Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 18:32:46 -0500 (EST) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #174:Gerson hearing,Bloomberg power-grab, Libeskind counter-attacked,more The news story http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/54821p-51353c.html is another salvo in Bloomberg's effort to get his downsizing "vision" imposed on Lower Manhattan.His former campaign aide Colleen Delaney was speaking at both of the recent Lower Manhattan hearings pleading for the politicians to be put in charge of the process. The general selling point that it's more "democratic" to let the city decide rather than the Port Authority may play in the city,but over 19 million people in New Jersey and the non-city part of the state of New York are presently "owners" through their Port Authority and would lose their stake and their say. Silverstein has written to the Wall Street Journal, criticizing the attempts at a city takeover,saying the leases are not for sale and if they were somehow taken over by the city the city would still not be entitled to the insurance proceeds from which he intends to finance his rebuilding. The New York Post has published a couple of articles representing backlash against Daniel Libeskind' s promotion of his plan (again, he does answer email to info@daniel-libeskind.com even if with the canned insistences on 1)a severe glut of office space downtown and 2)a need to quickly build more office space downtown that supposedly justify building small...feel free to write to him insisting that tall,occupied towers are critical and his plan does not satisfy our large constituency). According to http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/67510.htm Libeskind's huge pit memorial is not very safe,it would be hard to evacuate. Steve Cuozzo's http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/67555.htm lays into Libeskind and his plan...naming advocates including Herbert Muschamp of the NY Times.He also attacks the old Towers to some degree, but he's done valuable work discrediting the "glut" myth. Muschamp however has just come out naming not the Libeskind plan but the THINK World Cultural Center (the twin helix skeletons suspending a few inhabited abstract sculptures) as the best of the none plans.Perhaps division between different non-tower plans will help tower advocacy. IF YOU'RE IN LOWER MANHATTAN... City Councilman Alan Gerson,who represents the WTC site and chairs the council's committee on redeveloping Lower Manhattan,is holding a hearing at 6 PM on Thursday,January 30th in the 14th floor hearing room at 250 Broadway that is intended to focus on the options for West Street. More information is available from Robin Forst at (212) 788-7722. It would be good to at least have someone there to see that small-scale fans don't hijack it into something anti-tall-towers. NO MATTER WHERE IN THE WORLD YOU ARE... FIVE DAYS REMAIN to get your written commentaries on the nine design team plans in to the authorities. Email to lmdc@empire.state.ny.us is probably the most assured of getting there in time!!! I note that I've added Deroy Murdock,who wrote the Yamasaki-holic recent Post Op-Ed of which a longer version is now appearing in the National Review,to this email list.He says we should just find the old blueprints and build to them again,so I guess he fills the vacancy created when Dominick (who said in the defense of Yamasaki-holism that it's not as if anyone just wanted to dust off the old blueprints) quit! Anyone can be immediately and permanently removed from the list on request...past mailings except for the most recent are archived at http://www.put.com/wtc/archive.html as part of the WTCRM resource link page at http://www.put.com/wtc/ . See you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11! -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.