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Rebuilding NYC May 2003


13,000 Register For WTC Memorial Contest - May 31, 2003
Some 13,683 people registered for the trade center memorial competition, coming from all 50 states and 94 countries, redevelopment officials said Friday. The competition has attracted the largest number of registrants for a design competition in history, although it remains to be seen how many people submit designs for a memorial, said Kevin Rampe, interim president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (Newsday)

Memorial Jury to Decide How to List 9/11 Rescuers - May 31, 2003
A Top rebuilding official said yesterday that the guidelines for the World Trade Center memorial were flexible enough to allow the professional affiliations of firefighters and other rescue workers to be listed on it with their names, if the memorial jury chose a design that did so. The issue has been the subject of aggressive lobbying and demonstrations by firefighters and other rescue workers in recent weeks. While some firefighters have campaigned for a separate memorial for rescue workers, a larger number have asked that "F.D.N.Y." or other such affiliations be listed with the names of rescue workers who were killed at the trade center. (New York Times)

Panel to Decide on a 9/11 Separate Memorial - May 31, 2003
Firefighters battling to have fallen rescue workers singled out in a Ground Zero memorial to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks got a glimmer of hope yesterday when a key official said the decision will be left to a "memorial jury." Lower Manhattan Development Corp. interim President Kevin Rampe said a 13-member panel, not the LMDC, will decide whether firefighters, cops and ambulance workers who died Sept. 11 are distinguished from others. (New York Daily News)

Libeskind: I Won't Be Pushed Out of WTC Project - May 31, 2003
The architect who designed the plan to rebuild at Ground Zero lobbed a shot yesterday at twin towers leaseholder Larry Silverstein, saying he's not going to be pushed out of the project. Daniel Libeskind spoke a day after Silverstein said that a different architect will take the lead in designing the 1,776-foot spire at the northeast end of Ground Zero, a signature element of the Libeskind plan. (New York Daily News)

Families Wait for Remains - May 31, 2003
One year after the official cleanup was ended at the World Trade Center site, about 1,300 families are still waiting for the remains of their loved ones to come home. (Associated Press)

Leaseholder Sees Limited Role for Libeskind at Trade Center - May 30, 2003
Larry A. Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center site, said yesterday that Studio Daniel Libeskind would inspire but not actually design the office buildings he is planning there, including Freedom Tower, the 1,776-foot skyscraper that is expected to be the first to rise. Mr. Silverstein has been talking with other renowned architects, among them Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; Foster & Partners; and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. But he said no decision had been reached and declined to discuss any of his prospective choices. (New York Times)

Jury for Sept. 11 Memorial Is Facing Spirited Lobbying - May 30, 2003
An intense lobbying effort is under way, both in public and behind the scenes, to influence the jury that will choose the design for a memorial at the World Trade Center site. A group of family members of victims of the Sept. 11 attack that serves as an advisory council to rebuilding officials met with the jury this week. Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has been promised a similar private session. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Gov. George E. Pataki and board members of the lead rebuilding agency will also be offered meetings with the jury. Publicly, firefighters, downtown residents and business leaders have begun to push to have their desires represented in the memorial. (New York Times)

9/11 Fraud Pleads Guilty - May 30, 2003
A 31-year-old man yesterday pleaded guilty to swindling thousands of dollars earmarked for people committed to staying in lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. (New York Post)

Firefighters Insist WTC Memorial List Uniform Affiliations - May 29, 2003
Hundreds of firefighters and their relatives packed a public hearing last night in Manhattan to demand special recognition for firefighters and other uniformed personnel in any World Trade Center site memorial. Their pleas for listing the affiliation of each of the more than 400 uniformed services members who died on Sept. 11 dominated the hearing at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. (Newsday)

At Public Hearing, 150 Rally for Special 9/11 Memorial - May 29, 2003
Chanting "Never Forget," nearly 150 firefighters rallied outside a public hearing in Tribeca last night where officials met to take suggestions for a permanent Ground Zero memorial. The firefighters' anger centers on a decision by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. that the memorial not distinguish between civilians and rescuers. (New York Daily News)

TV Stations to Put Antennas on New Ground Zero Tower - May 29, 2003
The 1,776-foot Freedom Tower planned at the World Trade Center site is meant to send a signal of resilience to the world. Now it will also be designed to send signals of another kind to households from the New Jersey Shore to the end of Long Island to Fairfield County, Conn. Specifically, Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 31, 41, 47 and 68. On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Television Alliance signed an agreement with Larry A. Silverstein, the leaseholder and developer at the trade center site, to install as many as 22 antennas atop Freedom Tower, to be completed in 2008. (New York Times)

M.T.A. Projects Threatened by Federal Money Changes - May 29, 2003
New York could lose $300 million a year in federal transportation money, an amount that could threaten subway maintenance and expansion projects like the proposed Second Avenue Station, according to a report by researchers at New York University. The report, to be published today, analyzes a proposal made in Congress last week by the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas. The proposal seeks to alter the way federal transportation money garnered from gasoline taxes and other sources is divided among the states. (New York Times)

Poll: Residents Don't Like Libeskind Plan - May 28, 2003
More than half the people living near Ground Zero don't like the plan for a sunken memorial area at the World Trade Center site, a poll released yesterday shows. Fifty-one percent turned thumbs down on architect Daniel Libeskind's winning design, according to the poll commissioned by a coalition of downtown civic leaders called Downtown Rebuilds. (New York Daily News)

Tower's Leaseholder Is Suing Cantor Fitzgerald for Rent - May 28, 2003
The company that held the lease on 1 World Trade Center before terrorists destroyed the building on Sept. 11, 2001, is suing a former tenant, Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, for more than $1 million in back rent. The leaseholder, 1 World Trade Center L.L.C., a company controlled by the real estate developer Larry A. Silverstein, says in court papers that Cantor Fitzgerald, which occupied floors near the top of 1 World Trade Center, owes $1,027,685.96 in rent from Aug. 1 through Sept. 10, 2001. (Associated Press)

Downtown Favors West St. Tunnel, Poll Says - May 28, 2003
Most people living in Battery Park City think building a short tunnel under West St. is at least somewhat important if not a top priority, according to a new poll of Lower Manhattan residents. (Downtown Express)

Greening of Lower Manhattan With $25 Million Grant to City - May 28, 2003
A carousel is planned for the Battery Park Bosque. A new park will spring from rutted asphalt at a bustling corner along Canal Street. Synthetic turf or natural grass will spread over concrete in several playgrounds. In all, city officials announced yesterday, at least 13 green or recreational spaces south of Canal Street will get a makeover or be created under a $25 million grant to the city from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (New York Times)

Millions in 9/11 Trauma Aid Unspent - May 27, 2003
An unprecedented federal crisis counseling program set up to help New Yorkers cope with the Sept.11 attacks has yet to spend roughly $90 million - more than half the money earmarked for the free care. The tens of millions sit unspent as the state and city battle budget shortfalls and struggle to pay for myriad expenses related to the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Daily News)

A Roundup of WTC Rebuilding Developments - May 25, 2003
A year after workers finished the cleanup at the World Trade Center site, the rebuilding of Ground Zero has picked up an architect, official support from political leaders, much momentum as well as some delays in insurance payouts Ă‘ and hopes that some office buildings along the perimeter may reopen. (Newsday)

High Terror Alert Raises Concerns About Mass Transit Safety - May 22, 2003
The city is under high terror alert. The MTA is without a counter-terrorism director. Subway workers say supervisors have instructed them to run and leave passengers behind in the event of an attack. From transit-union fears over the safety impact of station-booth closings to the latest revelations emerging from the firing of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's anti-terror chiefs, questions about preparedness have critics wondering if the system is as ready as it could be. (Newsday)

Space Questions About W.T.C. - May 22, 2003
Daniel LibeskindÕs design for the World Trade Center site has been praised for creating a large public square at the Wedge of Light, but the proposed plaza will be much smaller than it appears on some diagrams once you allow for vehicles to run through the plaza at Fulton St., according to some. (Downtown Express)

NYPD Steps Up Security Measures - May 21, 2003
The NYPD, acting on a FBI warning that a terrorist attack on U.S. soil is "likely," Tuesday stepped up its presence on the streets, posting more cops at bridges and tunnels and keeping closer watch on landmarks buildings, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. (Newsday)

Survey: Residents Will Stay Despite 9/11 - May 21, 2003
With a new poll finding that 78 percent of downtown residents plan to stay in lower Manhattan, they said their neighborhood must improve to keep them there. While about 42 percent of lower Manhattan residents living below Canal Street rated the overall quality of life as "excellent" prior to Sept. 11, 2001, that number dropped to 14 percent when the poll was conducted two weeks ago, according to a Blum & Weprin Associates poll released Tuesday. (Newsday)

Unions Use 9/11 Defense - May 21, 2003
City union leaders said yesterday the city's workforce should not be blamed for the soaring cost of fringe benefits, and cited the Sept. 11 terror attacks among the causes. (New York Post)

Civil Service Exam Bonus Is Resisted for 9/11 Siblings - May 21, 2003
Last year the State Legislature passed a law granting an advantage on the Civil Service examinations to the children of firefighters and police officers who died in the Sept. 11 attack. The city, eager to offer concrete help to victims' families, supported the bill, as did the fire and police unions. Now the State Senate is reviewing another bill, already passed by the Assembly, to extend the advantage -- 10 points out of 100 -- to the siblings of those who died. But this time the city has opposed the measure, and while the largest police union supports it, the two fire unions, whose members suffered by far the greater losses in the attack, have refused to take a position. (New York Times)

Silverstein Angling for 5th Tower on Site - May 20, 2003
Developer Larry Silverstein is pushing to overhaul the official vision of Ground Zero so another office tower can be squeezed onto the site, sources said yesterday. Silverstein's back-room campaign began more than a week ago and ran into immediate opposition from some rebuilding officials, sources said. (New York Daily News)

WTC Children To Create Art Work - May 20, 2003
Children of World Trade Center victims will create artworks that will be stitched together and displayed at schools and museums around the country, officials announced Monday. The "Art for Heart" program was the brainchild of Ali Millard, the 16-year-old stepdaughter of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive director Neil Levin, who died at the trade center. (Associated Press)

9/11 Families Weigh Lawsuit Options - May 18, 2003
More than 75% of those eligible for death benefits from the 9/11 victim's compensation fund- about 2,160 families - are taking a wait-and-see attitude, with the application deadline more than seven months away. They are on an unusual fence, with one of two options under fund rules: go with the fund or file a wrongful-death suit against the airlines, the Port Authority, airport security companies and others. (New York Daily News)

City Opposing WTC Benefits Bill - May 17, 2003
The city is opposing a bill that would make it easier for employees who participated in Sept. 11 rescue, recovery or cleanup efforts to qualify for accidental-disability benefits. The legislation provides that any disability resulting from a specified illness contracted by a 9/11 worker - even in the future - be presumed to have been caused by an accident in performance of duty. (New York Post)

