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April 2003
FEMA To Stay Downtown, For Now - Apr 30, 2003
With the Federal Emergency Management Agency set to close its lower
Manhattan assistance center Thursday, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and
others took to the streets to protest .Except FEMA officials told a
different story after Tuesday's event. The office won't close on May 1,
but officials expect it to close in "the next few weeks."
(Newsday)
Pataki Commits to Timeline, Downtown Reactions - Apr
30, 2003 Responding to criticisms that the Lower Manhattan
rebuilding efforts are proceeding too slowly, Gov. George Pataki last
week released an extensive timeline of short and long-term goals, such
as a new Greenmarket, which will open across the street from the World
Trade Center site this summer, and the last piece Ð a Downtown link to
J.F.K. Airport and the Long Island Rail Road in 2013.
(Downtown Express)
Chinatown Businesses Battle SARS Fears and Rumors -
Apr 30, 2003 As rumor played tug-of-war with reality last week in
Chinatown, community members voiced concern that an outbreak of the SARS
virusÑactual or perceivedÑcould bring further economic damage to an area
already struggling with fears of the illness.
(Downtown Express)
In 9/11 Memorial Competition, Rules Are Set to Be
Broken - Apr 29, 2003 Officials overseeing the competition
to design a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attack of Sept. 11,
2001, and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center promised yesterday
that all entries would be considered, even those that stray from the
official guidelines for the placement and content of the memorial.
(New York Times)
WTC Memorial Design Contest Begins - Apr 28,
2003 Anyone anywhere in the world can register for the competition
to select a World Trade Center memorial, starting Monday. While the
guidelines require designers to be at least age 18, teens and children
can participate, provided an adult registers for them and serves as
designer of record -- no design, architecture expertise or experience
needed.
(Newsday)
Push for Second 9/11 Memorial - Apr 27, 2003 A
disturbing photo of a firefighter walking to his death on Sept. 11,
2001, is being used in a public relations blitz by a group that wants
special honors at the Ground Zero memorial for uniformed workers.
Posters of the photo are going up around the city today, a day before
officials launch the international competition for the permanent tribute
to the nearly 3,000 people who died in the World Trade Center attacks.
(New York Daily News)
Preserving Fulton Street's Historic Structures - Apr
28, 2003 Considering its chaotic buildings, anarchic signs and
gritty facades, Fulton Street is an unlikely candidate for architectural
sanctity, let alone salvation. It is, however, dense with historic
structures, and its westerly verge is destined to be the home of a new
Fulton Street Transit Center on Broadway. Students of the city's past
see the street, and its environs, as a cornucopia of neglected
architectural treasures, even though anyone who walks it will be
confronted by a hodgepodge of building facades, some of which are
undeniably shabby. Nevertheless, a consortium of leading preservation
groups is concerned that new development could result in the
obliteration of many non-landmark structures.
(New York Times)
Request For Documents Exposes Terror Panel Rift -
Apr 26, 2003 One member's attempt to review confidential transcripts
exposed a rift Friday within the independent commission examining the
Sept. 11 attacks. Tim Roemer, a member of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, criticized the panel's leaders
for not demanding immediate and total access to documents compiled
during a congressional inquiry of the terror attacks.
(Associated Press)
Pataki Sketches a Timetable for Rebuilding of Ground
Zero - Apr 25, 2003 Gov. George E. Pataki, promising "a
renewed sense of urgency" in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, laid out
a plan yesterday to complete substantial portions of the work at the
World Trade Center site by the fifth anniversary of the attack of Sept.
11, 2001. By that time, Mr. Pataki said, the permanent PATH commuter
station at the site and the new Fulton Transit Center two blocks to the
east will open, the substructure for the memorial to the victims of the
attack will be completed, allowing construction of the memorial to
proceed, and the erection of steel for the 1,776-foot tower, a signature
piece of Daniel Libeskind's design for the site, will be finished.
(New York Times)
Pataki Pledges Direct Kennedy-Manhattan-L.I. Rail -
Apr 25, 2003 Promising direct rail service from lower Manhattan to
Kennedy Airport and Long Island, Gov. George Pataki Thursday laid out an
ambitious schedule for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site,
the surrounding neighborhood and its aging transportation system. While
transportation officials take the next year to select a plan to create a
lower Manhattan rail connection to Kennedy Airport and Long Island --
and the next decade to build it -- fast ferry service would begin to
LaGuardia Airport in 2004 and Kennedy in 2005, under the governor's
plan.
