As Charitable Funds Expire, Questions About Long-Term Needs Remain - Sep 9, 2004
An astonishing $3 billion was raised to help the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and nearly all that money has been spent, the bulk of it handed over in cash grants, some without regard to financial need. Three years later, some are wondering whether this was the best way to make use of this unprecedented charitable windfall. (New York Times )

Trade Center Veterans Plan Cooperative Restaurant - Sep 7, 2004
Memory can make a bitter dish, but a group of 50 waiters, cooks and busboys who once worked at the Windows on the World restaurant are intent on honoring 73 colleagues who died when the twin towers collapsed by opening what may be New York's first cooperatively owned restaurant. (New York Times )

Cantor Fitzgerald Sues Saudi Arabia Over 9/11 - Sep 4, 2004
Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage firm that lost 658 employees in the Sept. 11 attack, has sued Saudi Arabia, charging that the kingdom "provided funding and material support and substantial assistance" to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. (New York Times )

September 11 Fund Prepares to Close - Aug 31, 2004
The September 11th Fund will close in December, having awarded more than $500 million in grants to 100,000 people affected by the 2001 terrorist attacks. (Associated Press)

9/11 Aid for Small Businesses Going Unused - Aug 30, 2004
With four months remaining in a 9/11 program intended to pour $155 million into small businesses that move to or stay in Lower Manhattan, a third of the money remains to be awarded or pledged. (New York Times )

Religious Group Call for More Aid to 9/11 Victims, Families - Aug 30, 2004
A local religious organization says it wants more help for victims and families of 9/11. (NY1)

Comptroller Warns of Shortfall in Federal 9/11 Aid - Aug 25, 2004
Comptroller William Thompson asserted Tuesday that the city may not receive as much as $5.2 billion in World Trade Center aid. In a report issued days before the start of the Republican National Convention here, Thompson says the funding is in jeopardy because of long-term delays and a "failure to monitor the progress" of parts of the aid package. (Newsday)

Parents to Lead Ceremony Honoring 9/11 Victims - Aug 17, 2004
The ceremony commemorating the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack will closely follow the script for last year's event. But officials said yesterday that there would be a change in the cast: instead of the victims' children taking center stage, the victims' parents and grandparents will. (New York Times)

Watchdog Group Recommends Diversifying Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Board - Aug 15, 2004
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has failed to allocate its federal 9/11 recovery funds in a transparent way and has given undue preference to big businesses and organizations with ties to its board members, according to a report released this week by a budget watchdog organization. (Downtown Express)

City Well on Its Way to Receiving Its $20 Billion in Federal Aid - Aug 12, 2004
Less than three weeks before the Republican National Convention comes to town, a report released yesterday says the Bush administration is well on the way to providing all the $20.5 billion it promised the city after the World Trade Center attacks. (Jersey Journal)

Pataki Signs Lower Manhattan Construction Act - Aug 11, 2004
New rules are being implemented for construction projects in downtown Manhattan, with the intention of ensuring high-quality work is done in a timely manner. (NY1)

Traffic from Terror Alerts Costing City - Aug 6, 2004
Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed concern yesterday that grinding traffic from terror-related restrictions on bridges and tunnels might have affected the city's finances. (Newsday)

For New York, Terror Alert Has Economic Consequences - Aug 3, 2004
Prompted by warnings from Washington that Al Qaeda might try to strike New York's financial heart again, more-visible security measures returned to New York yesterday as the city responded to apparent threats against specific buildings for the first time. The stepped-up measures led to worries that the security delays and psychological effects of the terrorism threat will act as a brake on a city economy that is just beginning to rev up after a prolonged slump. (New York Times)

Feds Plan to Extend Environmental Testing - Aug 1, 2004
Community members and scientific experts applauded an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to expand testing for 9/11 contaminants to residences and workplaces north of Canal St. (Downtown Express)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Silverstein Wants to Use Remaining Liberty Bonds for Ground Zero - Jul 9, 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)

I Had to Settle Family Feuds, Says 9/11 Fund Chief - Jul 6, 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)

Ceremony Marks Symbolic Start to Ground Zero Construction - Jul 5, 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)

Freedom Tower Cornerstone Laid - Jul 4, 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)

City Prepares Cops for Chemical Attack - Jul 4, 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)

Mayor Backs Governor on Converting 9/11 Cash - Jul 1, 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)

Silverstein Executive Wants to Use Liberty Bonds at Ground Zero - Jul 1, 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. )

Pedestal of Statue of Liberty to Open August 3rd - Jul 1, 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)

Pataki Asks Bush to Use Unspent Tax Breaks on Rail Link - Jun 30, 2004
Gov. George E. Pataki has asked President Bush to allow New York to use billions of dollars in unspent Sept. 11 aid to build a rail link connecting the former World Trade Center site to the Long Island Rail Road and Kennedy International Airport, according to the governor's aides. (New York Times)

New Study Confirms Harsh Economic Effects of 9/11 - Jun 30, 2004
The World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001, cost the city's economy 143,000 jobs a month and $2.8 billion in lost wages in the subsequent three months, a far greater impact than could be attributed to the recession that had begun earlier that year, according to a study to be published today by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. (New York Times)

South Asians Still Suffering Economically Because of 9/11 - Jun 21, 2004
The South Asian community, which is yet to recover from the economic tailspin that began after the September 11 attack, is experiencing severe economic difficulties in New York City, a study contends. (rediff.com)

Planned Transportation Improvements Spur Real Estate Upswing Downtown - Jun 20, 2004
After a long lull, the commercial real estate market is gaining momentum Downtown, industry experts say. Lower Manhattan’s comparatively low rents, planned transportation improvements and government incentives are among the factors driving the recent upswing. Shrinking office stock in Midtown has also spurred firms to expand or relocate to the area. (Downtown Express)

Victims Compensation Fund Sparks Question: Will Government Pay Next Time? - Jun 18, 2004
As the Victims Compensation Fund ends, questions linger, none graced with easy answersIs the genie out of the bottle, requiring us to compensate the unfortunate each time the monsters strike? Or may we pick and choose among victims? Whatever Congress's intention, whether to be generous to grieving families or to spare the airlines potentially ruinous lawsuits, was its hasty creation of the compensation fund a mistake? (New York Times)

9/11 World Trade Registry Now Largest in US History - Jun 18, 2004
The World Trade Center health registry has passed the 40,000 member mark, making it the largest public health registry in U.S. history. (NY1)

Kevin Rampe, Consensus Builder - Jun 17, 2004
An accommodating ego, a thick skin, a Type A work ethic, an optimistic world view. If the traits, discordant as they may seem, make the man, Kevin M. Rampe appears to have the right stuff to act as chief facilitator of a 9/11-mandated mission, the reconstruction of ground zero, which should come with a warning label. Danger: prepare to get chewed out, worn out and burned out. P.S.: that's how you'll know you're doing the job right. (New York Times)

Wall Street Firms Work With New Realities - Jun 10, 2004
In the weeks and months after 9/11, three CIOs working next door to the World Trade Center found they had to be strong leaders to get their companies back online. Now back in the city, they don't make business continuity plans. They live them. (CIO Asia)

On Centential of General Slocum Disaster, 9/11 Gives New Perspective - Jun 8, 2004
The fiery sinking of the paddle-wheel steamboat General Slocum was the city's deadliest disaster before the destruction of the World Trade Center. More than a thousand innocents - mostly German immigrant women and their children, on a picnic excursion - perished in the East River calamity on June 15, 1904. "For many years, this was the tragedy that we forgot,'' said Kathleen Hulser, public historian of the New-York Historical Society. "But faded memories can be renewed, and this one was, after the greater disaster of Sept. 11.'' (New York Times)

West Street Tunnel Plan a Waste, Says New Study - Jun 2, 2004
The $860 million plan to build a tunnel under a four-block stretch of West Street has been deemed one of the most wasteful highway projects in the country, a new report says. (New York Post)

City, Federal Government Debate Use of $4 Billion in Rebuilding Funds - May 27, 2004
The White House, city officials and lawmakers have held private talks to see if they can reallocate unused money President Bush promised the city after the 9/11 attacks, The Daily News has learned. The secret negotiations have focused on giving the city more flexibility to spend some $4 billion in unused funds. (New York Daily News)

Police Department Gives Officers Guide for Identifying Terrorists - May 18, 2004
The Police Department has issued a pocket-sized reference card for patrol officers detailing guidelines it says are designed to help them spot terrorists. The department tells its officers to watch out for people with drivers' licenses from more than one state, passports from more than one country, and identification papers with different names and people videotaping or photographing bridges, tunnels, utilities, landmarks and government facilities. (New York Times)

Liberty Bond Extension Moves Through Congress - May 14, 2004
A five-year extension of Liberty Bonds for post-Sept. 11 construction in New York is headed to congressional negotiators after the Senate unanimously approved it as part of an international tax bill. The program to provide $8 billion in tax-exempt bonds, originally estimated to cost the government about $1.2 billion as part of more than $20 billion in federal aid to the city, is set to expire at the end of 2004. (Associated Press)

Port Authority Asks Silverstein How He’ll Rebuild - May 14, 2004
The owner of the World Trade Center site wants details from leaseholder Larry Silverstein on how he plans to pay to rebuild the site following a loss in a court case that had aimed to double his insurance payout. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is committed to working with Silverstein Properties ``to find out what their financial plan is for the rebuilding of the entire site,'' authority spokesman Steve Coleman said. (Associated Press)

Freedom Tower Will Break Ground on July 4 - May 6, 2004
Groundbreaking for the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower - the signature new building at Ground Zero - will take place on the Fourth of July, Gov. Pataki said yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Rebuilding Officials Say Insurance Verdict Won't Limit Development - May 1, 2004
A court decision may have left World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein billions short of the cash he needs to redevelop Ground Zero, but officials said yesterday plans will move along - with or without him. (New York Daily News)

Westchester Picks 9/11 Memorial - Apr 30, 2004
Westchester County unveiled the winning design on Thursday for its own Sept. 11 memorial, a soaring sculpture with 109 intersecting steel rods, each representing a victim who lived in the county. The memorial, named "The Rising," was designed by Frederic Schwartz, an acclaimed Manhattan architect and a founder of the Think team. Think's entry in the master plan competition for ground zero was the runner-up in that contest. The Westchester memorial will be built at Kensico Dam Plaza, a county-owned park in Valhalla. Unveiling is scheduled for Sept. 11, 2005. (New York Times)

Midtown Retail Rates Surpass Pre-9/11 Levels - Apr 29, 2004
Midtown retail asking rents have not only returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels but have surpassed them. In the spring of 2004, according to the Real Estate Board of New York’s spring retail report, asking retail rents in midtown averaged $125 per square foot. That tops the $122-per-square-foot average midtown rent in spring 2001; the terrorist attacks helped bring prices as low as $107 in the fall of 2001. Downtown and midtown south have yet to recover, according to REBNY. Downtown retail asking rents are averaging $59 per square foot, compared with $60 in the spring of 2001. Asking rents for midtown south retail space are averaging $75 a square foot, still shy of pre-Sept. 11 levels of $78. (Crains NY )

Broadway Ticket Sales Back to Pre 9/11 Levels - Apr 29, 2004
Broadway ticket sales have been soaring on the Great White Way. Tourists are back in numbers not seen since before Sept. 11. A more diverse range of productions than at any time in memory is attracting new audiences. An unusually large number of smash-hit musicals is bringing in crowds. (Crains New York )

How Will the 9/11 Insurance Case Affect Commercial Real Estate? - Apr 28, 2004
So, One or Two: besides the not insubstantial sum of $3.6 billion, what difference will it make? A fascinating one. Commercial landlords across the city have to be feeling torn. Of course, they want to see their colleague Larry Silverstein emerge triumphant, a patrician warrior hero with an unfathomable bundle of cash in hand. But if he does, then they smell trouble. (Slatin Report)

Juror Asks to Leave 9/11 Insurance Trial - Apr 28, 2004
A juror's unofficial request to be excused from the trial over insurance coverage at the World Trade Center sent a tremor through the courtroom yesterday during the sixth day of jury deliberations in the multibillion-dollar case. (New York Times)

New York Keeping Ground Zero Out of Olympic Bid - Apr 22, 2004
Ground Zero is so close to New York's Olympic bid-city headquarters, it's impossible not to think the two are intertwined. But bid officials, right from the days following Sept.11, said they would not use the terrorist attacks for sympathy in trying to win the 2012 Summer Olympics. (The Gazette )

Suit Attempts to Stop Use of Liberty Bonds For Queens Power Plant - Apr 19, 2004
Five New York lawmakers plan to file suit today to keep a proposed power plant in Queens from getting $400 million in state Liberty Bonds, The Post has learned. The company that wants to build the plant, SCS Energy, has received preliminary approval for the bonds from the New York Liberty Development Corp., a quasi-governmental entity set up by the state. The legislators say the tax-free funds should not go to a project that has nothing to do with rebuilding lower Manhattan. (New York Post)

Jury To Begin Deliberations On World Trade Center Insurance Suit - Apr 19, 2004
It will probably take more than 90 minutes for the judge to deliver a complex set of jury instructions this morning in the bitter multibillion-dollar court battle between developer Larry A. Silverstein and insurers over what coverage was in effect at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. But after hearing 10 weeks of testimony, the jury will begin to deliberate over matters that will ultimately dictate how much insurance money will be available to rebuild the sprawling trade center complex. (New York Times)

Downtown Has One Billion Dollars in Federal Funds Left - Apr 18, 2004
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board voted on Tuesday to earmark $176 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds — most of which will go to buy and demolish the Deutsche Bank building. If the money is allocated, it will leave about $1 billion to pay for a competing set of priorities for Lower Manhattan including affordable housing, park space, part of a rail link to J.F.K. Airport and the Long Island Rail Road, a new school, a recreation center and cultural facilities. (Downtown Express)