A Sign May Cast a Somber Shadow Over a Memorial - May 18, 2003
According to artist Patrick Clark, a new pharmacy under construction at Beach Channel Drive and Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park would hold a rooftop sign so large and brightly lighted that it would dominate and cheapen a 9/11 memorial that Clark is designing for a small city park across the street. (New York Times)

Official Puts Cost of Rebuilding Ground Zero at $10 Billion - May 16, 2003
Rebuilding the World Trade Center site will cost roughly $10 billion, with two-thirds of that paying for the office, cultural and transportation buildings envisioned in the architect Daniel Libeskind's design, a top rebuilding official said yesterday. The rest of the money will be for architectural and engineering fees, insurance, administration costs and legal fees and other costs, according to the official, Andrew Winters. (New York Times)

Rebuilding NYC May 2002


Ceremony Honors Those Lost As Recovery At WTC Site Ends - May 31, 2002
A solemn and wordless procession punctuated by tears, the tolling of bells and muted applause rose out of Ground Zero and up into the sunny streets of lower Manhattan yesterday on a morning as bright as the September day terror shattered the city. There were no speeches by the many elected officials and dignitaries present. The only words uttered aloud called those assembled to attention. The removal of debris remaining after the clearing of nearly 2 million tons of rubble is expected by the middle of next week. (Newsday)

Focus Turns To Pataki As Recovery Process Ends - May 31, 2002
The end of the recovery phase at Ground Zero will focus new attention on election-bound Gov. Pataki and the city-state agency controlling rebuilding over which he wields great influence. With all eyes turning to Pataki and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency is already hard at work on a series of land-use options for the 16-acre site. The power over the site's future is heavily in Pataki's hands - and he's the man with the most invested in the short-term outcome of the process, as his bid for a third term in office will be decided in just five months. (New York Post)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Find World Trade Center Air OK In Weeks After 9/11 - May 31, 2002
The air at Ground Zero was free of hazardous levels of toxic contaminants, such as asbestos, just a week after the twin towers collapsed, U.S. health officials said yesterday. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that none of the 1,174 air samples taken by city and federal officials between Sept. 18 and Oct. 4 showed asbestos levels exceeding federal safety levels. (New York Daily News)

Heartbreak, Anger, Timing Keep Many Away From Ceremony - May 31, 2002
As the city paused yesterday to remember the 2,800 innocent lives lost at the World Trade Center, families of several hundred victims stayed away from the tribute at Ground Zero. Their reasons varied. A few boycotted what they called a political event. Many couldn't make it because the tribute was scheduled on a weekday. Others were too overcome with grief (New York Daily News)

Schumer Sees Excess Cleanup Aid Paying for Rail Links to New Hub - May 31, 2002
Senator Charles E. Schumer said yesterday that he believed that the federal money allocated for rebuilding Lower Manhattan included enough to pay for the extension of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter lines into a new downtown transportation hub. (New York Times)

Ceremony Without Words Marks End Of Recovery Effort at World Trade Center Site - May 30, 2002
There were no prayers, no speeches, and no words spoken. But the symbolism of the 20-minute ceremony sounded loud and clear as one last stretcher, carried by 10 people, was slowly removed from the World Trade Center site this morning, marking the official end of the recovery effort. Hundreds of people gathered to witness the ceremony, which included a slow-marching bagpipe unit whose progress was marked only by the muted sound of drums and an empty stretcher draped in an American flag that symbolized the victims of the terrorist attack whose remains have not been either found or identified. (New York Times)

Ground Zero Ceremony Stirs Emotion - May 30, 2002
The place where the World Trade Center once towered evokes a flood of contradictory emotions. The recovery effort ends today, but no matter what building, park or memorial is erected on its site, Ground Zero will never disappear from New YorkersÕ collective consciousness. People whose lives changed forever at that spot describe whatÕs being left behind. (Newsday)

Recovery Effort Goes To The Last Minute - May 30, 2002
Ground Zero crews worked into the early hours this morning, and they will be back again tonight, combing through the final, shrinking pile of debris in the search for human remains. Recovery work at Ground Zero has moved far faster than anyone could imagine - but not quite fast enough to be done in time for today's ceremony to mark the end of the massive effort. (New York Post)

Infrastructure Repair Before Memorial, Says Bloomberg - May 30, 2002
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that Lower Manhattan's most immediate need was infrastructure repair, and that a memorial and rebuilt office space would come later, after some wounds had healed. (New York Times)

Artists Aim to Energize Downtown NYC - May 29, 2002
What was once an indoor mall at the World Financial Center will become artist studios under a program designed to draw tenants and visitors back to the battered complex. This fall, the nine artists moving into the space will exhibit works ranging from a computer-rendered history of downtown development to handcrafted artificial trees. (Associated Press)

Last Steel Column From the Ground Zero Rubble Is Cut Down - May 29, 2002
Column No. 1,001 B of 2 World Trade Center, the last symbolic piece of the recovery effort, was cut down at 8:17 p.m. yesterday by operating engineers, ironworkers, teamsters, laborers and dock builders. The 58-ton piece of steel from the south tower was laid on a flatbed truck, wrapped in black muslin and an American flag, and tucked in a corner of the pit. (New York Times)

City Pushes for Flexible Use of FEMA Disaster Aid - May 29, 2002
In a letter sent last week to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and members of New York's congressional delegation, Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff argued that the agency should be allowed to pay for such basics as police overtime related to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Doctoroff said federal money also should be used to recoup some $650 million in lost business and tourism-related revenues - a move that could help the city plug a $5 billion gap in next year's budget. And rather than just paying to replace destroyed subways, bridges and tunnels Ă‘ as FEMA regulations dictate Ă‘ some $4 billion in agency dollars should be used to "enhance" lower Manhattan's infrastructure, the letter said. (New York Daily News)

More Drinking and Smoking in 9/11 Study - May 29, 2002
Manhattan residents drank more alcohol and smoked more tobacco and marijuana after the Sept. 11 attack, researchers say. The researchers, at the New York Academy of Medicine, surveyed nearly 1,000 residents in the two months after Sept. 11. A quarter of respondents said they drank more than usual in the five to eight weeks after the attack on the World Trade Center; nearly 10 percent said they had been smoking more cigarettes and more than 3 percent said they had been smoking more marijuana. (Associated Press)

Last Girder Coming Down At Ground Zero - May 28, 2002
The last girder from the World Trade Center at Ground Zero will be removed at a somber ceremony that will be the first of three major tributes over the next few days marking the end of recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site. Sometime before 8 p.m., a procession of workers is scheduled to march from Vesey St. down to the bedrock floor of the 16-acre plot before cutting down the girder and carrying it from the site. (New York Daily News)

The Battle For Ground Zero - May 28, 2002
Time Magazine provides a general survey of the rebuilding process, detailing the different sides involved and the roles the different government agencies have played up till now. The piece also discusses the architectural challenge of rebuilding, as designers struggle to come up with an appropriate solution. (Time)

Memorial Day Celebrations Recall September 11 - May 28, 2002
Nothing felt entirely familiar across the New York region as cheering crowds and quiet prayer commemorated the first Memorial Day after the Sept. 11 attacks. The shadow of Sept. 11 fell across Memorial Day this year in many ways. A number of those who attended holiday parades yesterday said they had never attended Memorial Day celebrations before. "The difference is night and day," said one man. "We were attacked, and while I never paid much attention to the military, today I welcome this parade." (New York Times)

Details Announced For Ground Zero Closing Ceremony - May 28, 2002
The 20-minute ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10:29 a.m., a time chosen to mark the fall of the last piece of steel after the collapse of One World Trade Center at 10:28 a.m. Attendance at the ceremony is limited to families of the victims, uniformed personnel and those directly involved with the recovery effort, including construction workers and agency personnel. Family members should bring their case number to gain entry. The general public can stand along West Street from Chambers Street to Canal Street to view the procession. (Newsday)

At Ground Zero, Uneasy Agreement on Final Rite - May 27, 2002
Suggestions from construction workers, firefighters, victims' relatives and anyone else with a direct link to the disaster site helped inform Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's final decision to hold a simple ceremony on Thursday, with an empty stretcher, a truck carrying the last girder, a little music and a lot of silence. But some family members have accused the mayor of increasing their pain by choosing to hold the ceremony on a weekday, rather than on a weekend. Some have even suggested that he simply did not want his weekend disrupted. (New York Times)

President of Redevelopment Group Sees Consensus Emerging on Memorial, Overall Plan - May 27, 2002
Louis Tomson, president of Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency charged with rebuilding the World Trade Center site, said that a broad consensus is emerging to develop the site as a cultural, business and transportation hub, including a "reverential" memorial that could take up almost half of the 16-acre site. (Newsday)

Fighting to Live as the Towers Died - May 26, 2002
The New York Times traces the last 102 minutes of the victims within the World Trade Center in a comprehensive investigative piece. The minute-by-minute account includes recounts some of the harrowing stories of those who were able to escape and the final moments, heard through phone calls and answering machine messages, of those who did not survive. (New York Times)

Elderly Get Help Coping With 9/11 Stress - May 26, 2002
North Shore University Hospital at Forest Hills plans to begin a program early next month to help the elderly cope with the stress of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. People described as most susceptible to post-9/11 stress include Holocaust survivors, veterans, emigres from the former Soviet Union, victims of crimes and those suffering otherwise from mental distress, said Robert Hettenbach, executive director of the hospital. (New York Daily News)

Hundreds Attend Public Hearing On Future of World Trade Center Site - May 24, 2002
A crowd of more than 800 people packed a downtown auditorium last night to sound off and listen to a multitude of plans and ideas for rebuilding the World Trade Center site and its surroundings. Many complained that the LMDC, which is charged with overseeing the redevelopment of downtown, had not given enough consideration to the revitalization of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, affordable housing and assistance for displaced workers. Many speakers called for constructing buildings as high or higher than the Twin Towers, while some described ideas for memorial designs and held up drawings of their designs. (Newsday)

Alternative Ceremony For Victims' Families Planned - May 24, 2002
Members of several families who lost relatives in the Sept. 11 terror attack plan to hold their own ceremony on June 2, a Sunday, to mark the end of efforts to recover remains from ground zero. The city, which will hold its official ceremony next Thursday, will issue a permit to the group as long as it complies with safety regulations, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. Bloomberg has pointed out that next Thursday was chosen because it will not interfere with religious observances, while the families want a weekend observance. (New York Times)

Changes to Sept. 11 Fund Would Extend Aid to Victims of Past Terror Bombings - May 24, 2002
Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are nearing agreement on changes in the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund that would allow scores of American families from past terrorist attacks to receive hundreds of millions of dollars collectively in compensation. The deal calls for providing compensation to the families of the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, as well as the families of the 168 killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. (New York Times)

City Simulates Bioterror Disaster - May 23, 2002
In preparation against biological terrorism, city officials yesterday simulated an attack and conducted a six-hour medication dispensing drill at Pier 92 in Manhattan. John Odermatt, commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, said the goal was to treat and prescribe medication to 1,000 people per hour. (Newsday)

