Wall Street Power Brokers Warn That Downtown Rebuilding Must Happen Soon - Mar 31, 2003
Top Wall Street power brokers have sounded an urgent alarm over snail's-pace redevelopment downtown and the area's abominable working conditions. Ken Chenault, Stan O'Neal and Tom Renyi - the CEOs respectively of American Express, Merrill Lynch and Bank of New York - warn in a confidential memo that downtown New York faces imminent catastrophe if its rejuvenation remains stalled by political paralysis. (New York Post)
Fire Department Group Seeks Special 9/11 Tribute - Mar 31, 2003
A group of retired firefighters still wants a Ground Zero memorial to honor uniformed rescuers separately from other victims - even though officials already nixed the idea. "Why in God's name would anyone not want to recognize what these brave, brave men did?" John Finucane, a retired FDNY lieutenant who's leading the charge, said. (New York Daily News)
Support Our Troops Rally Organized by 9/11 Families - Mar 31, 2003
Waving American flags and singing the national anthem, 200 people gathered at Ground Zero yesterday in a peaceful rally to support U.S. troops in Iraq. Among the demonstrators bearing yellow ribbons were 9/11 victims' loved ones, veterans and firefighters, who braved wind and rain at the site where many believe the war began. (New York Daily News)
Plans for Cultural Complex at Ground Zero Take Form - Mar 31, 2003
As plans begin to take shape for a cultural complex at ground zero, American Express has agreed to support a Museum of Freedom that may be built there. The museum would present exhibitions about the terrorist attacks as well as about issues like women's equality and civil rights. An American Express executive said that the company, based in lower Manhattan, decided to help sponsor the project because of its theme. (New York Times)
New World Trade Center Design is Being Eclipsed by its Architect, For Now - Mar 30, 2003
World Trade Center site designer Daniel Libeskind has fast become a pop culture icon. In six months, the man who will help bring life back to the destroyed trade center site has become a hot ticket in a town obsessed with celebrity. And he may contribute to an uptick in applications at his alma mater, Cooper Union, too. (Newsday)
Buildings Near Trade Center Still Closed - Mar 30, 2003
Eighteen months after the World Trade Center was destroyed, several surrounding office buildings are still closed and the future of the largest remains uncertain. The 40-story Deutsche Bank tower just south of the trade center site has been cleared of a mold that infested it for months after the attack, but its owners have not decided whether to raze or repair it. Other buildings, such as a major Post Office building just north of the site, are still being cleaned and overhauled. (Associated Press)
9/11 Comission May Recommend Criminal Charges - Mar 30, 2003
The commission charged with investigating if any failures led to the 9/11 terrorist attacks may refer its findings to criminal prosecutors, officials told The Post. The panel - headed by former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean - is holding its first public hearings in Manhattan tomorrow and Tuesday. (New York Post)
City, Port Authority Come Closer To Deal On Ground Zero-Airport Land Swap - Mar 28, 2003
City Hall and the Port Authority may be inching closer to a land-swap deal that would give the city complete control of Ground Zero, sources said yesterday. The Port Authority recently made what it considered a solid offer in which New York would acquire the 16-acre World Trade Center site and millions in cash in exchange for Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, which are leased by the authority, sources said. (New York Daily News)
Police Officers Who Sifted Through WTC Debris Sue City - Mar 28, 2003
A group of police officers has filed suit against the city, charging they suffered "serious and permanent injury" from sifting through World Trade Center debris at the Fresh Kills landfill. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the seven officers and detectives say they were exposed to "dangerous levels of toxins, contaminants and teratogens and other harmful elements in the air" at the landfill as they examined debris. (New York Post)
Potential Conflicts Abound For 9/11 Investigation Panel - Mar 28, 2003
Members of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks have numerous professional ties to industries and organizations that could come under their scrutiny, financial disclosure reports show. The affiliations create possible conflicts that could pose challenges for the panel as it deals with a broad mandate, a tight schedule and limited funding. (Associated Press)
Battery Park City Says West St. Tunnel Likely - Mar 27, 2003
Pedestrians try to make their way across West St. at Vesey St., near where an underground tunnel may be built.State officials are likely to build a short tunnel under West St. and construction will be much less disruptive than some neighbors fear, Timothy Carey, president and C.E.O. of the Battery Park City Authority, said last week. "That's what I think will happen," Carey said of the proposed underground roadway, which would be adjacent to the World Trade Center site between Vesey and Liberty Sts. (Downtown Express)
Residents ask Libeskind to Improve Access - Mar 27, 2003
Downtown residents last week pressed Daniel Libeskind to adjust his design for the World Trade Center site by making it easier to walk through the area at street level. Libeskind, who was selected to design the site at the end of February, presented his plan to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's advisory committees last Thursday. The committees are made up of relatives of the people killed in the Sept. 11 attack, representatives from civics and arts groups, and Lower Manhattan business people and residents. Just about all of the speakers praised Libeskind's design, but the consensus among the residents who spoke was that the plan needed to be improved by allowing people walking east or west to cross the site in more places. (Downtown Express)
Downtowners Debate Merits of Liberty Bonds - Mar 27, 2003
Nearly a year after Congress announced it would create $8 billion in Liberty Bond financing for Lower Manhattan development, about one-quarter of the bonds have been earmarked for use. The bonds represent a tax-exempt investment, not cash, and developers benefit from a lower financing rate over time. If all $8 billion were used, it would cost federal taxpayers an estimated $1.2 billion over 10 years, and some have suggested that the unused money set aside to support the bonds would help Lower Manhattan more if it was invested in transportation improvements. (Downtown Express)
Insurer Considers Major Move to Downtown's Empty Office Spaces - Mar 27, 2003
The Health Insurance Plan of New York is negotiating to move its headquarters and 1,600 employees to Lower Manhattan from Midtown in one of the biggest office deals in the past two years. HIP's potential move to an office building on the East River, at 55 Water Street, would be a boost for the downtown economy, where thousands of layoffs in the financial industry and corporate relocations have left a lot of office space vacant. HIP's offices are now at 7 West 34th Street and 132 West 31st Street. (New York Times)
Bloomberg Trusts That Feds Will Pay For Operation Atlas - Mar 27, 2003
The Bush administration likely will pick up the city's entire $5 million weekly tab for wartime security, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. "It does look like our $5 million a week will be paid for by the federal government," Bloomberg said. "They haven't said so explicitly, but if you read what they have said so far, I believe, that [it] probably will be." (New York Daily News)
WTC Workers Compensation Board Has Settled Most Claims - Mar 26, 2003
The state Workers' Compensation Board has settled about 85% of death and injury claims from victims and families in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, officials said yesterday. The board has resolved 2,062 claims related to deaths, and 4,108 stemming from injuries, spokesman Jon Sullivan said. (New York Daily News)
Miller Pushes Terror Test for Buildings - Mar 26, 2003
Buildings taller than seven stories would have to undergo anti-terrorism inspections - paid for by property owners - under a proposal floated yesterday by City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. While Miller said the inspections are necessary to protect people who live and work in tall buildings, property owners attacked the plan as a tax in disguise. (New York Daily News)
Author Charges Silverstein Was Plotting To Cash In On Attacks Within Hours of 9/11 - Mar 25, 2003
Within hours of the collapse of the twin towers, leaseholder Larry Silverstein was plotting a strategy to nullify parts of his insurance policy and maximize his payout, a new book claims. Steven Brill's "After - How America Confronted the Sept. 12 Era" also contends that Silverstein has been daring the Port Authority to breach its lease with him so he can make "a fast $1 billion." (New York Daily News)
24-Hour Air Patrols Resume Over New York - Mar 25, 2003
The United States government has resumed 24-hour air patrols over New York City after law enforcement and intelligence agencies warned that the city was in special danger from terrorists during the war with Iraq, senior government officials said today. The 24-hour patrols will be the first over New York City since early last year, when the Defense Department suspended the continuous air patrols over New York and Washington that had begun in the hours after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)
New Report Challenges Account of Looting at Ground Zero - Mar 23, 2003
A new 50-page analysis challenges the account of an award-winning journalist that some firefighters stole pairs of jeans from a store at the World Trade Center while responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. In his report, based on satellite data, aerial photographs, maps and footnotes, author George Black seeks to refute the assertions of William Langewiesche, who reported the looting last year in a series of articles for The Atlantic Monthly. The articles were later turned into a critically acclaimed book, "American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center," that angered many firefighters. (Associated Press)
Daniel Libeskind To Get Joint WTC Site Contract - Mar 21, 2003
Daniel Libeskind, the architect who created the winning design for rebuilding the World Trade Center site, will soon be offered contracts to oversee nearly all of the development projects at the site, rebuilding officials said yesterday. The contracts, to be offered within 30 days by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, are intended to ensure that Mr. Libeskind's plan will guide development at the site. (New York Times)
New York Steps Up Scrutiny and Traffic Slows to Crawl - Mar 20, 2003
Concerned that river crossings are among the likelier potential targets for terrorist attacks, the New York Police Department sharply increased its patrols at bridges and tunnels yesterday. The patrols, along with inspections of trucks in Manhattan, slowed traffic to a single-lane crawl on entrance ramps and avenues. (New York Times)
Surveillance Cameras Installed In Subway Tunnels - Mar 20, 2003
Surveillance cameras have been installed in "sensitive places" in the subway system - including tunnels that run under the East River - in a bid to foil a possible terror attack, The Post has learned. The cameras have been put in places that are off-limits to straphangers, such as facilities that house computers and areas where signal workers switch trains from track to track. (New York Post)
New Yorkers On Wartime Alert - Mar 20, 2003
The mayor went to Washington to ask for budget help. The Department of Education tightened security. Protesters continued to insist that war was not necessary, while police went to war-time status. Like it or not, the attack on Iraq loomed large in the city yesterday, and even the most self-involved citizens could hardly avoid noticing the changes all around, both subtle and obvious. (Newsday)
Bloomberg Seeks Federal Funds at White House - Mar 20, 2003
Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday outlined a $900 million request for federal funds to beef up New York's emergency preparedness, and said the Bush administration agreed that high-profile target cities like New York should get a larger proportion of aid. (Newsday)
Mold Has Been Removed From Deutsche Bank Building - Mar 20, 2003
The toxic mold that was considered a serious environmental threat in the damaged Deutsche Bank building has been removed, city officials said this week - potentially clearing the way for a decision on what will happen with the black-shrouded wreck that looms over Ground Zero. (New York Post)
WTC Architect May Work Primarily With Port Authority - Mar 20, 2003
Ground Zero architect Daniel Libeskind would work primarily for the Port Authority - not a state-city agency created to oversee rebuilding - under a pact being considered. PA Vice Chairman Charles Gargano said yesterday that the agency was "in negotiations right now" with Libeskind. (New York Daily News)
New Yorkers' Views on the Coming War - Mar 19, 2003
A slideshow, with excerpts from interviews. "I have two sons and IĂ•m very frightened - about the threat of reprisals and the threat to our future," said Debbie Galasso, 50. (BBC News)
Tough New Yorkers Feeling Threatened - Mar 19, 2003
New Yorkers who shrugged at the rainbow of terror alerts and smirked at the duct tape frenzy say the likelihood of war with Iraq makes terror attacks feel like a real threat. ``All those warnings before I never took seriously. But this is very different--there's an obvious threat,'' said Lynn Chen, 24, during a lunch break near the World Trade Center site, where nearly 2,800 people were killed in the terrorist attack 18 months ago. (Associated Press)
With Tighter Security, New Yorkers Tense Up for Life in Wartime - Mar 19, 2003
The day after President Bush declared that diplomacy had failed and that Saddam Hussein must leave Iraq or face attack, there was a sense of inevitability in a city that has come to see itself as a victim, a city that worries about being a target, a city that is still adjusting to a life of color-coded danger. (New York Times)
City Finally Gets $33M 9/11 Grant - Mar 19, 2003
More than a year and a half after the World Trade Center attack, the federal government Tuesday announced that it had finally released funds to pay for the mental health needs of city schoolchildren. A $33 million grant to the city was approved last week by the Federal Center for Mental Health Services, which works in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. (Newsday)
9/11 Small-Business Grants Exceed Approved Financing - Mar 19, 2003
The biggest 9/11 program aiding small businesses in Lower Manhattan has approved payments totaling $49 million more than the amount allotted to the program, and state officials are scrambling to come up with the extra money. (New York Times)
L.M.D.C. Looks to Plan the Rest of Downtown - Mar 18, 2003
The architect and the street plan for the World Trade Center site were selected three weeks ago, but officials are hoping to figure out in the next month who exactly will make future decisions at the site and who will pay the architect, Daniel Libeskind. Libeskind didn't seem worried this Monday when he rang the opening bell of the American Stock Exchange, smiling as he banged away with Kevin Rampe, the L.M.D.C.'s acting president. (Downtown Express)
NYPD Begins First Stage of Security Plan 'Operation Atlas' - Mar 18, 2003
As the nation moved closer to war with Iraq, the NYPD last night was poised to launch "Operation Atlas" by beefing up police patrols at the city's news organizations, The Post has learned. The first steps in the NYPD's plan to boost security were taken as the rest of the nation yesterday followed the city's lead by raising the terrorist threat level from Code Yellow to Code Orange. In the days ahead, the NYPD expects to implement other aspects of the $5 million-a-week Big Apple security package known as Atlas. (New York Post)
Federal Records Show EPA Made Mistake In Declaring WTC Air Safe - Mar 18, 2003
The Environmental Protection Agency failed to gather sufficient evidence before declaring the air around Ground Zero "safe to breathe" in the days after the collapse of the twin towers, federal documents reveal. The EPA inspector general's office found that the agency based its conclusion on a cancer risk level 100 times greater than the traditional standard used to determine acceptable public exposure to toxic contaminants. (New York Daily News)
Feds Give $92M For PATH Station at WTC Site - Mar 18, 2003
The Port Authority will receive an additional $92.4 million for construction of the temporary PATH station at the World Trade Center site, federal officials said yesterday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's grant will cover about half of the station's construction costs, with the rest coming from expected insurance proceeds, FEMA officials said. (Newsday)
City Is Planning Expanded Security in Event of War - Mar 16, 2003
To protect New York City if and when an American-led attack on Iraq begins, police officials have prepared a sweeping security plan that calls for expanding the patrols on the streets and asking the Defense Department to fly combat aircraft overhead, a senior police official said yesterday. The patrols on the streets -- at government buildings, hotels and houses of worship as well as at newly strengthened checkpoints at bridges and tunnels -- would address a concern of police officials, that attackers acting alone present a greater risk than a larger, carefully orchestrated assault on the city. (New York Times)
9/11 Claims by Firefighters Could Cost $12 Billion - Mar 15, 2003
Michael A. Cardozo, the city's corporation counsel, said yesterday that New York City could end up paying at least $12 billion to more than a thousand firefighters who have filed Sept. 11-related lawsuits. The bulk of the claims come from firefighters who, along with some police officers and sanitation workers, say their health was jeopardized during the recovery and cleanup effort at ground zero because they were required to work without proper respiratory equipment. (New York Times)
9/11 Memorial Will Pay Tribute to All Victims - Mar 14, 2003
A memorial to the victims of Sept. 11 will recognize all of those killed as a single group rather than as members of separate groups like firefighters, rescue workers or World Trade Center tenants, rebuilding officials said yesterday. Directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation agreed at a board meeting yesterday to adopt a resolution laying out the guidelines for the memorial's content, including the provision that all the victims receive comparable recognition. (New York Times)
Job Losses in New York City Since 9/11 Continue to Grow - Mar 14, 2003