Closing Arguments Begin in Silverstein Insurance Trial - Apr 15, 2004
Closing arguments began after a contentious, 10-week trial that World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein hopes is the first round in a bid to collect twice the $3.5 billion insurance policy he took out on the center, one for each tower that fell on Sept. 11, 2001. (Associated Press)

Group of 9/11 Families Thanks Condoleezza Rice for Testimony - Apr 14, 2004
A group of 9/11 families has released an open letter thanking National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for her testimony to the commission probing the attacks and saying it should end "the incredible notion" that President Bush knew 9/11 was coming and did nothing. (New York Post)

Bloomberg: Reopen Statue of Liberty Completely - Apr 6, 2004
A week after Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended a ceremony in which federal officials announced that the Statue of Liberty would remain closed to visitors, he said Monday the statue should be reopened, even if each tourist is escorted by a police officer. (Associated Press)

Health Concerns Keeps Some Businesses Away From Downtown - Apr 2, 2004
When Gov. George E. Pataki announced plans 21 months ago to move 750 to 1,000 state employees to Lower Manhattan, he said he was doing so to show confidence in its viability as it struggled to rebuild. The only problem is that 425 State Health Department employees do not want to go. They are concerned about health conditions at 90 Church Street, the Art Deco tower at the edge of ground zero where the state is negotiating a lease. (New York Times)

Downtown's Economy Looking Strong - Mar 31, 2004
The reluctance of many New Yorkers to reside and work downtown because of what happened there — terrorist attacks and the ensuing loss of 3,000 lives — has just about vanished, according to real estate and city sources. Indicative of this: •Surging housing prices,up an estimated 10% to 12% year over year, and a steady flow of new residential construction,with a lot of it on a luxurious scale. •Major jobs recovery, with 78% of the nearly 9,900 jobs lost since the Septmber 11 attacks in 2001 having been regained as of March 2003, according to the Partnership for New York City. It further notes that 72 of downtown’s largest companies have made commitments for an average 10 years that will result in the retention of 60,000 jobs, while federal incentives for smaller firms have enabled 1,352 businesses to create and retain an additional 23,293 jobs. •A slew of new stores, resulting in an estimated 6% to 8% increase in retail space since 2002. One sign of the recovery of Lower Manhattan is the rebound in $1 millionplus condominium sales at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Battery Park, just a heartbeat away from where the twin towers once stood. A Ritz Carlton spokeswoman describes interest as strong, with only eight apartments left of the 115 offered for sale on the 15th to 40th floors perched above the hotel portion. (New York Sun)

Victims Compensation Fund Saving City $500 Million - Mar 31, 2004
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund will likely save the city more than $500 million by averting lawsuits, the head of the fund said yesterday. (New York Daily News)

City Wonders Whether It Will Ever Get Promised 9/11 Insurance Funds - Mar 25, 2004
A long-running legal stalemate between New York City and federal emergency authorities surfaced at a congressional hearing Wednesday, as New York officials questioned when a promised $1 billion insurance fund will be established. City officials have been frustrated by the yearlong talks with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over the agency's position that the city may have to pay $350 million in legal claims brought by workers at ground zero before the government steps in to pick up the rest. (Newsday )

Silverstein Testifies in Insurance Trial - Mar 24, 2004
Just a day or two after the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, a friend warned World Trade Center landlord Larry Silverstein that he "was facing a major insurance] problem," the developer told a jury yesterday. After six weeks of testimony from witnesses for 13 insurance companies fighting over the size of his WTC payout, a subdued Silverstein took the stand for 24 minutes in his $7 billion lawsuit against the insurers. Silverstein said he started to focus on the insurance ramifications of the disaster on Sept. 12 or Sept. 13. (New York Post)

Silverstein Avoids Contempt of Court Charge - Mar 23, 2004
The developer Larry A. Silverstein narrowly escaped a civil contempt charge yesterday in the seventh week of a trial pitting him against his insurers for billions of dollars he seeks to rebuild the World Trade Center. (New York Times)

Rebuilding Funds Going To Organizations Run By Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Board - Mar 22, 2004
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board has handed out at least $19.6 million in the past year to organizations run by LMDC board members — raising questions about the federally funded corporation’s ethics and priorities. When former New York Stock Exchange CEO Richard Grasso was on the LMDC board, the corporation gave the stock exchange about $10 million to get rid of its jersey barriers and put up attractive security systems, like the iron gates Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg unveiled this winter. In July, the LMDC board voted to give $4 million to the Alliance for Downtown New York for “streetscape improvements” from Battery Park up to City Hall Park. Carl Weisbrod, an LMDC board member, runs the Downtown Alliance. (New York Sun)

Disagreement Over How To Spend $1.2 Billion In Federal Rebuilding Funds - Mar 21, 2004
here is only $1,163,955,348.58 left. Though that sounds like a lot, it is not enough to cover the many claims on the federal grants for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. These competing claims expose something of a divide between the established downtown, an unalloyed business hub, and the emerging downtown, with its residential overlay. It is not that businesses and residents disagree on the broad goal of creating a lively mixed-use area. But they may struggle over the spending needed to get there. (New York Times)

Judge Bans Silverstein From Insurance Trials - Mar 19, 2004
A Manhatan Federal Court judge barred World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein from being a spectator at his $7 billion insurance trial after the developer violated a gag order. Chief Judge Michael Mukasey said he was holding Silverstein in civil contempt for conducting a news conference Monday. (New York Daily News)

Senators Tell FBI Director To Return Ground Zero Souvenir - Mar 18, 2004
Four senators are calling on the FBI to return a Tiffany globe lifted from Ground Zero to the mother of the 9/11 victim it belonged to, The Post has learned. The letter, to be sent today to Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director John Mueller, also demands the return of "every other souvenir that FBI agents took from the rubble of Ground Zero," officials said. (New York Post)

Silverstein Faces Contempt Of Court Charge In Insurance Trial - Mar 17, 2004
World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein's big mouth has landed him in hot water with the federal judge who's overseeing his $7 billion insurance lawsuit. Judge Michael Mukasey will hold a contempt-of-court hearing tomorrow to see if comments the real-estate honcho made about the case broke a gag order barring him from talking to the press. (New York Post)

Artists Struggling After 9/11, Survey Finds - Mar 15, 2004
They are, to a large extent, the same worries that have always been voiced by New York City artists: the rents are too high, the pay is too low, and if things don't get better soon, I'm going to have to go. But according to a new survey released last week, those problems have only grown in the two and a half years since the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. (New York Times)

Tribeca Film Festival Receives $3 Million Pledge From Lower Manhattan Development Corporation - Mar 12, 2004
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Thursday announced a two-year, $3 million commitment to the Tribeca Film Festival, which was the first major event to be held in Lower Manhattan after the September 11th attacks and has attracted hundred-of-thousands of visitors and millions of dollars in revenue to the downtown area since it debuted in 2002. (Newsday)

Responses To Calatrava's Proposed Tower Downtown - Mar 6, 2004
Architect Santiago Calatrava, who wowed many Downtowners with his design for the World Trade Center train station when it was unveiled in January, may be on his way to doing the same with his proposed 835-foot slender tower design in the Seaport announced on Wednesday. The residential design described as “townhouses in the sky” received favorable reviews from some local residents who have opposed other large-scale projects in the neighborhood. (Downtown Express)

Silverstein Has Already Spent $1.3 Billion Of Insurance Money - Feb 26, 2004
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein has already spent about $1.3 billion of the insurance money he received to cover the destruction of the trade center complex, according to a published report. At least $623.7 million in business interruption insurance has gone toward Silverstein's debt service, legal fees and lease payments to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing court documents and people familiar with the situation. (Associated Press)

College Acquires New Space, To Replace Building Damaged On 9/11 - Feb 16, 2004
The Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall is still severely damaged from 9/11, but across the street, the school has just signed a 10-year lease so their students can move from temporary trailers back to regular classrooms this summer. (Downtown Express)

Memorial's Pools May Not Be Exact Outline Of Tower Footprints - Feb 12, 2004
Of all the symbolic designs at the World Trade Center site - the Wedge of Light, the 1,776-foot skyscraper, the birdlike PATH terminal - the most straightforward seemed to be the idea of pool-filled voids that would demarcate the outlines of the twin towers. But at ground zero, nothing is ever quite what it seems to be. And it appears that the voids will be smaller than the tower footprints they are supposed to represent. (New York Times)

An Emotional Start To World Trade Center Insurance Battle - Feb 10, 2004
A lawyer for Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein choked up yesterday as he described the impact of the 9/11 attacks in front of a federal jury, accusing the Twin Towers insurers of "trying to rewrite history" to escape a nearly $7 billion payout for the disaster. (New York Post)

Insurers Say Fax Proves That 9/11 Was A Single Event - Feb 10, 2004
On September 12, 2001, with four of his colleagues missing and presumed dead, Silverstein Properties insurance manager Robert Strachan faxed a letter to lenders and the Port Authority. From the start of the court case over how much insurance money Larry Silverstein is entitled to, the lead lawyer for the insurance companies, centered on the Strachan fax. (Newsday)

State Comptroller To Audit PATH Construction Costs - Feb 8, 2004
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi will audit the Port Authority's $566 million World Trade Center PATH station construction job to see whether cost overruns were justified and whether the project had proper oversight, his office says. (New York Post)

Jury Set For World Trade Center Insurance Case - Feb 5, 2004
A Manhattan federal judge yesterday named five women and seven men to a jury in the $7 billion legal fight between developer Larry Silverstein and his Twin Towers insurance companies. (New York Post)

Bush To Seek Extension For Liberty Bonds - Jan 31, 2004
President Bush plans to ask Congress to extend until 2009 the Liberty Bond program, which provides tax-free financing to help New York City rebuild after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The program permits the state and city to issue a total of $8 billion in tax-exempt bonds for commercial and residential construction projects, primarily in Lower Manhattan. Financing with such bonds lowers the cost of the projects. (New York Times)

Memorial Will Cost Over $350 Million - Jan 15, 2004
It will cost more than $350 million to build the "Reflecting Absence" memorial at Ground Zero, a top development official said yesterday. The preliminary estimate includes the cost of building the tribute's signature reflecting pools and waterfalls, the park, and an underground museum that will contain 9/11 artifacts, such as a crushed fire engine or the last steel column to be removed from Ground Zero. (New York Post)

Starting Over: A Firm Rebuilds After Being Hit Hard On 9/11 - Jan 14, 2004
When the planes slammed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, few companies were as hard-hit as a small, close-knit firm called Sandler O'Neill. Of the 83 people in the office that morning, only 17 got out alive. Employees lost mentors, assistants lost bosses, friends lost friends. This is the story of what happened next. (Fortune)

Freedom Tower Struggle Far From Finished - Jan 13, 2004
It's not unusual for developers, politicians, and architects to clash over real estate projects in New York City. But there's never been anything like the battle over the World Trade Center site. (Fortune Magazine)

Setback For Silverstein In Insurance Suit - Jan 1, 2004
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein suffered a setback yesterday in his legal bid to collect two insurance payouts totaling $7 billion by defining the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the towers as two events. Manhattan federal Judge Michael Mukasey ruled that jurors at the Feb. 9 trial can be told of a recent appeals-court ruling that found that Silverstein's contracts with three of the insurance companies involved in the dispute made it clear a terror attack would constitute only one occurrence. (New York Post)

Community Board One Debates Liberty Bond Extension - Dec 31, 2003
Community Board 1 is backing an extension of the tax-free Liberty Bond program but opposes using more of the money on residential buildings because members say it is encouraging too many small, luxury-rent apartments. (Downtown Express)

Tourists Return to New York - Dec 29, 2003
The tourists are back. Official statistics are hard to come by. But for the last week, more than 1,000 tourists a day have been dropping by NYC & Company's Visitor Information Center, a level not reached since before Sept. 11, 2001, a spokeswoman said. (New York Times)

$1.2 Million in 9/11 Aid is Returned - Dec 27, 2003
A major program to help small businesses in Lower Manhattan recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack has taken back $1.2 million in erroneous payments it made to 66 companies, according to the state agency administering the program. The agency, the Empire State Development Corporation, said the money was recovered from businesses that were found to have been overpaid, in some cases because financial information they submitted did not hold up in audits, though their applications were not necessarily fraudulent. (New York Times)

Freedom Tower Now Has a Design, But No Tenants - Dec 20, 2003
"The first firm to sign a lease will get huge media attention," said downtown real estate broker Brad Gerla of CB Richard Ellis. But right now, downtown leasing is dismal. Freedom Tower developer Larry Silverstein, who also is building and marketing 7 World Trade Center, isn't finding takers for that property. (New York Daily News)

Freedom Tower Will Be A Boon For City Economy - Dec 20, 2003
The skyscraper planned for the World Trade Center site is expected to provide the city with one of its biggest economic boosts since the original WTC was built three decades ago. The greatest impact, at least initially, will be felt by the city's construction industry, which is anticipating that at least 2,000 jobs will be created for the building of what's known as the Freedom Tower, which is to be the world's tallest building (Newsday)

Freedom Tower Is Unveiled - Dec 20, 2003
After fervent public debate over how to mend the New York City skyline and a five-month effort by competing architectural giants that was one part collaboration and two parts quarrel, the design of the first tower of the new World Trade Center was unveiled yesterday. The torqued and tapering skyscraper, called the Freedom Tower, would rise some 70 stories, then dematerialize in its upper reaches among cables, windmills and antennas before piercing the clouds at 1,776 feet. At this height, it might be the world's tallest building upon completion in 2008 or 2009. (New York Times)