Rebuilding Officials Emphasizing Fast Paced Schedule In Selection Of Design Group - May 23, 2002
Sources told the New York Post that officials from the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation focused heavily on the fast-track schedule in approving a planner for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. "They were quite interested in how the team was organized and how it would manage itself. These are big teams and a very tight time frame," said Graham Wyatt, a partner at the Robert A.M. Stern architectural firm, one of six finalists interviewed for the design post. (New York Post)

Senate Committee Approves $5 Billion in Federal Funds, Bringing Pledged Total To $20 Billion - May 23, 2002
A Senate panel approved more than $5 billion in aid to New York yesterday -- the balance of $20 billion promised by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks. The new spending okayed by the Senate Appropriations Committee includes $2.66 billion for transit infrastructure repair, $1.8 billion for transit upgrades, $750 million for utility repairs and $167 million for the state Highway Department. It also would provide $90 million to monitor the health of Ground Zero workers. (New York Daily News)

Design Firm Chosen to Oversee Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan - May 23, 2002
Beyer Blinder Belle, the design firm that oversaw the restoration of Grand Central Terminal and converted Ellis Island into the National Museum of Immigration, was chosen yesterday by the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation as the urban planning consultant to oversee the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. Beyer Blinder will be assisted in the project by Parsons Brinckerhoff, a transportation consulting firm, and 11 other specialty design and engineering firms. (New York Times)

Congress To Hold Session in New York City On September 6 - May 22, 2002
Congress is planning to hold a special session in New York City on Sept. 6, just days before the anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. But some Jews are objecting that the schedule will intrude on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which begins at sundown on Sept. 6. The visit to New York will likely be more symbolic than substantive, according to a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Instead of bringing all 100 Senators and 435 House members to the city, each state would send at least one member from each house. (Newsday)

Two Firms Now Finalists To Develop World Trade Center Site - May 22, 2002
The architectural firm that renovated Grand Central Terminal and the designers of downtown Brooklyn's MetroTech development are the two finalists to plan the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, sources told the Daily News yesterday. A committee from the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. reviewed 15 proposals and narrowed its search to Manhattan firms Beyer Blinder Belle and Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn, the sources said. (New York Daily News)

Federal Emergency Management Agency Gives City $132 Million Grant For Long-Term Therapy - May 22, 2002
Crisis-counseling programs for New Yorkers affected by 9/11 received a huge dose of cash therapy yesterday after the feds approved a record-high $132 million grant. The grant is the largest for long-term counseling that FEMA has ever approved. Project Liberty, which was set up after the Twin Towers attack and run by the state's Office of Mental Health, will administer the grant in New York City and 10 nearby counties using local mental health programs to provide services. (New York Post)

Former World Trade Center Tenant Moving To Midtown - May 22, 2002
In what could be a loss for downtown, Aon, one of the largest tenants in the World Trade Center, is in talks to sign a major office lease in midtown, the Daily News has learned. Aon, a Chicago-based insurance brokerage that lost 176 employees in the Sept. 11 attack, is negotiating to sign a lease for 270,000 square feet of office space at Park Avenue Plaza, a 44-story building at 55 E. 52nd St., according to real estate executives. After Sept. 11, Aon pledged to remain downtown and searched for office space there. But the company apparently has decided to divide its operations, moving top executives to midtown while maintaining a smaller presence in lower Manhattan. (New York Daily News)

Security Tighter in New York After Vague Terrorist Threat - May 22, 2002
Federal and local law-enforcement officials yesterday issued a warning of vague and uncorroborated threats against the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty as the city imposed security measures not seen since the first months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The police began operating checkpoints at many of the city's major bridges and tunnels on Monday night, and the Coast Guard established a 200-yard restricted zone around any United States vessel that is moored or anchored in the harbor during Fleet Week. (New York Times)

Selection of Consultant in Rebuilding is Questioned - May 21, 2002
A committee working on the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site has recommended that a prominent architectural firm, Beyer Blinder Belle, be selected as the urban planning consultant to work with state and city officials on the redevelopment, officials involved in the planning process said yesterday. The officials also said questions had been raised about the scoring by one of the six committee members involved in the selection, Alexander Garvin, a vice president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (New York Times)

Feds to Fund Firetruck Cleanup - May 21, 2002
FDNY officials, faced with alarming asbestos-test results suggesting some rigs are dangerously tainted by World Trade Center debris, yesterday said they would have 600 vehicles professionally cleaned - after the feds agreed to pick up the tab (New York Post)

9/11 Charity Grifter Got 260G, Feds Say - May 21, 2002
Federal prosecutors charged that a Queens man took advantage of the Sept. 11 attacks to raise money for a phony police charity, and pocketed most of the $260,000 in donations. He was arraigned on two counts of mail fraud, which could put him behind bars for 10 years. (New York Daily News)

Kin Uniting on Memorial - May 21, 2002
A broad consensus is emerging for the first time among families of those killed Sept. 11 on how much of the World Trade Center site should be used for a permanent memorial. The families recently presented a proposal that calls for the memorial to consist of the footprints of the twin towers and the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel, as well as the land inside the site's retaining wall. (New York Daily News)

A Subway Interrupted Awaits Its Imminent Resurgence - May 21, 2002
For more than two months, a few hundred workers have been rebuilding the 1 and 9 subway lines damaged on Sept. 11. When the workers are done at the end of September and trains with passengers are rumbling through the tunnels once again by November, it will be very hard to tell where old meets new, exactly where it was that 1,300 feet of subway tunnel were crushed and pierced by falling skyscrapers and then rebuilt in little more than seven months. (New York Times)

For Emergency Officials Touched by 9/11's Horrors, Fears of Creeping Complacency - May 21, 2002
Thomas Von Essen, the city's former fire commissioner, re-examined the shortcomings of the Fire Department's emergency response on Sept. 11, saying that the response should have been slowed down. Von Essen also voiced fears that politicians are not focusing on preventing a future attack. He spoke as part of a panel discussion on the first day of a three-day conference at the Sheraton New York Hotel in Midtown, "9/11: Looking Back and Moving Forward," which was attended by hundreds of emergency management professionals from 35 states and several other countries. (New York Times)

Rodin Sculpture That Survived September 11 Now Missing - May 20, 2002
An authentic cast of the sculpture "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin that was housed in the World Trade Center survived the Sept. 11 attacks, but now has vanished. It, and other pieces of artwork by Rodin, were being exhibited in the lobby of the firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 of its 960 employees. (New York Times)

Decision On Group For Redeveloping Downtown Coming This Week - May 20, 2002
As recovery efforts are wrapping up, officials overseeing the site will decide this week which group of consultants will help shape plans for the 16-acre former World Trade Center site. The Port Authority, which owns the site, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. - the city-state agency charged with revitalizing the area - spent last week interviewing the six finalists, sources told the New York Post. (New York Post)

Police Department Visits Israel To Learn About Suicide Attack Preparations - May 19, 2002
The New York Police Department is being trained by experts from Israel's military and municipal police forces, who have had to respond to scores of human bombs in the last 18 months. "We were invited by Israel to be the only police agency at a symposium focused on suicide bombers and lessons learned," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly confirmed. Five investigators from the counterterrorism and intelligence bureaus flew to Israel last week for the symposium, which began Friday. The cops will return this week. It is the first time the NYPD has sent its members to a foreign country for instruction. (New York Daily News)

New York City Water Facilities Fail Security Checks - May 19, 2002
Security at city water facilities fails to meet federal and state guidelines, making them vulnerable to potential biological or chemical attacks, according to a report released Sunday. The report, compiled by the New York State Assembly Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation, found that security at the facilities failed more than half of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Health guidelines. (Newsday)

Bloomberg Defends Date For Ground Zero Closing Ceremony - May 18, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday defended his choice of May 30 - a weekday - for a ceremony honoring the end of recovery work at Ground Zero, saying he's trying to accommodate as many people as possible. Bloomberg said May 30, a Thursday, will avoid interfering with religious observances. But several terror victims' relatives pressed to have the ceremony honoring both those lost in the attack and the workers who stayed around the clock at the site moved to a Sunday. (New York Post)

Senator Clinton Unveils Ground Zero Health Assessment Plan - May 18, 2002
Senator Hillary Clinton unveiled a $12 million federally funded program yesterday to monitor the health concerns of Ground Zero rescue workers and volunteers. The program, which will be administered by Mount Sinai Medical Center's Irving J. Selikoff Center, is expected to treat 8,000 people. (New York Daily News)

Victims' Families Criticize Choice of Weekday For Ground Zero Ceremony - May 17, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg announced plans yesterday for a May 30 ceremony to mark the "symbolic end" of cleanup work at Ground Zero and immediately faced stiff criticism from victims' families for not scheduling it on a weekend. Some family members complained that although City Hall told them of the May 30 date this week, they were given no chance to suggest alternatives. And they -- as well as some Port Authority cops -- were angry at having to choose between going to work and honoring their loved ones. (New York Daily News)

Developer of 7 World Trade Center Argues With Port Authority About Rent - May 17, 2002
Mr. Silverstein is squabbling with a potential tenant for his proposed 52-story glass tower: the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land the building would sit on. Mr. Silverstein wants to charge the agency $42 a square foot, or about $14 million a year more than the Port Authority wants to pay. (New York Times)

Tribute Ceremony To Mark End Of Cleanup And Recovery At Ground Zero - May 17, 2002
On May 30, families of World Trade Center victims and workers who toiled for the past months at Ground Zero will take part in a ceremony held by the city to commemorate the dead and signal an end of the recovery and cleanup. At 10:29 AM, the time the second tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, the last steel beam will be removed from the site and a stretcher symbolizing the unrecovered remains and draped with an American flag will be carried out of the site into an ambulance. (New York Times)

Public Hearing Announced For Rebuilding - May 16, 2002
For the first time this year, officials overseeing rebuilding at Ground Zero will hold a major public hearing at which people can speak out about what should replace the former World Trade Center. The hearing - organized by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority, and planned for next Thursday, May 23 at Pace University at 6 p.m., is the first opportunity the public will have to speak directly to the rebuilding planners. (New York Post)

$350 Million Is Approved to Retain Businesses - May 16, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation approved a $350 million expansion of grant programs yesterday to encourage businesses to stay in downtown Manhattan or move there, raising the total available for those programs to more than $1 billion. The approval was less than half what city and state economic development officials had requested, however. (New York Times)

Housing Subsidies To Extend To Chinatown - May 15, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is expected to announce today that families who commit to living in Chinatown for at least a year can get a one-shot $750 bonus from a federal pot of cash earmarked to help lower Manhattan. (New York Post)

Transfer Of World Trade Center Debris To Barge Near High School Ending - May 15, 2002
Debris from the World Trade Center site will no longer be transferred to barges at a pier behind Stuyvesant HS officials said yesterday, drawing cheers from parents who said the operation put their kids at risk. Dept. of Design and Construction spokesman Matthew Monahan said the cleanup will begin immediately. "We'll be restoring the Pier 25 area to pre-9/11 condition over the next weeks," he said. (New York Post)