The national recession and the attack on the World Trade Center cost New York City 47,000 more jobs than previously believed, bringing the city's total job losses to about 223,000 in the last two years, according to new data released yesterday. The State Department of Labor, which released the revised job loss figures, also reported that the unemployment rate in the city edged up in January, to 8.6 percent from 8.5 percent in December. (New York Times)
Mayor Sees City Taking Control At Ground Zero - Mar 13, 2003
The Bloomberg administration is pursuing a strategy to take over the World Trade Center site that will likely increase pressure on developer Larry Silverstein to abandon his interests in the rebuilding effort, according to a Port Authority source familiar with the cityÕs position. (New York Observer)
Supporters Rally To LMDC's Wils - Mar 13, 2003
Members of Manhattan's Community Board 1 rallied around their leader last night, calling criticism of her by some World Trade Center victims' families unwarranted. The remains of unidentifiable victims at the World Trade Center site has become a lightning rod for the board, whose members would prefer to see only a symbolic portion of the remains there. That led some families on Monday to call for the resignation of board chairwoman Madelyn Wils from her membership on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (Newsday)
Memorials Proliferate in Crowded Downtown - Mar 13, 2003
Lower Manhattan's many memorials, including the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Irish Hunger Memorial, have prompted discussions among residents, urban planners and historians about the potential effect of so many monuments to death and loss on a living neighborhood, as well as concerns about the influx of roughly five million tourists once the memorial is built. Today the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is expected to release its mission statement for the World Trade Center memorial. (New York Times)
Study Calls for Adding Ferries to Link Suburbs to Downtown - Mar 13, 2003
Since shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center, an old idea -- extending the Long Island Rail Road to Lower Manhattan -- has received new attention and support from downtown business leaders. As part of his $10.6 billion rebuilding plan, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg advocated building a new tunnel beneath the East River to link downtown with the railroad. But a study to be released today contends that adding a commuter rail line from Long Island to downtown would do little to improve access to the area, and that a much bigger network of ferries would do the job better and for less money. (New York Times)
A Teenage Resident's View of the Bus Debate - Mar 12, 2003
Saruh Lacoff, a 15-year-old student whose bedroom window overlooks the World Trade Center site, began crying on and off for almost an hour after the mother of one of the victims said Downtown residents just wanted to clear the footprints for restaurants. "That's not what this is about," Lacoff called out, but few people heard her during a Community Board 1 meeting last week. (Downtown Express)
Families, Residents Fight Over W.T.C. 'Footprints' - Mar 12, 2003
Relatives of the victims of the World Trade Center attack clashed with Downtown residents and business people last week over the ongoing dispute about where to put the tour buses expected to visit a 9/11 memorial. The Port Authority, which owns the W.T.C. site, had proposed a 120-bus garage near the bathtub slurry wall and under the "footprints" of the Twin Towers, but after an outcry from some relatives, agency leaders downgraded the proposal to a suggestion and said they would consider alternatives. (Downtown Express)
Kelly Says Park Row Closing Will Continue - Mar 12, 2003
The city plans to install metal security grates around police headquarters, according to elected officials who met last Friday with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall to discuss easing traffic restrictions in the area. The news came as a blow to residents who had hoped that parts of Park Row, between Worth St. and City Hall, could be reopened after being closed for 18 months due to security concerns. (Downtown Express)
Photos, Flags and Other Mementos Stolen From a 9/11 Memorial - Mar 12, 2003
Thirty photographs, four flags and other mementos have been stolen from a sidewalk memorial to three officers at State Supreme Court in Manhattan who died in the attack on the World Trade Center, officials said yesterday. (New York Times)
New York's New Visionary - Daniel Libeskind - Mar 12, 2003
Daniel Libeskind, the elfin, bespectacled architect who last month won the right to design World Trade Center II, overnight became New York's chief public intellectual of urban space. Part event planner, part village explainer, part rock star, the former professor has essentially been appointed the city's master builder. He is ready for the role. (Newsday)
Families Seek to Oust LMDC Board Member - Mar 12, 2003
Several families of Sept. 11 victims have organized an online petition calling for Madelyn Wils, chair of Community Board 1 in lower Manhattan, to resign from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board. They argue that that Wils is opposing a World Trade Center site tomb for unknown remains. The families don't expect Wils to actually resign, but they hope to draw more attention to their dispute. (Newsday)
Rebuilding Agency To Discuss Libeskind Contract - Mar 12, 2003
The first contract with Studio Daniel Libeskind for work at the World Trade Center site will be considered for approval this week by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. They will discuss a contract for Mr. Libeskind to be a consultant on the memorial's development, the officials said. Some civic groups that have followed the rebuilding process have warned that if Mr. Libeskind does not have a formal role, crucial elements of his design could be compromised by the political machinations that surround any large public works project. (New York Times)
Betts: I Won't Lead A Weak LMDC - Mar 11, 2003
An influential downtown rebuilding official said yesterday he would turn down a leadership role in the months ahead if the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has its powers stripped. Corporation board member Roland Betts, a close friend of President Bush's, said he is waiting to see if negotiations between the state and city "clearly define" the LMDC as the lead agency in rebuilding Ground Zero. (New York Daily News)
Port Authority Reaffirms LMDC's Role - Mar 11, 2003
The Port Authority committed yesterday to working with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., denying reports that the rebuilding agency's role would be usurped by the city. Senior Port Authority officials plan to keep working with the agency, lauding the LMDC's role as "a great partner" in developing a public input process for the site's redevelopment. (Newsday)
'Flag Man' No Longer Allowed Into Ground Zero - Mar 11, 2003
For more than a year, Richard Wright of Glen Oaks has been setting flags to fly throughout Ground Zero and later retrieving them to donate to police and fire departments, Boy Scout troops and construction workers. Yesterday, Wright, 50, retrieved much of the last batch of his flags from the Port Authority, which recently told him he could no longer continue to set them at the site. (Newsday)
World Is Interested In How NYC Memorializes Attacks - Mar 10, 2003
Quite apart from the fact that people of many different nationalities died in those attacks, every nation has its own sad or traumatic events to remember and cannot help but be curious as to how others choose to translate loss or outrage or grief or even defiance into physical form. Fashions change in public memorials, as in all things. (Japan Times)
Picking Jury for 9/11 Memorial Is First Task - Mar 10, 2003
The first hurdle for planners responsible for creating a 9/11 memorial is to pick the jury that will choose the winning design -- and decide whether to include victims' relatives on the panel. Relatives of World Trade Center victims have called for family members to be on the jury. But some officials, including LMDC memorial head Anita Contini, have stressed the need for a panel made up of architects and other design professionals. (New York Post)
Libeskind's Past Projects Have Caused Budget Problems - Mar 10, 2003
Well-known projects designed by Daniel Libeskind, the artsy architect behind the controversial plan for Ground Zero, have been acclaimed by critics - but have caused headaches around the world because of budget problems. Still, his record indicates a willingness to retool his bold designs to accommodate financial and political realities. (New York Post)
Schumer Wants Relatives of 9/11 Victims to Have Voice at Terror Trials - Mar 9, 2003
The voices of Sept. 11 victimsÕ relatives should be heard at military tribunals where terrorists are on trial, Sen. Charles Schumer said today. Crime victims currently have the right to speak at the sentencing of convicted defendants in federal court, and that right should be extended to military tribunals, the lawmaker said. (Newsday)
Mayoral Appointees Miss Meetings on Ground Zero - Mar 8, 2003
For months, even as Mayor Michael Bloomberg has sought greater influence over the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, three of the eight mayoral appointees to the corporation's board have been absent from the debates over the future of downtown. One mayoral board seat has been empty since November, following the resignation of a director appointed by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Two other mayoral appointees -- E. Stanley O'Neal, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch, and Richard A. Grasso, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange -- have missed two-thirds of the scheduled board meetings over the last year. (New York Times)
Port Authority Stalls Real Estate Project - Mar 8, 2003
With the World Trade Center site's future still unresolved, the economy has slammed the brakes on another huge Port Authority real estate project. For five years, the agency has planned to build a 39-story office tower atop the Port Authority Bus Terminal at W. 42nd St. and Eighth Ave. But yesterday, developer Vornado Realty signaled the project's chances are "nil," said an analyst. (New York Daily News)
City Is Seeking Bigger Role in Rebuilding - Mar 7, 2003
The Bloomberg administration has proposed a broad restructuring of the city-state agency overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, city and state officials said yesterday. The plan would give the city more authority over the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site and billions of dollars of federal recovery money, they said. The plan would transfer the development corporation's planning, design and development staff to a city agency and would give the city and the development corporation's board joint authority over the development of cultural programs at the trade center site. (New York Times)
Activists Oppose New Liberty Bonds for Downtown Market-Rate Apartments - Mar 7, 2003
Another $48 million in Liberty Bonds is likely to be approved for new market-rate apartments in downtown Manhattan, angering housing advocates who say the federal tax-exempt bonds should do more to help low- and moderate-income residents. Liberty Bond housing projects are required to set aside just 5 percent of the apartments for moderate-income residents. But housing advocates say that doesn't go far enough and is at odds with the HFA's mission. (Newsday)
Information Forum For 9/11 Victims' Families - Mar 7, 2003
Hundreds of Sept. 11 victims' relatives are expected to attend an information forum tomorrow, where they can get answers to questions on issues such as the Ground Zero memorial and the victims' compensation fund. The forum, organized by the St. Clare's World Trade Center Outreach Committee on Staten Island, will feature representatives from dozens of victims' advocacy groups as well as from City Hall, said Dennis McKeon, who helped organize the event. (New York Daily News)
'The Libeskinds' - Winning Architect Brings Wife Along - Mar 6, 2003
Call them Mr. and Mrs. Ground Zero: Daniel and Nina Libeskind, with their short gray hair, black ensembles, leather jackets and artsy glasses, are steeling themselves for what is perhaps New York's hottest political crucible of the moment-the rebuilding effort at the World Trade Center. In the decade or so since Daniel, the distinguished professor, and Nina, who shares a starring role in Studio Daniel Libeskind as the driving force of its business side, have been designing actual buildings rather than promoting architectural education, they have become a political force to be reckoned with. (New York Observer)
Libeskind's WTC Vision Was Born of Socialist Bronx - Mar 6, 2003
As a young man living in the Amalgamated Houses in the Bronx, Daniel Libeskind Ă‘ the architect selected this week to rebuild the World Trade Center site Ă‘ recalls being immersed in an environment in which progressive politics, Yiddish literary debates and a community spirit thrived. (Forward)
Cantor Fitzgerald's WTC Funds To Be Split Up - Mar 6, 2003
A $33 million pot of money set aside by Congress specifically to help Cantor Fitzgerald - the World Trade Center brokerage that lost 658 employees in the terror attack - will be partly carved up by several other WTC firms after months of intense negotiations over the funds, officials said yesterday. (New York Post)
Tensions Flare Over Proposed WTC Bus Garage - Mar 6, 2003
Tensions flared between relatives of Sept. 11 victims and people who live downtown last night over a proposal to put a bus garage beneath the memorial at Ground Zero. The heated exchange took place at a Community Board 1 hearing on the garage, which neighbors of the site largely support but many victims' families oppose. (New York Daily News)
Victims' Families Say 9/11 Images in Rudy Movie Are 'Exploitative' - Mar 5, 2003
Already bombarded by images of the twin towers' destruction, families of Sept. 11 victims assailed an unauthorized TV movie about former mayor Rudy Giuliani that's packed with graphic Ground Zero footage. "It's exploitative," Jack Lynch, whose son Firefighter Michael Lynch was killed in the attacks, said yesterday. "It's a horrible thing to do to the families. It's crass and insensitive." (New York Daily News)
Millions Raised for Al Qaeda in Brooklyn - Mar 5, 2003
A prominent Yemeni cleric apprehended in Germany on charges of financing terrorism used a Brooklyn mosque to help funnel millions of dollars to Al Qaeda, according to federal officials. The cleric, Sheik Muhammad Ali Hassan al-Mouyad, told an F.B.I. informant that he collected money for terrorist groups including Al Qaeda and Hamas at the Al Farooq mosque on Atlantic Avenue. (New York Times)
WTC Rebuild Agency Names Interim President - Mar 5, 2003
Kevin Rampe, general counsel to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., was named as interim president of the agency, corporation board chairman John Whitehead said. The agency's first president, Lou Tomson, stepped down Friday after Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg selected a Ground Zero plan by architect Daniel Libeskind. Rampe, a former state insurance department official, is Pataki's choice to lead the agency permanently. But City Hall has yet to sign off on it, and is still interested in searching for another candidate, sources said. (New York Daily News)
Pentagon's Memorial Design Unveiled - Mar 4, 2003
"The first thing to know about the Pentagon Memorial design unveiled yesterday is that it is in exactly the right place -- only 60 yards or so away from the point of impact and directly along the flight path taken by the murderous plane that struck the building on Sept. 11, 2001," writes Benjamin Forgey in the Washington Post. "The second thing to say is that the competition-winning design by two young New York architects does much to honor and intensify the meaning of this already significant location." (Washington Post)
Now Libeskind Must Fight For His Plan - Mar 4, 2003
Eighteen months after the Twin Towers collapsed, New York finally has a planÑor rather the beginning of a planÑfor rebuilding ground zero. The first rule in architecture is: Get the job. But the highly capable Libeskind has already conceded too much of his vision to get there. Still, he proved his mettle pulling his brilliant Jewish Museum in Berlin through a hellacious process, its design largely intact. Now we need him to summon those skills in the even tougher city of New York. (New York Magazine)
There's a Long Way to Go, and Plenty Left to Argue About - Mar 4, 2003
Libeskind's opulent vision won the favor of rebuilding officials last week, but the degree to which his plans will be adopted remains an open question; from here, the process is fraught with obstacles. The exact composition of a memorial must still be determined. Libeskind's design must also pass an environmental review, and opponents have the right to call for alternatives as part of that process. With Lower Manhattan mired in a deep recession, the 10 million square feet of office space envisioned in Libeskind's plan seems unrealistic. Civic groups are balking at both the proposed parking garage and the blueprint's 880,000 square feet of retail space--nearly twice the size of the first World Trade Center mall. Victims' families, meanwhile, are upset about the notion of housing tour buses on "sacred ground" underneath the memorial site. (U.S. News and World Report)
Residents Oppose Tomb At WTC Site - Mar 4, 2003
A tomb holding the unidentified remains of Sept. 11 victims - the proposed soul of a Ground Zero memorial - is being vigorously opposed by downtown community leaders who fear it would turn their neighborhood into a cemetery. Manhattan's Community Board 1 is preparing a resolution opposing the return of all the unidentified victims' remains to the disaster site. (New York Daily News)
Rebuilding at Ground Zero - Mar 3, 2003
The competition to design the World Trade Center site is over. The winner is Daniel Libeskind. But how much of his powerful scheme will be built? Libeskind's plan calls for a 7acre area, 30 ft. deep, to be preserved as testimony to the attack and the resilience of New York City and America - in effect, a Wailing Wall for the 21st century, with an emotional power that grows from calamity but tells of endurance. (Time)
Daniel Libeskind Takes Home the Prize - Mar 3, 2003
Who would have thought a year ago that a world-class radical architect would be chosen to design the WTC site? The selection of someone of Libeskind's caliber for this historic project is a turning point for architecture and for the city, and it sends a clear signal that the public has an appetite for innovative design. It was public passion that forced the design competition from which Libeskind has emerged victorious. (Newsweek)
Political Considerations Lead To Current Vision For Ground Zero - Mar 3, 2003
The creation of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation set off what could have been any government operation -- a plodding, obtuse process run by bureaucrats with little public participation. Instead, it evolved into a grand public discussion about architecture, public space and the nature of memory. (New York Times)