Regent Hotel on Wall Street to Close in January - Dec 18, 2003
The Regent Hotel, the Greek Revival landmark at 55 Wall Street, was once home to the fledgling New York Stock Exchange, to Herman Melville when he was a deputy customs inspector and to Citibank as it rose to national prominence. Reborn in 1999 as the Regent Wall Street hotel, the Regent ballroom and the 55 Wall restaurant, it has been a social and political hub ever since. It is preparing to close on Jan. 17 after one of the shortest runs of any deluxe hotel in the city's history. It is a victim not only of the attack on New York — through which it resolutely stayed open, sheltering and feeding victims, workers and neighbors — but of an economy that was souring even before Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)

Kids of 9/11 Victims To Get Cash From State - Dec 18, 2003
The state's World Trade Center fund is handing out the rest of its cash to children who lost a parent in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said yesterday. The fund has roughly $4 million left and will spread the proceeds to about 2,800 children who lost parents in the terror attacks of 9/11, Gov. Pataki said. The fund also will dole out up to $3,000 a person to those certified by the American Red Cross as being injured in the attacks. (New York Daily News)

Schumer Wants to Use Federal Rebuilding Funds for Kennedy Rail Link - Dec 17, 2003
Weighing in on a fractious debate over transportation priorities in Lower Manhattan, Senator Charles E. Schumer offered a plan yesterday to pay for the construction of a much-discussed rail link from downtown to Kennedy Airport without any state or local money. (New York Times)

Democrats Protest Use of Liberty Bonds for Queens Power Plant - Dec 13, 2003
A group of Democratic lawmakers yesterday denounced New York State's offer to a Massachusetts-based energy company of $400 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds, which are intended to revive Lower Manhattan after the attack on the World Trade Center. A state-run agency administering the Liberty Bond program announced on Thursday that it had awarded the bonds to Astoria Energy to help finance the 1,000-megawatt power plant it seeks to build in Astoria, Queens. (New York Times)

Liberty Bonds Issued to Queens Power Plant - Dec 12, 2003
A massive new power-plant project in Queens, opposed by a group of city politicians, got $400 million in Liberty Bonds yesterday, sparking calls for a federal probe. The bonds were approved by the New York Liberty Development Corporation (NYLDC), which is considering issuing an additional $200 million in bonds to back the proposed 1,000- megawatt plant in Astoria. (New York Post)

Concern Over 9/11 Health Registry - Dec 11, 2003
Some Lower Manhattan residents continue to feel shortchanged by the city’s World Trade Center Health Registry, even though anyone who lived south of Canal St. on Sept. 11, 2001 is eligible to enroll. Nearly 30 local residents and workers attended a forum on the health registry last Thursday at the Downtown Information Center at 25 Broad St. Some participants told assistant health commissioner Dr. Polly Thomas that the interview portion of the registry seemed geared toward emergency workers. If residents are not asked detailed questions about their experiences on and after 9/11, then the study will not be able to address their potential long-term health concerns, some residents fear. (Downtown Express)

Assemblyman Doesn't Want Liberty Bonds Used for Queens Power Plant - Dec 7, 2003
A Queens assemblyman is threatening legal action to stop the backers of a proposed power plant from using New York Liberty Bonds to fund the troubled project. "This is a continuing pattern of preferential treatment over more worthy projects," said Assemblyman Mike Gianaris, a Democrat from Astoria, who's weighing a lawsuit to block the bond issue. (New York Post)

Jordanian King to Advise Police Department on Terrorism - Dec 6, 2003
For the first time in NYPD history, a foreign head of state will visit Police Headquarters and address the department's brain trust about terrorism and international affairs, The Post has learned. Under tight security, King Abdullah II of Jordan will speak to an assembly of supervising cops above the rank of captain on Monday at the third session of a lecture series begun by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. (New York Post)

Corporate Incentive Program Being Rewritten to Focus on Lower Manhattan - Dec 6, 2003
A deal has been struck to renew a major corporate incentive program that will help lure jobs to lower Manhattan from outside the city, The Post has learned. The Relocation and Employment Assistance Program, known as REAP, will provide companies with $3,000 per job for 12 years if they come to downtown from outside the city. (New York Post)

Host Marriott Gets $370 For Loss at Ground Zero - Dec 4, 2003
Host Marriott Corp., the owner of the New York World Trade Center Marriott and New York Marriott Financial Center, announced yesterday that it has received about $370 million worth of insurance payments, resolving virtually most of its outstanding issues relating to the Sept. 11 attacks. The announcement comes about two months after Bethesda, Md.-based Host Marriott entered into an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to surrender the site and terminate a 99-year lease that was to expire in 2094. (Newsday)

Liberty Bonds Should Focus on Downtown, Says Rebuilding Official - Dec 3, 2003
A top downtown rebuilding official took a swipe at City Hall yesterday, saying it was "a mistake" to use tax-free Liberty Bonds outside lower Manhattan. The comment was the sharpest yet in a fight brewing between Gov. Pataki's office and Mayor Bloomberg over how to spend $8billion in bonds created to spur downtown development after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack. (New York Daily News)

Disputed Sports Museum Totes Itself as Boon to Post 9/11 Economy - Dec 3, 2003
A project called the National Sports Museum has been selling itself as a way to spark New York's economy post 9/11. Its supporters speak of getting funding from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. But those interested in starting a different sports museum in the city are not crazy about the idea. (New York Times)

New Money for Security, Appearance Downtown - Nov 27, 2003
The heavily guarded area around the New York Stock Exchange will be beautified, and its security revamped, with a $10 million grant announced yesterday by state and city officials. (New York Post)

PATH Station at Ground Zero Reopens - Nov 24, 2003
The World Trade Center PATH Station opened at 2 p.m. yesterday, after a $323 million, 16-month reconstruction, to applause and tears along the platforms and aboard the trains. On the sides of the cars, ruby-red "WTC" destination signs glowed once again. (New York Times)

Street in Queens Renamed for Firefighter - Nov 24, 2003
Hundreds of people gathered at a street corner in Queens yesterday to rename a street after firefighter Carl F. Asaro, who was killed at the World Trade Center. The intersection of 147th Street and Willets Point Boulevard in Whitestone, where Asaro was born and raised, now bears his name. (New York Post)

New York Times seeks Liberty Bonds For New Building - Nov 13, 2003
The New York Times' development partner, Bruce Ratner, is seeking $150 million in Liberty Bond, to help finance the newspaper's new midtown tower. But an executive at the Empire State Development Corporation, one of the two main government agencies controlling the purse strings of the Liberty Bonds, doesn’t think Mr. Ratner’s gambit to use federal 9/11 program money to save the Times tower is going to work. (New York Observer)

Queens Museum of Art to Replace WTC Model With Miniature Tribute in Light - Nov 11, 2003
Twin pale-blue laser beams will replace the miniature replica World Trade Center towers that still stand in the Panorama of the City of New York at the Queens Museum of Art. The Tribute in Light, named in honor of the WTC victims of the terrorist acts of Sept. 11, is scheduled to be complete within the next three months. The Panorama, a scale-model of the entire city, is a permanent exhibit at the museum, where currently a red, white and blue ribbon is intertwined around the model towers. (Newsday)

- Nov 11, 2003
(Select one or type in another)

Downtown Businesses Benefit from Wall Street Upturn - Nov 10, 2003
After three years of penny pinching, the cash is finally flowing again on Wall Street. "Suits are coming back to the financial and banking area, so our business is pretty much flying," said Neil Schleimer, a wardrobe consultant at Men's Wearhouse downtown. "We expect a very good fourth quarter." The store, located across from the World Trade Center, closed for two months after 9/11, but has seen 20 percent gains in sales since last year. (New York Post)

Con Edison Rebuilds Power Substations Destroyed on 9/11 - Nov 9, 2003
The reconstruction of the World Trade Center site took a small but symbolically important step forward yesterday as Con Edison began to rebuild two power substations that were destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Three electrical transformers were lowered by crane into cavernous vaults beneath what will once again become 7 World Trade Center. The transformers, each nearly 85 tons and 20 feet tall, are the first of 10 transformers that will be placed beneath 7 World Trade Center in the next few years, said Michael Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Edison. (New York Times)

Trade Center Design Gets Down to the Finest Detail - Nov 8, 2003
After months of dealing in broad concepts, the planners of the new World Trade Center are devising guidelines that will prescribe the actual forms of the buildings — in inches and feet, metal and stone. A recent draft of the guidelines by Studio Daniel Libeskind, the master planners of the site, dictated the shape and size of every office tower so precisely that other architects would have had little leeway to pursue significantly different designs of their own. (New York Times)

Cost and Timetable for Rebuilding Lower Manhattan In Question - Oct 30, 2003
As Gov. George Pataki prepares to make a major speech today on rebuilding the World Trade Center, he faces questions about the master plan, the cost and the timetable. The overall cost of the project seems to have risen. The source of the money remains unclear. And as Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff noted in a letter to the Port Authority released Tuesday, no clear cost estimates or schedule has been made available. (Newsday)

Chinatown Store Founded in 1891 Succumbs to Effects of 9/11 - Oct 26, 2003
Last month the 32 Mott Street General Store, Chinatown's longest continuously operating store, became the latest victim of the economic troubles that have gripped this community since Sept. 11, 2001. City marshals came and evicted Paul Lee, who had fallen badly behind in his rent. For more than a century, Lee's family worked at the store. It is clear now that the store, long a stop on Chinatown walking tours, will not be reopening. (New York Times)

WTC Legal Battle Costs Larry Silverstein $100 Million - Oct 7, 2003
Larry Silverstein has spent close to $100 million so far on the mammoth legal battle with his Twin Towers insurers - and has told officials he needs another $80 million a year to pay for lawyers and other expenses, according to court papers and other sources (New York Post)

Cost of Rebuilding Ground Zero Skyrockets - Sep 29, 2003
When federal, state and local government officials agreed to spend billions to rebuild the World Trade Center site, they signed on to repair damage to infrastructure and transportation in an effort to spark private reinvestment in the area. Over the past two years, that original scope expanded to include a range of other expenditures that could reach $1 billion. (Newsday)

Developer Loses Ruling in Trade Center Insurance Dispute - Sep 27, 2003
Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who controls the commercial leases at the World Trade Center site, suffered a major setback yesterday in his effort to collect $7 billion in insurance payouts by having the Sept. 11 disaster considered as two separate terrorist attacks. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected Mr. Silverstein's argument that as a matter of law, the two planes that struck the trade center constituted two attacks requiring two insurance payouts. In addition, a separate ruling, involving three companies that insured the trade center, could make it more difficult for Mr. Silverstein to press his claim against 18 other insurance companies. (New York Times)

Time Granted in Dispute Over Insurance for 9/11 Site - Sep 26, 2003
The developer Larry A. Silverstein, who controls the commercial leases at the World Trade Center site, and the Port Authority have one month to settle their dispute with a lender over insurance proceeds needed to rebuild the complex. (New York Times)

Historic Law Firm Staying Near WTC - Sep 18, 2003
One of the city's oldest and most prestigious law firms will remain in lower Manhattan - and move into more spacious offices near Ground Zero, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft LLP signed a lease for 450,000-square-feet of space at One World Financial Center, the mayor said. (New York Post)

Scattered on 9/11, Some Financial Jobs Will Not Return - Sep 14, 2003
Two years after the terror attack forced Wall Street firms to disperse thousands of employees to suburbs, most of the firms have come back, either to their old homes or to new ones. But many of their workers remain in offices from Connecticut to central New Jersey.  In several cases, the move to strengthen backup sites has cost New York significant numbers of jobs. (New York Times)

9/11 Fraud Cases Involve Money Meant for Businesses - Sep 14, 2003
Federal authorities in Manhattan are prosecuting at least a half-dozen cases in which people are charged with swindling nearly $600,000 from government programs intended to help Lower Manhattan businesses recover losses from 9/11 and to encourage residency in the area. (New York Times)

Businessman Charged in 9/11 Grant Scam - Sep 9, 2003
A fraudster tried to cash in on the Sept. 11 attack by claiming $270,000 in federal grant money set aside for affected businesses - even though his company was located 205 miles from Ground Zero, the feds charge. (New York Post)

Downtown Grants Found to Favor Investment Firms - Sep 8, 2003
More than a third of the emergency grant money intended to help small businesses in Lower Manhattan survive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack went to investment firms, financial traders and lawyers, a result that some New York legislators who helped secure money for the program say they never envisioned. (New York Times)

Comptroller Warns City Could Lose 9/11 Aid - Sep 4, 2003
New York City is in danger of losing nearly $4 billion of the more than $21 billion that President Bush had promised to it for recovery from the 2001 terrorist attack, the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., said yesterday. Mr. Thompson said the city would get the money only if federal and state government agencies hastened the funds' distribution and revised the aid programs. (New York Times)

Comptroller: 9/11 Economic Losses Lasting Longer Than Estimated - Sep 3, 2003
New York City's recession persisted for a 10th straight quarter from April to June, with economic losses from the 9/11 terrorist attacks lasting longer and cutting deeper than previously estimated, according to a report yesterday from city Comptroller William Thompson. The city's seasonally adjusted payroll-job figures dropped by 10,600 in the second quarter of 2003 - the third-worst rate among 20 major cities across the country. (New York Post)

Downtowners Air Views at Neighborhood Workshop - Aug 14, 2003
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has about $1.3 billion left to spend, and last week Downtowners compiled a giant wish list for the money that included more jobs and fewer hassles from rebuilding construction. Those were among the suggestions raised on Thursday at the sixth and final brainstorming session sponsored by the L.M.D.C. for Lower Manhattan residents and workers. Last Thursday’s meeting was held for an invitation-only group of about 75 community members from Tribeca, Soho and Little Italy. (Downtown Express)