Air Quality Testing Downtown Proving To Be Complicated And Inconclusive - May 15, 2002
The many scientific and medical investigations into the effects of Sept. 11 are revealing an unforeseen complexity -- in the nature and consequences of the disaster, as well as in the underlying environment in a part of New York that they say has never really been examined. Many scientists and physicians say the accumulated evidence so far suggests that there is likely no permanent damage despite the rise in respiratory problems for those near or around the site. Others say it is too soon to tell. (New York Times)

Closing Date For Ground Zero Cleanup To Be Announced By Mayor's Office - May 14, 2002
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city may announce Wednesday the anticipated final day of debris removal at Ground Zero, but he stressed that notifying the families of those killed on Sept. 11 must come first. The city is also planning a Òfinal dayÓ ceremony, which will likely involve thousands of relatives of those lost on Sept. 11 and workers who labored at the site over the past eight months. (Newsday)

Hundreds Of Cars Around World Trade Center To Be Demolished - May 14, 2002
890 vehicles towed from the streets around the World Trade Center and pulled from the collapsed complex's garages will be destroyed because of asbestos contamination, federal officials said yesterday. The city and the EPA have determined that these cars - the vast majority of which are stored at Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island - are contaminated with asbestos, based on dust samples. (New York Daily News)

A Third Of Public School Children Surveyed Will Need Mental Health Assistance After September 11 - May 14, 2002
N.R. Kleinfield profiles individual children to illustrate the conclusions of a recent study by the Board of Education. The study found that "roughly 200,000 of the 712,000 public school children in grades 4 through 12 were candidates for some sort of mental health intervention - at least a visit with a mental health professional - because of the lingering trauma of September 11." (New York Times)

Part of Staten Island Recovery Area For World Trade Center Debris Closing Soon - May 14, 2002
The Hill, an area of the Fresh Kills landfill connected to the recovery effort, is soon to shut down. The operation, "created in the genius of desperation, has sorted through 1.6 million tons of material removed from the World Trade Center disaster site. That work has uncovered more than 4,100 body parts, helping to identify more than 150 victims. Now, there are only 25,000 tons to be carted to the landfill from Lower Manhattan, a small fraction of what was. In the next few weeks their mission will be completed, their future certain only to the extent that it will be nothing like what they have just gone through." (New York Times)

Plan For 7 World Trade Center Unveiled - May 14, 2002
Architects for Larry A. Silverstein yesterday provided the first public glimpse of plans to replace the destroyed 7 World Trade Center. The new building would be 52 stories tall (five stories taller than the one it is replacing), a transparent, "light-emanating shaft" designed as a gateway to the planned World Trade Center memorial. The building is scheduled for completion at the end of 2005. (New York Times)

American Express Returns To Downtown - May 13, 2002
American Express, which had been away from its offices in lower Manhattan since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, returned to the World Financial Center this morning. The financial services company has been slowly returning its 4,000 workers to the area across the street from Ground Zero. The staff at 3 World Financial Center, also known as the American Express Tower, will continue to come back gradually until September. American Express has maintained offices in the area since 1850, with offices on Wall and Hudson Streets over the years. The tower has been home to the company for the past 15 years. (Newsday)

Mural and Garden At Staten Island School Pays Tribute To 9/11 Victims - May 13, 2002
A mural and a garden at Intermediate School 51 in Staten Island pay tribute to the victims of September 11.The mural, painted by IS 51 graduate Marco Cammayo, 23, was inspired by the famous news photo of three firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero. Below the mural, students planted a garden. (New York Daily News)

Local Business During One-Year Anniversary Of September 11 Expected To Slow Down - May 13, 2002
Although Labor Day typically marks the kickoff of the fall business season, event calendars are empty on and around the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Major trade shows, product launches and events -- including the MTV Video Music Awards -- are being scheduled to avoid the solemn day. The Jacob Javits Convention Center has zero shows for the entire week. Many businesses involved in catering or events hosting will see a slow week during that time. (New York Daily News)

Report on Mental Health of City Children After September 11 Prompts Consideration of Treatment - May 13, 2002
A recently published study by the city's Board of Education found that about 75,000 of the more than 710,000 public school students in grades 4 through 12 are suffering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and as many as 190,000 have mental health problems, both related and unrelated to 9/11. The study and the underlying reality have spurred an intense debate about how to proceed. Psychologists who specialize in trauma want the Board of Education to screen students and find those with emotional problems -- especially those suffering in silence, crying themselves to sleep or having nightmares or getting psychosomatic aches and pains. (New York Times)

Arts Festival Planned To Revitalize Downtown - May 13, 2002
A new $7.6 million arts festival, created to help spark the renaissance of Lower Manhattan, will seek to attract more than a million visitors to nearly 500 events at 20 locations over the next five months, and will feature performances by 300 artists including Sheryl Crow and Wynton Marsalis. The mostly free festival, billed as the city's largest in terms of the number of events and projected eventgoers, will be called Downtown N.Y.C. River-to-River Festival 2002, and it will begin later this month. (New York Times)

Business Still In A Slump Due To September 11 - May 12, 2002
Businesses in Queens are struggling to survive in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and an economic recession Ă‘ both with impacts that have rippled through the borough. Queens lost nearly 21,000 jobs from October through December, and analysts predict it will take a year for businesses to recover. Not just the larger businesses are affected. Many local mom-and-pop shops have had to lay off workers, scale back production and revamp operations to stay afloat. (New York Daily News)

City Awaits A September 11 Baby Boom - May 12, 2002
Hundreds of women around the city became pregnant in the days and weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks and are now due to give birth in the next three months.Some obstetricians say they will perform twice as many deliveries in each of the summer months than in the past. Demographic experts say it will take years to validate the boomlet, but widespread anecdotal evidence suggests it is real. (New York Daily News)

Rebuilding Infrastructure and Wiring Downtown Is A Huge Undertaking - May 12, 2002
In this feature from the New York Times Magazine, author Robert Sullivan explores the mammoth effort of rewiring Lower Manhattan after September 11 by taking a look at one particular street. The article discusses the intricacies of wiring underground among decades-old structures and the efforts of Verizon and other communications companies to make sure one of the world's busiest telecommunications areas stays connected. (New York Times)

Federal Agency Reports Of Respiratory Ailments At High School Near Ground Zero - May 11, 2002
More than half the employees at Stuyvesant High School suffered respiratory problems after returning to their school on the edge of Ground Zero in October, according to an upcoming federal report. The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, found that between 50% and 60% of the school's staff reported a range of respiratory symptoms connected to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The full report is expected to be completed by May 31. (New York Daily News)

National Guard Troops Being Pulled From New York Airports - May 10, 2002
After seven months, New York Army National Guard troops are being pulled out of the state's airports, Governor Pataki announced yesterday. The U.S. Department of Defense and the Transportation Safety Administration have established May 31 as the close of the National Guard airport mission across the nation. New York will gradually stand down troops to meet the May 31 target, Pataki said. (New York Post)

Recovery Effort At Ground Zero To Be Declared Over In A Couple Weeks - May 10, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that the relentless recovery effort will be declared over in three to four weeks. He said he expects to reveal the date of the official closing ceremony in a few days. A meeting of victims' families and state and city officials is to take place next week to finalize details of the last solemn day. (New York Daily News)

Fire Department Seeks Feedback From Around The Country About Their Response To September 11 - May 10, 2002
New York City fire officials and their outside consultants are traveling the country asking other large fire departments in cities like San Francisco to critique how the city responded to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Feedback from the visits will be used by consultants from McKinsey & Company, who are drawing up recommendations on how the Fire Department can improve its response to a major catastrophe, the officials said. (New York Times)

Debate Surrounds Building A Transmission Tower In The City - May 9, 2002
Three decades have passed since New York was the home of the world's tallest anything. Now plans are being contemplated by the 11-station Metropolitan Television Alliance for a transmission tower that, at 2,000 feet, would be as tall as a structure can go before the Federal Aviation Administration considers it a hazard to air navigation. Possible sites for this new tower include Governors Island, Red Hook in Brooklyn, Jersey City and Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

Federal Emergency Management Agency Says Board of Ed Never Formally Requested Relief Funds - May 9, 2002
Joseph Allbaugh, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called members of New York's congressional delegation this week to say the agency was not stonewalling city schools - but that school officials never officially asked for money to make up class time lost after Sept. 11. School officials counter that they made repeated pleas for aid Ă‘ in a Sept. 21 document submitted to the city and forwarded to FEMA on behalf of all agencies seeking help, and in private meetings with FEMA staffers. (New York Daily News)

Firefighters Union and Victims' Families Clash Over Relief Fund Distribution - May 9, 2002
The Uniformed Firefighters Association is sitting on more than $60 million donated to a fund for widows and children of fallen firefighters - setting off a messy battle between the union and grieving relatives who say they're being cheated. While the fund will be distributing $20,000 initially, with annual payments of at least $5,000 to each family, they will still retain most of the $60 million. (New York Daily News)

Spring Returns To Battery Park City After A Couple of Dour Seasons - May 9, 2002
Rebirth and memory intertwine these days in Battery Park City, the community hat was laid to waste when the World Trade Center fell. While reminders of September 11 linger everywhere, there are signs of a comeback. The residential buildings are now nearly 90 percent full. The Embassy Suites Hotel and the neighborhood movie theater reopened last week. Pizza delivery has been restored. West Street is open, making it possible once again to catch a cab uptown. (New York Times)

Excavation at 7 World Trade Center Beginning Today - May 8, 2002
In the first rebuilding effort at the site of America's worst terrorist attack, workers will begin excavation at the Seven World Trade Center site today, said John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Newsday has a diagram of where the excavation for the foundation will be in relation to the rest of the site. (Newsday)

Fungus Infestation Threatens A Building Still Standing At Ground Zero - May 8, 2002
A 40-story skyscraper at the edge of Ground Zero withstood the terrorist attacks -- but could be demolished because of a gross infestation of foul mold. While engineers have deemed the heavily damaged tower as stable, the outgrowth of fungus has spread such that Deutsche Bank, which owns the building, could end up knocking down the building. (New York Daily News)

Search For Bodies At Ground Zero Near The End - May 8, 2002
Crews at Ground Zero have found no human remains other than a few small bones in the past two weeks, officials said yesterday -- signaling that the recovery effort is drawing to a sad end. Firefighters, cops and construction workers continue to rake painstakingly through the last heaps of debris at the 16-acre World Trade Center site. (New York Daily News)

Construction Underway For New 7 World Trade Center - May 8, 2002
Larry Silverstein, the developer who owned the World Trade Center before its destruction, yesterday began the first step in erecting a new skyscraper on the site where 7 World Trade Center once stood. Workers erected a construction fence around the site, on the north side of Vesey Street, not long after Silverstein learned that the company insuring that building would not contest his $851 million claim. (New York Times)

Environmental Protection Agency to Lead Cleanup Effort of Homes Close to Ground Zero - May 8, 2002
The federal Environmental Protection Agency will announce today an effort to clean up and test apartments south of Canal Street in Lower Manhattan that were fouled by the dust and ash from the destruction of the World Trade Center. This is a sharp reversal in policy from an agency which, to this point, had said that assessing air quality indoors was not under its responsibilities. (New York Times)