(Newsday)
State Bill Would Prohibit Peddlers At Ground Zero -
Apr 24, 2003 Backed by Mayor Bloomberg, state lawmakers are moving
to ban peddlers at Ground Zero, The Post has learned. Proposed
legislation submitted by the city to state lawmakers for passage seeks
to stop all vendors from peddling goods and food at Ground Zero "in
recognition of the sanctity of the site."
(New York Post)
Report: WTC Collapse Was Two Events - Apr 24,
2003 The twin skyscrapers of the World Trade Center collapsed
because their inner cores were weakened by fire, but the south tower's
destruction had no direct bearing on the later fall of the north tower,
an engineering firm's study says. The analysis, made public on
Wednesday, was conducted by Weidlinger Associates, a company hired by
trade center leaseholder Larry Silverstein.
(Associated
Press)
Angry 9/11 Families Seek Federal Role In Memorial
Plan - Apr 24, 2003 A coalition of victims? families groups
is pushing the federal government to take a larger role in the September
11 memorial, driven by anger and mistrust toward the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation and a desire to create a national monument. The
"federal outreach" has begun already and will climax with a mid-May trip
to Washington.
(New York Sun)
Ground Zero Search Dog In Running For Top Canine
Hero - Apr 23, 2003 Jake the black lab searched for signs
of life at Ground Zero, scaling heaps of jagged rubble night after
night. Now he's up for an award honoring heroic dogs.
(Associated Press)
Pataki Wants Downtown Rebuilt Fast - Apr 22,
2003 Gov. George E. Pataki is expected to tell a group of business
and civic leaders this week that the 1,776-foot tower that is a central
part of Daniel Libeskind's design for the World Trade Center site will
be one of the first construction projects to get under way there,
according to people close to the rebuilding process. In an address on
Thursday to the Association for a Better New York, a civic group, Pataki
will lay out an aggressive schedule for construction in the first phase
of the rebuilding effort, including the tower, a transportation hub
joining the PATH commuter rail line and Lower Manhattan subway lines,
and the memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the trade
center, the people involved said.
(New York Times)
Transit Hub, Rail Links Cited as Top Needs for
Downtown - Apr 22, 2003 A transit hub near Ground Zero and
a rail link to Kennedy Airport and Long Island are the highest
rebuilding priorities for lower Manhattan's largest employers, according
to two surveys released yesterday.
(New York Daily News)
'After': Surviving Sept. 11 - Apr 20, 2003
Steven Brill's ''After'' is a book of great ambition. It sets out to
describe America's reaction to the terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001, an
event so overpowering that given a year and a half of reflection and
relentless commentary it can still seem utterly amorphous. How to define
the American reaction to this horror story? One way is to examine the
active response of some of the people whose roles in business and
government require them to engage the attack without overinterpretation.
Brill chooses about 20, mainly responsible officials, insurance lawyers,
developers and politicians, but also a few ordinary folks whose lives
came to be defined by 9/11 and its aftermath.
(New York Times)
Ferry Operator Is the Target of U.S. Inquiry - Apr
18, 2003 Federal authorities are investigating allegations that the
region's leading private ferry company defrauded the federal government
of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the aftermath of the Sept. 11
attack, according to investigators involved in the case. The
investigators say they are looking into whether the ferry company, New
York Waterway, which has come to dominate the burgeoning New York ferry
market with a fleet of 53 boats, submitted inflated bills to the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey for ferry services it provided to
replace the commuter rail link between New Jersey and Lower Manhattan
that was destroyed by the terror attack.
(New York Times)
Kids Can Submit WTC Memorial Plans - Apr 18,
2003 Children and teens with memorial designs for the World Trade
Center can submit them, even though the competition requires would-be
entrants to be 18 or older, redevelopment officials said. Anyone under
18 can enter, provided they work with an adult willing to register with
the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. for the young person or group of
people, and serve as the designer of record.