Silverstein Negotiating Lease on Trade Center Mall - Aug 8, 2003
Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein wants control over the whole rebuilt site - including the mall. Silverstein, who holds a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center site's once-and-future office towers, has begun negotiations with Westfield America to buy out the rights to operate the retail portion of the planned complex, sources said yesterday. Officials at Westfield, which ran the below-street-level concourse before the Sept. 11 attacks, don't like the plan for rebuilding the shopping mall - with hundreds of square feet of space stacked above ground. Although the company has denied wanting a lease buyout, sources said Westfield has approached several potential buyers - including City Hall. (New York Daily News)

U.S. Frees $54 Million in 9/11 Business Aid - Aug 7, 2003
Federal officials approved more than $54 million in aid yesterday that more than 2,200 small-business owners in Lower Manhattan had been waiting for - often anxiously and angrily - after a 9/11 recovery program ran out of money. The funds, made available by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will allow the state to finally send out checks to the businesses, which had qualified for the aid after applying for it in the weeks before the deadline on Dec. 31. (New York Times)

Chinatown Anger Boils Up at L.M.D.C. Meeting - Aug 7, 2003
Last Thursday night, there were two separate protests in Chinatown on neighborhood issues related to the aftermath of 9/11 — and at a neighborhood workshop organized by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, frustration and anger were the dominant emotions. (Downtown Express)

City Leaves Key Tribeca Project Unprotected Against Speculators - Aug 6, 2003
In late July, officials held a press conference at Thomas Paine Park, near Ground Zero, to announce a $50 million federally funded program to build 300 units of downtown affordable housing for working families. As welcome as the new construction is, the announcement struck many of lower Manhattan's current moderate-income residents as a prickly paradox. A day later, a couple hundred tenants, mostly from Independence Plaza North, the 1,329-unit, city-supervised-and-subsidized, three-tower project on Ground Zero's border, rallied on the steps of City Hall to support a bill just introduced by Council Speaker Gifford Miller. The project's 3,500 residents were notified in June that new owner Laurence Gluck - just 24 hours after he completed his $100 million purchase of the complex - had filed papers to withdraw the project from the Mitchell- Lama program, a move that would free him to charge sizzling market rents. That could potentially cost downtown a thousand more affordable units than what the ballyhooed announcement promises, making Tribeca the latest example of the ongoing loss of tens of thousands of affordable apartments citywide, caused by conversions like Gluck's. (Village Voice)

Downtowners Brainstorm at L.M.D.C. Workshops - Jul 31, 2003
With about $1.3 billion of federal money left to spend, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has begun a series of invitation-only neighborhood workshops to get feedback on how best to use the money. The first two of six brainstorming sessions were held in the Financial District and Battery Park City last week (Downtown Express)

Small WTC Firms Face New Fund Delay - Jul 28, 2003
Small businesses near Ground Zero awarded federal aid to help them rebound from the Sept. 11 attacks won't get the sorely needed money this month as promised. The state Economic Development Corp., which controls the cash, has delayed the payouts again - threatening many of the companies' survival, Crain's New York Business reports. The state has told the 2,000 businesses awaiting grant money that the funds will arrive in August. The companies, most of which applied for the grants right before a Dec. 31, 2002, deadline, were initially told they'd get the cash several months ago. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Payment Issues Are Argued in Appeal - Jul 23, 2003
A small army of lawyers took the long-running battle over insurance claims at the World Trade Center to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday as they argued over issues that will determine how much money is available for rebuilding the vast commercial complex. Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who controls the World Trade Center lease, has argued that he is entitled to a double payment of nearly $7 billion because two planes hit two towers in what he describes as two separate "occurrences" on Sept. 11. (New York Times)

At Helm of Trade Center Site, as He Always Planned to Be - Jul 21, 2003
Last week, Mr. Silverstein's high hopes of early 2001 seemed, if anything, too modest. He emerged victorious in the struggle for control of ground zero, elbowing aside Daniel Libeskind, the architect whose design for the trade center site was chosen by Gov. George E. Pataki. Suddenly he seems to have ascended to the lofty circles occupied by real estate giants with names like Durst, Resnick, Ross, Roth, Rudin and Zuckerman. (New York Times)

Where the WTC stands: Financing clouds original vision - Jul 19, 2003
Three months ago, Gov. Pataki stood before business leaders in lower Manhattan and set an aggressive timetable for rebuilding Ground Zero. He wanted architects to begin designing Daniel Libeskind's 1,776-foot spire by this month. The steel for the tower would be in place by Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the attacks. Pataki acknowledged the goals would be tough to meet. Here's a rundown of where things stand and what major decisions lie ahead: (New York Daily News)

9/11 Kin Rip PATH For 'Tainting' Holy Ground - Jul 20, 2003
A group representing 9/11 victims' families says Gov. Pataki has allowed construction on the footprints of the Twin Towers and wants Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton to sponsor a federal law to prevent further "desecration" of the World Trade Center site. (New York Post)

Developer Wants 9/11 Bonds for Times's Project in Midtown - Jul 17, 2003
The New York Times Company's development partner in building the newspaper's new headquarters on Eighth Avenue has asked city officials for $400 million in tax-exempt bonds that were designated for rebuilding New York after the attack on the World Trade Center. The developer, Forest City Ratner, has told city and state officials that it needs the special federal financing, known as Liberty Bonds, because it is nearly impossible in the current economic environment to obtain a conventional construction loan for its portion of the planned 52-story tower. (New York Times)

Chinatown Struggles To Overcome Triple Blow - Jul 9, 2003
In Chinatown, a series of random blows has struck in recent months. First came the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, which led to a lockdown for rescue efforts that sealed off the neighborhood's narrow and usually crowded streets. Then, the economic downturn and war in Iraq took their toll on businesses. The neighborhood took another hit this spring when the SARS virus began spreading to other parts of the world from the Far East and visitors to Chinatown started staying away yet again. (Newsday)

Outdoor Cafe Plans For Former Cab Area - Jul 8, 2003
A former Grand Central Terminal taxi pickup area - shut down after 9/11 because of security concerns - will be converted to an outdoor cafe area in mid-July, following a sprucing-up, MTA officials said yesterday. (Newsday)

Bikers On Their Way Upstate In Ground Zero Independence Ride - Jul 5, 2003
Bikers were off to an early start for the "Second Annual Ground Zero Independence Ride." The ride reunites construction workers and union members who worked side by side for 10-months during rescue and recovery operations at the site. (NY1)

Lawsuits By Members Of Uniformed Services Skyrocketed After 9/11 - Jul 1, 2003
Although the total number of claims has decreased over the past year, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have triggered a flood of legal claims by workers against the city, according to a report released by City Comptroller Bill Thompson Tuesday. (NY1)

Going's easier as PATH station reopens - Jun 30, 2003
The PATH train is one stop closer to lower Manhattan - but still five months away from rolling into Ground Zero. New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey reopened the Exchange Place station in Jersey City yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Developer Wants Architect's Skyscraper Relocated - Jun 29, 2003
Developer Larry Silverstein wants to move the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower envisioned for Ground Zero to a different corner of the site, sources told the Daily News. According to architect Daniel Libeskind's plans, the skyscraping spire is supposed to be built at the northwest part of the 16-acre site, near the corner of West and Vesey Sts. (New York Daily News)

FEMA's 9/11 Office Winds Down - Jun 28, 2003
Since September 11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's field office has seen nearly 200,000 applicants come in for aid, but that once-long line has dwindled to a bare trickle, and FEMA says it will shutter its remaining storefront operation sometime in the next month. (Newsday)

Feds Sue Insurers Over 9/11 Damage - Jun 27, 2003
The federal government has filed suit against an insurance company for failing to reimburse it for millions of dollars in losses and damages incurred at a lower Manhattan post office on Sept. 11, 2001. (Newsday)

Judge for Silverstein Case Resigns - Jun 25, 2003
The federal judge presiding over developer Larry Silverstein's fight to double his insurance payout from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is resigning. Manhattan Federal Court Judge John Martin said yesterday he is fed up with a criminal justice system he called unjust - and conceded he wants to earn more money after 13 years on the bench. (New York Daily News)

Independent Terrorism Commission Makes First Document Request - Jun 19, 2003
The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks has made sweeping requests for documents from the Bush administration and White House that go beyond the information provided during Congress' review, officials disclosed Wednesday. (Associated Press)

Hospital Opens Counseling Center Overlooking Ground Zero - Jun 17, 2003
Behind windows overlooking the World Trade Center site, a quiet office decorated in serene colors offers free therapy for those with lingering Sept. 11 trauma, including acupuncture for stress and a Chihuahua for comfort. (Newsday)

Advocates Press for Affordable Housing Downtown - Jun 18, 2003
In a desire to revitalize lower Manhattan as quickly as possible, federal grants and tax-free bonds are being awarded for rebuilding projects. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was given $2 billion in grants for various revitalization projects, and has spent $700,000 million so far. Housing advocates say they would like to see part of the remaining $1.3 billion spent on housing for low or moderate income people. (Downtown Express)

Borders Reopening Downtown - Jun 11, 2003
Borders is back. Twenty months after Sept. 11, 2001, the book and music store has returned to Lower Manhattan, where its flagship location at 5 World Trade Center was destroyed as a result of the terror attack. The new store, in a historic building at 100 Broadway at Pine St., will open Thursday, June 12. (Downtown Express)

Housing Bonds Approved - Jun 11, 2003
As residents worried that the community’s resources would be strained by the flood of new housing planned for Lower Manhattan, the city Housing Development Corporation last week approved one Liberty Bond project for apartments south of the trade center site. The agency approved $77.5 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bond financing for 398 apartments in a 27-story former commercial building at 90 Washington St. It is the first Liberty Bond project to have received final authorization from the Housing Development Corp., which has agreed to consider an additional 10 residential proposals. (Downtown Express)

Residential Grant Deadline Passes - Jun 4, 2003
The application period for the $281-million residential grant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation ended last Saturday to mixed reviews, with critics charging the program with discrimination against moderate-income residents and supporters hailing it as crucial to the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. (Downtown Express)

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

Federal Aid Helps Repopulate Lower Manhattan - May 13, 2003
An unprecedented program that uses federal anti-poverty dollars to lure people to live in neighborhoods near ground zero has been credited with helping repopulate lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks. With a May 31 application deadline approaching, some 38,000 households - about 80 percent of those eligible - have applied for grants of up to $14,500. (Associated Press)

Lower Manhattan Remains Economically Depressed - Apr 6, 2003
Neighborhoods surrounding Ground Zero remain shut off, neglected and in disrepair at a time when construction within the World Trade Center site is proceeding at an accelerating rate. Eighteen months after 9/11, more than a dozen streets in lower Manhattan and the Financial District remain barricaded for security and construction reasons - impeding commerce and discouraging development, according to those who live and work there. (New York Post)

Rental Bargains In Areas Near Ground Zero - Apr 6, 2003
There are still rental bargains in some residential areas surrounding Ground Zero, according to realtors. And prices could be heading further south there thanks to a saturated citywide rental market and the prospect of more apartments becoming available. (New York Post)

Still, Tourists Not Spending At Ground Zero - Apr 6, 2003
Tourists are expected to make Ground Zero their prime destination in the city again this summer, but that may not make the coming months any brighter for struggling downtown businesses, according to the city's tourism bureau. (New York Post)

Bloomberg Says State Vies for Security Money the City Needs - Apr 4, 2003
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made his differences with Gov. George E. Pataki public yesterday, suggesting that the governor is trying to claim a share of federal money that the city needs to defend itself against terrorist attacks. ``We can make a convincing case, I think,'' Mr. Bloomberg said, ``that when you catch an Al Qaeda member, in his or her pocket there's a plan to attack New York. Not to attack any one state, not to attack other cities. " (New York Times)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Port Authority's New Budget Reflects the Times - Feb 21, 2003
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday approved a $5 billion expense and capital budget not much larger than last year's, reflecting the region's flagging economy and the new security and rebuilding demands on the agency since the attack on the World Trade Center. (New York Times)

Federal Government Allots $90 Million for Ground Zero Health Study - Feb 12, 2003
The feds will set aside $90 million to pay for health screening for hundreds of firefighters and other heroes who rushed to Ground Zero after 9/11, officials said yesterday. The funding should insure that Mount Sinai and other hospitals can study and track the long-term health of scores of first responders - some of whom are beginning to report lung and breathing woes they attribute to Ground Zero. (Select one or type in another)

White House in Tentative Deal on New York 9/11 Rescue Package - Feb 7, 2003
The Bush administration has tentatively agreed to provide up to $980 million that New York City and state officials had counted on to help close multibillion dollar budget deficits, according to New York and federal officials involved in the negotiations. The agreement taking shape would give about $350 million to the state and about $630 million to the city, with fewer restrictions than normally govern such emergency aid. The money would be drawn from the federal funds that had been allocated in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)

After Long Delay, New York Submits Plan for Terror Aid - Jan 31, 2003
Nearly a year and a half after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pataki administration has finally told the federal government how it plans to spend hundreds of millions of available dollars to make New York State better prepared to deal with future terrorist attacks. The submission of the wish list comes after months of unexplained delays and considerable secrecy. The delays had left New York lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, concerned that the indecision had not only left the state vulnerable, but had also compromised the state's ability to petition for more money from Washington. (New York Times)

Judge Rejects Insurer's 9/11 Claim - Jan 30, 2003
A federal judge in New York yesterday rejected an insurance company's attempt to classify the Sept. 11 terrorist attack upon the World Trade Center as an act of "vandalism and malicious mischief" so that it can be considered one assault and not two separate incidents. The insurance company, Allianz, is one of more than 20 companies that insured the Twin Towers leaseholder Larry Silverstein. (Newsday)

