Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 20:57:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #307:Officials Plan,We Fight! Numerous developments have piled up since #306. (As ever,anyone who wants off the email list just has to ask; and old list mails are archived at http://www.put.com/wtc/archive.html as part of the http://www.put.com/wtc WTCRM resource page). I wasn't aware until right after sending #306 that I had gotten into the Daily News with http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/195959p-169304c.html (my letter is the last one,and I heard from one of you that in the print edition it was featured in a box). I also should have mentioned that the NYCSkyline message board had been vandalized for the fifth time shortly before,but it has recovered since. Since then... The electrical substation in the base of the new 7 WTC has been turned on; it is the first productive use restored to the space occupied by any of the destroyed buildings. Governor Pataki has appointed Christy Ferer,the Bloomberg staffer who is the widow of the Port Authority Executive Director killed in the 2001 attacks,to the board of the PA: http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/21603.htm She's also on the board of the "Leave Manhattan Destroyed Committee" so presumably her appointment will help ensure the two agencies move in lockstep down the wrong path as Pataki has dictated. Ken Gardner has made some enhancement to the plans at http://www.triroc.com/wtc/ indicating that a 13-foot height-to-floor ratio is being considered...this would raise the height of the taller tower to an even 1500 feet, cancelling out any perceived advantage of the "Freedom Tower" and its vaguely promised observation deck at about that level. Of course he has solid towers all the way up and the Fraud'em Tower doesn't! Justin Berzon's book has been released (and is now the main focus of http://www.justinberzon.com/ with excerpts and links to buy it available).By some accounts mail-order houses have already had to re-order copies after selling out. I have not seen the book,though I have seen some related press releases.He maintains his position that it would be better for the pro-rebuilding movement to unite behind one design,and the main criticisms from the negative minority of the polarized reviewers at www.amazon.com concern his alleged sour grapes that his idea of Twins east of Greenwich Street was not selected.He has said that my making clear to NBC that the pro-rebuilding movement was not united behind his design cost the movement prospective endorsement from NBC. I continue to maintain that it is SUICIDE for the pro-rebuilding movement to pick one favored design,at least without first having a competition (that Berzon explicitly opposes).No matter whose plan is accepted the advocates of any other plan would lose or lessen their committment to the cause,and until the Pataki runaway train is derailed we can't afford to let our individual design preferences into the picture.We are a coalition who must not fracture now. Sieb,Shen,Turner,Attia,FLM...whoever you support,we all need each other to have any chance for anything we want. Deroy Murdock is according to a Berzon press release going to give the book a writeup in National Review,and I presume his syndicated column. This is of course only the FIRST book attacking the horrific bungle of a "public process" we have had inflicted upon us, and others are expected! Libeskind is threatening to sue Silverstein over a "genius fee" he feels he is owed for his work on the Fraud'em Tower,as detailed in this Post story: http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/21952.htm as well as in the New York Observer and in a longer New York Times story that's posted to the NYCS board under the "Lib and Larry fight..." topic of "Should we rebuild the World Trade Center Site". The dollar amounts at issue have varied between articles. Even without my appealing for them,uniformly negative letters have been the response: http://nypost.com/postopinion/letters/22191.htm (I recognize the names of Cherie Fernandez and Tal Barzilai). Bloomberg's West Side Stadium plans are coming under more attack: http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/25061.htm A committee has made recommendations regarding the official memorial museum: http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/22237.htm THESE ARE OPEN TO PUBLIC COMMENT ON THE RENEWNYC.COM WEBSITE and we can take some time to tell them what REALLY honors the dead. The same board meeting that took this committee's recommendations has chosen Tishman Construction to build the Fraud'em Tower despite its blueprints not being finished,and characterized the environmental review process as "complete" when ALL this means is that it is ready to submit the Final-GEIS to outside regulators. WE SHOULD KEEP AN EYE ON THESE REGULATORY ACTIONS AND BE PREPARED TO GIVE NEGATIVE ADVICE WHEN POSSIBLE. They also made concessions to the City's demands that the plans be made worse by continuing Cortlandt and Dey Streets west of Church Street...though they didn't definitively say yes. Other environmental impact review processes are underway. The MTA wants to condemn the block of buildings along Broadway from Fulton Street south to John Street (which becomes Cortlandt Street on the other side of Broadway) in order to make a glass- roofed new Transit Center.There's a hearing on this June 8th. This same site is the one developer Trevor Davis wants to use to construct 90-story One New York Place,a project which little has been heard of in the past year but whose website http://a.1asphost.com/guide/1nyplace.html still had passed its daily bandwidth limit when I tried to look at it today. Of course a 90-story building a block away UPHILL from the WTC site would further underline the feebleness of the line of 60-story buildings the Libescheme wants to replace the Twin Towers with! Building One New York Place instead of the transit center so dear to the bureaucrats would mean a large taxpaying property (office base and smaller high-rise residential) would occupy this space rather than a tax-exempt greenhouse with a few storefronts and entrances. There's no reason the transit amenities couldn't be built into the below-ground levels of One New York Place. BUT,the government wants to condemn all the small-business buildings except for one landmark whose facade will be saved,and build the transit center.More misuse of our tax dollars. (The "Shimmering Facet..." New York Times article posted to NYCS tells of the transit center plan). Another connected (literally,there will be an underground tunnel to connect them that I hope would be lined with retail) project undergoing environmental review is the permanent WTC PATH station. The Draft EIS for this has just been issued but I have not seen it. Public comments are accepted until JULY 21st 2004 at 115 Broadway,5th Floor New York,New York 10006 and public hearings will be held at 4 PM on June 22 at the Jersey City Council Chamber,and on June 23 at St. John's University Manhattan Campus on Murray Street. As ever,we have an interest in making sure whatever is built is compatible with PROPER WTC reconstruction and does not divert resources better used for proper WTC reconstruction. I note some commenters on the message board were being positive about the World War II memorial just dedicated in Washington. I have to register my dissent...this memorial was railroaded through with special legislation to remove avenues for public objection, and placed on a site that a large number of people believe should be left permanently open space as an important component of the design of the City of Washington.If we get the WTC site rebuilt to our satisfaction,perhaps we can get that memorial moved to where it should have been (Constitution Gardens) and restore the National Mall to ITS proper configuration. Lastly...I've been engaged in conversations with Team Twin Towers and with Jonathan Hakala on plans for the future and am hoping to get everyone on the same page.All I'll say now is that I hope people realize the need to respond to the official plans for a symbolic "groundbreaking" on July 4th,I will tell people details of any plans that emerge but please have the date in your thoughts. We MUST continue our pressure to stop the runaway train to disaster Pataki insists on speeding,and resist ALL assertions that stopping it is impossible.No matter what. 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.