Feds Say Mafia Violated Labor Laws At Ground Zero - Mar 2, 2003
Mafia bosses demanded cushy, high-paying jobs for their relatives and cronies at Ground Zero and may have stolen no-show pay during the eight-month cleanup of the site. Genovese and Colombo crime family bigs used their stranglehold of two powerful construction unions to override hiring lists and flout labor laws when jobs were handed out after 9/11, federal law enforcement sources say. (New York Post)
Buildings on Broadway To Make Way For New Transit Center - Mar 1, 2003
A tailoring shop a block from the World Trade Center survived 9/11, but it may not survive the rebuilding effort. New York State and New York City are planning a new Fulton Street Transit Center, a $750 million project on the east side of Broadway between Fulton and John Streets that will simplify connections between nine subway lines at the Fulton Street and Broadway-Nassau stations. But some buildings will be razed to make way for the transit center. (New York Times)
Victims' Families Oppose Bus Depot On WTC Site - Mar 1, 2003
Some victims' family members are calling a plan to build an undergound parking garage on the World Trade Center site disrespectful. The Coalition of 9/11 Families says the thought of buses parking on what they consider sacred ground is upsetting. They also say the plan is a security risk. (NY1)
Libeskind Choice Only First Of Many In WTC Process - Mar 1, 2003
The selection last week of architect Daniel Libeskind's design for the World Trade Center site capped an intensely public process, marked by large meetings, passionate debates by everyone from scholars to schoolchildren, and thousands of comments from ordinary New Yorkers. Despite that civic outpouring, many key decisions about the site's future are being made with little public input at the Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, critics say. (Newsday)
Governor Compared Opposing WTC Plan To "Death" - Mar 1, 2003
Moments before he would cement his decision to go with the Daniel Libeskind plan for Ground Zero, Gov. Pataki compared the runnerup scheme's towers to "death," sources said yesterday. Pataki said he believed the latticework towers of design team THINK were a ghostly reminder of the fallen World Trade Center. The towers "look like death to me," Pataki said, according to several sources. (New York Daily News)
New Yorkers Wary Of Federal Terror Alert - Mar 1, 2003
More than half of New York City voters do not find the government's color-coded terror alert system helpful and most are not taking added precautions against a possible new attack, according to a Quinnipiac poll released yesterday. Although 64 percent of those polled said they were "personally very concerned" about another attack, only 30 percent said they have stockpiled precautionary items. Sixty-nine percent said they have not stockpiled. (Associated Press)
Worshippers Celebrate Easter Near Ground Zero - Mar 31, 2002
Worshippers filled a chapel a block from the World Trade Center site Sunday for a candlelight sunrise Easter service. "The message of Easter is a message of hope, and hope is something to which we cling amid the devastation of ground zero," said Father Lyndon Harris, who delivered the sermon at St. Paul's Chapel. Newsday has a slideshow of photographs taken at the mass. (Associated Press)
Those Left Unemployed After September 11 Relying On Credit Cards - Mar 31, 2002
Thousands of New Yorkers who lost their jobs after Sept. 11 have exhausted their savings and are using high-interest credit cards to pay for everything from medical bills to their rent. Many have no health insurance and little hope of getting it. Interviews with jobless men and women, union leaders, advocates and industry analysts paint a disturbing picture of families struggling to get by on meager unemployment checks and soon-to-end handouts from charity. (New York Daily News)
Firefighters Retiring at Triple the Usual Rate In 2002 - Mar 30, 2002
New York City firefighters are retiring at more than triple the usual rate this year, according to fire officials who say the surge in departures is another lingering impact from the collapse of the World Trade Center. Since January, 343 firefighters have filed their retirement papers, compared with 93 who had retired by this time last year. The Fire Department usually loses no more than 500 firefighters a year to retirement. (New York Times)
Tribute In Light May Be Part of Permanent Memorial After Going Dark - Mar 30, 2002
The twin beams of light forming a nocturnal memorial to World Trade Center victims will go dark in mid-April as planned, but may be incorporated into a permanent memorial, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday. The temporary memorial, Tribute in Light, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to maintain, Mr. Bloomberg said, adding that the agreement with the residents of Battery Park City limits its glow to about a month. (New York Times)
West Street and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel Reopened - Mar 30, 2002
The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and West Street fully reopened for the first time since Sept. 11. Mayor Bloomberg said the city's ban on single-occupancy cars between 6 and 10 a.m. will be in effect for the tunnel - as well as a new, high-occupancy vehicle lane for Manhattan-bound drivers, stretching from the Verrazano Bridge to the Gowanus Expressway into the tunnel. (New York Post)
Rebuilding Authority Opens Space For Victims' Families To Oversee Ground Zero - Mar 30, 2002
The city-state agency overseeing Ground Zero rebuilding yesterday turned over part of its office space at One Liberty Plaza near Ground Zero as a private viewing room where victims' families can look at the entire site. (New York Post)
Judge Rules That Man's Public Praise of World Trade Center Attack Not Protected By Free Speech - Mar 30, 2002
The First Amendment right to free speech does not protect a group of men who, on Sept. 15, allegedly stood shouting in Times Square that "more cops and firemen should have died" in the World Trade Center collapse. The remarks, which cops said were yelled directly in the faces of pedestrians, "were plainly intended to incite the crowd to violence, and not simply to express a point of view," Manhattan Criminal Court Judge William Harrington wrote in a decision made public yesterday. (New York Post)
Union Square Subway Station Host To A Memorial - Mar 30, 2002
Erected this month by the Manhattan-based nonprofit group ArtAid was a 30-foot long memorial to September 11 victims. There are more than 2,800 names of those killed in the World Trade Center attacks listed in the Vietnam Memorial-like tribute. Beyond memorializing the missing, the tribute invites relatives and friends of the victims to sign their names and leave personal messages. (New York Daily News)
Tent For Ground Zero Workers Will Remain Open - Mar 30, 2002
A giant tent where Ground Zero workers can find respite will remain open a bit longer instead of the site reverting to a parking lot, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. The 35,000-square-foot tent at West and Vesey Sts. was to close because the Battery Park City Authority wanted to reclaim the land as a pay parking lot for reopening businesses. The tent, where workers can eat and take hot showers, is run by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Following an outcry at reports the tent would be closed, officials said it would stay open several more weeks, or possibly a month. (New York Daily News)
Good Friday March Leads To Ground Zero - Mar 30, 2002
More than 1,500 people walked from St. James Cathedral in Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge to a church near Ground Zero. In a spiritual trek known to the faithful as "The Way of the Cross," the throng paused four times to reflect on the various stages of Jesus' suffering and death described in the Bible. (New York Daily News)
Environmental Protection Agency Accused of Neglect in 9/11 Cleanup - Mar 29, 2002
A watchdog for the Environmental Protection Agency has accused the agency of neglecting its responsibility and urged a cleanup of buildings contaminated by World Trade Center debris. "EPA has abandoned its responsibility for cleaning up buildings [both inside and out] that are contaminated, or that are being recontaminated, as a result of the uncontrolled chemical releases from the World Trade Center terrorist attacks," Ombudsman Robert Martin wrote in a March 27 letter to Jane Kenny, head of the agency's New York region. (New York Daily News)
Undocumented Immigrant Mexican Families Grieve Relatives Lost on September 11 - Mar 29, 2002
They still can't definitively prove their loved ones worked at the World Trade Center or even lived in New York City, but at least two dozen families -- mostly from Mexico -- say they're grieving over the loss of a relative on Sept. 11. All of these victims were in the U.S. illegally and had been working off the books in or around the Trade Center, their families said. (New York Daily News)
Towers Withstood Impact, but Fell to Fire, Report Says - Mar 29, 2002
A draft of a study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Society of Civil Engineers shows that the towers survived the initial impacts of the planes, but eventually collapsed due to the effect of the fire and heat on the steel support structures. Under normal circumstances, fire suppression systems are designed to allow a high-rise blaze to burn itself out before the building collapses. But the report concludes that there were across-the-board failures in the towers' fire suppression systems. (New York Times)
Performance Artist Discusses His Tribute In Light - Mar 29, 2002
Paul Marantz, the illumination wizard behind the 88 mega-bulbs that form the Tribute In Light, talks about his feelings and thoughts about his popular interim memorial. He took no fee for the project and says, "It's clear that this idea is owned by everybody." (New York Times)
Survey Reveals New Yorkers Support Keeping Tribute In Light Past End Date - Mar 29, 2002
Quinnipiac University released a poll yesterday showing that 39 percent of 1,038 registered voters in the city feel the Tribute in Light should stay on until a permanent memorial is built and that 36 percent feel the lights themselves should be permanent. Twenty percent feel the lights should be turned off April 13, as planned. And that is what will happen, said Kent L. Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society, the chief sponsor of the project, in part because it was approved by various community groups, government agencies and victims' family members as a brief, finite gesture. (New York Times)
Legal Firm Assisting Victims' Families Asking For Ten Percent Of Any Awards - Mar 29, 2002
Kreindler & Kreindler, a private law firm helping victims' families secure awards from the federal Victims Compensation Fund, is charging families 10 percent of any award they will eventually receive from the fund even though free legal representation is available to the widows elsewhere. (New York Times)
A Wave Of New Yorkers Make Downtown Their New Home - Mar 28, 2002
Just six months ago, residents of the area surrounding the World Trade Center evacuated apartments that were without water, electricity or telephone service. The occupancy rate in the Battery Park City complex, which has 6,400 apartments, fell to 60 percent, from near capacity. But now a new cohort of New Yorkers is starting to move in. Some are drawn by the promise of bargain apartments, others by the gaping wound left by the attacks. (New York Times)
City Official Who Coordinated WTC Emergency Operations Quits - Mar 28, 2002
Richard Sheirer stepped down as head of the city's Office of Emergency Management on Thursday. In the initial hours, he coordinated evacuations, rescues and triage, called for harbor and air protection, and shut down the streets of lower Manhattan. And in the six months since, Sheirer has directed a massive recovery and cleanup operation at the site, which has progressed far more quickly and economically than anyone predicted. (Newsday)
September 11 Victims' Families Sought To Aid Prosecutors In Getting Death Penalty - Mar 28, 2002
Justice Department officials want the relatives of those killed and to those injured in the World Trade Center disaster last Sept. 11 to put their emotions to practical use and to help win the death penalty for a suspect charged in the attacks. Officials are interviewing hundreds of people to find 30 individual stories that illustrate the impact of the losses and help prosecutors get a death sentence against Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been charged with conspiracy in the attacks and is scheduled for trial this fall in Alexandria, Virginia. (New York Times)
Manhattan Hotels Coming Back On A Slow Rebound - Mar 28, 2002
The number of hotel rooms occupied in Manhattan was at its lowest level in seven years this January. But, despite dire predictions after the World Trade Center attack, some numbers are giving hope to those in the industry. The average occupancy rate in February 2002, at 74 percent, was only 1 percentage point lower than it was in February 2001, according to HotelRevMax, a research firm. Other analysts have slightly less rosy numbers, but none suggest the doom-and-gloom scenarios of late last year predicting that occupancy would be down 10 to 15 percentage points. (New York Times)
New Study Finds Thousands in Manhattan in Need Of Psychiatric Treatment After September 11 - Mar 28, 2002
In the aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse, tens of thousands of Manhattan residents suffered emotional difficulties severe enough to warrant psychiatric treatment, according to a report in the new issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, out today. The study, a random telephone survey of 1,008 adults living below 110th Street, is the first to appear in a peer-reviewed journal. The overall rates of post-traumatic stress and depression found in the study were two to three times as high as those normally found in any given year, the researchers said. (New York Times)
Engineering Organization Suggests Building Skyscrapers Shorter - Mar 28, 2002
Whatever is rebuilt on the World Trade Center site should be no more than 50 or 60 stories tall, according to a new study by the nation's leading engineering organization. The study, by the Construction Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, also recommends that all buildings at the site be designed to accommodate mass evacuations. In addition,biological and chemical attacks top the list of threats that the new buildings must protect against. (New York Times)
Liberty Zone Bonds Could Build New Apartment Buildings in Battery Park City - Mar 27, 2002
Officials at Battery Park City say Liberty Zone bonds created after Sept. 11 could help spur the development of seven new residential buildings with up to 3,000 apartments at the riverside complex. There are seven empty lots at Battery Park City zoned for residential use -- with the capacity to add a total of some 3,000 apartments to the complex's existing inventory of 6,400 units. (New York Post)
Destruction of World Trade Center Leads To Decrease in Summer Electricity Burden - Mar 27, 2002
The destruction of the World Trade Center, among other factors, eased New York City’s demand for electrical power enough so that no power crisis is expected this summer, a state power official said today. (Associated Press)
Boxing Match To Raise Funds For 9/11 Victims' Families - Mar 27, 2002
The organizers of Champions and Heroes ...A Corporate Night at the Fights hope to raise $100,000 for police and firefighters' widows and children. At $500 a ticket for dinner and nine fights at the New York Sheraton Hotel and Towers, the event is an upscale version of the fund-raisers usually organized by the NYPD Boxing Association. (New York Daily News)
Tent for Food and Showers Used By Ground Zero Workers To Be Replaced With Parking Lot - Mar 27, 2002
A huge tent where Ground Zero workers can eat and take hot showers is being dismantled because the Battery Park City Authority wants to reclaim the land as a pay parking lot for reopening businesses. The 35,000-square-foot tent at West and Vesey Sts. -- nicknamed the Taj Mahal by recovery workers -- will close completely on April 14 unless the authority relents, officials said. (New York Daily News)
40,000 Kennedy Photo Negatives Missing After Attack - Mar 27, 2002
Tucked inside several manila envelopes in a safety-deposit box at 5 World Trade Center were some 40,000 negatives of John F. Kennedy taken by Jacques Lowe, one of his personal photographers. Chase all but confirmed that they were destroyed in a series of letters to Lowe's daughter, Thomasina Lowe, dating to Sept. 19. However, after investigating the remains of the safe where the pictures were stored, it is still unclear whether the pictures were destroyed or are instead missing. (New York Times)
Years of Work Underground Before Steel Reaches Skyward - Mar 27, 2002
Nothing will be built above ground for several years at the site of the World Trade Center because of the extensive underground construction that must be completed first, the chairman of the group overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan said yesterday. Corporation officials also said yesterday that they will lay out details of major components of their building proposals in a yearlong series of publications beginning in May. Those publications will focus on individual subjects, like transportation, residential and commercial development, and the attraction of arts and cultural institutions. (New York Times)
Rebuilding Head John Whitehead Says Consensus Emerging, Supports Biotech Downtown - Mar 26, 2002
Speaking Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, head of the rebuilding authority John Whitehead said there is general agreement that the two 110-story towers destroyed on Sept. 11 should not be duplicated but should be replaced by smaller, mixed-use buildings. However, Whitehead would not answer specific questions about plans for the site. The head of Lower Manhattan’s rebuilding effort also threw his support behind a downtown bio-technology hub proposed by the New York City Partnership and a coalition of the city’s leading medical institutions. (Newsday)
First Day of Expanded Ferry Service Encourages Increase in Ridership - Mar 26, 2002
More-frequent ferry trips from New Jersey, meant to attract thousands of new commuters, drew about 500 more riders yesterday morning in the first day of the expanded service. (New York Post)
Broadway Officials Donate $1 Million To City - Mar 26, 2002
In a surprise announcement, Broadway officials said they were donating to the city a $1 million profit from the $2.5 million in tickets that the city bought to prop up several Broadway shows after the World Trade Center attacks. Mayor Bloomberg quickly re-allocated the windfall to several nonprofit organizations that help fund small arts and education programs. (New York Post)
University Groups Propose Developing Biotech Industry in Lower Manhattan - Mar 26, 2002