(Newsday)
Garvin Departing after Clashes With Other Rebuilding
Officials - Apr 17, 2003 The director of planning at the
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, who personally invited Daniel
Libeskind to enter the design competition for the World Trade Center
site, has resigned, officials said yesterday. Mr. Garvin had clashed
sharply with other participants in the rebuilding effort, including
officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns
the site, and representatives of Gov. George E. Pataki on the
development corporation's board and staff.
(New York Times)
Alex Garvin Resigns from LMDC - Apr 16, 2003 The
lead planner for the agency overseeing the rebuilding of Ground Zero
abruptly quit this week, just as the group hammers out a contract with a
key architect. Alexander Garvin, chief planner for the Lower Manhattan
Development Corp., stepped down Monday. He had given notice only last
week, sources said.
(New York Daily News)
Libeskind Signals Flexibility in Memorial Process -
Apr 16, 2003 Daniel Libeskind now seems willing to allow the kind of
changes to his design for the World Trade Center site that he was
unwilling to consider a few weeks ago. At a Community Board 1 meeting
April 14, Libeskind said designers of the memorial for the victims of
the Sept. 11 attack would be free to build pedestrian bridges over the
4.7-acre sunken memorial area he proposes in the design. "One competitor
might envision 1,000 bridges," the architect said at the forum.
(Downtown Express)
Relatives' Lawyers Ask Court to Rule Sept. 11 Fund
Unfair - Apr 15, 2003 Lawyers representing the relatives of
10 World Trade Center victims asked a federal court yesterday to rule
that the fund created to compensate families was unfair, arbitrary and
tilted against those with high incomes, threatening to shortchange
surviving families by hundreds of millions of dollars or more. After an
all-day session of impassioned arguments by the families' lawyers,
followed by rebuttal from a senior official with the Department of
Justice, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court for
the Southern District said he needed more time to weigh the evidence.
But he promised to rule by early May.
(New York Times)
Doctoroff: City, Not Port Authority Is Best for Ground
Zero - Apr 15, 2003 In City Hall's latest push for control
of Ground Zero, a top official said yesterday that the Port Authority's
ownership of the disaster site could stunt the overall redevelopment of
downtown. Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff said the bistate agency is
driven by "economic considerations" that would require it to rebuild as
much office and retail space on the 16-acre disaster site as the market
demands. However, if the city takes control of Ground Zero through a
complicated land-swap deal with the Port Authority, Doctoroff said, city
officials "would not care" if that commercial space is placed on the
disaster site or spread elsewhere in lower Manhattan.
(New York Daily News)
September 11 Compensation: The Impossibility of Making
Whole - Apr 14, 2003 In the desperate days after the
collapse of the World Trade Centre and the attack on the Pentagon,
America's Congress enacted an emergency compensation plan. This would
not only recompense victims of the attacks but also spare America's
airlines litigation costs, likely far to exceed their insurance cover.
The price tag is not yet known, but it will certainly run to billions of
dollars. However, the plan has already raised many questions about how
to compensate victims of such attacks. On April 14th it will be
challenged in a federal court in lower Manhattan, not far from where the
twin towers stood.
(Economist)
Craftspeople Recreating Art Deco Verizon Building -
Apr 14, 2003 Stone carvers and metalworkers are healing the gaping
wounds in the Verizon building, at 140 West Street. The building was
battered by not one, but three, of its neighbors at ground zero: the
north and south towers of the World Trade Center and 7 World Trade
Center, which collapsed next door.
(New York Times)
Port Authority Sued For $20M - Apr 13, 2003
Michael Kenny, the city commissioner who oversaw cleanup at the World
Trade Center site, filed a $20 million federal lawsuit Friday, charging
that Port Authority Police officers beat him up when he tried to prevent
them from making an unauthorized visit there.
(Newsday)
Development Corporation Announces Memorial Jury, Calls for
Victims to Be Honored Equally - Apr 11, 2003 Officials
overseeing the creation of a memorial to victims of the World Trade
Center attack rebuffed a request yesterday from a group of New York City
firefighters for separate recognition of uniformed rescue workers on the
memorial. The development corporation also announced the selection
yesterday of a 13-member jury to judge the competition. The jury, which
includes prominent artists, architects, scholars, a woman whose husband
was killed and a downtown resident and business owner, will choose a
design in late October or early November, officials said.
(New York Times)
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