Thirteen Groups Submit Proposals For Rebuilding World Trade Center Site - May 7, 2002
When the deadline to apply for one of the most crucial urban design jobs in city history expired yesterday, a total of 13 groups had submitted applications to the Port Authority to craft a development plan for the World Trade Center site. Because no single company has all the expertise needed for the vast job, the proposals came from teams of firms that pulled together to vie for the contract. The applications include more than 50 urban design, architecture and transportation planning firms, said officials from the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. No comprehensive master plans were submitted. Instead, the teams offered development outlines, listed their qualifications and pegged their fees. (New York Daily News)

City Council Hearing Reveals Role of Technology In Recovering From September 11 - May 7, 2002
A City Council hearing about technology and the lessons learned from September 11 revealed how computer systems and satellite mapping were integral to the recovery after September 11. Among the notable mentions: a database system to catalog a library's worth of information about possible victims; a satellite mapping system used to catalog where human remains and other debris were scattered at Ground Zero; a computer system for families to report missing family members; and a late night raid that salvaged computers critical to restoring trading on the New York Stock Exchange. (New York Times)

Families of Undocumented Workers Killed On September 11 Struggle For Relief - May 6, 2002
Undocumented immigrants who were the breadwinners for families died in the collapse of the World Trade Center. But in the aftermath of a tragedy in which terrorism was the great equalizer, the survivors of these victims have encountered unique problems in navigating the bureaucracy of death, say lawyers, immigrant groups and consular officials. And many are also being denied significant financial assistance, because more often than not, they are also here illegally. (New York Times)

Chinatown and Lower East Side Residents Complain Of Lack of Relief - May 6, 2002
Chinatown and the Lower East Side have been shortchanged by the federal government and private relief agencies doling out emergency assistance after the World Trade Center attacks, residents complained at a town hall meeting yesterday. (New York Post)

Blueprint for Ground Zero Beginning To Take Shape - May 4, 2002
Although public deliberations have only recently begun over the future of the site known as ground zero, crucial components of what will occur there appear to have already been settled upon by city and state officials. No 100-story office towers are likely to grace the former site of the World Trade Center. Nor is it probable that the entire 16-acre parcel will be set aside for a memorial to victims of the attack on Sept. 11. (New York Times)

Senate Committee Seeks Inquiry Into Emergency Agency After September 11 - May 4, 2002
A Senate committee has asked the General Accounting Office to undertake a broad examination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, including a review of the way the agency has determined eligibility for its programs, the amount of money the government expects to spend on the recovery effort and the steps it is taking to safeguard public funds. (New York Times)

Cultural Institutions Downtown Coming Back To Life - May 3, 2002
For all the raw emotion and the painful reminders, the small inconveniences and the continuing repair, there is unmistakable evidence that Lower Manhattan is coming back to life. New restaurants are opening, old clubs are hosting concerts again, art galleries continue to exhibit, and a new film festival promises to bring revitalize residents there even more. (New York Times)

State To Give Tax Refunds To 9/11 Victims' Families - May 3, 2002
Part of a new state budget agreement is a plan to give full state tax refunds for 2000 and 2001 to those killed in the World Trade Center attacks. The Pataki administration estimated the estates of about 2,500 individuals will be eligible for the refunds, which should average about $10,000 each and cost the state a total of $25 million. (New York Daily News)

Rival Shopping Mall Companies Come Together To Help Provide Aid For 9/11 Victims - May 3, 2002
The United We Stand alliance, a coalition of companies that own shopping malls throughout the metro area, came together to raise more than $500,000 for the families of victims of Sept. 11. "We are a loose coalition of companies, all competitors, getting together to do something as a group," said Robert Minutoli, senior vice president of The Rouse Company, one of nine members of United We Stand. (New York Daily News)

Workers Finishing Search For Remains In The Rubble - May 2, 2002
With officials predicting that recovery work at Ground Zero will wind up by the end of the month, workers will be sifting through the final bits of debris to find more human remains. After the final debris pile is removed from Ground Zero, recovery workers will still have one last task - lifting and cleaning the timbers that line the base of the 16-acre site to make sure every piece of human remains is saved. (New York Post)

Federal Officials Propose More Comprehensive Investigation Of Collapse of Twin Towers - May 2, 2002
Federal officials proposed today an expansive new effort to determine exactly why the towers fell and how other buildings might be protected. The proposed investigation, which would begin with taking in more data from the scene of the collapse and use sophisticated computer analysis for a more detailed look at the collapse, would be led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, a federal agency with long experience in studying building disasters. (New York Times)

Thousands Of Children Throughout Five Boroughs Showing Signs of Mental Stress After September 11 - May 2, 2002
Tens of thousands of public-school children throughout New York City, not just near Ground Zero, are experiencing chronic nightmares, fear of public places, severe anxiety and other mental health problems months after the World Trade Center attack, a study conducted for the Board of Education has found. The study estimates that 10.5 percent of the children in the 4th through the 12th grades suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after Sept. 11. Even more (15 percent) suffered agoraphobia, or fear of public places. (New York Times)

Federal Government Will Reconsider Some Applicants Rejected For 9/11 Aid - May 2, 2002
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency promised members of the New York Congressional delegation yesterday that the agency would immediately reopen more than 7,000 applications for housing assistance that the agency denied after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those who were rejected included hundreds of Chinatown seamstresses and Manhattan hotel workers, many of them with claims to aid that seemed legitimate. (New York Times)

Federal Report on World Trade Center Collapse To Be Released Today - May 1, 2002
A federal study, to be released today during a congressional hearing, concludes that the towers of the World Trade Center behaved "remarkably," and states that no structural problems were found with the buildings. The study team recommends that funds should be used to improve aircraft security, rather than hardening buildings against airplane attack. "Buildings are not designed to withstand any event that could ever conceivably occur," the report states. The study concludes that the buildings could have remained standing following the plane impacts alone, if not for the enormous fires that ensued. (Newsday)

Relatives of Victims Criticize Government Investigation of September 11 - May 1, 2002
Victims' relatives and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn) will be at a news conference today to criticize a report detailing the federal government's investigation of September 11. "Many families don't have confidence in the ... report because of how sloppy the investigation was at the outset," Weiner said. (New York Daily News)

Rebuilding NYC June 2002


Towers' Land to Remain a Memorial, Pataki Says - Jun 30, 2002
Gov. George E. Pataki vowed yesterday at a memorial ceremony for Sept. 11 victims that there would be no commercial development on the land where the twin towers stood. (New York Times)

Relatives Channel Grief into Activism - Jun 30, 2002
Gov. Pataki's promise yesterday that no one will build on the footprint of the Twin Towers is in part the fruits of dogged work by kin of 9/11 victims who have risen to lead family groups to become a powerful force in the city and nation. (New York Post)

City Liason to Take Smaller Role - Jun 30, 2002
Christy Ferer, Mayor Bloomberg's liaison with the 9/11 victims' relatives, says she's likely to start easing out of her current role after the first anniversary of the terror attacks. Her husband, Port Authority head Neil Levin, was killed in the World Trade Center tragedy. Ferer said her work as Bloomberg's liaison has been a "distraction" from grieving, and that there will come a time when she decides to stop. (New York Post)

Fire Chief Questions Closing of Downtown Streets - Jun 30, 2002
Battalion Chief William P. Blaich, who oversees Lower Manhattan for the Fire Department, has long questioned the closing of downtown streets in the name of security. Early last year, the federal General Services Administration shut part of Duane Street to outside traffic. Last week, Chief Blaich said he learned of informal plans to close a similar part of Reade Street, which runs along the plaza's southern edge and absorbs heavy traffic from the Brooklyn Bridge. (New York Times)

FEMA Expands Aid - Jun 29, 2002
After months of criticism about its missteps and delays in distributing financial help to New Yorkers affected by the Sept. 11 terror attack, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced yesterday that it was formally changing its eligibility criteria to allow aid to thousands more people who suffered economic hardship as a result of the disaster. (New York Times)

Schumer Proposes Lower Manhattan Park - Jun 29, 2002
Senator Charles E. Schumer called yesterday for a waterfront park to be built with some of the money set aside by the federal government for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. He proposed an apron of parkland that would stretch from Canal Street on the West Side to Pier 42 on the East Side, where it would meet East River Park. (New York Times)

Relatives of Sept. 11 Victims Gather to Remember Civillian Heroes - Jun 29, 2002
Relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks paid tribute Saturday to the unheralded acts of heroism performed by unknown numbers of civilians who helped evacuate the World Trade Center. Their stories, though largely overshadowed by the more publicized deeds of firefighters and police officers, were remembered by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Gov. George Pataki and others in a memorial service in midtown Manhattan. (Newsday)

Even After 9/11, New York Attracts Immigrants from Puebla - Jun 29, 2002
The Immigration and Naturalization Service credits heightened security and screening, along with the fear factor, for the nearly 20 percent decline in immigration to the United States since Sept. 11. Little of that fear seems to have pervaded Puebla and its dusty yet colorful streets. This central Mexican state and its denizens, known as Poblanos, share a special relationship with New York City. An estimated half of the 500,000 Mexicans living in the New York metropolitan area trace their roots to Puebla. (New York Times)

Business Poor for Chinatown Jewlers - Jun 29, 2002
Nine months after the World Trade Center attack, Chinatown is bustling with tourists and shoppers scraping past each other on narrow sidewalks. But Chinatown's 250 jewelers are slowly suffocating. Fattened by the boom economy of the late 1990's, the industry has been hit by a triple blow: the World Trade Center attack slashed the number of financial workers and foreign tourists; the limp economy reduced consumer spending on luxury goods; and the closing of the Grand Street station cut off the closest subway stop. (New York Times)

International Students Under Close Watch - Jun 29, 2002
Since Sept. 11, the nation's estimated 1 million international students face increased scrutiny. New York City colleges and universities boast the largest number of international students -- more than 15,000. The biggest change, announced last month, is the implementation of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or Sevis. Under the system, the government forces schools to monitor students from the day they arrive in the United States. (Newsday)

Arts Organizer Said to Be Choice to Oversee 9/11 Memorial Effort - Jun 28, 2002
Moving to fill what will be one of the most scrutinized jobs in the rebuilding of downtown, the agency in charge of the effort is preparing to appoint a Merrill Lynch executive who is a longtime organizer of downtown cultural events to oversee the creation of a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attack, according to officials involved in the effort. (New York Times)

Families Show Vision for Large Memorial - Jun 28, 2002
Victims' families advising the developers of the World Trade Center site unveiled their vision for a large memorial complex yesterday. They called for an indoor/outdoor complex that encompasses roughly 9 acres, about half the available land. (New York Daily News)

Stuyvesant HS Wins Fight for Air Cleanup - Jun 28, 2002
Parents of students at Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan have won the latest skirmish in their battle to force the Board of Education to clean the school's ventilators. Parents had threatened to sue the board if officials did not agree to do a cleanup by the close of business Monday. (New York Daily News)