Nine university executives sent a letter to Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Chairman John Whitehead last month, asking for help in attracting biotech firms to the World Trade Center area in a bid to help boost the downtown economy. The city's numerous universities and medical schools give it an edge in attracting and spawning biotech businesses, said the group. (New York Post)
Rebuilding Head John Whitehead Speaks At Business Forum - Mar 26, 2002
Speaking at a Crain's New York Business breakfast forum on Tuesday, Mr. Whitehead gave an update on rebuilding. He acknowledged that the rebuilding of 7 World Trade Center should begin as soon as possible, because construction must start this year on a Con Ed substation on the lower floors of the building to ensure that lower Manhattan has enough power in the summer of 2003. He also said that he expects his agency to have the major components of a plan for rebuilding downtown completed in June. (Crain's New York Business)
Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports To Split $5 Million in Federal Aid - Mar 26, 2002
Kennedy and LaGuardia airports will receive more than $5 million from the federal government to cover costs incurred as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. Department of Transportation will reimburse $2,275,000 to LaGuardia Airport and $2.9 million to Kennedy. The funds will be allocated to the Port Authority, which manages the airports. (New York Daily News)
Recovery Workers Using Global Positioning Satellite Technology To Locate Human Remains - Mar 26, 2002
Using global positioning technology, the Fire Department has created a detailed and gruesome index of exactly where nearly 4,000 body parts, personal belongings and pieces of firefighting equipment have been found at Ground Zero. The data is expected to be used for law enforcement and engineering investigations, identification by the medical examiner's office and for families who want to know where their loved ones were found. A visual depiction of how it works is presented as well. (New York Daily News)
Chapel Near World Trade Center Site To Remain Open - Mar 26, 2002
The leaders of St. Paul's Chapel in Lower Manhattan, which has served as a haven for rescue workers at ground zero since September, said yesterday that they had decided to keep it open until the excavation of the World Trade Center site was completed. The Episcopal chapel was going to be closed for a cleaning after Easter Sunday services, but chapel officials announced last night that it would continue to provide food, rest and counseling to the workers until the end of May. (New York Times)
Fire Department Has Pinpointed 700 New Human Remains - Mar 26, 2002
The effort to find remains at Ground Zero has proven especially productive in the last three weeks, as Fire Department searchers mapped more than 700 new discoveries. In all, 3,069 remains have been cataloged during the cleanup, and searchers classified about 600 as remains of firefighters or police officers based on bits of clothing or equipment. The Times has a map of the discovered remains on its site. (New York Times)
Bloomberg Defends Whitehead After Fundraiser Flap - Mar 25, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday defended John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., who was forced to drop out as headliner of a GOP fund-raiser. Bloomberg said yesterday the suggestion that Whitehead's role as the event's honoree had business and real-estate leaders feeling pressured to make donations to the fund-raiser was "laughable." (New York Post)
Rebuilding Authority Head Pulls Out Of Republican Party Fundraiser - Mar 24, 2002
Lower Manhattan Development Corp. chairman John Whitehead pulled out of a fundraiser after questions about the appropriateness of his appearance. Whitehead's role as an honoree at a Republican party fundraiser - at a time when his agency is set to award lucrative contracts and approve rebuilding plans - had business and real-estate leaders feeling pressured to make donations to the fund-raiser. Democrats were also voiced concern about the Republicans using Whitehead to play politics. (New York Post)
Twenty More Bodies Recovered From Ground Zero - Mar 24, 2002
Ground Zero rescue workers recovered 20 more bodies late Friday night and Saturday, bringing to at least 73 the number of remains found in the rubble of the World Trade Center this month. The bodies included nine firefighters, four Port Authority civilian employees, one Port Authority cop, one Emergency Medical Service worker, one court officer and four civilians. (New York Daily News)
Tourism Promoters For New York Cite September 11 To Attract Visitors - Mar 24, 2002
The destruction of the World Trade Center has emerged as a powerful selling point for New York City, invoked again and again over the last six months to make the case that big events like the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards ceremony and a proposed joint meeting of Congress all belong in New York. The case being made is striking in its appeal, in part, to sympathy for the purpose of drumming up tourist business. It appears to link notions of patriotism and civic duty to things like hotel bookings. (New York Times)
As Chapel Closes For Cleaning, Workers Miss A Sanctuary From Ground Zero - Mar 24, 2002
When St. Paul's Chapel closes its doors after the Easter sunrise service for an interior and exterior cleaning, the recovery workers who have relied on it for warm meals, quiet reflection and a place to sleep are not sure where they will go. The cleaning, which is expected to last a month and cost several hundred thousand dollars, is necessary to reopen the church to its congegration and visitors. (New York Times)
$1 Billion in Federal Aid to Help Cover City for Ground Zero Liability - Mar 24, 2002
The Bush administration wants to provide up to $1 billion to shield New York City and scores of contractors against lawsuits stemming from the World Trade Center cleanup. For months, insurers have refused to provide liability coverage to the city and contracting companies working there, arguing that the cleanup is far too big and the risk associated with it too hard to measure. New York officials contend that the infusion of cash would enable the city to pay the sort of sky-high premiums that could persuade insurers to assume the risk of providing liability coverage. (New York Times)
Rebuilding Authority Head To Appear At Republican Fundraiser - Mar 23, 2002
Lower Manhattan Development Corp. boss John Whitehead is lending his name to a big-bucks Republican fund-raiser next month. Whitehead's starring role in the gala event with Gov. Pataki has some businessmen quaking over whether they'll have to pony up donations if they want to get lucrative contracts related to the reconstruction of downtown. A prominent business leader who received an invitation said Whitehead's presence at the fund-raiser -- and the use of his name to promote the event -- was a "clear signal" to would-be World Trade Center-area contractors, consultants and developers that a contribution was expected. (New York Post)
Senator Schumer Calls For Funds For Downtown Rebuilding To Be Spread Around City - Mar 23, 2002
Sen. Charles Schumer wants funds earmarked for lower Manhattan groups to be spread to nonprofits all over the city - including the Bronx Zoo, according to The New York Post. Schumer has been talking with Lower Manhattan Development Corp. chairman John Whitehead, as well as Mayor Bloomberg, about allocating funds slated for nonprofit groups near Ground Zero to the five boroughs. (New York Post)
Terminal at LaGuardia Airport Evacuated After Security Mishap - Mar 23, 2002
The Delta terminal at LaGuardia Airport was evacuated Friday after two paramedics carrying an ill passenger were not screened while going through security. Hundreds of Delta and Northwest passengers were stranded in the main check-in area for about 90 minutes as police searched the terminal. Several planes that had been taxiing for takeoff were called, and passengers were forced to be rechecked. Flights later resumed as normal. (Newsday)
120 Ground Zero Firefighters Suffering Breathing Problems - Mar 23, 2002
As many as 120 city firefighters are suffering from moderate to severe breathing problems likely caused by working at Ground Zero, according to a top FDNY medical expert, the Daily News reported. Of the 10,000 pulmonary tests administered after Sept. 11, about 1 percent had moderate to severe changes in their lung capacity and can no longer perform the rigorous job of firefighting. (New York Daily News)
New York City Colleges Cite September 11 For Drop in Number of Applications - Mar 22, 2002
While applications at many selective colleges around the country grew this year, New York University, Columbia and Barnard College all experienced declines, with some admissions officials blaming Sept. 11 jitters by families uneasy about sending their children to New York City. (New York Times)
Rebuilding of Winter Garden Near Ground Zero Begins - Mar 22, 2002
The $50 million renovation of the 10-story Winter Garden, in particular its shattered clear dome, has begun. Everything from the entire floor to the 2,000 skylight panes is being replaced. (New York Times)
23 Accused of Taking Money Meant for Sept. 11 Victims - Mar 22, 2002
Officials announced the arrest of 23 people accused of falsely claiming their relatives had died in the terrorist attacks. All told, 15 of them successfully obtained $740,465 from charities and government agencies, the authorities said. The defendants filed false death certificates for people they said were spouses, children, nieces, nephews and siblings and received amounts from $1,000 to $272,800 from reilef agencies. (New York Times)
Identification of World Trade Center Victims By DNA Tests To Be Completed By Next February - Mar 21, 2002
The identification through DNA testing of the thousands of pieces of human remains collected from the World Trade Center will be largely finished by next February, the medical examiner’s office said yesterday. The medical examiner, Dr. Charles Hirsch, told victims’ relatives at a meeting Monday he expects DNA testing to be completed eight months after all remains have been recovered from the trade center rubble. The recovery work is due to finish in May. Technicians have already made 161 identifications solely on the basis of a DNA match. (New York Post)
Ground Zero Contractor Excluded From Federal Contracting - Mar 21, 2002
AMEC Construction Management Inc. of New York, a construction company working at Ground Zero, has been placed on a list of companies suspended from obtaining federal construction contracts, officials said yesterday. Under normal contracting process, the city comptroller's office performs a background check on a company that bids. The Giuliani administration hired the company on an emergency basis without competitive bidding due to the urgency of the situation. (Newsday)
Standards for Measuring Asbestos Used By Federal Officials Not Meant To Determine Health Risks, Says Scientist - Mar 21, 2002
In the days after Sept. 11, EPA officials used standards to determine dangerous asbestos contamination that were never intended to measure health risks, according to a new 43-page memo by a dissident Environmental Protection Agency scientist. The memo raises new allegations that the standards the EPA publicized as benchmarks for judging asbestos contamination in both dust and air were intended only to measure the presence of asbestos in building materials. (New York Daily News)
Large Wall Street Companies Offered Grants for Staying Put - Mar 21, 2002
The state and city have begun to send letters offering the first of dozens of multimillion-dollar federal grants to some of the most important financial companies in the world, in an effort to keep jobs in Lower Manhattan or lure them there. The money is part of $500 million in federal aid intended to protect the vibrancy of the city's historic financial district. While cash incentives to stay in New York are not new, these new grants have unusual characteristics. First, the national spotlight after Sept. 11 means that this will be more public, as opposed to the usual hush- hush business of economic incentives. Also, these grants are discretionary, and the criteria are not crystal clear. (New York Times)
Parents, Residents Protest WTC Dumping Operation - Mar 20, 2002
Dozens of students, parents and teachers gathered today to protest World Trade Center debris-hauling barges moored near their schools. The protesters said they are concerned about dust from the debris-hauling operation, and diesel fumes from trucks and other heavy equipment. (Associated Press)
City Council Proposes Plan To Help Small Businesses Downtown - Mar 20, 2002
City Council leaders argued yesterday that businesses with fewer than 10 employees are being automatically shut out from receiving the federal grants and rent subsidies being offered to larger employers through the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and other agencies. They called for giving the smaller businesses rent subsidies of up to $5,000 a month for six months if they commit to staying in lower Manhattan. The City Council also called for grants of up to $50,000 for each of several hundred mom-and-pop businesses that were in the destroyed World Trade Center. (New York Daily News)
Officials Defend Plan To End 24-Hour Fighter Jet Patrols - Mar 20, 2002
The Air Force secretary and the White House spokesman defended plans today to reduce combat flights over American cities and end round-the-clock fighter patrols over New York, saying the steps were justified by the increased security at airports and aboard jetliners. Neither official discussed details of how or when the patrols will be reduced, but both said much had changed in airline security since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (New York Times)
While Some Civic Groups Seek Streamlined Environmental Review, Others Wary of Speed - Mar 19, 2002
A leading civic group seeking to give the public a voice in the rebuilding process, the Civic Alliance, is on the verge of supporting fast-track redevelopment via accelerating the pace of legal appeals. But reactions from urban planners, lawyers and other community-oriented members of the Civic Alliance range from anxious to furious. Many are concerned about the dangerous precedent for decreased public input and glossing over environmental review. (City Limits)
Federal Government Set To Extend September 11 Special Unemployment Benefits - Mar 19, 2002
The White House today is set to grant a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits to thousands of New Yorkers who may have lost out due to 9/11. The measure - which could then be approved by the Senate later this week - applies only to people who don't qualify for regular unemployment compensation, such as someone who was only working for a few days when the Sept. 11 disaster struck. (New York Post)
Police Chief and City Council Press for More Aid From Feds For Police Overtime - Mar 19, 2002
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly got a boost from the City Council yesterday in his quest to get the feds to reimburse the NYPD for $100 million in post-Sept. 11-related police overtime. The $100 million Kelly wants would be in addition to $197 million in terror attack-related NYPD overtime costs that were picked up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency before a November 24 cutoff date the agency had established. Members of the committee assured Kelly they intend to press federal officials for the unpaid overtime reimbursements. (New York Daily News)
DNA Evidence Identifies September 11 Victim - Mar 19, 2002
The remains of a passenger aboard one of the hijacked jets that crashed into the World Trade Center has been identified through DNA, officials revealed yesterday. It was the first time DNA has been able to determine the identity of any of the victims aboard the two doomed planes. The city medical examiner's office said it had determined that a hand found in the rubble at Ground Zero belongs to James Trentini -- a retired Massachusetts school teacher aboard American Flight 11, family members said. (New York Daily News)
New York Officials Say Ending Jet Patrols Puts City at Risk - Mar 19, 2002
The Bush administration's decision to halt 24-hour fighter jet patrols over New York City came under intense criticism today from New York lawmakers, who raised concerns about the city's security. In addition, these lawmakers, all Democrats, questioned why the Bush administration would suspend round- the-clock patrols over New York when it plans to continue such patrols over Washington. (New York Times)
State Legislature Bill Proposes Videoconferencing for Lawmakers - Mar 18, 2002
Worried by the possibility of another 9/11-style emergency, the state Legislature may allow lawmakers to hold sessions by video conferencing. Under a proposed bill, the governor could invoke video meetings if the state is facing a disaster and significant numbers of legislators can't get to Albany. (New York Post)
As Enrollment Plummets At Downtown School, Some Try Homeschooling - Mar 18, 2002
With many parents and students still concerned about air quality near Ground Zero, enrollment at Public School 89, located in Battery Park City, plummeted after the terrorist attacks to 235 from 415. Board officials said most of the students who left went to other schools, public and private. Three families have even hired a private tutor to homeschool their three boys. (New York Daily News)
Return of WTC Cars Halted by EPA - Mar 18, 2002
Concerns about asbestos-tainted dust have slammed the brakes on the city's plan to return hundreds of cars towed from streets around the World Trade Center to their owners. The city planned to start giving back the dust-covered vehicles today. But a report about the dangerous coating of asbestos on the cars prompted federal environmental officials to step in. Many of the cars have little body damage. (New York Daily News)
24-Hour Fighter Jet Patrols Over New York To End - Mar 18, 2002
The Bush administration has decided to stop round-the-clock patrols by fighter jets over New York and to reduce intermittent combat flights over other major American cities, senior defense officials said. They said stricter airport security, stronger cockpit doors and more federal marshals on flights had sufficiently reduced the threat of attacks to allow the military to scale back patrols. (New York Times)
After Many Volunteers Have Left, Some Feel Compelled To Stay - Mar 18, 2002
Most of the far-flung volunteers who have come from all over the country to Ground Zero have returned home. And others have arrived to relieve them. But one of the striking aspects of the magnetism of ground zero and the impulses it has ignited is that a number of the itinerant do-gooders are still here, months after they arrived. Some intend never to leave. (New York Times)
Renewed Feelings Of Loss And Urgency At Ground Zero As Cleanup Nears Completion - Mar 17, 2002
