. needs a critical mass of activity, both building and people, to turn the despair of devastation into the hope of new city. To achieve that critical mass, we need a solid commitment by big organizations to locate to the site. Devastated buildings must be removed and new buildings occupied. Everything would benefit from active retail on site. The residential scene has already recovered and needs no direct subsidy. Downtown now needs to fortify its business foundation, and for that, Goldman Sachs and government organizations are critical. Silver’s “Marshall Plan” approach is precisely the imagery necessary to establish positive momentum. We need an action plan that goes beyond more funding for a memorial and a couple of parks.

Despite the efforts to create positive press, the real issues at the W.T.C. site are still unresolved. Cahill shows signs of moving in the right direction. He is finding ways to get progress on Deutsche bank started. He is focused on Goldman Sachs and rail link from Kennedy to Downtown. But of the $800 million spending of community development money, $300 million will go to the memorial that has little to do with Downtown development. Pataki is still lost on the notion that the success of the W.T.C. depends on the Memorial. That said, the players are in place to get the W.T.C. going. The biggest issue now, as it was three years ago, is vision and execution. To date, efforts to resolve the real problems equate to giving a manicure to a cancer patient. Things look better, but the patient is still very sick. For better or worse, we will see if Pataki has what it takes to get the program back on track.

David Stanke, a Downtown resident, serves on an advisory panel to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and frequently writes on Lower Manhattan issues.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_108/talkingpoint.html