Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:28:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #388:Fractures Redux,Overcome Them We Must! I'm sorry to have taken as long as I have since the last mailing; various things have piled up. While I've planned to arrange a rally for September 11th, I find myself with more responsibilities up here than I anticipated and the logistics of obtaining parks and sound permits and ferrying the table to the site (Joe Wright has the table and moved to a less convenient location) may be beyond me. Even if we're not able to do the formal permitted rally type thing,I like the idea of gathering at City Hall Park in pro-rebuild shirts,with signs,etc. and proceeding to the WTC site as a group...let me know if you're interested in being part of that. There has been more wrangling about the WTC-site museums... http://nydailynews.com/front/story/336724p-287438c.html http://nydailynews.com/front/story/339258p-289735c.html are stories about this,and the Post says that a cultural conference planned by the officials has further annoyed the family groups pressing for the museums to be removed. Officialdom,of course,is inflating a minor beginning toward the Fulton Street transit project with typical congratulatory rah-rah: http://nydailynews.com/front/story/342076p-292084c.html and we can expect more at the PATH terminal groundbreaking next week (so much for public comment on the last-minute changes to Calatrava's design). I've received a bland postcard announcing a "Record of Decision" approving the new Route 9A with its unwise westward movement to accomodate the Libescheme,which was actually approved in mid-July. Daily News editorials have addressed the museum arguments: http://nydailynews.com/08-12-2005/news/ideas_opinions/story/336474p-287383c.html http://nydailynews.com/front/story/339270p-289564c.html Goldman Sachs has revived its Downtown building plan (43 stories) after getting incentives from the officials who had caused them to back off: http://nydailynews.com/front/story/337817p-288434c.html http://nydailynews.com/08-24-2005/news/local/story/339903p-290251c.html A recent Daily News letter from a victim's survivor is interesting: http://nydailynews.com/08-30-2005/news/story/341640p-291724c.html On the one hand it repeats the "cemetery" line about the murder scene, but it also says that the only thing besides a memorial should be "one or two office buildings"...obviously to have enough space those buildings had better be gigantic! I've read that Donald Trump has a blog at his new Trumpuniversity.com but I haven't heard if he has addressed the WTC rebuilding there. We have to hope that his public advocacy of new Twin Towers was not a one-shot deal. This brings me to the movement-internal "news" of this mailing: in a fracture reminiscent of the New York Soaring Towers Coalition being deserted by the New York Sky Lobby before both expended their early intense enthusiasm and ceased to function,the Twin Towers II LLC that hosted the Union Square event has now divided,with Ken Gardner and those closest to him forming the Twin Towers II Memorial Foundation (a new link on the WTCRM Rebuilding Proposals page has been created for this).I note in passing that their website now has an appeal to donate for relief from Hurricane Katrina...and that I hope no one thinks that the attacks of September 2001 had anywhere near the effect on New York that Katrina had on New Orleans and the cities of the Mississippi Gulf Coast! This evening I spoke to Brendan P. Byrne,of the former organization, who said the September 1st baseball-game benefit IS going ahead, and he remains committed to the general pro-rebuilding cause. Rachel Snyder had an article in the Downtown Express advocating Gardner's new foundation (whose active board appears to consist of two victims'-family members,one of whom spoke at their event and is on their video).The advisory committee includes both Jonathan Hakala and Sally Regenhard,and their mission statement continues to explicitly endorse a number of family-group demands I consider unwise.Of course the Gardner plan in itself is a much better option than what the officials are trying to stick us with. As part of the fallout caused by the split,I received an email from Thomas Ferrara criticizing Gardner as having no architectural credentials or record (and ignoring his background in engineering and association with an AIA architect).He accused Gardner of being out for personal financial benefit from the promotion of his plan,and my main disagreement with him (or whoever's letter he forwarded,the subject line was unclear) was his claim that the new Towers would not necessarily be safer than the old.I responded that to build on the former scale with the latest technologies would necessarily be safer than plans that did only one or neither of these things.(Byrne agreed with me that,whatever his disagreements with Gardner,Ferrara had no case on this issue). WE CAN NOT LET INTERNAL DIVISIONS CRIPPLE THIS MOVEMENT OR DRAIN OUR ENTHUSIASM...THIS CAUSE IS BIGGER THAN ANY ONE PLAN OR ITS CRITICS! The deadline for the TTT architchtural competition passed recently,and I learned of another past grassroots WTC-site competition (that partly existed to promote a software program): http://www.architecturalcadd.com/cup/2001/results2001.html The WTCRM competition remains I believe the best way to go. 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.