With more bodies being found in a newly uncovered area of Ground Zero, the feeling of urgency to recover the bodies has returned to the site, something not felt since the early days of the cleanup. At the same time, a feeling of loss hangs over the workers, and not just for their fallen brothers found in the site. With the amount of dirt and rubble rapidly diminishing, workers who have developed a kinship with their recovery team, many having worked seven days a week since September, are having a hard time letting go. (New York Times)
Museum Looking For Home For World Trade Center Photo Exhibit - Mar 17, 2002
A gripping photo exhibit of the devastated World Trade Center by a renowned New York photographer could skip the city because of a dispute involving the Museum of the City of New York. The exhibit, originally slated to be held at the Tweed Courthouse, is now uncertain because Mayor Bloomberg cast doubt recently on the move to the courthouse as a result of the city's financial crisis. (New York Daily News)
Chapel Near Ground Zero To Be Cleaned for Reopening - Mar 17, 2002
St. Paul's Chapel, which has served as a 24-hour sanctuary for World Trade Center rescue workers since Sept. 11, will be temporarily shut so it can be thoroughly cleaned and then reopened to the public, church officials said yesterday. The cleanup will begin after Easter, according to the church's Web site. St. Paul's expects to resume daily prayer services for the public in May. (New York Daily News)
Promotions Approved By Judge For Police Unit Decimated By 9/11 - Mar 16, 2002
A judge ruled yesterday that the Police Department has the right to reward members of its 9/11-decimated elite Emergency Service Unit with promotions. The city's police union had sued to block the promotions of the 15 ESU officers to detective specialist on grounds that the action by violated the union's collective-bargaining agreement. (New York Post)
Lower Manhattan Residents Seek Air Quality Testing - Mar 15, 2002
People in Battery Park City yesterday submitted a $15 million proposal asking that the city test every building and apartment there for toxins. The proposal by the Lower Manhattan Tenants Coalition calls for testing all 6,814 residential units. Dr. James Miller of the city Department of Health said the city would consider the report. (New York Daily News)
Mayor: Expect Many Lawsuits Over Asbestos At The World Trade Center - Mar 15, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that the city had worked out a plan with the federal government to protect the city from potentially huge legal claims as part of the $21.3 billion aid package promised last week by President Bush. Up till now, most private insurers have refused to underwrite liability coverage for the city, citing the huge risks and a host of environmental unknowns at the site. The Mayor also remarked that there could be many impending lawsuits in coming years over asbestos at the site. (New York Daily News)
More Ferry Service Announced For Downtown - Mar 15, 2002
Ferry service between Manhattan and New Jersey will be expanded later this month, state and local officials announced yesterday, citing increased demand stemming from the loss of PATH service downtown since Sept. 11. Extra ferries will run until PATH service is restored to Lower Manhattan, scheduled for late next year, and could serve about 63,000 passengers a day. (New York Times)
Imagine New York Workshops To Begin Involving Average Citizens in Rebuilding This Week - Mar 14, 2002
“Imagine New York,” an innovative project that could give all New Yorkers a chance to speak their minds about the rebuilding of downtown, kicks off with their first workshop this Thursday. Leaders hope that through written and artistic activities in the small sessions, common themes will begin to emerge. Those ideas can then be forwarded to decision makers. (Newsday)
Police Cracking Down On Illegal Parking Near Ground Zero - Mar 14, 2002
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday that police have begun a new parking enforcement campaign in the streets around Ground Zero to ease traffic congestion. But the crackdown has irritated some Ground Zero workers, who are suddenly receiving tickets after parking wherever they could ever since Sept. 11. (Newsday)
Utilities Set For A Big Dig Downtown To Repair Infrastructure - Mar 14, 2002
In what may very well be the largest utility reconstruction project in history, workers from Con Edison, Verizon and several additional utilities are digging up 26 miles of roadway to repair the infrastructure beneath street level downtown. They are removing rocks and other debris, some from the trade center and some from more than 100 years of accumulation, checking out the systems, making repairs and then installing new conduits and piping. (New York Times)
As Jets Get Bigger, No Towers Will Be Able To Withstand Future Attacks - Mar 14, 2002
Speaking at a talk at the New-York Historical Society, the chief structural engineer for the trade center project said last night that as commercial jets grow larger, faster and carry ever-greater amounts of fuel, no skyscraper can be built to withstand a terrorist attack of the kind that destroyed the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, "We have to conclude, we cannot fail to conclude, that it's not practical to design buildings as we know them -- buildings that we'd want to live and work in -- to resist the impact of these jet aircraft," said the engineer, Leslie E. Robertson. (New York Times)
Bloomberg Visits Washington To Talk About Federal Aid - Mar 14, 2002
The mayor visited Washington D.C., although he says his intent was not to make any requests beyond the $21.5 billion that President Bush recently said he would provide New York to help it rebuild. Rather, he said, he wanted to assure top lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the money Washington sends to New York "will be well spent." Congressional leaders welcomed the mayor's visit and made vague pledges to continue helping the city through difficult times. But Mr. Bloomberg did not request or receive any firm commitments beyond those general reassurances. (New York Times)
Many Victims Unable To Get Assistance Six Months After Attacks - Mar 13, 2002
The New York Immigration Coalition anounced this week that six months after the attacks of September 11, many low-wage immigrant workers and family members of victims are hindered in their attempts to access relief programs. The obstacles include geographic restrictions, language barriers, and confusion on eligibility due to immigration status restrictions on certain relief programs. The coalition called for a a late filing process and an emergency eviction and utility cut-off prevention program to help those in need. (Gotham Gazette)
Ferry Service To Expand, Says State Top Economic Official - Mar 13, 2002
City and state officials will announce a plan this week to stimulate redevelopment in downtown Manhattan by increasing ferry service, said Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, on Tuesday. Eventually, Gargano said, the rebirth of Lower Manhattan could be boosted by a tenfold increase in ferry service. (Newsday)
Federal Agency on Workplace Safety To Study Evacuation of World Trade Center - Mar 13, 2002
Federal workplace safety officials will study the Sept. 11 evacuation of the World Trade Center, officials said Tuesday. Over the past six months, investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have received about 100 formal complaints from survivors and relatives of the lost regarding the evacuation. In the six months since Sept. 11, it has emerged that most of the people in offices below the impact zones escaped. But some survivors described confusion in navigating escape routes, conflicting announcements, and locked or jammed doors. (Newsday)
Head of Rebuilding Authority Pushes for Quick Start for 7 World Trade Center - Mar 13, 2002
A new 7 World Trade Center should rise from Ground Zero as soon as possible now that major differences that threatened the project have been overcome, lower Manhattan's rebuilding czar John Whitehead said yesterday. Whitehead said speed is a concern with 7 WTC because the building will house an electrical substation needed to ensure adequate power supplies by the summer of 2003. (New York Post)
Fifteen Bodies Recovered From Ground Zero - Mar 13, 2002
The discovery of a firefighter's boot touched off a painstaking, day-long dig at Ground Zero yesterday that led to the recovery of 15 bodies — 13 of them firefighters. It was the biggest single-day body find in months — and it gave grieving families hope that more bodies will be found. (New York Daily News)
Another Ted Rall Cartoon Draws Anger, This Time From Firefighters - Mar 13, 2002
The cartoonist who sparked outrage with a swipe at World Trade Center "terror widows" has a new target — the city's Bravest. Ted Rall's latest offering offends too. A new strip by Ted Rall depicts firefighters surrounded by cash, wearing fur coats and riding to fires in limousines. (New York Daily News)
Tribute in Light May Last Longer Than A Month - Mar 13, 2002
The powerful "Tribute in Light" -- the two columns of light evoking the fallen World Trade Center -- may have a life beyond its one-month stand. Although many officials said the beams of light were not a viable option as a permanent memorial, they allowed that they might be brought back on a case-by-case basis, including possibly for the one-year anniversary on September 11 of this year. The mayor said he will defer to the judgment of the Municipal Art Society. (New York Daily News)
Guidelines for Downtown Rebuilding To Come Next Month - Mar 13, 2002
The group overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan expects to issue guidelines for the redevelopment project next month and offer detailed plans about many of its proposed projects by June, the group's chairman said yesterday. While not giving details, John Whitehead did acknowledge that there is an "emerging consensus" about several ideas, including restoring at least part of the street grid through the World Trade Center site, converting West Street to a tunnel, and building a transportation hub in Lower Manhattan that might include extensions of the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro-North Railroad. (New York Times)
Vacancy Rates Decreasing After Announcement of Grants Plan For Downtown Residents - Mar 12, 2002
A proposed $200 million grant program to attract new residents to Lower Manhattan and retain those who are already there has already begun to bear fruit, weeks before the program receives final approval and the final qualifications for the grants are clear. Vacancy rates have fallen noticeably and applications to rent apartments have jumped by several hundred, according to area landlords. The program, announced February 20 by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, would offer up to $12,000 over two years to people who sign leases or buy apartments below Canal Street and remain there for two years. (New York Times)
State Legislature Split on September 11 Remembrance - Mar 12, 2002
The State Assembly voted yesterday to make Sept. 11 a state holiday -- yet the State Senate passed a bill establishing a "Day of Remembrance" that would not give state workers a day off. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) said making Sept. 11 a holiday in New York could cost the state between $20 million and $25 million. But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said a full holiday is appropriate to honor the victims and heroes of Sept. 11, and would cost substantially less than Bruno estimated. (New York Daily News)
Former Mayor Giuliani Praised at Memorial Ceremony - Mar 12, 2002
At a morning memorial in Battery Park, Giuliani received the sole standing ovation after Mayor Bloomberg introduced him as the personification of compassion and courage. Yesterday, he attended memorial services, stopped at St. Paul's Chapel to help read the names of victims and returned to the lower Manhattan school where he visited with Gov. Pataki and President Bush a few weeks after the attacks. (New York Daily News)
Memorials Mark Six-Month Anniversary of Attacks - Mar 12, 2002
Two memorials were unveiled yesterday in somber ceremonies. In the morning, Mayor Bloomberg led a ceremony with a moment of silence at 8:46 AM, the time the first plane hit the first tower, at Battery Park in front of the "Sphere" memorial. At the end of the day, the daughter of a Port Authority police officer flipped a switch and lit up the skies with the "Tribute in Light," a memorial of two light beams reaching into the sky only blocks from Ground Zero. (New York Times)
Best Viewing Spots for Tribute In Light - Mar 11, 2002
Gotham Gazette provides a list of the best viewing spots in each borough and New Jersey for seeing Tribute in Light, the interim memorial that opens tonight. Aside from the spots listed here, the Tribute in Light can also be seen anywhere from where the original Twin Towers could have been seen. (Gotham Gazette)
Schumer Urges $225 Million for Nonprofits - Mar 11, 2002
A $225 million plan to help dozens of local nonprofit organizations survive the impact of Sept. 11 was unveiled yesterday. The nonprofits range from such large institutions as the Bronx Zoo, which has lost $5.5 million in revenues, to smaller centers that provide food and nutrition, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said at a news conference held at another organization in jeopardy, the Downtown Athletic Club. (Newsday)
Clergy-Based Group To Help Black World Trade Center Victims - Mar 11, 2002
A group of black clergymen and churches will sponsor a program tonight to remember Sept. 11 and publicize a new organization, known as CUSH -- Churches United to Save and Heal -- to help African-Americans affected by the World Trade Center attack. The organization comprises about 600 pastors and congregations from all boroughs and New Jersey. They plan on providing counseling and other services. (New York Daily News)
Mental Health Experts Say Problems Still Abound Six Months Later - Mar 11, 2002
Mental health professionals across the country say the psychological fallout from Sept. 11 — affecting people with chronic psychiatric and addiction problems and people who had never experienced anything like the wrenching angst they are battling now — is strikingly pervasive. They say that they are seeing more serious problems now — and more evidence of a widespread anxiety — than they did in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, attributing it to a delayed reaction after the shock of the attacks wore off. (New York Times)
Memorial Ceremonies Around The City This Week - Mar 11, 2002
A listing of the dedications and moments of silence taking place this week. Starts with the tribute at Battery Park at 8:46 AM with the unveiling of "The Sphere," and includes the opening of the Tribute of Light at 6 PM in Battery Park City. (New York Times)
True Toll On Firefighters Still Untold - Mar 10, 2002
The toll on the New York Fire Department is staggering: 343 members; 91 vehicles; the chief of the department; a beloved chaplain; and 4,400 years of collective experience lost in the space of 100 minutes. The toll on the department has included medical leave for ground zero workers, hours of psychological counseling, and survivors guilt. Meanwhile, the department looks to rebuild itself. (New York Times)
World Trade Center Stamp To Be Unveiled - Mar 10, 2002
The U.S. Postal Service will unveil a special World Trade Center memorial stamp on Monday at a White House ceremony marking six months since the terrorist attacks on America. The special stamp will be worth 34 cents in postage but will cost 45 cents. The extra 11 cents will go to a fund set up by the Federal Emergency Management Administration to aid families of perished World Trade Center rescue workers. (New York Daily News)
Lower Manhattan Residents Doesn't Want Terrorism Trials Downtown - Mar 10, 2002
In a letter to the U.S. Office of Homeland Security, Manhattan Community Board 1, which consists of residents near the World Trade Center site, asked the feds to move likely upcoming terrorism trials to other locations. Two federal courthouses downtown have been the site of six major terrorism trials since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. (New York Daily News)
Support Group Helping 9/11 Families With Coney Island Outing - Mar 10, 2002
Rich Fontaine and Mike McGovern, two longtime friends from Mill Basin, founded an organization called Helping the Heroes and a Web site — www.herowtc.org — to provide guidance and support for the families of the World Trade Center victims. Among their plans is a Coney Island outing at Astroland Park for the families to take place on March 24. Other outings are planned for the summer. (New York Daily News)
Poll Shows New Yorkers Find City Safe As Anywhere, Show Distrust Of Government Over Air Quality - Mar 10, 2002
A poll conducted by the Daily News and cable station NY1 revealed that 68% of New Yorkers feel the city is as safe or safer than any other place in America. 70% of those polled said they do not believe the Environmental Protection Agency or other government agencies' reports that the air quality around Ground Zero is safe. 59% of all New Yorkers — including 67% of those living or working downtown — say they suffered financial setbacks after the terror attacks. And 56% also admit that at some point after Sept. 11 they were racked by depression, sleeplessness, anxiety or nightmares. (New York Daily News)
Laura Bush Visits School Near Ground Zero - Mar 9, 2002
Keeping a promise she made in September, First Lady Laura Bush paid a visit to Public School 234 on Chambers St., two blocks from Ground Zero. She came to listen to the personal accounts of fifth-grade students who fled their school after the attack on the twin towers. (New York Daily News)
Solemn Service To Unveil Sculpture Memorial on March 11 - Mar 9, 2002
Monday's somber ceremony in Battery Park marking the six-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks will begin with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. — the moment the first plane struck the World Trade Center. Surrounded by victims' relatives, Gov. Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will make brief remarks. Then the Fire Department will conduct a ceremonial ringing of bells to commemorate the 2,820 innocent lives lost there that day, among them 343 members of the FDNY and 60 cops from the NYPD and the Port Authority. The 25-minute ceremony will end with a second moment of silence to mark the attack of the second hijacked plane. (New York Daily News)
Rebuilding Will Take 10 Years, Says Head of Rebuilding Authority - Mar 8, 2002
It will take at least a decade to rebuild the World Trade Center site, the head of the agency overseeing the redevelopment of lower Manhattan said yesterday. John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., also said his agency will issue broad guidelines next month on how the devastated 16-acre parcel should be revitalized. (New York Daily News)
Federal Aid for Victims' Families Officially Increased - Mar 8, 2002
