Only a few days after the one-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the 1 and 9 subway lines are scheduled to be open for business. In a reconstruction effort that will be completed two months earlier than expected, the subway lines, which passed beneath the World Trade Center towards South Ferry and Battery Park, will be open for business in mid-September, possibly as early as September 15. Another sign of the continuing rebuilding of downtown was the reopening this week of Saint Paul's Chapel, which is less than a block from the World Trade Center site. During the months that the church was closed to the public, it provided hot meals to recovery workers and served as a refuge from the work at Ground Zero. After a thorough cleaning, the church is now open to the public for the first time since September 11.

Meeting with victims' family groups to discuss the future of Ground Zero, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that he thought the Port Authority should not be involved in rebuilding Lower Manhattan. He repeated the criticism that the Port Authority placed too much emphasis on reconstructing the office space that was at the site.

Six people who had been officially listed by the city as missing or presumed dead after the September 11th attacks have been discovered alive. Among those found was a sidewalk vendor from Newark who turned up in a Manhattan hospital and is suffering from amnesia. Five others have also been discovered alive and will be removed from the list of the missing. The discovery of these missing persons is part of an effort by the city medical examiner's office to correct any potential errors before the official list of victims is read at commemoration ceremonies next month.

With six weeks remaining until the September 11 anniversary, public officials and businesses throughout New York City have been taking a serious look at the most appropriate way to mark the date. One idea mentioned by officials this week would be to hold simultaneous tributes in parks in each borough of the city on September 11. While a spokesperson for the mayor refused to comment on this proposal, he did remark that Mayor Michael Bloomberg would announce plans for commemorating the date soon. The city has certainly not lacked for ideas - by at least one report, 4,500 people have written or e-mailed the mayor's office with suggestions, which have included tolling church bells and floating 3,000 candles, one for every victim of the September 11 attacks, in New York Harbor. However, without a clear sense of what the city will be doing, local businesses are hesitant to announce any plans out of concerns that they will be seen as exploiting the anniversary.

A lawyer for Larry Silverstein, the developer who owns the lease to the World Trade Center, said that Silverstein has every intention of exercising his right to rebuild the 11 million square feet of office space at the site. Only a couple days later, however, Governor George Pataki said that state or federal authorities could condemn the land surrounding the site and thus expand the area to be developed beyond the 16 acres of Ground Zero. This led to speculation that the state could legally condemn the site itself and pay the Port Authority billions of dollars for the rights to the land. If this happened, Larry Silverstein would lose his right to rebuild, according to the terms of his lease, and there would no longer be a requirement for millions of feet of office space to be built, a requirement which has frustrated the public's desire for a more creative plan for the site.

Regardless of where the legal wrangling ends up, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is responding to criticism about the mediocrity of their first six plans for the site. The agency suggested that they may open up the design process and invite more designers to submit proposals, including smaller firms and foreign companies. It was also revealed this week that there was disagreement within the corporation and with the Port Authority over the selection of the six plans that were presented to the public. A rebuilding task force made up of members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority picked the six plans out of nine possibilities in July. However, after the group made their six selections, two of the designs were switched with two alternate designs without the consent of the task force. While the two plans that were not presented as part of the six official plans were mostly similar to the other four proposals, concerns were raised internally about the process, with some of the officials described as "furious" about the decision to override the group's vote.