Tourists Coming, But Not Spending - Jan 29, 2003
The tourists who visit the World Trade Center site every day are not spending money downtown - a fiscal crisis that can be solved only with the addition of theaters and museums, the city's tourism marketing organization said yesterday.   The tourists who visit the World Trade Center site every day are not spending money downtown - a fiscal crisis that can be solved only with the addition of theaters and museums, the city's tourism marketing organization said yesterday. (New York Post)

Forum on Lower Manhattan’s Future Focuses on Retail - Jan 23, 2003
So far, there's no widely accepted solution to developing a strong retail sector in lower Manhattan, but about 50 residents, developers, retailers and advocates raised a host of possibilities at a Tuesday night forum at Pace University. (Newsday)

9/11 Program Finally Gets Flood of Requests for Help - Jan 18, 2003
A flood of last-minute requests to the biggest program aiding small businesses and nonprofit groups in Lower Manhattan in the wake of the World Trade Center attack has pushed the amount of aid approved to more than the $481 million allotted for the program, according to the state agency that runs the program. Beyond that, 1,700 applications remain to be processed. Although the grants have surpassed the allotment, whatever amount is ultimately needed will be provided, Empire State's chief operating officer, Kevin Corbett, said yesterday. (New York Times)

Silverstein To Seek $400 Million in Tax-Free Liberty Bonds - Jan 14, 2003
Developer Larry Silverstein, who owns the lease to the World Trade Center site, will try to raise $400 million in tax-free Liberty Bonds for the reconstruction of 7 World Trade Center, it was revealed yesterday. This is because he apparently must spend half the insurance proceeds on the building just north of Ground Zero to pay off the mortgage. This news was not made public until the beginning of the public hearing held by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation yesterday, drawing criticism from those who feel rebuilding officials are being too secretive. (New York Post)

High-Tech Research Center Planned Near Ground Zero - Jan 11, 2003
A high-tech research center will rise in lower Manhattan, with the help of a $3 million state grant, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said yesterday. The new Institute for Advanced Studies in Software and Information Technology will be based in the Ground Zero area, Silver said. A specific site hasn't been chosen yet. The center will be a collaboration that will include organizations such as the City University of New York, New York University, and private software and development companies. (New York Daily News)

Report Criticizes FEMA's Handling of 9/11 Economic Claims - Jan 8, 2003
An internal review of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's performance after the Sept. 11 terror attack has concluded that the agency should have been more flexible and fair in helping people with economic losses. The agency also needs to coordinate better with other government agencies and charities in future disasters, the review concluded. (New York Times)

After 9/11, a Torrent of Money, and Anger - Dec 30, 2002
In the months after nearly 2,800 people died in the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center, the Bush administration pledged $21.4 billion to address the emergency. More than 15 months later, some $4.5 billion to $5 billion has made its way from Washington to New York. Many victims, elected officials, business executives and others are both confused and angry about why, more than a year after the most serious terrorist attack on American soil, less than a quarter of the federal government's promise of financial assistance has been realized. (New York Times)

Trade Center Plans Exhibit Helps Retailers at Winter Garden - Dec 26, 2002
Let there be ...Christmas lights adorn the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, where World Trade Center designs are on display. The exhibit of nine new World Trade Center designs at the Winter Garden has been a holiday gift to several merchants at the World Financial Center. The plans have attracted thousands of visitors since they went on display last Thursday - bringing welcome foot traffic to the shops and restaurants that ring the Winter Garden. (New York Daily News)

WTC Grant Deadline Approaches - Dec 26, 2002
It's last call for downtown businesses looking for a shot of cash. The World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program, which has handed out $437 million to 10,579 struggling downtown businesses since the Sept.11 attacks, will stop taking applications Dec. 31. There's $44 million in grant money left. (New York Daily News)

Plans Call for Millions of Square Feet of Offices - Dec 19, 2002
If you can sell it, they may come. That was the practical assessment of real-estate experts, who said yesterday that the World Trade Center rebuilding plan that excites a potential user for the office and retail space is the one that will be economically feasible. The plans presented yesterday contain millions of square feet of offices, shops and hotels that along with public spaces, cultural and transportation facilities, will cost billions of dollars to construct. (Newsday)

In Design World, A Mixed Reaction - Dec 19, 2002
The nine visions for the World Trade Center unveiled by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. yesterday left architects and urban design experts feeling excited, puzzled, irritated and overwhelmed. But some observers pointed out that, imaginative though they were, all the proposals were shaped by a narrow yet ambitious program issued by the development corporation, which required a massive scale and millions of square feet in office space. (Newsday)

Next: Funding WTC Projects - Dec 18, 2002
Not too long after the new plans for Lower Manhattan are released Wednesday, the discussion will quickly move to a less visionary topic: money. In recent months, what amounts to a preliminary budget for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site and the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan has begun to form. Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered the most detailed public cost breakdown last week. (Newsday)

Downtown Retailers Remain in a Rut - Dec 12, 2002
Sales in lower Manhattan are down considerably from two years ago but many merchants don't know whether to blame the lasting aftershocks of Sept. 11 or the economic malaise affecting uptown retailers as well. (Newsday)

Court To Consider Whether 9/11 Was One Attack - Dec 12, 2002
An appeals court agreed Wednesday to hear the issue of whether the two planes that brought down the World Trade Center represented separate attacks, a critical point that could double the multibillion-dollar insurance payout. (Associated Press)

Deadline for Small Business Grants is Near - Dec 12, 2002
As the deadline approaches for one of the biggest government grant programs helping the recovery of Downtown businesses, a walk-in center in Lower Manhattan that provides application assistance saw a steady stream of visitors last week. Applicants at the center at 140 William St. had mixed reviews of the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program, whose deadline is Dec. 31. (Downtown Express)

Bear, Stearns Threatens Again to Leave City - Dec 11, 2002
For the third time in a decade, Bear, Stearns & Company is demanding tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks and other subsidies from the city. In what has become a familiar bargaining pattern by many of the city's largest corporations, Bear, Stearns has said it would keep the employees in New York if the city provided it with a generous subsidy to move from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

Developer Seeks $43 Million in Liberty Bonds for Market Rate Housing - Dec 11, 2002
A developer has requested $43 million in tax-free Liberty Bonds to create 91 new apartments downtown. The project involves the renovation of 13 loft buildings and the construction of three new buildings on both sides of Front Street, between Beekman Street and Peck Slip. Nearly all the new apartments would rent at market rates. (New York Post)

Without World Trade Center, Port Authority Paying Less In Taxes To City - Dec 7, 2002
The Port Authority's tax payments to the city on the World Trade Center site have been whittled down to a paltry $1.7 million because of the twin towers' collapse - compared with $28 million pre-9/11. The Port Authority still collects $120 million in annual lease payments from developer Larry Silverstein, who leased the twin towers six weeks before they collapsed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. But because the city's tax structure and laws forbid governments from imposing levies on other government agencies, the city isn't entitled to any of it. (New York Daily News)

Assistance for Chinatown Rejected - Dec 6, 2002
City Council speaker Gifford Miller and several other council members criticized Gov. George Pataki yesterday for the recent decision not to award an Empire Zone to Chinatown, where business leaders and activists cite the closure of 65 garment businesses as evidence that the neighborhood is still reeling economically from the Sept. 11 attacks. The Empire Zone Designation Board voted on the day before Thanksgiving to approve the last of six zones, which create tax breaks and incentives for businesses, in Renssalaer County, the home of Republican state Senate leader Joseph Bruno. The other five zones, none in the city, were approved prior to the gubernatorial election. (Newsday)

Deutsche Bank Is Moving to Lower Manhattan Tower - Dec 6, 2002
Deutsche Bank announced to great fanfare yesterday that it would move its national headquarters and 5,500 employees to the beleaguered streets of Lower Manhattan. At a news conference on Wall Street with bank officials, the governor and mayor hailed the company's commitment to the city and granted the German financial company $34.5 million in cash from the World Trade Center job retention program financed by federal aid. Despite the fanfare, Deutsche Bank committed to moving to Lower Manhattan in April 2001, when it struck an agreement to buy the downtown tower at 60 Wall Street for about $600 million as part of a plan to move its New York headquarters from Midtown. (New York Times)

Downtown Retail Hopes for Big Season - Dec 4, 2002
For weeks after the World Trade Center attack, the shelves of J & R Computer World were covered with a ghostly film of white ash from the wreckage. The massive retailer, perhaps the largest in Lower Manhattan, was devastated by the attack only a few blocks away. Customers were kept away for weeks after 9/11 by transportation snarls. J&R is still not up to its pre-9/11 sales figures. (Downtown Express)

FEMA Enforces Deadline Despite Mail Mix-up - Dec 4, 2002
In the weeks before the Nov. 30 deadline for a federal Sept. 11-related aid program, a FEMA bureaucratic foul-up caused the temporary closing of a post office box receiving applications and the return of some applications to their senders. Responding to the news, local politicians and others intensified their demands for an extension of the Nov. 30 deadline for the program. But FEMA officials denied their request, saying that the post office box incident would not hamper people from registering for the program by phone. (Downtown Express)

Federal Disaster Bill Could Bring More Aid To City - Nov 29, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg is hoping Congress will pass a law that would let the cash-strapped city snag $650 million in additional payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Congress will take up the issue when it resumes work in January and takes a second look at the appropriations bill that includes FEMA's budget. (New York Post)

FEMA, Clinton, Schumer Announce $4.1 Million Pace Center - Nov 27, 2002
The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently granted $4.1 million to Pace University to pay for its facilities damaged in the attack on the World Trade Center. The announcement came at a ceremony attended by senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, who joined Pace University president David Caputo and FEMA chief-of-staff Reynold Hoover last Friday at the university's main campus at One Pace Plaza to celebrate the grant. (Downtown Express)

New M.B.A. Program Helps Downtown Businesses - Nov 27, 2002
MBAs4NYC, a new non-profit volunteer organization that provides free financial consultation to small businesses affected by the W.T.C. attacks. MBAs4NYC is the brainchild of Colleen Galvin, a former Chase Manhattan and Citibank officer who was involved with several outreach programs after the Sept. 11 attacks. The organization draws on a pool of M.B.A. students and alumni from schools such as Columbia, Harvard and M.I.T., all of which have committed to helping promote the program within their New York alumni associations. (Downtown Express)

Terrorism Driving Up Commercial Insurance Rates, Says City Comptroller - Nov 22, 2002
Commercial insurance premiums have risen up to 73 percent in the city since the World Trade Center attack and insurance for commercial property has become much more difficult to obtain, according to a report issued last week by city Comptroller William Thompson. (Downtown Express)

Chinatown Still Struggling After September 11 - Nov 19, 2002
More than a year after the terrorist attacks, Chinatown is struggling to recover economically, according to a report by the Asian American Federation of New York. The neighborhood's largest employer, the garment industry, has been particularly slow. Before 9/11, there were about 250 garment factories in Chinatown; a year later, a quarter, or 65 factories, have closed. Restaurants and jewelry stores are suffering as well with business over the summer down 40 to 60 percent. Most of the dislocated workers in Chinatown are women between the ages of 41 and 54. (Asian American Federation)

More Trouble in Chinatown as Job-Training Effort Fails - Nov 17, 2002
The organization that provides most of the nonprofit job training in Chinatown has eliminated its program for dislocated workers, causing worries in a community still reeling from a battered economy and the aftershocks of the Sept. 11 attack. The organization, Chinatown Manpower Project, sent a letter to the New York City Department of Employment in September, saying it would not continue its four-year contract with the city because it could not meet its performance goals. (New York Daily News)

IRS to Tax $281 Million in 9/11 Aid - Nov 15, 2002
The IRS is going after $281 million in post-Sept. 11 aid being used to entice people to live near Ground Zero. The Internal Revenue Service said yesterday tax bills will vary depending on where a tenant or homeowner lives and which type of housing aid granted. (New York Daily News)

Comptroller: Insurance Industry Hiking Premiums for High Rises - Nov 14, 2002
The insurance industry is socking New York's landmark high-rises with premium hikes of 73% or more - out of fear that terrorists may strike again, city Controller William Thompson charged yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Federal Study Finds that 9/11 Cost NYC $36 Billion - Nov 13, 2002
A new federal study estimates the World Trade Center attacks cost the city up to $36 billion - a number that's drastically lower than the city's figures. The Federal Reserve Bank's findings, published in the November issue of its Economic Policy Review, said it will cost $11.2 billion to rebuild the twin towers as they existed before the attack. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Funds Could Go to Cash-Strapped City Groups - Nov 10, 2002
Government officials are looking for ways to tap the $2 billion pot of cash controlled by the Ground Zero rebuilding agency -- the only act in town with money to spend. At a time when both the state and city face multibillion-dollar deficits, the federal funds given the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. have become increasingly attractive as a way to lessen the blow. Sources said city officials have discussed the possibility of allocating some of the agency's money -- some of which is required to be given to cultural organizations -- to groups that will have their city funding slashed. (New York Daily News)

Many Insurance Claims for Losses Caused by 9/11 Have Not Yet Been Paid - Nov 5, 2002
Within five months after terrorists struck the World Trade Center, insurance companies paid more than $16 billion in claims for damage from the attack, providing a sharp boost to New York's struggling economy. But the flow has slowed: so far this year, the insurance companies have paid $3 billion in claims. The payments have slowed, industry experts said, because insurance companies and their customers have taken care of the easiest claims, and now they are dealing with the most complicated ones, some of which may take years to resolve. (New York Times)