Months of furious and often heartbreaking debate over the federal Sept. 11 victims' compensation fund ended yesterday with the announcement of final regulations and an average payout of about $1.85 million. In last-minute changes, fund administrators decided not to subtract personal pensions and retirement accounts, such as 401(k) plans, from fund payments. But other benefits, such as life insurance payouts, will be deducted from the awards. Payouts from the fund will total about $7 billion. (New York Daily News)
Silverstein Seeking Deal With Port Authority In Exchange For Smaller Building - Mar 8, 2002
Developer Larry Silverstein is negotiating with the Port Authority over changes in his lease for 7 World Trade Center, including the possibility of lower payments in exchange for erecting a smaller building that allows Greenwich Street to pass through the site. Silverstein is seeking some form of compensation for concessions he made in the design of 7 WTC to meet the demands of downtown residents and planners, sources told The New York Post. (New York Post)
More Than 100 Face 9/11 Fraud Investigations - Mar 8, 2002
More than 100 people are under investigation for allegedly scamming more than $1 million from charities set up to help victims of the Twin Towers attack. Investigators say they are poised to charge at least four dozen suspects with cashing in on the tragedy by falsely claiming they lost loved ones who never existed, were still alive or had died earlier, law enforcement sources said. (New York Post)
Bush Offers Details of Aid to New York Topping $20 Billion - Mar 8, 2002
President Bush declared that he was moving to fulfill his promise to give the city at least $20 billion to help rebuild from the attack on the World Trade Center. The president's decision, which seeks to provide $1.5 billion on top of his original $20 billion pledge, includes $2.7 billion in disaster relief for cleanup at the site paid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency; $1.8 billion to rebuild the subway and PATH lines that were destroyed in Lower Manhattan; $750 million to reconstruct Con Edison and Verizon facilities, a cost that was going to be passed on to customers; and $167 million to repair roads, like the West Side Highway. The Times provides a chart detailing the aid package. (New York Times)
Rebuilding Authority To Hold Closed Door Meeting With Wall Street Execs - Mar 7, 2002
An advisory committee of executives from top Wall Street corporations will meet in secret today with the state-city agency in charge of redeveloping lower Manhattan - drawing fire from downtown residents and good-government advocates alike. "It needs to be a more open process. I don't see what they have to hide," said Sudhir Jain, president of the Lower Manhattan Tenants Coalition. (New York Post)
Congressional Hearing Shows Problems With Disaster Investigation - Mar 7, 2002
A lack of clear authority and poor cooperation among government agencies has hampered engineering studies of the World Trade Center collapses, a congressional committee was told yesterday. Investigators complained of lack of access to the site and difficulties acquiring blueprints of the buildings that collapsed. Furthermore, no single agency stepped forward to perform a comprehensive collapse investigation until just last month. (Newsday)
September 11th Fund To Set Aside $250 Million for Future September 11 Needs - Mar 7, 2002
Administrators of the September 11th Fund, created by the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust, will set aside $250 million -- more than half its collected donations -- for future needs related to the terrorist attacks. The money will pay for counseling, job training, health care and other programs to help people and communities harmed Sept. 11, officials said yesterday. This is in contrast to the decision of the American Red Cross to reserve more than $200 million of its contributions for future terrorist attacks and other programs unrelated to the Sept. 11 tragedy. (New York Daily News)
Bloomberg Gives Six-Month Update On Lower Manhattan - Mar 7, 2002
All across lower Manhattan, roads are being repaved. Phone service is 90% restored. Seven out of 11 damaged subway stations have rumbled back to life. And perhaps most remarkably, the massive, seemingly endless pile of rubble that was once Ground Zero is now 83% gone. Nearly six months after terrorists ripped a hole in lower Manhattan, Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg outlined the city's recovery in a presentation yesterday clearly intended to underscore cooperation between different levels of government. (New York Daily News)
Governor Pataki To Share Power With Mayor on Rebuilding Authority - Mar 6, 2002
Gov. George E. Pataki said yesterday that he was ceding to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg equal control of the agency created last fall to oversee the rebuilding of downtown Manhattan. Bloomberg will be able to appoint three new members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, bringing the total number to fourteen - seven appointed by Pataki, the other seven appointed by Giuliani and Bloomberg. (New York Times)
Visitors May Be Able To Touch Sculpture In Interim Memorial - Mar 6, 2002
Visitors to a temporary memorial will be allowed to touch part of a damaged spherical sculpture that survived the Sept. 11 terror attack, according to a plan under consideration by the city. The 15-foot-high Fritz Koenig sculpture "Sphere," which once stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center, will be the centerpiece of a new memorial in Battery Park. The memorial will be unveiled on Monday, the six-month anniversary of the attack. A low fence will surround the sculpture, and an opening on one side will let visitors touch the monument's bronze surface, the source said. (New York Post)
Relatives of Victims To Get More From Federal Government - Mar 6, 2002
Spouses and children of Sept. 11 victims will get more cash than they expected — an extra $50,000 per survivor — but less than they hoped for from the federal compensation fund, under final regulations to be announced tomorrow afternoon. The average family will receive about $1.7 million, $100,000 more than forecast previously. Payments for survivors' pain and suffering and loss of companionship are doubled to $100,000. However, life insurance payouts, Social Security payments to children, workers' compensation and federal death benefits for public employees will all be subtracted from awards, the sources said. (New York Daily News)
Editorial Cartoon Angers Widows - Mar 6, 2002
An editorial cartoon that ridicules widows of World Trade Center victims as greedy and shallow publicity hounds drew instant outrage last night from the grieving survivors. Ted Rall's drawing, "Terror Widows," abruptly yanked from The New York Times Web site yesterday, skewers the women as getting rich from charity aid and preening for TV cameras. The cartoon can be found at Ted Rall's web site. (New York Daily News)
In 2001, City Suffered Worst Job Loss In A Decade, Mostly Due To 9/11 - Mar 6, 2002
New York City lost 132,400 jobs last year, the steepest drop since 1991 and almost 36,000 more than originally estimated, according to the New York State Department of Labor. Private employment in the city fell by 3.8 percent in the last 12 months as opposed to 1.5 percent nationally. The job loss was largely due to the economic effects of the attack on the World Trade Center, but New York was feeling the impact of the national recession even before September 11. "As someone said, the economy was headed down and September 11 was like a shove in the back," James A. Parrott, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, told the New York Times. (New York Times)
Second Wave of Emotional Trauma Beginning To Hit New Yorkers - Mar 5, 2002
Nearly six months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, psychologists say a second wave of emotional trauma is hitting New Yorkers, and it may be tougher to treat than the first. After a lull in November and December, calls to employee-assistance programs and private counselors in the city have started up again. And while it was acceptable -- even desirable, in a way -- to confess to feelings of stress a few months ago, now revealing anxiety may be riskier and more difficult than immediately after the attacks. (Wall Street Journal)
FEMA Extends Aid Deadline - Mar 5, 2002
Individuals and businesses affected by the Sept. 11 attacks now have an extra six months to apply for federal aid, thanks to a deadline extension by recovery officials. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Monday that applicants may submit requests for state and federal aid until Sept. 30. The deadline had been March 11. (Newsday)
Congress To Hold Hearings on World Trade Center Collapse - Mar 5, 2002
Questions about the engineering probe of the collapses will be the subject of a hearing tomorrow in Washington before the House Science Committee, chaired by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, an upstate Republican. The probe's leader, engineer Gene Corley, is to testify, as are officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute for Standards and Technology. John Jay College professor Glenn Corbett said he will ask for backing of research into the evacuation and emergency response and argue for a formalized federal disaster probe process. (Newsday)
JFK Airport Among First To Get New Aviation Security - Mar 5, 2002
Federal officials began recruiting some 30,000 passenger and baggage screeners yesterday and announced that Kennedy Airport would be among the first to get the new aviation security workers. (New York Daily News)
Relief Agencies Overwhelmed By Response - Mar 5, 2002
Relief agencies were overwhelmed by donations and then requests for help in the weeks following September 11. The New York Times Neediest Case Fund released a report today with its findings about the distribution of relief funds, citing speed, organization, accountability, and creativity as key factors in getting the funds distributed in the best way possible. (New York Times)
Officials Say U.S. Should Have Shared Tip on Nuclear Threat - Mar 5, 2002
Officials from former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to Senators Hilary Clinton and Charles Schumer said yesterday that the federal government should have shared information with them and other local authorities about the threat of a nuclear bomb being smuggled into the city. Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that he understood the need to evaluate the quality of the information before sharing it with the public. (New York Times)
New Rules In Store For Sept. 11 Federal Compensation Fund - Mar 5, 2002
The Bush administration is close to a decision on several changes in the Victims Compensation Fund that could result in scores of families' receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the fund's original rules would have allowed. The new rules would open the fund to hundreds of additional rescue workers and World Trade Center employees who were injured in the attack, including those who suffered disabling lung ailments. In the most significant financial adjustment, the amount to spouses and children for noneconomic damages like loss of companionship would go to $100,000 from $50,000. (New York Times)
The Nuclear Threat To Manhattan: Can Another 9/11 Be Stopped? - Mar 4, 2002
A report from Time magazine details the nuclear threat to New York City last October that has been drawing reactions lately from local New York officials. The report says that terrorists were thought to have obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon from the Russian arsenal and planned to smuggle it into New York City. While the threat was later deemed not credible, one official described the stress on intelligence officials by saying "It was brutal." (Time)
Focusing On The Tribute of Light - Mar 4, 2002
The Tribute of Light memorial will be made of 88 searchlights pointing at the sky. With a cost of $500,000, the idea from the memorial went from simple illustration in New York Times Magazine to reality within months, thanks to the help of the Municipal Art Society, financing from corporations and foundations, and a lot of lightbulbs. (New York Times)
Widows Seek To Ask Congress for Broader Investigation Into Collapse - Mar 4, 2002
Several dozen widows and parents of World Trade Center victims, as well as New York City firefighters, intend to travel to Washington on Wednesday to urge Congress to expand the federal investigation into the structural failure of the twin towers. The group plans to attend a hearing before the House Science Committee, where several fire and engineering experts will review the progress of the inquiry. The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. (New York Times)
New Yorkers Never Notified of Nuclear Threat - Mar 4, 2002
Top federal officials reportedly feared in October that terrorists were planning to detonate a nuclear bomb in New York — potentially annihilating 100,000 people and flattening a hunk of Manhattan — but never told senior FBI officials, then Mayor Giuliani, or New York residents in general. The doomsday scenario was kept secret because of concerns that it could panic the city, already shaken to its core by the Sept. 11 attacks, Time magazine reported. (New York Daily News)
Interim Sculpture Memorial Set For Battery Park - Mar 3, 2002
A bronze-and-steel spherical sculpture that is to be part of a temporary memorial to the victims of the World Trade Center attack will probably move to Battery Park, rather than to Battery Park City as originally planned, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Saturday. Residents of Battery Park City were unhappy with the idea of their home becoming the site of yet another memorial. (New York Times)
Last Large Pile of Rubble At Ground Zero To Be Cleared - Mar 2, 2002
The construction of a massive steel ramp that will allow Ground Zero workers to clear a large pile of World Trade Center rubble believed to contain human remains will be completed by tomorrow, the engineering firm overseeing its construction says. Monahan said the ramp will enable workers to start removing and sifting through the last mountain of Twin Towers debris. (New York Post)
Diesel Fuel Fire Led To Collapse of 7 WTC - Mar 2, 2002
Investigators believe a fire fed by diesel fuel stored in 7 World Trade Center may have led to the building's collapse, according to a published report. The fire, which was ignited by falling debris from the burning twin towers, raged for about seven hours before the 47-story building collapsed on Sept. 11. According to a preliminary report, the fire may have caused a group of steel beams that supported the skyscraper _ called "transfer trusses" _ to fail. (Associated Press)
Friday March 8 A Key Deadline for Post 9/11 Unemployed - Mar 2, 2002
Workers who lost their jobs because of the Sept. 11 attacks have until Friday to make appointments to apply for aid from three major New York agencies. The American Red Cross in Greater New York, the Salvation Army and Safe Horizon are scheduling appointments at the Disaster Assistance Service Center at 141 Worth St. The program applies to people who were working below Canal Street and lost their jobs by Dec. 31 (for Red Cross aid) or by Jan. 11 (for Salvation Army and Safe Horizon). (New York Post)
Battery Park City Residents Ask For New Site for Interim Memorial - Mar 2, 2002
Battery Park City dwellers asked Mayor Bloomberg yesterday to come up with another site for an interim memorial to World Trade Center victims after officials unveiled a surprise plan to put it in the southern half of their neighborhood. The area already is home to several other memorials, including the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Irish Hunger Memorial, which is under construction. "We live in Battery Park City. We don't want to live in memorial park city," said Linda Belfer, president of the Gateway Plaza Tenants Association. (New York Daily News)
Families Group Asks CBS To Postpone September 11 Video - Mar 1, 2002
Bergen County Prosecutor William H. Schmidt, writing on behalf of families of September 11 victims, has asked CBS to postpone a March 10 documentary featuring exclusive videotape shot inside the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Schmidt suggested that CBS wait at least six more months before showing "9/11," because it could be upsetting to family and friends of those lost in the terrorist attacks. He did not threaten to take any legal action in a bid to stop the broadcast. (Newsday)
200 Ground Zero Firefighters On Sick Leave With Breathing Problems - Mar 1, 2002
Nearly 200 firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center disaster site are on medical leave — most of them stricken by breathing troubles.More than 100 others have been placed on desk duty because of Ground Zero-related respiratory problems, officials said. Fire Department officials are hopeful that the firefighters' respiratory woes will lessen with time and treatment, though they acknowledge some may be forced off the job. (New York Daily News)
Families Approve of Two Interim Memorial Ideas - Mar 1, 2002
At a meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's advisory council last night, families of those who perished in the World Trade Center attacks approved tentative plans yesterday for two temporary memorials near the site. (New York Daily News)
American Express Coming Back To Lower Manhattan - Mar 1, 2002
American Express is abandoning Jersey City and moving its employees back to its building in Lower Manhattan to consolidate operations that were scattered across the New York region after the World Trade Center attack. This reverses an early decision to significantly reduce the number of workers in Lower Manhattan by shifting some of them to Jersey City. (New York Times)
Mayoral Report Describes Decline In City Services After 9/11 - Mar 1, 2002
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's final collection of facts about the performance of city services, exhaustive yet carefully edited, was released yesterday by the Bloomberg administration, illuminating in many ways how those services suffered after the attack on the World Trade Center. Most notable, all sorts of arrests, as well as enforcement actions within the Police Department, declined, largely because the department was busy at ground zero or maintaining the high security alert, according to the report. (New York Times)
Nina, the Brainy Libeskind - Jul 30, 2004
Imposing, somehow, at just a smidgen over five feet tall, with a black-on-black wardrobe, a grayish brush cut of military precision and beyond-nerdy specs, Nina Libeskind seems a female photocopy of her husband, Daniel, architect of the master plan for the reconfigured World Trade Center. Taken together - and they usually are together - they're living proof that cutting edge can come in small packages. Matching packages. But the resemblance ends at the resemblance. (New York Times)
White House to Direct $2 Billion to Rail Link - Jul 30, 2004
The White House has agreed to let New York use $2 billion in Sept. 11 aid to help build a $6 billion rail link connecting the World Trade Center site to the Long Island Rail Road and Kennedy International Airport. (New York Times)
Spitzer Warns GOP Against Using 9/11 for Political Gain - Jul 30, 2004