Port Authority Eyes Record $1B Construction Tab - Jun 28, 2002
As the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to take back control of the World Trade Center site early next month, agency officials say they expect to award or spend a record $1 billion in construction projects around the region this year. Work at Ground Zero had a large role in increasing the authority's planned construction spending by $100 million more than originally projected for this year, Lombardi told the Port Authority board yesterday. (Newsday)

Small Businesses Benefiting Most Downtown, Report Says - Jun 27, 2002
More than nine months after the attack on the World Trade Center, economic recovery grants totaling $292 million have been made to thousands of lower Manhattan businesses. 75 percent of the economic aid distributed so far has gone to some 11,700 small businesses that employ an average of 10 people. (Independent Budget Office)

Struggling to Sort Out 9/11 Aid to Foreigners - Jun 27, 2002
When Congress approved the multibillion-dollar Victim Compensation Fund in the weeks after the terror attack, the legislation provided that noncitizens, even illegal immigrants, would be entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in government awards. Now, with the first checks set to be cut soon, it has become increasingly clear that determining who is entitled to what is, in reality, a baffling puzzle complicated by differing national laws, unfamiliar ethnic customs and extraordinarily complex family relationships from Mexico to the Middle East. (New York Times)

Liberty St. Opens Giving Ground Zero View - Jun 27, 2002
The city has quietly reopened Liberty Street west of Greenwich Street to pedestrians. Until August, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey begins to construct a more durable ÒViewing WallÓ to enclose the 16-acre site during construction, a growing number of visitors will view the site through the chain-link fence on Liberty Street. (Newsday)

Post-Sept. 11 Exodus Has Not Happened - Jun 27, 2002
Though a post-Sept. 11 exodus from New York was predicted, statistics do not show that New Yorkers have left the city. Most New Yorkers are learning to live with anxiety in a city that experts agree will always be high on the list of terrorist targets. The statistics show that the real estate market, buoyed in part by low interest rates, is as brisk as ever. (New York Times)

A Patriotic Theme Park Near Ground Zero? - Jun 27, 2002
Developers are seeking the city's help in creating a multimedia tourist attraction for the edge of Ground Zero that would be called "America's Hall of Fame." At the proposed $30 million facility, an animatronic Abe Lincoln would greet tourists who pay $19.50 to stroll through a series of exhibits dedicated to great Americans, including athletes, scientists, performers, politicians and the heroes of Sept. 11, according to a funding proposal. (New York Post)

Ground Zero Now Top Tourist Attraction - Jun 26, 2002
Tourism officials estimated that the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack has attracted more than a million out-of-town visitors since January. And perhaps more striking is that the fallen trade center site has done what it could not do when standing: turn the financial district into one of the city's top attractions. (New York Times)

The Brooklyn Jail Where Immigrants Disappear - Jun 26, 2002
Untold numbers of Arabs and South Asians have been brought to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a high-security federal prison in Sunset Park. More post-September 11 detainees have been jailed in county facilities in New Jersey, but critics say the Metropolitan Detention Center houses some of the worst constitutional and human rights violations by the federal government in these cases. (Village Voice)

Dog Statues Coming to City - Jun 26, 2002
About 300 life-size German shepherd sculptures made of fiberglass, intended to honor the hundreds of search-and-rescue teams that scoured the rubble of the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, will be placed mainly in front of firehouses, police precincts and parks throughout the city from mid-August through November. (New York Daily News)

Mayor Now Not Sure What Size of Memorial Should Be - Jun 26, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg, under increasing fire from 9/11 families, yesterday partly detracted his suggestion that a smaller memorial at the World Trade Center site might be better than a larger one. (New York Post)

Downtown Arts Groups In Danger Of Folding - Jun 25, 2002
Small and midsize arts institutions around the World Trade Center site are struggling and in danger of folding if they don't get more disaster funding, a City Hall report charged yesterday. Most of the cultural groups have relied on aid from private charities because government funding was cut dramatically after Sept. 11. Donations have not been enough to make up for money lost, the report says. (New York Daily News)

Last Recovery Crew Leaves Ground Zero - Jun 25, 2002
The city and the nation at large marked the end of the recovery effort at ground zero nearly a month ago. But it was only yesterday, as a crew of four firefighters carefully supervised the collection of the last bags of possible human remains from a bank building next door to the site of the towers, that the job was complete. (New York Times)

Feds Prepare WTC Probe - Jun 25, 2002
A federal agency preparing to investigate the Twin Towers collapse fielded a wide range of technical suggestions as well as criticism from fire safety experts, victims' relatives and experts from across the country yesterday. (Newsday)

Report Shows Ground Zero Visions - Jun 25, 2002
A series of site plans drawn up by the civic group New York New Visions provides a preview of what New Yorkers may see next month when public officials unveil development options for Ground Zero (New York Post)

Giuliani Supports 'Grand' Memorial - Jun 25, 2002
Families of Sept. 11 victims met with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani last night and won his support for a large memorial that could include much of the World Trade Center site. (New York Daily News)

U.S. Law Restricts Money for Rebuilding Downtown - Jun 24, 2002
The Stafford Act, which governs the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was not written for terrorist attacks. FEMA money can be used to rebuild homes, pay for rescuers' overtime and to clear debris, but to protect the public's dollars, it can't build a new transportation hub, pay for operational expenses in making up lost public school time and clear New York City of its $650-million-plus loss in tax revenues. (Newsday)

Critics: 9/11 Housing Relief Is Limited - Jun 24, 2002
Thousands left jobless after Sept. 11 have been unfairly denied government housing assistance because of a poorly run Federal Emergency Management Agency program, elected leaders and community organizers said yesterday. (Newsday)

Lawmaker: NYC Needs $10B for Security - Jun 24, 2002
A Queens congressman yesterday said the city needs at least $10 billion from the federal government to gird itself against possible terrorist attacks. The Democratic congressman, Joseph Crowley, made the estimate in a report detailing the city's anti-terrorism requirements. He said the Bush administration's plan falls short of the mark. (Newsday)

Victims' Kin to Speak at 9/11 Safety Hearing - Jun 24, 2002
Fire safety experts, engineers and families of victims killed in the World Trade Center will call today for stricter building and fire codes and better evacuation procedures in high-rises at a day-long hearing on the collapse of the twin towers sponsored by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. (New York Daily News)

Families Fret as Charities Hold a Billion Dollars in 9/11 Aid - Jun 23, 2002
Nine months after the terrorist attacks, in often small but intensely personal ways, donors and recipients alike continue to experience enormous frustration over the administration of the outpouring of private charity provoked by the death and damage of Sept. 11. (New York Times)

Small Businesses Hurt by Attack Have Mixed Reactions on Aid - Jun 23, 2002
Many owners of small businesses in Lower Manhattan have complained bitterly about what they call the paltry packages of government aid for businesses struggling to stay alive since the Sept. 11 attack, and about application processes they find onerous and filled with delays. But there are indeed satisfied customers, who hope the money will keep them going long enough for them to get on their feet. (New York Times)

Residents Protest PATH Train Plans - Jun 23, 2002
A tense showdown between Gov. Pataki and West Village residents over a plan to build two new PATH-station exits on historic Christopher Street is coming to a head. The Port Authority, which runs the PATH rail line between New Jersey and Manhattan, says second stairways at the Christopher Street and Ninth Street stops, both of which at present have only one exit, are needed to evacuate passengers more quickly in case of fire or terrorist attack. Many residents have joined the fight against the $29 million project, which they say will forever change the neighborhood. (New York Post)

Mayor Reaches Out to Families - Jun 23, 2002
City Hall will send a letter to relatives of every World Trade Center victim seeking their thoughts about the first Sept. 11 anniversary. Christy Ferer, the mayor's primary liaison to the families, has come under fire with several relatives who believe she has not expressed their views strongly enough (New York Post)

9/11 Memorial on Agenda when Giuliani, Families Meet - Jun 23, 2002
Some relatives of Sept. 11 victims will meet with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani tomorrow to discuss several matters, including a memorial at the World Trade Center site. While the coalition families had met with Giuliani nearly every week when he was mayor, they say they haven't met with Bloomberg for at least two months. (New York Daily News)

New York City History Museum Proposed for Downtown - Jun 23, 2002
New York City historians have proposed to erect a museum dedicated to the city's 400-year history that would complement a memorial and provide context to Sept. 11. The proposal has generated interest from city officials, but it faces several obstacles. (New York Times)

Under Fire after 9/11, I.N.S. Presents Database to Track Foreign Students - Jun 22, 2002
Immigration officials this month began presenting to New York universities and colleges a new system the federal government will use to track foreign students, in the hope that smaller technical institutes will begin using it as early as next month and that any flaws can be fixed before its use becomes compulsory seven months from now. The computerized system, if it is up and running on schedule, would embody the most comprehensive change since Sept. 11 to the way the nation manages its millions of foreign visitors. (New York Times)

Ex-fireman Charged with Looting WTC - Jun 22, 2002
A former New York City firefighter was charged with stealing personal items from the World Trade Center while he volunteered in the recovery effort, police said. (New York Post)

Air Quality a Major Concern Downtown - Jun 21, 2002
Most lower Manhattanites are more fearful about their air quality after the Sept. 11 attacks than about another terror strike, a new poll shows. Most residents also report more health problems since Sept. 11 and many say they're worried about getting cancer or asthma and other respiratory problems because of the attacks and massive fires. (New York Post)

Donations for Sept. 11 Biggest Response Ever for Catastrophe - Jun 21, 2002
Donations related to Sept. 11 totaled $1.9 billion - nearly 1 percent of all charitable giving in 2001, according to a new study yesterday. (New York Post)

Beams of Light May be Back for Sept. 11 Observance - Jun 21, 2002
The sponsors of the popular "Tribute in Light" memorial hope to bring it back for the one-year observance of Sept. 11 and are seeking support from the victims' relatives. (New York Post)

Cops Getting Help for 9/11 Stress - Jun 21, 2002
So far, nearly 500 police officers, primarily first responders to the World Trade Center attacks and Emergency Service Unit officers who spent months digging at Ground Zero, have used the police department's counseling program (New York Daily News)

NYPD Requests Terror Bunker - Jun 21, 2002
The Police Department has requested $270 million from the Bloomberg administration to build a high-tech underground "bunker" in case of another terrorist attack. (New York Post)

Housing Seen in WTC Plans - Jun 20, 2002
Apartment buildings may be included in redevelopment plans for Lower Manhattan. The Port Authority, which owns the Trade Center parcel, cannot legally build housing. But that would not prevent buildings around the Ground Zero area from being converted into apartments, officials said yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Rebuilding May Expand Beyond Site - Jun 20, 2002
The agencies overseeing the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site have begun to look beyond the 16 acres where the twin towers stood for locations for some of the office and retail space that was lost at the site, officials said yesterday. The additional land might be needed because as much as half of the site would probably be used for a memorial to victims of the attack, and any new office buildings there would probably be no taller than 60 stories, said Lou Tomson, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (New York Times)

Police on High Alert for Cop and Ambulance Car Bombs - Jun 20, 2002
Police sources told the Post that they are on the lookout for official vehicles, such as police cars, ambulances or a firetruck that could be used to deliver bombs. Recent attempts to purchase a replica ambulance in New Jersey may have fueled the alert. (New York Post)