Airport-Related Business Here Hit Hard by 9/11, Costing 10,000 Jobs - Oct 25, 2002
Since the World Trade Center attacks, La Guardia and Kennedy Airports have suffered larger economic losses than most other major hub airports in the country, a new study by the Center for an Urban Future has found. Those losses permeate almost every aspect of the two airports' business, from cargo and passenger traffic to hotel vacancies, and have caused the elimination of 16.5 percent --10,000 jobs--of all airport-related jobs in the city since 9/11. That is by far the largest percentage loss of any industry in the city, including the securities industry, which has lost 9 percent of its jobs since then. (New York Times)

Officials Seek Changes in Rules for Sept. 11 Business Program - Oct 24, 2002
Businesses that were in the World Trade Center should get more money than other businesses from a program granting relief from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, a group of officials said yesterday. Under the current rules for the aid plan, called the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program, small businesses that were in the trade center when it was destroyed are treated the same as small businesses on the blocks around them, the officials said as they called publicly for different rules for the program. (New York Times)

Violations by Buildings May Delay Tenant Grants - Oct 20, 2002
Residents of nearly 200 apartment buildings in Lower Manhattan could find their applications for Sept. 11-related housing grants denied or delayed because of outstanding violations of building or fire codes, according to officials of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (New York Times)

Family Business Still Waiting to Reopen Downtown - Oct 20, 2002
More than a year after terrorists struck the World Trade Center, two of James Costalas' businesses have closed for good. The Costalas family, who have run a business in lower Manhattan for four decades, is still unable to reopen their remaining one, a takeout food shop and cafeteria called the Food Exchange at 112 Liberty Street. The shuttered row of shops sits in the shadow of an overhead platform, built to protect pedestrians during the repair and cleaning of the buildings after the fires and collapses across the street had damaged and contaminated them. (New York Times)

Chinatown Park, Ad Campaign Get 9/11 Grants - Oct 11, 2002
A Chinatown park and a marketing campaign to lure tourists downtown got the first grants yesterday from a $200 million federal program to help nonprofit groups near Ground Zero. (New York Daily News)

Small Businesses Just Outside Aid Boundaries Get Much Less - Oct 9, 2002
The World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program provides compensation for lost revenue to companies with up to 500 employees that are situated from 14th Street to the Battery. The highest compensation is given to businesses that were in the World Trade Center and have reopened elsewhere and those in the neighborhood closest to the site. However, the way the program has drawn its boundaries frustrates the businesses just outside them. (New York Times)

Borders to Return to Lower Manhattan With New Store - Oct 8, 2002
Borders Books and Music, whose flagship downtown store at the World Trade Center was destroyed in the attack last year, is returning to Lower Manhattan, where it signed a lease last week to open a store in a landmark building on Broadway. The Borders store was the largest single retail tenant at the World Trade Center complex and was one of the chain's highest grossing stores. (New York Times)

Lower Manhattan Residents Will Be Exempt From Tax on Aid - Oct 8, 2002
The Internal Revenue Service plans to exempt Lower Manhattan residents from most if not all taxes on government money given to them to stay in or move to the area, the office of Senator Charles Schumer said last night. A Schumer spokesman said, however, that the I.R.S. had not decided whether to exempt businesses near ground zero from taxes on government aid they receive or compensation for lost revenue related to the terrorist attack. (New York Times)

New York Life Happy With Move Downtown After September 11 - Oct 7, 2002
New York Life, one of the largest mutual funds companies in the country, was ready to sign a lease to move downtown to 120 Broadway on the morning of September 11. Despite the attacks, the company has settled down in lower Manhattan and has not regretted the decision at all. (Newsday)

New York Congressional Delegation Proposes Direct Aid To New York - Oct 3, 2002
Some of the government's Sept. 11 aid to New York should go directly into city and state coffers, Democratic lawmakers said yesterday. Citing "gaping holes" in the city and state budgets, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for a law allocating some of the $21 billion to replace lost tax revenue. "Right now, even though the money is there, we can't use it," Schumer said in Washington, where he was joined by Sen. Hillary Clinton and Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan. "And so, what we're seeking to do here is untie the hands of the federal government." (New York Daily News)

Senator Schumer Criticized For Remarks About Federal Funding For Transit - Oct 2, 2002
Senator Charles Schumer came under fire from other New York officials yesterday for his unexpected attempt to block federal disaster funding for several lower Manhattan transit projects. Public comments from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hinted at behind-the-scenes wrangling among federal, state and city officials who are trying to divvy up the transit aid, sources said. (New York Daily News)

Poor Transit Connections Lead Companies to Leave Lower Manhattan - Oct 1, 2002
Companies near Ground Zero are beginning to hire more employees - but still may bolt from lower Manhattan because of poor transit connections, a survey revealed yesterday. The poll, by the Alliance for Downtown New York, found that financial problems downtown have stabilized, but could worsen as companies' leases expire. (New York Daily News)

Plans For Chinatown Arts Center - Oct 1, 2002
A new multimillion-dollar Asian culture and performing arts center modeled after the Lincoln Center would anchor Chinatown and help revitalize an area still recovering from the World Trade Center attack, according to a community-based plan announced Monday at City Hall. (Newsday)

Schumer And Pataki Argue Over Using Rebuilding Funds - Sep 30, 2002
A battle is shaping up between Senator Charles Schumer and Gov. George Pataki over hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to rebuild Lower Manhattan in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center. Schumer is seeking to block nearly $700 million in transportation projects being considered by several agencies under the control of Pataki. Schumer said he was concerned that devoting $700 million of that aid to projects unrelated to 9/11 would shortchange the projects directly related to the attack, mainly the construction of a transit center linking the subway and PATH lines around the trade center site. (New York Times)

9/11 Assistance Program Is No Safety Net - Sep 28, 2002
The financial assistance program in New York State that officials described as a kind of ultimate safety net for those who lost their jobs or had their property damaged because of the World Trade Center disaster has given grants to only a small fraction of the people who applied. Indeed, officials from the Individual and Family Grant program admit they have not even reviewed more than half of the nearly 73,000 requests for aid that they received in recent months. (New York Times)

Federal Government Taxing WTC Grants - Sep 25, 2002
Cash-strapped businesses trying to hang on in lower Manhattan expect to take another financial hit - this time from the IRS. Every penny of the $772 million in federal grants being given to struggling small businesses near Ground Zero is taxable. (New York Daily News)

Housing Could Boom Downtown, Report Says - Sep 24, 2002
Lower Manhattan could gain up to 8,000 new apartment units over the next 10 years, substantially increasing the size of its residential neighborhoods, according to a new development study by the independent Citizens Housing and Planning Council. Focusing on the area below Chambers Street, the report says 4,000 to 8,000 new apartments could be added through conversion of older office buildings and new construction - a substantial increase over the 12,500 units there now. (New York Post)

Ideas To Be Explored For Housing and Retail Revitalization Downtown - Sep 24, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the city Department of Planning are teaming up to study ways to build more housing in lower Manhattan and make Fulton St. a prime retail and entertainment center, officials said yesterday. The housing study will examine the market south of Houston St. Officials will emphasize the need to build more housing along the Fulton St. and John St. corridors, as well as south of Liberty St. The Fulton St. study will look at the shops, arts and entertainment offerings currently along the strip and offer ways to lure more tenants to the street, which will be extended through the disaster site. (Newsday)

Office Space Should Be Rebuilt Off The Footprints, Silverstein Says - Sep 24, 2002
Larry Silverstein, the real-estate developer who holds the lease to develop on the World Trade Center site, wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece yesterday that all the commercial space destroyed in the September 11 attacks must be rebuilt over the next decade for the "good of the city and the region." "If we do not replace the lost space," wrote Silverstein, "lower Manhattan never will regain the vibrancy it had as the world's financial center." (Wall Street Journal)

Ground Zero Businesses Miss 9/11 Loans - Sep 22, 2002
Across the country, thousands of companies that offer pricey pleasures to the affluent have been larded with millions in taxpayer-subsidized loans because of 9/11-related economic woes. Unfortunately, the battered businesses in and around Ground Zero did not fare quite as well, according to a Daily News analysis. (New York Daily News)

Study Says Lower Manhattan Urgently Needs to Draw More Firms - Sep 18, 2002
Officials in charge of rebuilding must draw as many as four major corporations to lower Manhattan - and stop other companies from fleeing - if the city is to recover from the economic losses related to the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to a new report. (New York Post)

Shrinking Financial District Will Affect Plans For Lower Manhattan - Sep 16, 2002
One year after the attack on the World Trade Center, New York City's financial district is still shrinking, raising serious questions about plans for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. In decades past, the district has bounced back from recessions and catastrophic fires. But current trends militate against future growth in financial services downtown, or even in New York City, according to a range of people who have knowledge of the district. (New York Times)

Downtown Real Estate Market Has More than Recovered - Sep 15, 2002
The New York City real estate market has come a long way since its nadir last year, after the Sept. 11 attacks devastated the entire downtown area. Prices on residential properties in desirable Manhattan neighborhoods like Tribeca, north of the World Trade Center site, have nearly erased their dramatic Sept. 11-related losses and are up 10 to 20 percent this year, according to local realtors and appraisers. (New York Times)

Cantor Fitzgerald: From Devastation to Determination - Sep 10, 2002
A year after 658 employees died in the attacks, Cantor Fitzgerald is emphatically still here — on track to earn just under $100 million in the year that began last Oct. 1, a dominant player in the bond markets once again, with solid backing from its banks, a tenacious grip on its valuable software patents and new offices in Midtown Manhattan. It is still here — but it is not the Cantor it was a year ago. (New York Times)

Liberty Bonds to Finance New Brooklyn Offices - Sep 10, 2002
A new Brooklyn office tower to be built by Forest City Ratner Companies and occupied by the Bank of New York will be the first commercial construction project to be financed by Liberty Bonds, which were approved by Congress in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, city and state officials said yesterday. (New York Times)

Tower at Financial Center Changes Hands for a Song - Sep 10, 2002
A major downtown skyscraper is changing hands for a surprisingly low price, in what may be the latest indication of how steeply property values have dropped in Lower Manhattan in the last year. (New York Times)

Cantor Fitzgerald Seeks to Relocate to Union Square - Sep 10, 2002
Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond broker that lost 658 employees on Sept. 11, is negotiating to build a $100 million headquarters in Union Square. (New York Times)

Former Employees in World Trade Center Scattered Throughout City - Sep 9, 2002
Most of the largest of the trade center companies relocated in midtown, a Newsday survey found. Others clustered downtown and in Jersey City, while smaller firms also scattered to Queens and Brooklyn. Newsday reporters interviewed more than 100 people who had worked at the World Trade Center and found a wide range of responses to being displaced from the offices in the twin towers they called home. (Newsday)

An Investment Bank Rebuilds and Reflects One Year Later - Sep 8, 2002
Keefe Bruyette, located in the 88th and 89th floors of the World Trade Center's south tower, lost 67 of its approximately 250 employees, including nearly its entire group of research analysts and traders. Two weeks later, when a Keefe Bruyette executive asked Mr. DiAntonio to come back and help rebuild the trading desk, he accepted without hesitation. "It was an easy decision," he says. The firm will be open on the anniversary of the attack, and a memorial service will be held at the day's end at a midtown church. (Wall Street Journal)

9/11 Gave a Devastating Shove to the City's Economy - Sep 8, 2002
Economists and business experts suggest that even if many of the city's economic losses might ultimately have occurred anyway, the Sept. 11 attack compressed what might have been a relatively mild recession into a few very painful months. (New York Times)

9/11 cost Insurers $40.2B - Sep 6, 2002
Insurers will pay out an estimated $40.2 billion for losses stemming from the Sept. 11 terror attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a top insurance trade group reported yesterday. (New York Daily News)

City Struggles for Economic Recovery - Sep 6, 2002
The city's economy, battered by the powerful riptides of Sept. 11 and last year's recession, may have hit bottom in February but has been drifting ever since. Local unemployment stands at a dismal 7.7%. (New York Daily News)

Economic Anguish of 9/11 Is Detailed by Comptroller - Sep 5, 2002
The attack on the World Trade Center will cost New York City $83 billion to $95 billion, depending on how many businesses wind up leaving the city, according to a report issued yesterday by William C. Thompson Jr., the city comptroller. (New York Times)

N.Y. Seeing Only Part of Promised Aid - Sep 5, 2002
Soon after Sept. 11, President Bush promised New York City more than $20 billion in federal aid. A year later, only a fraction of that money has been spent. Thousands of aid applications are sitting in government offices, while the cash flow has been slowed by red tape and a lack of consensus over how to rebuild the World Trade Center site. (Associated Press)

Airlines Struggling After 9/11 - Sep 4, 2002
Nearly a year after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the nation's major airlines have gone financially from bad to worse to not much better, and the New York region's aviation industry still hasn't recovered. (Newsday)

City's Payouts Decrease in 2002, Due to 9/11 - Sep 3, 2002
Lawsuit payouts by New York City nose-dived by nearly $100 million to $458.6 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Corporation Counsel's Office reports. The 17.7 percent drop, however, is not likely to offer the city respite from the steady increase in payouts over the last decade because the decrease was principally a product of the disruption caused by the Sept. 11 attacks. (New York Law Journal)

Bonds for Downtown Favor Political Donors - Aug 28, 2002
Most of the $340 million in Liberty Bonds awarded for rebuilding lower Manhattan was given to major campaign contributors at the state and local levels, particularly to Republicans, Common Cause New York said yesterday. (New York Daily News)

New York Announces Details of Greater 9/11 Business Aid - Aug 28, 2002
New York State and City gave details of their plans to increase aid to small businesses in Lower Manhattan that are suffering as a result of the terrorist attack last September. In the largest increase, small businesses that were in the World Trade Center or its immediate vicinity on the day of the attack are eligible for up to 25 days' worth of revenue losses, instead of up to 10 days' worth, as was previously the case. (New York Times)