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had a blunt warning Thursday for Republicans opening their national convention late next month in New York City: Don't politicize the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Newsday)
9/11 Commission Seeks Private Funding to Continue Work - Jul 30, 2004
The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission said Thursday that they were seeking private, charitable donations and intended to open a small office in Washington that would continue the commission's work when its government money runs out at the end of next month. (New York Times)
Senate to Hear 9/11 Commission's Proposals - Jul 30, 2004
With the momentum of last week's Sept. 11 commission report behind it, the Senate Government Affairs Committee is weighing politically touchy proposals to make massive changes to the intelligence community. (Associated Press)
9/11 Families Plan to Hold Congress to Commission's Recommendations - Jul 29, 2004
Families of Sept. 11 victims vowed yesterday to keep a "watchdog" list of any members of Congress who oppose legislation implementing changes recommended by the 9/11 commission. (Newsday)
Post Office to Reopen at Trade Center Site - Jul 28, 2004
The post office across the street from the World Trade Center site reopens next week after extensive work to repair the damage it sustained in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, postal officials said yesterday. (New York Post )
Kerry Seeks Extension of 9/11 Commission - Jul 28, 2004
Democrats sought yesterday to capitalize on the Sept. 11 commission recommendations and inject a new urgency into their adoption as congressional leaders announced a stepped-up schedule of hearings that will start tomorrow. (Newsday)
Air from 9/11 Didn't Inflate Cancer Risk - Jul 27, 2004
After the World Trade Center collapsed, air samples collected nearby showed that levels of some cancer-causing chemicals had soared but had fallen so quickly that the pollution spike was unlikely to increase cancer risks in nearby communities, researchers reported yesterday. (New York Times)
Cantor Fitzgerald Finds New Home in Midtown - Jul 27, 2004
Nearly three years after 658 Cantor Fitgerald employees were killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, the stock and bond trading company has found a new home five miles from ground zero, on the East Side of Manhattan. Cantor signed a lease last week to move into space now occupied by Bloomberg L.P., the business information company founded by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, at Park Avenue and 59th Street, where Cantor plans to erect a monument to the co-workers who died in the Sept. 11 attack. (New York Times)
9/11 Commission Chair: Attacks Could Have Been Prevented - Jul 27, 2004
The chairman of the 9/11 commission, Thomas Kean, said Sunday that he believes the attacks could have prevented. (NY1)
Group Looks to Turn 9/11 Into Day of Volunteerism - Jul 26, 2004
Sept. 11 will always be a day of mourning, but in the near future it could also be a day of charity, volunteering and community service for every American. One Day's Pay, a nationwide non-profit organization that facilitates volunteering in memory of the Sept. 11 victims, has launched a campaign to recruit 2 million volunteers to go out on the next anniversary of the attacks to read to the blind, cook for the homeless or tutor children. (Newsday)
Firefighter Training Evokes Memory of 9/11 - Jul 25, 2004
Tommy Gies gripped the gleaming bar and began to do his pullups, part of the daily routine for Fire Department recruits. But for the 169 men and one woman in this year's class, the pullups are more than merely a fitness exercise. They are a lasting reminder of the 343 Fire Department members lost in the 9/11 attacks. The twin pullup bars are bracketed by a pair of rusty steel columns fetched from the rubble at Ground Zero - the place where Gies' father died. (New York Daily News)
Representative Weiner Criticizes Bush Administration on Security Funding - Jul 25, 2004
Rep. Anthony Weiner slapped at the Bush administration yesterday, charging New York has gotten $61 million less in federal security cash since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The Queens-based Democrat and likely mayoral hopeful used the dollar figure to highlight Bloomberg's Republican registration. (New York Daily News)
Congress Will Hold Hearings to Discuss 9/11 Commission's Proposed Reforms - Jul 25, 2004
Senate and House committees will hold an unusual round of August hearings on intelligence reform after leaders of the Sept. 11 commission warned that America remained vulnerable to another deadly terror strike. (Associated Press)
Blending Technology and Security, Architects Build Big Again - Jul 25, 2004
On the day the world Trade Center fell, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City. In the months that followed, six of its commercial tenants ran off. They did not want to be in the tallest anything, anywhere, anymore. Three years later, big is beautiful again. (Time Canada)
Vets Protest Iraq War at Ground Zero - Jul 25, 2004
Flashing peace symbols and yelling Ă’Congress has spoken, the people have spoken: No more Vietnams,Ă“ eight members of Veterans for Peace came to the World Trade Center Site for about 20 minutes Tuesday to protest the war in Iraq. None of them made any mention of Sept. 11 during the protest. (Downtown Express)
9/11 Commission Finds Much Wrong With Convention Wisdom about Attacks - Jul 24, 2004
When the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States set to work early last year to prepare the definitive history of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, it seemed that much of the hard work of the so-called 9/11 commission was already done, because so much of the horrifying story seemed to be known. But 19 months later, the commission released a final, unanimous book-length report last Thursday that, in calling for a overhaul of the way the government collects and shares intelligence, showed that much of what had been common wisdom about the Sept. 11 attacks at the start of the panel's investigation was wrong. (New York Times)
Bloomberg Says 9/11 Commission Wrong About City's Emergency Response - Jul 24, 2004
Mayor Bloomberg vehemently disagreed with the 9/11 commission's assessment that his administration has failed to establish clear lines of command among city agencies responding to a future terrorist attack. (New York Daily News)
Another 9/11 Victim Identified - Jul 24, 2004
The medical examiner's office has identified another victim of the World Trade Center attacks: Mildred Rose Naiman, 81. (New York Post)
Senator Clinton Criticizes Bush on Security Funding - Jul 24, 2004
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that President Bush has been an ineffective leader who "dithered" in supplying anti-terrorism money to the most threatened states. (Associated Press)
9/11 Commissioners Will Make Report Election-Year Issue - Jul 24, 2004
The five Republicans and five Democrats on the September 11th commission are vowing to make their unanimous recommendations an election-year issue. (NY1)
Firefighters Have Mixed Reactions to Report - Jul 24, 2004
City firefighters say they are still concerned about communication problems mentioned in the 9/11 commission report, but they agree with the panel's recommendation that cities which are prime terror targets should receive more homeland security funding. (NY1)
Motorcycle Riders Hit the Road in Memory of 9/11 Victims - Jul 24, 2004
Hundreds of bikers hit the streets for the annual Independence Motorcycle Ride commemorating the victims of 9/11. The ride was conceived three years ago by construction workers who served during the 10-month cleanup of Ground Zero. (NY1)
9/11 Commission Final Report Calls for Intelligence Overhaul - Jul 23, 2004
The bipartisan commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks concluded in its unanimous final report on Thursday that the attacks "were a shock but they should not have come as a surprise." It warned that without a historic restructuring of the nation's intelligence agencies and a new emphasis on diplomacy, the United States would leave itself open to an even more catastrophic attack. (New York Times)
9/11 Commission Criticizes New York's Emergency Response, But Praises Individuals' Improvised Rescue - Jul 23, 2004
In its chronicle of the blunders, lapses and shortsightedness that permitted hijackers to attack New York, the Sept. 11 commission found that the city's emergency response was plagued by many of the same failures of imagination and preparedness that it cited in the nation's antiterrorism policies. Yet that cascade of systemic failures and institutional weaknesses, while leading to its awful toll in human life, was overcome in part by the vigorous, improvised response in New York, where thousands of people escaped from the World Trade Center, the commission found. (New York Times)
New York City Not Getting Needed Security Cash, Says 9/11 Commission - Jul 23, 2004
New York City's anti-terror resources are being grossly underfunded by the White House and Congress, which treat the critical money as "pork-barrel spending," the new 9/11 report charges. (New York Post )
9/11 Families Ambivalent About Commission Report - Jul 23, 2004
As the nation digested a 567-page report detailing the failures of intelligence agencies, politicians and first responders before and on Sept. 11, 2001, many of those most directly affected by the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 found yesterday that they weren't particularly interested in its conclusions. (Newsday)
For Officer in Pipe Bomb Inquiry, 9/11 Scars Never Healed - Jul 22, 2004
Police Officer Joseph Rodriguez, now 27, never seemed to fully recover from September 11. From there, his short career continued to spiral downward, his guns taken away and his duties restricted to answering telephones. Having effectively ended with the World Trade Center attack, while he was still a rookie, it officially ended yesterday, as he completed the last of his disability pension paperwork. But Officer Rodriguez remains at the center of an investigation into whether, before reporting that he had discovered a flaming knapsack stuffed with a pipe bomb in a subway station on Monday night, he in fact was the one who had placed it there. (New York Times)
Study Determines Location of Deaths on 9/11 - Jul 22, 2004
Now, nearly three years after the attack, federal investigators with the National Institute of Standards and Technology have come up with the most comprehensive, but still not final, tally of just who died where on Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)
Judge Tells WTC Developer, Architect, to Settle Dispute Through Mediation - Jul 22, 2004
A judge yesterday ordered World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein and disgruntled architect Daniel Libeskind to submit their $800,000 fee dispute to mediation. (New York Daily News)
Video Show Hijackers in Airport on September 11 - Jul 22, 2004
Surveillance video from Washington Dulles International Airport the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, shows four of the five hijackers being pulled aside to undergo additional scrutiny after setting off metal detectors but then permitted to board the fateful flight that crashed into the Pentagon. (Associated Press)
Business Leaders Lobby White House for Rail Link - Jul 22, 2004
A group of local business leaders took their case for the proposed Lower Manhattan to JFK Airport rail link to the White House Wednesday. (NY1)
Victims' Families Briefed on 9/11 Commission Report - Jul 22, 2004
Victims' family members, Bush administration officials and lawmakers are being briefed on the 9/11 commission's final report Wednesday, a day before the findings will be made public. (NY1)
9/11 Commission Report to be Made Public Today - Jul 22, 2004
The 9/11 Commission's final report, scheduled to be made public on Thursday, will detail the intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (New York Times)
Silverstein Accuses Libeskind of Freedom Tower Shakedown - Jul 21, 2004
Architect Daniel Libeskind held out "approval" on the Freedom Tower design in an attempted $800,000 shakedown, twin towers leaseholder Larry Silverstein charged in court papers yesterday. (New York Daily News)
9/11 Commission Not Expected to Say Attacks Could Have Been Prevented - Jul 21, 2004
The final report from the federal commission investigating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is due out in two days, and there's word Tuesday the panel will not conclude the attacks could have been prevented. (NY1)
9/11 Commissioner to President: Act Fast on Security - Jul 20, 2004
The head of the 9/11 commission urged the President yesterday to act quickly on the panel's recommendations to safeguard the country. (New York Daily News)
In Book, Firefighter Calls for Probe of 9/11 Radios - Jul 20, 2004
More than three years after a $14-million radio system for the city's firefighters failed in the field, no formal investigation of how the radios were purchased has been conducted. Now, a just-published book, co-authored by a city Fire Department captain, says the truth about the purchase of the Motorola XTS-3500 model radios never may be known without a full probe. (Newsday)
Congressman Fears Health Hazards from Deutsche Building Destruction - Jul 20, 2004
Rep. Jerrold Nadler yesterday blasted the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s planned demolition of the Deutschebank Building, saying it could release toxins that may pose a health hazard to residents. (Newsday)
Immigrants Say Post-9/11 Crackdown Persists - Jul 20, 2004
Nearly three years after 9/11, New York immigrants, their determined advocates and Catholic clergy told an emotional forum Monday that the effects of heightened enforcement of immigration laws are felt every day. (Newsday)
9/11 Commission Report to Criticize NYC Response - Jul 20, 2004
Confusion between city police officers and firefighters during the World Trade Center attack will reportedly be a major topic in the scathing final report the federal 9/11 commission is expected to release on Thursday. (NY1)
A Look at the 9/11 Commission's Work - Jul 20, 2004
The attack was unprecedented. So too was the investigation. Later this week, the federal commission investigating the September 11, 2001 terror attacks will release to the public its final report. What questions will be answered? What recommendations made. NY1's John Schium takes a look back at the commission's work the past year and a half. (NY1)
New York Slow to Fix 9/11 Flaws, Says Commission - Jul 19, 2004
New York still has not fixed some of the crucial problems faced by city cops and firefighters on 9/11, the commission probing the 2001 terrorist attacks will say this week. (New York Daily News)
9/11 Commission Will Push Its Recommendations - Jul 18, 2004
Members of the independent Sept. 11 commission say they will mount an aggressive nationwide lobbying campaign to pressure the White House and Congress to overhaul the nation's intelligence agencies, an effort they say will begin this week with release of a unanimous final report criticizing virtually every element of the way the government collects and shares intelligence. (New York Times)
Furor Over Lies About Post 9/11 Air Quality - Jul 18, 2004
Robert Gulack returned to work downtown after 9/11 because federal officials said it was safe to go back. He woke up two days later choking with asthma. Now, after a blistering memo from an Environmental Protection Agency scientist claiming the city and the EPA withheld data showing the area was actually clogged with asbestos, Gulack is fuming and demanding reparations. (New York Post)
CIA Director Criticizes 9/11 Commission's Call for New Intelligence Post - Jul 18, 2004
Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin says he doesn't think the country needs a new cabinet-level post to oversee the nation's 15 intelligence agencies. (NY1)
9/11 Commission to Recommend Overhaul of Intelligence - Jul 17, 2004
The final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will recommend the creation of a cabinet-level post to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies, a position that would take power away from the C.I.A., the F.B.I., the National Security Council, the Pentagon and other agencies that face blistering criticism from the panel, government officials who have seen the report said. (New York Times)
Governor Open to Scrapping West Street Tunnel Plan - Jul 17, 2004
With his clothes still wet after kayaking to Tribeca, Gov. George Pataki indicated for the first time that he was open to not building a West St. tunnel. Pataki told Downtown Express that he would let the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. make the decision on the tunnel and he thought the state-city agency would also make significant investments on Downtown's proposed commuter-airport rail link and the Hudson River Park. (Downtown Express)
Benches Become Individual 9/11 Memorials - Jul 16, 2004
Since 1986, the Central Park Conservancy has run a program called "Adopt-a-Bench." For $7,500, one can have a brief message inscribed on a plaque. In return, the conservancy promises to maintain the bench forever. It was inevitable perhaps that, in this form of urban shorthand, some would speak for those who perished on Sept. 11. At least 21 benches reflect that day, though "there could be more," said Linda Blumberg, a conservancy spokeswoman. (New York Times)
Wrong Date Put on 9/11 Plaque - Jul 16, 2004
The date of Sept. 11, 2002, was mistakenly put on a plaque attached to a fence at Ground Zero, officials admitted yesterday. (New York Post)
Memo Reveals Asbestos Cover-Up After 9/11 - Jul 16, 2004
An Environmental Protection Agency memo claims city and federal officials concealed data that showed lower Manhattan air was clouded with asbestos after the World Trade Center collapse. And officials sat on the alarming information even as they told the public it was safe to return downtown, the internal memo says. (New York Post)
City Urges People to Sign up for Health Registry - Jul 16, 2004
The World Trade Center Health Registry is just seven weeks away from closing the enrollment books, and a new campaign is urging people to sign up while they still can. (NY1)
Over 700 Employees Prepare for Move Downtown - Jul 16, 2004
The revitalization continues in Lower Manhattan, as 730 state employees get set to move their offices downtown. (NY1)
Group Urges Americans to Spend 9/11 Volunteering - Jul 15, 2004
A nonprofit organization encouraged Americans on Wednesday to spend Sept. 11 volunteering their services to charity. (Associated Press)
Libeskind's Lawsuit Lays Bare the Tensions of Rebuilding - Jul 15, 2004
A mere 10 days after Governor George Pataki presided over an optimistic and buoyant ceremony to lay the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center, Ground Zero master planner architect Daniel Libeskind filed suit against Larry Silverstein, the developer who is building the 1,776-foot-tall spire. The filing of this lawsuit marks the low point in the often tempestuous relationship between the 58-year-old Mr. Libeskind and the 73-year-old Mr. Silverstein. (New York Observer)