15 Are Accused of Defrauding Sept. 11 Charities - Jun 20, 2002
At a news conference, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, announced that 15 people had been charged in the latest wave of arrests in the investigation into theft from charities and government agencies that help people who suffered losses in the Sept. 11 attack (New York Times)

Some Neighbors Seek Greater Voice on Plans for Sept. 11 Memorial - Jun 19, 2002
Downtown residents and civic groups say they are worried that the early planning for a memorial is being left behind or closed to public input. Meanwhile, the official rebuilding effort is hurtling toward a master plan for the site. Downtown residents and civic groups say they are worried that the early planning for a memorial is being left behind or closed to public input. (New York Times)

Plan to Bring Big Accounting Firm Downtown Appears Dead - Jun 19, 2002
KPMG, the third-largest accounting firm in the world, will not move its headquarters from Midtown to Lower Manhattan near Ground Zero as planned. At the last minute, city officials and real estate brokers say, the deal ran afoul of competing factions at Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that was negotiating to lease 450,000 square feet to KPMG. The space was in 3 World Financial Center, the tower just across from the World Trade Center site that Lehman owns in partnership with American Express. (New York Times)

Appeals Panel Upholds Ruling for Open Court for 9/11 Detainees - Jun 19, 2002
A federal appeals panel refused today to block a judge's order that the Immigration and Naturalization Service hold open deportation hearings for so-called special-interest cases involving detainees held after Sept. 11. (New York Times)

City Working to Stop WTC Rat Problem - Jun 19, 2002
City officials said yesterday they're doing their best to battle the rodents that have come to the Ground Zero area attracted by the demolition, debris, broken sidewalks and busted pipes. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the city sent exterminators and set bait traps at more than 1,100 spots around Ground Zero and the Financial District. However, rat sightings are still common in the area (New York Daily News)

Flushing Cemetery Dedicates WTC Memorial - Jun 18, 2002
To help preserve the memory of those who perished in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, Flushing Cemetery has dedicated a new memorial. The World Trade Center Memorial features a 6 1/2-foot-tall granite slab depicting the twin towers. On either side of the slab is a granite block, the left block dedicated to the victims and the right to those involved in the rescue efforts. (New York Daily News)

Bloomberg Liaison's Comments Upset Some 9/11 Victims' Kin - Jun 18, 2002
The quarrel between Michael R. Bloomberg and some of the families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorism has now extended to involve the mayor's liaison to those families. (New York Times)

Thefts Hurt WTC-area Shops - Jun 17, 2002
The issue of theft around Ground Zero lingers more than nine months later, this time as part of claims by small business owners for compensation from their insurance companies, the government or their landlords. (Newsday)

Lure of Millions Fuels 9/11 Families' Feuding - Jun 17, 2002
Now, as families confront the task of determining who is entitled to what in the estates of the Sept. 11 victims, conflicts small and large are breaking out, compounding the sadness, heartache and anger for already badly damaged families. Nowhere are these familial fractures more evident than in the workings of the federal government's Victim Compensation Fund, a multibillion-dollar program intended to give victims' heirs enough money to make them secure (New York Times)

Paramedics Families to Get 9/11 Death Benefits - Jun 17, 2002
The widows of the only two city EMS paramedics to die in the World Trade Center attacks are poised to receive death benefits that until now had been available only to firefighters' families. The State Assembly today is expected to give final passage to a bill that would mean $50,000 a year each to the widows. (New York Post)

No Remains Found Yet in Bank - Jun 16, 2002
Clad in Tyvex jumpsuits and heavy-duty respirators, recovery workers spent their second day searching for human remains inside the controversial Deutsche Bank building on Liberty Street yesterday. Firefighters, who expect to complete an initial sweep by tomorrow, said they had worked their way down to the 12th floor, but so far had found nothing. (New York Post)

Grieving Dads Go it Alone After Sept. 11 - Jun 16, 2002
More than 80 men from the metropolitan area who lost a wife or girlfriend with whom they had been raising young children, according to a Newsday analysis of those lost in the World Trade Center attack. The stories of mothers widowed by the attack, who were far more numerous, have been widely told. Less has been said about the emotional and domestic upheaval of the men whose lives also were abruptly dislocated. (Newsday)

Suburbs Show How Much 9/11 Hurt New York City - Jun 16, 2002
While New York City has suffered a high degree of unemployment after Sept. 11, Westchester, Rockland and especially Long Island have been gaining jobs. This tends to suggest that the crater in New York City's economy was, indeed, caused by terrorists. (New York Times)

Mayor Announces Website for Memorial Input - Jun 15, 2002
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city has set up a Web site, voice-mail system and mailbox to collect suggestions for the official event to honor the one-year observance of the Sept. 11 attacks. (New York Post)

City and Bank Agree on Plan for 9/11 Debris - Jun 15, 2002
The search for human remains is under way at the last large building in the World Trade Center area that needs to be examined, city officials said yesterday after reaching an agreement with Deutsche Bank detailing how the city will sift through and remove debris from the bank's 130 Liberty Street building. (New York Times)

Bloomberg's Fragile Rapport With the Families of Sept. 11 - Jun 15, 2002
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been repeatedly assailed as being insensitive to families of Sept. 11 victims. At the same time, aides to the mayor have become increasingly angry with the media coverage of Mr. Bloomberg's run-ins with the families, suggesting that the same few people seem to be quoted as representing thousands (New York Times)

Many Criticize FEMA's Pace on Aid - Jun 14, 2002
Six weeks after the Federal Emergency Management Agency promised to re-evaluate more than 7,000 applications for disaster aid that it conceded might have been improperly rejected in the months after Sept. 11, the agency said today that it had granted 85 additional awards. This performance has infuriated members of New York's Congressional delegation, some of whom accuse FEMA of stalling the review process and simply repeating its mistakes at a time when the aid is most vital. (New York Times)

High Concentrations of Lead Found at Stuyvesant High - Jun 14, 2002
Stuyvesant High School's ventilation system has captured concentrations of lead, believed to be from the World Trade Center collapse, that are 30 times higher than acceptable federal limits, recent Board of Education tests found. (New York Post)

Giuliani Calls for a 'Grand' Memorial, Clashes with Bloomberg - Jun 14, 2002
A day after Mayor Bloomberg upset families of Sept. 11 victims by saying the final World Trade Center tribute should not be so big that it feels like a "cemetery," former Mayor Rudy Giuliani called again for a "grand, soaring memorial." Giuliani avoided criticizing Bloomberg. But he was passionate about his vision for a memorial. (New York Daily News)

At Landfill, World Trade Center Work Winds Down - Jun 14, 2002
Two weeks after the Ground Zero recovery effort was declared over, the sifting of debris at the Fresh Kills landfill continues. But here, too, the process is near complete. Barges once hauled as much as 18,000 tons of warped steel and other World Trade Center debris daily, but deliveries have now slowed to a trickle. The site could shut down in as little as four to six weeks. (Newsday)

9/11 Paramedics Seek Counseling - Jun 13, 2002
After two suicides by paramedics who worked extensively at Ground Zero, the cityÕs paramedics union called on the Fire Department yesterday to implement mandatory counseling for those who worked at Ground Zero (Newsday)

At Tower Site Vast Top Seen As Memorial - Jun 13, 2002
For months now, Larry Silverstein and his house architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, have been quietly drafting plans for a massive office building on the World Trade Center site that would equal the former Twin Towers in height, but with one significant difference: The top would be an uninhabited "memorial" structure that would fade into the clouds, suggesting a height beyond conventional measure. (New York Observer)

Downtown Transportation Hub Winning Support - Jun 13, 2002
Construction of a lower Manhattan transit hub and an expanded South Ferry subway station have risen to the top of a list of downtown transportation projects vying for $1.8 billion in federal aid. (New York Daily News)

Mayor: Memorial's Size a Concern - Jun 13, 2002
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday that the size of the memorial to honor victims of the World Trade Center attack should not overshadow the needs of downtown residents and businesses. The mayor's spokesperson later said that his comments were in response to concerns expressed to him by Battery Park residents (Newsday)

Suburbs Show How Much 9/11 Hurt New York City - Jun 12, 2002
While New York City has suffered a high degree of unemployment after Sept. 11, Westchester, Rockland and especially Long Island have been gaining jobs. This tends to suggest that the crater in New York City's economy was, indeed, caused by terrorists. (New York Times)

Group Offering Grants for 9/11 Remembrance - Jun 12, 2002
Neighborhood organizations planning to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks are eligible for up to $500 each, a community group announced yesterday. The Citizens Committee for New York City Ă‘ an umbrella group for more than 12,000 grass-roots organizations in all five boroughs Ă‘ has begun accepting applications for its Sept. 11 Remember and Renew grant. (New York Daily News)

WTC Planners Eye Tourism - Jun 12, 2002
A lead architect hired by redevelopment officials to reimagine the World Trade Center site said yesterday his firm is not looking at lower Manhattan solely as a financial hub. Tourism will play a "tremendous force" in the planning, said John Belle, a partner with architects Beyer Blinder Belle. He noted that about 10 million people have come to Ground Zero since Sept. 11. (New York Daily News)

Sept. 11 Relatives Want Commission - Jun 12, 2002
Clutching photos of loved ones lost, nearly 100 parents, siblings, children and other relatives of Sept. 11 victims gathered Tuesday outside the Capitol to urge an independent investigation into the terrorist attacks. The rally took place as the House and Senate intelligence committees were meeting behind closed doors to look into lapses in intelligence-sharing by U.S. officials before Sept. 11. Supporters of an independent commission said that inquiry is not enough. (Newsday)

Traffic Likely in WTC Rebuild - Jun 12, 2002
The head of the rebuilding effort yesterday sketched out the most "likely" layout for the World Trade Center site. Lower Manhattan Development Corp. chairman John Whitehead said the land will probably be cut into quadrants by two heavily trafficked vehicular streets with office towers rising above them. (New York Post)

Rebuilding the Winter Garden - Jun 12, 2002
Marble craftsmen are working in the first building construction at the World Trade Center void, reviving the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center. Early this year, engineers deemed that all the atrium's tricolor marble flooring would have to be replaced. Brookfield Financial Properties, the owner, has spent $5.8 million for the new marble, part of the $50 million in reconstruction costs for the Winter Garden. (New York Times)

Kids Traumatized by 9/11 not Getting Care - Jun 11, 2002
Children who were traumatized by the World Trade Center attack are not getting adequate mental-health care, several victims and experts said yesterday. During a congressional hearing in lower Manhattan, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton heard from panels that included grief specialists, school officials and survivors. (New York Post)

40 Per Cent of 9/11 Charity Funds Unspent - Jun 11, 2002
Less than 30 percent of the $2.3 billion donated to major Sept. 11 charities has gone to victims' families while 40 percent has yet to be distributed, according to a survey by The Washington Post (New York Post)

