Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 17:08:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis Epstein
Subject: WTC Rebuilding #275:Keeping Direct Pressure...


As last time,I encourage letters sent by regular mail to
Larry Silverstein at Silverstein Properties,530 Fifth Avenue,
New York,New York 10036.

Please remember to keep these letters focussed on increasing
the occupied height of what he wants to build...letters that
advocate his removal from the process or the abandonment of
the current plans,productive though such developments may be,
HAVE to be sent to politicians and newspapers,NOT developers
and bureaucrats inside the current process.

I regret that some pro-rebuilders are apparently inclined to
skip this effort,as putting all our eggs in one basket risks
getting something worse than we can assure by fighting every
front.

I note that the pattern of Silverstein losing in court on the
issue of one attack/insurance payment or two continues:
http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/14893.htm

Two rounds of letters,again not unanimous but mainly in our camp:
http://nypost.com/postopinion/letters/14722.htm
http://nypost.com/postopinion/letters/14994.htm

The alleged "Wedge of Light" seems abandoned even by Libeskind:
http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/15006.htm
Note from this article that Calatrava appears to be planning that
ALL the old streets be restored at least as pedestrian arcades,
making the jammed east-of-Greenwich wedge even more hideously dense.

On December 30th the NY Times ran an article on family group activists
"fighting for the footprints"...thouhg the bureaucrats are determined
that not one inch of the footprints be reclaimed for the purposes to
which and for which the victims gave their lives,the activists want more
explicit conservation of the devastation than official plans call for.

The official memorial jury has reportedly narrowed its choice to two
of the "finalists"...let us be alert for any poll asking for choices
between them,and if "Neither" is an option may it win just as it defeated
THINK and Libeskind!!!

The president of Iran has announced plans to rebuild the almost totally
destroyed citadel of Bam,which was destroyed in the recent earthquake
that killed ten times as many people as died on September 11th 2001.
Not for them the timid failure to reclaim their lost landmarks...why
should it be so for us?

On the NYCS board "moogman5" has asserted that Koch and Giuliani are
"on our side"...to emphasize once more,the plans are not nearly bad
enough for Giuliani,who wants morbid memorialism to overwhelm the 16
acres at the expense of any commercial development whatsoever.
As for Koch,he is basically a woulda-been-nice ex-rebuilder,
I deleted him from this email list after he expressed a "it's not
going to happen" attitude.

http://www.nypress.com/16/53/news&columns/feature2.cfm
is an article by someone who hates the old Towers and idolizes Libeskind
and is unsure of the "Freedom Tower".

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_34/talkingpoint.html
is a piece by David Stanke,who has done pieces before
that seemed to indicate that he was a pro-rebuilder,
but this time whitewashes the total inadequacy of the
nobody-over-1150-feet "Freedom Tower".
He does invoke the "possibility of a public viewing platform
atop the windmill facility",but doesn't call for the indignant
pressure that alone could make this possible,even as he
criticizes the family-group activists' blindness to public
desire to return to the sky.

Letters urging height be given more priority can go to
josh@downtownexpress.com or news@downtownexpress.com.

David Dunlap has done a New York Times article on the difficulties
on actually getting a 1776-foot height...and makes suggestions on
greater heights that may be more appropriate.

We'll get nothing better than the officials want to give us
if we don't make clear we're not settling for what they plan.

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.