Libeskind Sues Silverstein Over Design Fee - Jul 14, 2004
Just a week after the Freedom Tower cornerstone was laid in place, Daniel Libeskind, the master planner of the World Trade Center site, yesterday sued Larry A. Silverstein, the tower's developer, for $843,750 in architectural fees that Mr. Libeskind says he is owed. (New York Times)
City Opens Lab to Combat Bioterrorism - Jul 14, 2004
Nearly three years after anthrax attacks in New York City brought home the danger that bioterrorism poses to the world, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday announced the opening of a $16 million high-security laboratory to help detect and deal with future threats. (New York Times)
Same-Sex Domestic Partner of 9/11 Victim Entitled to Payout - Jul 14, 2004
A lesbian who lost her life partner in the World Trade Center attacks is entitled to an award from the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, a Brooklyn judge has ruled. (New York Daily News)
Family Members, Survivors Want 9/11 Commission Briefings in NYC - Jul 14, 2004
The 9/11 Commission is set to release some of its findings this month and plans to brief families in Washington, despite the fact that the bulk of the victims of the attacks died in the New York City area. Family members of New York victims are trying to persuade the members of the federal Sept. 11 commission to hold briefings for the relatives of the victims and survivors of the attacks in New York as well as in Washington. (Newsday)
Citigroup to Move Employees from Lower Manhattan - Jul 13, 2004
Citigroup is moving more than 1,000 employees to New Jersey from Lower Manhattan, according to government officials and real estate executives, in a major realignment that raises new doubts about the pace of economic rejuvenation downtown. (New York Times)
9/11 Camps Become Popular With Children of Victims - Jul 13, 2004
America's Camp, a free week-long camp in Massachusetts for children who lost family during the attacks, was designed to distract children from 9/11's trauma. In that first summer following Sept. 11, America's Camp and at least five other camps opened on the East Coast to help children cope with the trauma of the terrorist attacks. Now, with more distance from the horror of that day, enrollment in these camps is higher than ever and continuing to grow. (Newsday)
Workers Prepare for Demolition of Last Structural Obstacle to Freedom Tower - Jul 12, 2004
Deep within the smoke-blackened ruins of an underground parking garage, 30 workers are installing tendonlike bundles of steel cable, called tiebacks, to anchor the concrete perimeter foundation wall to bedrock. This will permit the demolition in coming months of the last major structural vestige of the old World Trade Center. (New York Times)
Post 9/11 PATH Ridership Exceeds Expectations - Jul 12, 2004
The number of commuters who use the temporary World Trade Center station and the Exchange Place station in Jersey City has exceeded expectations since they reopened last year, officials said. (New York Post)
Woman Asks for Help Finding Ring Lost on 9/11 - Jul 12, 2004
Heartsick Erin Jackman has issued an urgent appeal to New Yorkers Ă‘ begging them to find the ring that was her cherished link to the kid sister she lost in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. (New York Post)
Man Accused of Fabricating Tale of 9/11 Bravery - Jul 12, 2004
A man who claims to have waded in ``toxic soup'' deep beneath the World Trade Center rubble to help find bodies is being accused of making up his tale of courage and defrauding the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund of nearly $650,000. (1010 WINS)
Wall Street May Be Next Terror Target - Jul 11, 2004
U.S. intelligence agencies are growing increasingly concerned that al Qaeda's next target in the United States could be the heart of America's economy Ă‘ Wall Street. (New York Post)
US Open Women's Final Scheduled for September 11 - Jul 11, 2004
Is it a backhand to victims and survivors or a lob for the healing process? The United States Tennis Association has scheduled the U.S. Open's women's singles final for Sept. 11 Ă‘ the third anniversary of the attacks on America that claimed nearly 3,000 lives. (New York Post)
First 9/11 Victim Identified - Jul 11, 2004
The latest World Trade Center victim to be identified is Daniel Lewin, an Israeli soldier who became a Massachusetts computer tycoon. The married father of two kids was reportedly the first 9/11 casualty. A passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11 Ă‘ the first of two hijacked planes to crash into the Twin Towers Ă‘ Lewin is believed to have been the businessman stabbed to death by terrorists. (New York Post)
9/11 Commission May Finish Report This Week - Jul 11, 2004
Working in secret, the Sept. 11 commission is finishing a final report that several members believe will be done by week's end and have unanimous support. (New York Post)
Convention Planners Fear Train Bombing - Jul 11, 2004
Security planners for the upcoming political conventions are highly concerned about a train bombing and are taking unprecedented steps to safeguard subway and commuter lines in host cities New York and Boston. (Newsday)
New Home for Trade Center Art Studios - Jul 11, 2004
From 1997 until 2001, artists worked on the 91st and 92nd floors of Tower One of the World Trade Center, capturing the city's landscape from the highest vantage point in the Manhattan. One artist in the program died on Sept. 11, 2001. After 9/11, L.M.C.C. hopscotched from the World Financial Center, to Brooklyn and spent last year Downtown in the Woolworth Building, before artists and members of L.M.C.C. learned that Silverstein Properties had donated the artists' current space on Broadway between Pine and Cedar Sts. (Downtown Express)
Tribute in Light Gets Funding for Next Five Years - Jul 09, 2004
Intended originally as an ephemeral memorial, the twin-beam "Tribute in Light," which simultaneously marks the presence and absence of the World Trade Center, has been guaranteed a place in the night sky every Sept. 11 for at least the next five years. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board voted yesterday to give $3.5 million to the Municipal Art Society, which helps produce the memorial. (New York Times)
With Post 9/11 Revitalization, Downtown's Parks Get a Little Greener - Jul 09, 2004
Bowling Green, New York's oldest park, is looking especially fresh. The park, at the foot of Broadway, has just undergone an $690,000 renovation by the city Parks Department as part of a $37 million crash program to restore and create 14 parks downtown in the wake of 9/11. (New York Times)
Silverstein Wants to Use Remaining Liberty Bonds for Ground Zero - Jul 09, 2004
World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein wants all of the $3.5 billion or so that's left of the Liberty Bonds to go directly toward rebuilding the site. He may need it. (New York Daily News)
Despite Alert, Police Have Received No New Intelligence on Attack in City - Jul 09, 2004
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was unfazed by Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge's announcement yesterday that al-Qaida might attack the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, saying the city has received no new intelligence and won't change its alert status. (Newsday)
On Cornerstone, Inscription Speaks with Local Accent - Jul 08, 2004
It could have been imperial Trajan. Or elegant Bodoni. Or generic Helvetica. But the search for the ideal typeface to be inscribed on the Freedom Tower cornerstone at the World Trade Center site ended simply, in Gotham. (New York Times)
Daughter of 9/11 Victim Honors Cops by Becoming One - Jul 08, 2004
Catherine Hernandez believed there was only one way to repay the heroes who gave their lives trying to save her father in the World Trade Center Ă‘ by donning a uniform, too. (New York Post )
Grants Coming for Ground Zero Cultural Institutions - Jul 08, 2004
The agency leading the Ground Zero rebuilding is expected today to approve $1.5 million in grants for the creation of a cultural center at the site, sources said. (Newsday)
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Appoints New Board Member - Jul 08, 2004
Robert Balachandran has been appointed to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's Board of Directors. (NY1)
9/11 Counseling Program Extended - Jul 07, 2004
An unprecedented federal crisis counseling program set up to help New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of the terror attacks has beenextended through Dec. 31, officials said yesterday. (New York Daily News)
Timeline of Freedom Tower's Key Moments - Jul 07, 2004
Key events in the planning for the World Trade Center's new skyscraper: (Newsday)
9/11 Commission Rebukes Cheney's Intelligence Claims - Jul 07, 2004
The leaders of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks on Tuesday disputed Vice President Dick Cheney's suggestion that he probably had access to more intelligence than the commission did about possible ties between the Qaeda terrorist network and Iraq. (New York Times )
The Fishing Fanatic Behind the Freedom Center - Jul 06, 2004
Once Tom Bernstein latches onto something, be it a combative fish, a maligned development scheme for four neglected city piers, or a controversial proposal for a world-class museum devoted to world freedom at ground zero, he doesn't let go. (New York Times)
Commuters Get First Glimpse of Ground Zero Construction - Jul 06, 2004
Starting today, commuters will get their first look at the construction of the new Freedom Tower at Ground Zero. (New York Daily News)
I Had to Settle Family Feuds, Says 9/11 Fund Chief - Jul 06, 2004
The man who divvied up the $6 billion compensation fund to relatives of the Sept. 11 attacks said he had to resolve some pretty prickly disputes among feuding family members. (New York Daily News)
Visitors Flock to Ground Zero to See Cornerstone - Jul 06, 2004
The newly unveiled cornerstone for the Freedom Tower became lower Manhattan's latest attraction as visitors from around the world descended on Ground Zero yesterday to catch a glimpse of the 20-ton block of granite. (New York Post)
Libeskind Speaks About Rebuilding as Construction Begins - Jul 06, 2004
On July 4, a granite cornerstone was laid down in lower Manhattan for Freedom Tower, marking the beginning of a new structure for the former World Trade site. Freedom Tower is the symbolic focus of the design, the work of architect Daniel Libeskind, who won a competition to design the master plan for ground zero in February 2003. For the final installment of Morning Edition's Intersections series, NPR's Brian Naylor spoke with Libeskind about his inspirations for rebuilding the site. (National Public Radio)
Freedom Tower Assignment: One Quarry's "High Profile" Job - Jul 05, 2004
Had it not been chosen as the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower, the 20-ton block of granite from the Ruby Mountain quarry in the Adirondacks was destined for slightly humbler duty. "It would have ended up as someone's countertop," said Tim Conboy, the vice president for strategic planning of the Barton Group in Lake George, N.Y., which owns the quarry about 30 miles northwest, near North River. (New York Times)
Ceremony Marks Symbolic Start to Ground Zero Construction - Jul 05, 2004
New York took the first tangible step to recover its place at the pinnacle of the global skyline in a ceremony that was held within the trade center's foundation, in bright sunshine but far below street level, where bedrock begins. With many questions unanswered, symbolism was the order of the day at the hourlong ceremony. (New York Times)
Skyscraper Museum Opens Twin Towers Exhibit - Jul 05, 2004
As the city marked Independence Day with the groundbreaking of the new Freedom Tower, the Skyscraper Museum opened its exhibit on the buildings it will replace Ă‘ the Twin Towers. (New York Post)
For One Junior High Student, Groundbreaking Ceremony Meant a Big Performance - Jul 05, 2004
Julian Davis tried to focus on the words on the page as he took the stage at Ground Zero yesterday, and declared in a strong, clear voice "that all men are created equal." The 12-year-old, whose dad, Port Authority cop Clinton Davis, was killed on 9/11, read from the Declaration of Independence before a crowd of hundreds at the laying of the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower. (New York Daily News)
Groundbreaking Brings Varied Crowd - Jul 05, 2004
There were three kinds of people outside Sunday's groundbreaking for the Freedom Tower: spectators, protesters and sunbathers. (Newsday)
Head of Victims Compensation Fund Honored - Jul 05, 2004
A legal organization has awarded a lifetime achievement award to the head of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Special Master Kenneth Feinberg received the award from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America at the group's annual convention in Boston. (NY1)
Construction at Ground Zero Begins, But Finished Product Still Unclear - Jul 04, 2004
The language this morning during the cornerstone laying for the Freedom Tower at ground zero will probably be as lofty as the skyscraper itself. But no one gathered around the great granite block - not the governors, the mayor, the civil servants, the developer, the planners, and certainly not the reporters - can say for certain how much of the current vision for the new World Trade Center will be realized. (New York Times)
City Looks to Blast-Proof Subways - Jul 04, 2004
The MTA is looking into a plan to secure subway tunnels with a military-style, lightweight material that would contain the force of a bomb blast, The Post has learned. (New York Post)
Cornerstone Ceremony Begins Complicated Construction Project - Jul 04, 2004
On the 1,027th day after terrorists ripped a hole in our hearts by killing 2,752 people and destroying the World Trade Center, Gov. Pataki today will lay the cornerstone for Twin Towers' replacement Ă‘ the Freedom Tower, a soaring spire of steel. (New York Post)
City Prepares Cops for Chemical Attack - Jul 04, 2004
Behind the gates of a former Brooklyn grade school, the NYPD is mustering an army of 10,000 cops that will be ready to march into the chaos of a chemical, biological or nuclear terror strike - just in time for the upcoming Republican National Convention. (New York Post)
Freedom Tower Cornerstone Laid - Jul 04, 2004
A 20-ton slab of granite, inscribed to honor "the enduring spirit of freedom," was laid Sunday at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone of the skyscraper replacing the destroyed towers. (Associated Press)
Development at Ground Zero Moving Too Fast, Say Families - Jul 03, 2004
The Coalition of 9/11 families says developers eager to start work on the World Trade Center memorial are jumping the gun. (NY1)
Freedom Tower Opponents Prepare for a Fight - Jul 03, 2004
It'll either be the beginning of the beginning or the beginning of the end when a cornerstone is laid for the Freedom Tower on Independence Day. Some see the start of construction of the first tower on the World Trade Center site as an important milestone three years after Lower Manhattan was left with a destroyed place where almost 2,800 people were killed. To those who dislike the new W.T.C. plan for emotional, environmental or aesthetic reasons, the ceremony this Sunday represents another step in the wrong direction. Several groups opposing the plan have been in discussions and are considering filing a lawsuit to stop it. (Downtown Express)
Housing Complex Residents Split on Rebuilding Project - Jul 03, 2004
With the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation considering the Chatham Green Houses complex as a potential site for an underground parking garage, the building's shareholders and board members are already split as to whether the project would be a blessing or a boondoggle. (Downtown Express)
Lawyers of Post-9/11 Detainees Sue Prison For Videotaping Meetings With Clients - Jul 02, 2004
When lawyers from the Legal Aid Society made their way into the federal detention center in Brooklyn in the fall of 2001 to meet with detainees, they said, they were alarmed to see video cameras on the walls. Concerned about the confidentiality of their conversations with their shackled clients - immigrant detainees who were rounded up after the Sept. 11 attacks - the lawyers asked whether they were being taped. Prison officials assured them, they say, that the cameras were turned off. (New York Times)
Freedom Tower Cornerstone Arrives at Ground Zero - Jul 02, 2004
Just in time for Independence Day, a crucial building block in Lower Manhattan's reconstruction has arrived in the city. The cornerstone of the World Trade Center's Freedom Tower arrived Thursday morning. Workers will put it in place Sunday as the city and the nation celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. (NY1)
Mayor Backs Governor on Converting 9/11 Cash - Jul 01, 2004
Michael R. Bloomberg will support Gov. George E. Pataki's proposal to use billions of dollars in unspent Sept. 11 aid on building a rail link to connect the former World Trade Center site to the Long Island Rail Road and Kennedy International Airport, the mayor's aides said yesterday. Mr. Pataki has personally lobbied President Bush, a fellow Republican, to provide hard cash in place of a $5 billion tax-break package that Washington established to help spur construction in Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks. (New York Times)
New Jersey Picks Its 9/11 Memorial - Jul 01, 2004
A design featuring two stainless-steel walls that look from a certain perspective as if the World Trade Center towers had been neatly felled and had landed in New Jersey has won the competition for New Jersey's Sept. 11 memorial, Gov. James E. McGreevey announced yesterday. The winning proposal came from the Manhattan-based architect Frederic Schwartz. (New York Times)
Pedestal of Statue of Liberty to Open August 3rd - Jul 01, 2004
Visitors will be able to again enter the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 3, after being closed for nearly three years of safety and security improvements, the National Parks Service said yesterday. (New York Times)
Red Cross Giving $50 Million in 9/11 Grants - Jul 01, 2004
The Red Cross announced Wednesday it is making $50 million in grants available for programs that provide long-term relief from the September 11 attacks. (NY1)
Silverstein Executive Wants to Use Liberty Bonds at Ground Zero - Jul 01, 2004
During testimony at the first in a series of City Council hearings on funding for Lower Manhattan redevelopment, John Lieber, senior vice president of World Trade Center LLC, a Silverstein Properties company, issued a call that the funds remaining in the Liberty Bond pool should be allocated and preserved for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. That call was echoed by Community Board 1 and the Downtown Alliance. (Globe St. )
The Integration of the Design Team at Ground Zero - Jul 01, 2004
Architect J. Max Bond Jr. has had to build bridges to reach Ground Zero, and now, for the first time in the redevelopment of the trade center site, an African American, is a major player (Washington Post )