$500 Million Left in 9/11 Aid, but Small Businesses Don't Ask - Aug 26, 2002
Despite a recent drive to publicize the two major programs of government grants for small Lower Manhattan businesses struggling to recover — and often to survive — in the attack's wake, two-thirds of the two programs' total pot of $772 million is still waiting to be awarded. (New York Times)

Delegation Urges More 9/11 Funds - Aug 23, 2002
The New York congressional delegation intends to send a letter to President Bush today imploring him to hand over $90 million in federal funds to track the health of former Ground Zero workers. The money was part of a $5.1 billion spending plan Bush rejected last week. The President had to accept or reject the plan entirely. (New York Daily News)

Struggling Chinatown Sees Rays Of Hope - Aug 23, 2002
A year after the Sept. 11 attacks, some businesses in Chinatown report sales being down as much as 40 percent from last year. Yet as the community struggles to mend itself, what's become apparent is that many of Chinatown's problems existed far before Sept. 11. And just as urban planners say the attacks created an opportunity for downtown to reinvent itself, they say Chinatown now has a chance to redefine its image and mission. Businesses that are not only surviving but thriving might provide a window into the Chinatown of the future. (Newsday)

More Aid Seen for Business Downtown - Aug 23, 2002
New York State and City are planning to increase financial aid to small businesses near the World Trade Center site that suffered financial losses stemming from the Sept. 11 attack. The increase would come after months of criticism from business people in the area that the amounts available in the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program were too small to provide meaningful aid to small businesses that were forced to remain closed the longest and suffered the biggest losses. (New York Times)

Exodus of 9/11 Is Thing of Past Near Tower Site - Aug 20, 2002
After sitting nearly half empty in the wake of Sept. 11, the residential buildings that once ringed the World Trade Center are almost as full as they were before the terrorist attack, a survey of more than 7,000 units in the area by the Times has found. With deep discounts from landlords and government programs promising rebates, vacancy rates have fallen to slightly below 5 percent over all, compared with average highs of 45 percent in the months after the disaster. (New York Times)

World Trade Center Tourists Spend Time, Not Money - Aug 19, 2002
Ground Zero's tourist boom isn't stopping local businesses from going bust. Almost a year after Sept. 11, Ground Zero is teeming with visitors - about 1.1 million between January and June - making it the city's most visited site, tourism officials say. But few are buying anything. (New York Post)

Money for Just Some of a Transit Wish List - Aug 13, 2002
Federal, state and city officials gathered at the rim of ground zero yesterday to celebrate their cooperation in securing $4.55 billion in federal money to overhaul and update the tangle of subway stations, commuter terminals and other transportation outlets in Lower Manhattan. But the money still falls short of the $7.5 billion that officials overseeing the rebuilding have long said would be needed to complete crucial transportation projects, leaving questions about which projects might be scrapped or scaled back as the rebuilding effort progresses. (New York Times)

9/11 Rent Subsidy Program May Not Be Tax Free - Aug 11, 2002
Homemakers lured to lower Manhattan by promises of up to $14,500 in post-9/11 federal grants may find a tax bill on the subsidy. The $300 million rent-abatement program has been touted in recent months as the main reason for a 91 percent occupancy rate across downtown neighborhoods affected by the events of Sept. 11. But the Internal Revenue Service is yet to declare the grants non-taxable. (New York Post)

Schumer Wants Part of 9/11 Aid for Police and Firefighter Raises - Aug 11, 2002
Senator Charles E. Schumer yesterday called on President Bush to allow New York to use about $500 million in federal disaster aid to give police officers and firefighters raises comparable to the 22 percent received by city teachers. The money would come from the $21.4 billion promised for recovery from the Sept. 11 attack. (New York Times)

Role in Oscars Is Sought for New York - Aug 9, 2002
A group of New York entertainment executives, celebrities and government officials has begun working to persuade the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to move a significant part of the Academy Awards ceremony to New York next year to help the city in its effort to recover from the attacks of Sept. 11. (New York Times)

Doubts Arise in Trade Center Land Swap - Aug 8, 2002
Despite public expressions of enthusiasm about the plan to trade World Trade Center land for city-owned land beneath two airports by various officials since it first came to light, a small number of officials and urban planners are beginning to question the economic wisdom of trading 5,610 acres beneath the airports in Queens for the 16-acre trade center site in Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

WTC/Airport Landswap Creates Economic Development Conflict - Aug 8, 2002
The deal to swap Ground Zero land for the two airports—proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s city development czar, Daniel Doctoroff—is being greeted with cautious optimism from Albany to the New York Times editorial desk. But behind the scenes, the swap proposal has raised the stakes in a rapidly escalating battle between Mr. Doctoroff and Port Authority Vice Chairman Charles Gargano over who will control development at Ground Zero and beyond. (New York Observer)

State 9/11 Bonds Fund Luxury Apartments Near Ground Zero - Aug 8, 2002
In a meeting called on just 24-hour public notice, the board of the state Housing Finance Agency yesterday formally approved $300 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds for the construction of three luxury apartment buildings in lower Manhattan. (Newsday)

Settlement Offers Are Due on Trade Center Losses - Aug 7, 2002
In the most significant moment yet in the insurance battle over the World Trade Center, lawyers for Larry A. Silverstein, the developer, and Swiss Re, the lead insurer, are to make settlement offers to a federal judge in Manhattan tomorrow. If they agree on an amount, it will determine how much money Mr. Silverstein will have to rebuild the trade center and, more broadly, how much influence he will have over the future of the site and the character of much of Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

Fight Over World Trade Center Insurance Continues - Aug 6, 2002
The two sides in the World Trade Center insurance battle appear to remain far apart as efforts continue to resolve the dispute out of court. Larry Silverstein, who owns the 99-year lease on the demolished Twin Towers, has submitted expert reports, which he contends back his claim that he's entitled to $7.1 billion in insurance proceeds. Silverstein claims that the terrorist attacks represented two separate incidents, and, as such, entitle him to two separate payments of $3.55 billion for a total of $7.1 billion. Insurers insist the incidents were a single event coordinated by terrorists, thereby limiting the maximum payout to $3.55 billion. The bottom line, says one of the insurers, is that they only insured the towers for $3.5 billion - and that includes both the cash value of the destroyed towers and business interruption payments. (Newsday)

Mayor Says He's No Fan of Corporate Tax Breaks - Aug 3, 2002
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday he's not a fan of corporate tax breaks - even though his firm sought a $14 million incentive last year - as he dismissed threats by the New York Stock Exchange to move some of its operations out of town. (New York Post)

Silverstein Raises Estimate on Trade Center Losses to $8.2 Billion - Aug 3, 2002
Silverstein Properties, the real estate company that controls the lease on the World Trade Center site, said yesterday that its losses related to the Sept. 11 attack on the trade center totaled $8.2 billion. (New York Times)

Stock Exchange Abandons Plan to Build New Headquarters Across the Street - Aug 2, 2002
The chairman of the New York Stock Exchange said yesterday that the exchange was abandoning plans to build a new headquarters building across the street from its historic site at 11 Wall Street, effectively ending a deal that was aggressively pursued by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. (New York Times)

Rebuilding Leaders say Chinatown is Part of Plan - Aug 1, 2002
John Whitehead, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation chairperson, came to Chinatown last week to say that his organization "will not forget Chinatown as our plans for lower Manhattan proceed." (Downtown Express)

September 11 Cost City $1.6 Billion in Tax Revenue - Jul 31, 2002
The Sept. 11 terror attacks cost the city $1.6 billion in lost tax revenue - and things will only get worse, the General Accounting Office reported yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Senator Clinton Presses For More WTC Funds - Jul 30, 2002
Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton Monday urged President Bush to release an additional $90 million in federal funding that would allow thousands of World Trade Center rescue workers to receive free medical screenings and follow-up exams for the next 20 years. (Newsday)

Wall Street in Suburbia? A Bad Idea, Mayor Says - Jul 26, 2002
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that talk of moving some of the New York Stock Exchange's operations from Wall Street to Westchester made little business sense and would play into the hands of the terrorists who attacked Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

Congress Approves More NY Aid - Jul 25, 2002
Congress has approved $5.5 billion in additional Sept. 11 aid for New York, surpassing the pledge of $20 billion President Bush made to the city in the days after the terrorist attacks. (Associated Press)

Downtown, An Exodus That Cash Can't Stop - Jul 24, 2002
City and state officials are finding that cheaper rents in Lower Manhattan and millions of dollars in cash grants and tax breaks from the government are not enough to keep companies like Aon, Pillsbury Winthrop, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and ABN Amro from defecting to more expensive quarters in Midtown, or to space in Brooklyn and Jersey City. (New York Times)

Congress OKs $5.5B For NYC - Jul 19, 2002
The last chunk of federal money promised to New York by President George W. Bush as the nation was still reeling from the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack fell into place yesterday when House and Senate negotiators agreed on the final $5.5-billion installment for the city.The deal brings to $21.3 billion the amount of federal money going to New York, topping the president's pledge of $20 billion made two days after terrorists crashed two airliners into the Twin Towers. (Newsday)

Assembly Speaker Silver Rips Governor Pataki Over Downtown Job Drain - Jul 15, 2002
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the state's most powerful Democrat, is accusing Gov. Pataki of damaging downtown recovery efforts by planning to send jobs out of the area. (New York Post)

Lobbying On the Rise After Sept. 11 - Jul 10, 2002
Business, government and civic groups trying to recover from the collapse of the World Trade Center have spent tens of thousands of dollars on Washington lobbyists to help tap into federal aid flowing from Capitol Hill. (Newsday)

Chinatown Plans to Study Sept. 11 Impact - Jul 9, 2002
Chinatown leaders announced Monday they will use a $100,000 grant from Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, to measure the impact of Sept. 11 on the still distressed neighborhood. Chinatown’s economy is still suffering from the Sept. 11 attack. (Newsday)

9/11 Victims Need $768 Million in Aid Into 2003, Study Says - Jul 8, 2002
Meeting the continuing needs of direct and indirect victims of the World Trade Center attack will cost $768 million over the next year, according to a consultant's study to be released today. Addressing job and income loss will make up by far the largest portion of that cost, but mental health treatment is likely to be the most costly need in the long term, according to the survey, which was conducted by McKinsey & Company for the 9/11 United Services Group Inc., a nonprofit consortium of 13 charities founded to help coordinate private assistance to victims of Sept. 11. (New York Times)

WTC Aid Not Reaching Small Businesses, Others In Need - Jul 7, 2002
The twenty-one billion, four hundred million dollars in federal aid coming to New York City after Sept. 11 makes up nearly half the city's annual budget. But it's not enough to satisfy everyone — no matter how the pot of cash is divvied up. The clear winners, thus far, are corporate giants and real estate developers. They may be getting aid at the expense of thousands of small companies, mom-and-pop businesses, school kids and children traumatized by Sept. 11 and in need of mental health services. (New York Daily News)

Downtown Shops Stay Loyal to Area - Jul 4, 2002
Despite slumping revenues and thousands of dead or displaced clients, dozens of businesses near Ground Zero are struggling through tough times out of loyalty for the neighborhood. Though most are not draping themselves in red, white and blue, they are patriotic, and they want to support their country and community. (Newsday)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Street Fairs Delayed By September 11 Back On Track - Apr 28, 2002
After an autumn in which all but 4 of the nearly 100 street fairs scheduled after Sept. 11 were canceled, New Yorkers are seeing the earliest of about 400 such events, ranging from a single block to more than 20, that are to be held through November. (New York Times)

State to Ask for More Money for Rebuilding From Congress - Apr 27, 2002
New York will ask Congress for more than the $21.3 billion it has already been promised to help rebuild Lower Manhattan, Senator Charles E. Schumer told a conference of civic and urban-planning groups on Friday. Mr. Schumer told reporters after his address that more money would probably be needed for the repair and revitalization of Lower Manhattan's transportation system and the redevelopment of its waterfront. (New York Times)

14 Major Companies Pledge To Stay Downtown - Apr 26, 2002
Fourteen companies announced Friday that they would remain in Lower Manhattan, signing long-term agreements that would retain more than 10,000 jobs downtown. In exchange for their commitments to stay in New York, the companies are eligible for $32.9 million in grants under the federally funded Job Creation and Retention Program, Gov. George Pataki said in a news release. Among the companies are Century 21, Deloitte and Touche, Media Planning Group, and Pace University. (Newsday)

Ground Zero Cleanup To Cost Less Than Previously Estimated - Apr 25, 2002
Cleaning up and rebuilding downtown Manhattan is expected to cost up to $29 billion, $6 billion less than previously estimated, according to a report released yesterday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. One reason the cost estimate has dropped since fall is that the cleanup of the World Trade Center site has gone more rapidly than expected. The report also said that 50,000 private jobs were lost in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, and 20,000 more were lost in early 2002. An additional 100,000 city workers were displaced by the attacks. (New York Daily News)

United Way Report Details Those Left Unemployed After 9/11 And Their Lack Of Relief - Apr 25, 2002
A United Way of New York study released yesterday said that an estimated 50,000 city workers lost their jobs due to September 11 and can't receive relief set aside for Sept. 11 victims because they did not work in lower Manhattan. Nine thousand New York City people lost jobs related to the aviation industry as a direct result of the terrorist attacks, but are ineligible for help from Sept. 11 charities because they worked in Queens. The report also said social service agencies were likely to see significant increases in appeals for rent assistance, other housing help, and mental health services, due to the lack of relief available to these 50,000. (New York Daily News)