Poll Finds New York Fearful, but Upbeat Over Future, Too - Jun 11, 2002
Nine months after the destruction of the World Trade Center, New Yorkers say they are struggling with the psychological fallout from the attack, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. But New Yorkers remain, over all, extraordinarily optimistic about the immediate health of New York and its long-term future. The number of people who think that New York will be a better place to live in 10 or 15 years is higher than it was the month before the attack. (New York Times)

9/11 Baby Boom? Nobody Told the Stork - Jun 11, 2002
There has been a fair amount of talk about the prospect of rambunctious times at hospital delivery rooms this summer. Today is nine months since 9/11. And since nine months is roughly how long it takes for a baby to gestate, this has all translated into some surefire predictions. We have seen evidence both supporting and denying the trend, but time will tell whether or not a 9/11 baby boom is actually happening. (New York Times)

Effectiveness of Grants to Keep Jobs Downtown Is Questioned - Jun 11, 2002
The American Stock Exchange is the latest company to get a cash grant from the state and city for remaining downtown. The exchange, which will get $3 million, was in no danger of leaving the city. This grant, and others like it, has spurred increasing criticism of the grant program by urban planners, good-government groups and economists who question whether the $500 million in federal funds designed to revitalize Lower Manhattanmoney could be better spent. (New York Times)

Idea For Transit Hub Downtown Could Mean Tearing Down A Block Of Buildings - Jun 10, 2002
Officials planning a new downtown transit hub are considering a radical proposal to raze a square block off lower Broadway for an ambitious aboveground terminal topped by office towers. The Port Authority, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have discussed various versions of the plan - and it is now being explored by Parsons Brinckerhoff, the engineering firm hired to rethink the downtown transit map, said sources familiar with the proposal. The buildings on the block bordered by Fulton and John streets and Broadway and Nassau Street would be condemned and razed and the confusing maze of subway connections at the station would be "rationalized," the sources said. A new terminal - akin to a downtown Grand Central - would be built over the site. (New York Post)

Subways At Risk For Nerve Gas Attack, FBI Says - Jun 10, 2002
In its latest terror warning, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says subway systems in the United States are at risk for nerve gas attacks. The U.S. transportation Department had earlier warned that New York CityÕs subways could be targeted by terrorists, but this is the first warning from federal authorities to cite transit systems nationwide. (NY1)

Imagine New York Workshops Produce Many Ideas In New Report - Jun 9, 2002
Memorials, not only at ground zero but also throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. A cultural and performing arts center and more green space downtown. Better waterfront access, and greater security and public safety measures. And an open, democratic process to decide the post-9/11 future of Lower Manhattan. These are among the themes that have emerged from more than 250 workshops and public hearings, involving nearly 4,000 people from three states, sponsored over the last four months by the Municipal Art Society. The arts society whittled down the 19,000 ideas generated during the workshops to a set of 49 visions, which are contained in a report to be released tomorrow. (New York Times)

Recovery And Cleanup Officials To Determine How To Clean Up Deutsche Bank Building - Jun 9, 2002
City officials are slated to meet tomorrow to resolve a conflict over searching a contaminated building near Ground Zero for remains, the latest tangle in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site. Fire Department and Office of Emergency Management officials are to meet tomorrow with management of the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St., across from the southern edge of Ground Zero, to figure out when that building can be searched for remains, sources said. (New York Post)

More Remains Found At Ground Zero, Ten Days After Official Closing - Jun 8, 2002
Workers searching through debris in buildings adjacent to the World Trade Center site this week found the remains of about a dozen people, city officials said Saturday. In the past week, workers thoroughly searched 90 West St. and 130 Cedar St., two office buildings that were heavily damaged on Sept. 11, said Megan Sheekey, a spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Crews searching those buildings over the past week have found bone fragments, teeth and even parts of a plane's luggage rack. The remains will be turned over to the city Medical Examiner's office for identification. (Associated Press)

Housing Subsidy Program For Residents Near World Trade Center Approved By Feds - Jun 8, 2002
People who live in lower Manhattan, torn from their homes for weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, are being offered grants of up to $12,000 to stay in the area. The grants, which are also available to those who move to lower Manhattan, require people to stay put for at least two years. The grant program was formally unveiled yesterday by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez, Gov. Pataki and John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (New York Daily News)

New York City Facing $16 Billion Debt After 9/11 - Jun 7, 2002
New York City is likely to suffer a net loss of up to $16 billion because of the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal study released yesterday shows. The report estimated the attacks caused the city to suffer $83 billion in losses - but can expect to recover $67 billion of that through federal aid, insurance and new economic activity. (New York Post)

City, State Get $48 Million For Bioterrorist Security - Jun 7, 2002
New York State and New York City received $48 million in federal funds yesterday to beef up safeguards against bioterrorism. The money is part of $1.1 billion in national terrorism preparedness funds being distributed to all 50 states, U.S. territories and three major cities - New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. (New York Daily News)

WTC Proposal Aiming High - Jun 7, 2002
The architect hired by World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein has created plans for an office building on the site that would rise as high as the 110-story Twin Towers that once stood there. David Childs, a partner at the Manhattan architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, has built a model of a building about 1,300 feet tall. (Newsday)

Twin Towers Fund Makes More Distributions - Jun 7, 2002
The Twin Towers Fund, established by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to assist the families of uniformed rescue workers killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, has begun distributing a third round of benefits totaling more than $103 million. The current round of payments will go to rescue workers not included in previous distributions. (Newsday)

Push on to Keep Cross at Ground Zero for Good - Jun 6, 2002
A movement to keep the Ground Zero cross at Ground Zero got a boost yesterday when a redevelopment official suggested it be made part of a permanent memorial. An effort is afoot to make these steel girders Ă‘ found broken into the shape of a cross in the rubble of Building 6 Ă‘ part of permanent memorial. Ed Malloy, a board member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., asked the agency to incorporate the steel cross into the design of a planned Sept. 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site. (New York Daily News)

Windows on the World Workers Resolve Conflict - Jun 6, 2002
Resolving a conflict with the union that represented workers at the destroyed Windows on the World, its former owner David Emil agreed to hire five more displaced employees for his new Times Square restaurant.After being threatened with a protest at last night's opening of Noche, Emil offered the additional jobs and agreed to employ nine other workers for banquets at the Latin-inspired restaurant at Broadway and W.49th St. (New York Daily News)

Ground Zero Oil Leaks Need Cleanup - Jun 6, 2002
A recent environmental report said that the Seven World Trade Center site requires ongoing environmental cleanup. The collapse of the 47-story tower there resulted in the release of 130,000 gallons of oil from the Consolidated Edison substation, while an unspecified amount of oil leaked from two damaged storage tanks formerly owned by Salomon Smith Barney. (Newsday)

Low Offices Are Suggested for Towers Site - Jun 6, 2002
A plan for low office buildings that could be enlarged at a later date is under consideration for the World Trade Center site, the top planner for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Alexander Garvin, said yesterday. Mr. Garvin termed the strategy one possible way to resolve questions about rebuilding the site when there is a glut of office space downtown. (New York Times)

McCall Urges Upstate Voice in 9/11 Recovery Agency - Jun 6, 2002
H. Carl McCall, a Democratic candidate for governor, said yesterday that upstate and suburban New Yorkers should have a direct say in planning the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan, and that the state agency overseeing the rebuilding effort should be enlarged to include members from outside New York City. He also said he would revamp the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the 16-member agency created by Gov. George E. Pataki to help New York recover from the Sept. 11 attack. (New York Times)

New Court Program Set Up For Small Business Owners Facing Eviction - Jun 5, 2002
Civil Court officials kicked off a new program yesterday to help small businesses in lower Manhattan ward off evictions because of 9/11-related problems. Civil Court Administrative Judge Fern Fisher called it a unique project that will provide free lawyers and mediators, who will serve as pro-bono volunteers. (New York Daily News)

Public Hearing Exposes Divide Between More Affluent and Working Class Downtown - Jun 5, 2002
At last week's public hearing convened by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, many of those who spoke expressed anger that hundreds of millions of dollars had been set aside for large corporations and the well-off residents of Battery Park City and TriBeCa, at the expense, they said, of small businesses and the more needy residents of Chinatown and the Lower East Side. (New York Times)

Windows on the World Workers Say Their Boss Didn't Do Enough - Jun 4, 2002
Some people who once hailed David Emil, whose company ran Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center, as a hero for helping the restaurant's workers and their families are suddenly calling him a cheat and double-crosser as he prepares to open his next big restaurant in Times Square. Their passions still raw from Sept. 11, dozens of former Windows workers are furious at Mr. Emil for not giving all 90 jobs at his new restaurant, Noche, to Windows workers. They accuse him of betraying his promise to do his utmost to find jobs for the workers who helped make Windows the nation's highest-grossing restaurant, with $37 million in revenue in its last full year. (New York Times)

Landlords Learn Anti-terror Tactics - Jun 4, 2002
Authorities released information about an al-Qaida guide to apartment hunting to more than 250 landlords, property managers and security representatives at One Police Plaza in the first of a series of forums aimed at helping New Yorkers identify suspicious activity. The three-hour session was planned after the FBI learned of threats to blow up apartment buildings. (Newsday)

Council Proposes Tree Memorials - Jun 4, 2002
Members of the City Council want to plant hundreds of "freedom trees" throughout the five boroughs to honor those killed Sept. 11. With support from a member of the Coalition of 911 Families Group, Councilman James Sanders Jr. (D-Queens) will ask the council to endorse putting trees on public property in neighborhoods where city victims lived. (Newsday)

Relatives of Victims Pay Respect in Final Tribute At Ground Zero - Jun 3, 2002
Nearly nine months after hijacked jets knifed into the twin towers, about 900 victims' relatives gathered at a final memorial service before the recovery effort gives way completely to redevelopment. Clutching photographs of the dead, relatives of the more than 2,800 murdered on Sept. 11 lingered at the edge of Ground Zero and stared into the void where the bodies of 1,700 could not be found. (New York Daily News)

Commencement Speeches Throughout City And Country Evoke September 11 - Jun 2, 2002
Nearly everyone who worked the commencement speech circuit this spring talked about Sept. 11, whether it was the horror of that morning and its aftermath, or the lessons learned by both the nation's government and its citizens. Included with this article are excerpts from various commencement speeches delivered at schools throughout the country in recent weeks, many of them touching on September 11. (New York Times)

Times Square Emerges From Post-September 11 Winter - Jun 2, 2002
"While a few have moved away and others refuse to come, the city of humankind goes on nearly as before, and the lights of Times Square still burn like an electric timber fire. The greatest concentrate of humanity carries on," writes Charlie LeDuff in an article about Times Square after September 11. With the spring weather returning to the city, LeDuff applauds those who continue to visit and revel in Times Square. (New York Times)

Trade Center Victims' Families Criticize Mayor For Skipping Ceremony - Jun 1, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg drew fiery criticism from the families of some Sept. 11 victims for turning down an invitation to tomorrow's family service at Ground Zero. "He went back and forth all week long and decided that the families should have their time," said Bloomberg's press secretary . "He is sincerely appreciative of the invitation." (New York Daily News)



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