Risk Of Post-9/11 Job Loss Could Hurt New York City Long-Term, Says Federal Report - Apr 24, 2002
The risk of New York City permanently losing thousands of jobs has placed a premium on expediting the reconstruction downtown, according to a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The report highlighted the impact of more than $10 billion in lost tax revenues for the city and state this year and next, and warned that budget cuts "could entail policies that may lead to a long-term decline in the attractiveness of the city." (Newsday)

Federal Government To Reimburse NYC Schools For Post-September 11 Expenses - Apr 23, 2002
Brad Gair, federal recovery officer for the World Trade Center disaster, told the Daily News on Friday he expected the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse city schools for full damage -- including ongoing environmental testing at lower Manhattan schools. Until Gair's comments Friday, school officials said the feds balked at reimbursing millions in expenses — including a $3 million asbestos cleanup of the two high schools closest to the World Trade Center. (New York Daily News)

Amish Market Suing Airlines and Security Firms For September 11 Economic Losses - Apr 19, 2002
The owners of a popular supermarket damaged in the World Trade Center attacks sued American and United Airlines and two airport security firms yesterday. The suit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court, is believed to be the first filed by a business against an airline related to the Sept. 11 attacks. (New York Daily News)

Businesses Dependent on Foreign Tourism Still Suffering After September 11 - Apr 14, 2002
Although many New York businesses report improvements since Sept. 11, local businesses that depend on foreign tourism say that they are still in pain. Foreigners make up about 18 percent of the annual tourists to New York, but generate 42 percent of the revenue in the industry, according to NYC & Company, the city's convention and visitors bureau. The organization also reports that the average foreign visitor spends about $1,040 per trip to New York, compared with $319 per visit from domestic tourists. Explanations range from cultural differences to media focus on Ground Zero as representative of New York after September 11 to economic problems in other countries. (New York Times)

Questions Linger About Paying For Rebuilding - Apr 8, 2002
A vast array of costly projects has been proposed for an extensive makeover of lower Manhattan - but very little has been said about who'll pay for a massive rebuilding that reaches far beyond the World Trade Center site. With insurance payouts and federal aid added together, there is an initial rebuilding pot of $11 to $18 billion. However, other than $1.8 billion in funds designated for a possible transit hub in the federal aid package, virtually no money is directly earmarked for long-term rebuilding. $9 billion allocated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has disbursed $965 million so far, can only be used to restore things as they were, not for new building. There are hopes that some of this money will be diverted, however, for longer-term rebuilding. (New York Post)

Movie Theater To Reopen Near Ground Zero - Apr 7, 2002
In another sign that life is bouncing back around Ground Zero, a shuttered movie megaplex across the street will reopen soon. The United Artists Battery Park City Stadium 16, which closed after sustaining severe exterior damage from the attacks on the World Trade Center towers Sept. 11, will reopen in time for the first TriBeCa Film Festival, scheduled for May 8-12. (New York Post)

Towering TV Transmission Antenna Planned To Replace One Lost On September 11 - Apr 6, 2002
A skyscraping 2,000-foot-tall TV and radio transmission tower is being planned to replace the one lost in the World Trade Center attacks. The new tower would be 250 feet taller than the one that stood atop the trade center's north tower. He goes on to mention several waterfront locations within 3.2 miles of the trade center site, including downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey City and Governors Island. (New York Post)

Report Says 10 Percent of Jobs Lost Post-Sept. 11 Were in Chinatown - Apr 5, 2002
The effects of the World Trade Center attack on Chinatown included layoffs of about one-fourth of the area's 34,000 workers, and economic ripples in Queens and Brooklyn, according to a report by the Asian American Federation released yesterday. Furthermore, Chinatown accounts for 10 percent of the jobs lost in the city in the three months after Sept. 11, the report said. That amounts to about 7,500 of the 75,000 jobs lost in that period, the authors of the report said. This report is arguably the most comprehensive economic analysis in the history of the more than 150-year-old neighborhood. (New York Times)

Bronx Businesses Hurt By September 11 - Apr 4, 2002
A newly released survey of 151 local businesses by the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. found that sales by local businesses plunged 36%, wiping out 11% of the jobs at those businesses in the months after Sept.11. The report also found that 93% of the businesses surveyed were unaware of post-Sept.11 assistance available to Bronx firms. The federal Small Business Association has distributed 56 loans in the Bronx so far, totaling $4.94 million. (New York Daily News)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Verizon and Con Ed May Raise Rates Due To September 11 - Feb 28, 2002
With their hopes of federal aid fading, Verizon and Consolidated Edison are warning that they may make consumers pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in losses they suffered as a result of the World Trade Center attack. For the average ratepayer, the move could mean as much as an extra $40 per year on the combined utility bills. Any rate increase would require approval from the state's Public Service Commission. (New York Times)

Century 21 and P.S. 89 Reopen - Feb 28, 2002
Century 21 -- the famed retailer of discounted designer goods -- today reopened its flagship store, just steps from the devastation of Ground Zero. Nearby businesses are hopeful that the return of Century 21 will bring more people into the area and give their establishments a boost as well. Students at P.S. 89 also returned to their classrooms for the first time since the school was evacuated the morning of Sept. 11. (Newsday)

More Jobs Headed Out of City Due to September 11 - Feb 25, 2002
Marsh & McLennan, a financial services giant that once housed 1,900 employees in the World Trade Center, is planning to move many of those jobs to New Jersey. Marsh has reached a deal to lease at least 300,000 square feet of office space at Hoboken's Waterfront Corporate Center, according to real estate sources. Manhattan will lose at least 1,200 jobs as a result of the deal, a source said. With Marsh getting an option to lease another 100,000 square feet, the company could move as many as 2,000 jobs across the Hudson. (New York Daily News)

Charities' Deadline To Apply For Disaster Relief Approaching - Feb 15, 2002
Having already doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to residents and businesses in Lower Manhattan, three of the charitable funds that have given the most to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack will soon stop taking applications for emergency cash grants for anyone who has lost a job, a business or income because of the attack. Officials with the funds — the American Red Cross's Liberty Fund, the Sept. 11 Fund and the Salvation Army — said they thought it was time to move from providing disaster relief to financing longer-term services like job training and counseling. And they said they had already reached a sizable number of those affected, disbursing an estimated $250 million to more than 50,000 displaced workers and business owners to date. Charity officials, who at first said they were confident they had made a reasonable effort to inform people of the deadline, late yesterday announced they would extend the deadline for people to make appointments to discuss aid to March 8. (New York Times)

Cantor Fitzgerald Looking To Return To Manhattan - Feb 14, 2002
Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost more than 650 employees in the destruction of the World Trade Center, is looking to reunite most of its 400 area employees in one office in Manhattan. After the destruction of 250,000 square feet of space in the twin towers on Sept. 11, the brokerage moved surviving staffers to offices in Rosell Park, Shrewsbury, and Weehawken N.J., and to Darien, Conn. The firm has begun talking to city and state officials about moving workers back to the city. "Now, we need only 75,000 to 80,000 square feet," Lutnick said. "We're beginning to examine the situations with the city and the state." (New York Daily News)

Hopes for Downtown Recovery with Century 21 Reopening - Feb 14, 2002
Having suffered more than $10 million in damage from the World Trade Center attacks across the street, Century 21 Department Store is scurrying to open this month, possibly as soon as next week. Raymond Gindi, chief operating officer and a member of the Brooklyn founding family that owns the three-store chain, said yesterday that he had hoped to welcome shoppers next Tuesday, but the cleaning and rebuilding had taken much longer than expected. Because of continuing construction delays, the date may be pushed back yet again. Although many retailers are pinched by the recession, those offering good deals are attracting customers and succeeding, retail analyst Walter Loeb said. "I think there is going to be a real effort to get people to come down to the area and revitalize it," he said. (Newsday)

Smaller Neighborhood Nonprofits Suffering - Feb 14, 2002
Small neighborhood nonprofits, which provide much of the social service and community development in the city, are struggling, even as the economy gets worse and demand for their services rises. Philanthropic giving rose sharply after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, but most of the money went to big, name-brand nonprofit organizations. A combination of decreased government contracts, lower-than-expected foundation grants, and diminishing fees resulting from fewer customers has hurt these service-oriented nonprofits. (New York Times)

Controller's Report Shows Negative Impact of Attacks on Economy - Feb 13, 2002
A report from Controller William Thompson paints a bleak picture of the effects of September 11 on the city's economy. The gross city product, which measures all economic activity, shrank 4.4% in the fourth quarter, while the nation showed a surprising overall growth of 0.2% in the same period. "Although New York City's economy began to show signs of weakness in the second quarter of 2001, the recession has deepened as a result of the World Trade Center attack," city Controller William Thompson said. (New York Daily News)

$700 Million Federal Aid Downtown: A Visual Aid - Feb 12, 2002
The Daily News takes a look at the recent $700 million grant to the city for downtown businesses with a breakdown of the aid offered by the federal government and a map of the area covering eligible businesses. (New York Daily News)

Hard Times for Small Businesses Downtown - Feb 12, 2002
According to a survey by the Downtown Alliance, one in five retail businesses in the disaster area could not pay its rent last month. A slightly larger number - 22% - have been making partial rent payments since Sept. 11. Two recovery centers in lower Manhattan are accepting applications for federal aid. Of the $700 million approved to rebuild the area, $396 million is set aside for small business loans and grants, and $250 million is available to get business to stay in the area or move there. Another $558 million will be available soon. (New York Daily News)

Century 21, Popular Discount Clothing Story, To Reopen Soon - Feb 10, 2002
Century 21, the popular discount clothing store located across the street from the World Trade Center, has been cleared of dust and other debris and is ready to open later this month. While the owners declined to name an official opening date, citing concerns that construction might cause delays, the store's tawny wood-paneled walls and marble floors have been polished and sandblasted to a sheen, its fabled third floor of European designer fashions refurbished and already stocked with pristine merchandise, most of it fresh off the spring 2002 runways. (New York Times)

Bush Reaffirms $20 Billion Pledge in NYC Visit - Feb 7, 2002
President Bush flew into New York yesterday and declared that he would stand by his pledge to provide the city with at least $20 billion to help rebuild from last summer's terrorist attacks, moving to dispel doubts raised by Democrats about the depth of the White House's commitment to help New York recover. Bush also announced that he supported a proposal to create $5 billion in tax credits in downtown Manhattan to stop businesses from fleeing the area. "When I say $20 billion, I mean $20 billion," said Bush. (New York Times)

Bush's Budget Reduces Federal Aid, Lawmakers Say - Feb 5, 2002
In his recent budget proposal to Congress, President Bush revealed that he will be including the $5 billion to be paid out to the relatives of the World Trade Center victims as part of the $20 billion aid package he pledged to New York City last fall. New York Congressional representatives are angered over what they see as a shortchanging of relief aid promised by the President, saying that the distribution of the federal compensation fund for relatives of victims was never intended as part of the $20 billion in federal aid. The city has received $11 billion from the federal government so far, and lawmakers anticipated receiving another $9 billion. (New York Post)

Feds Approve $700 Million Grant to Help Rebuild Lower Manhattan - Feb 3, 2002
The Bush administration said today that it had approved a $700 million grant for New York State to help rebuild Lower Manhattan, create jobs and revive businesses devastated by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The secretary of housing and urban development, Mel Martinez, said the money would be released next week, after Congress reviews the spending plan. The money is being provided through the Community Development Block Grant program. Of the $700 million, $396 million is earmarked for loans and grants to small businesses. The next largest portion, $250 million, is to provide incentives for companies to stay in Lower Manhattan or relocate there. (New York Times)

Many Obstacles To Recovery for Businesses Downtown - Feb 3, 2002
Small businesses downtown are finding that location and luck are integral to determining their own success after the collapse of the World Trade Center. These businesses are facing huge hurdles on the road to recovery: decreased foot traffic, damaged transportation lines, unhelpful insurance companies, physical or structural damage, and simply location near ground zero. (New York Times)

Seeking Safety, Manhattan Firms are Scattering - Jan 29, 2002
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Company, Marsh & McLennan and a slew of other companies have recently completed deals for office space outside of Manhattan that will allow them to disperse their operations. These are only the latest developments in a corporate world in which dispersing workers and the "corporate diaspora" became the order of the day after the attack on the World Trade Center in September.Companies are looking at Long Island City, other parts of Queens, Brooklyn, and the suburbs. M. Meyers Mermel, chief executives of Tenantwise.com, a real estate company, estimates that 23,000 jobs went to the suburbs from downtown after Sept. 11 and that another 144,000 jobs are in jeopardy in a second wave of departures. (New York Times)

Thousands Turn Out For Fourth Twin Towers Job Fair - Jan 29, 2002
Hundreds of prospective employers met Tuesday with thousands of New Yorkers who lost their jobs in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Twin Towers Job Expo is the city's fourth job fair since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and the line to get in began forming before dawn. The last three job fairs were held at Madison Square Garden, but so many people showed up, applicants had to be turned away. The Javits Center provides more space for the thousands of people who turned out today. For more information, go to www.twintowersjobs.org. (NY1)

Pataki Asks to Oversee 9/11 Aid - Jan 26, 2002
Gov. George E. Pataki has asked the State Legislature to give him the authority to oversee about $10 billion worth of federal aid that he expects to flow to the state to repair the damage done by terrorists, but legislative leaders are balking at the governor's request. While most of the money is yet to arrive in Albany, once it arrives, the governor may not spend it without legislative approval. The legislature wishes to see detailed plans for the use of the $10 billion before granting its approval. While $6 billion of the aid is Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursements for cleanup downtown, over $3 billion of the aid is in the form of block grants for economic development and housing, the use of which is much more open to debate. (New York Times)

Bush Repledged $20 Billion to Aid City, Official Says - Jan 25, 2002
According to John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, President Bush renewed his pledge to send the city $20 billion in federal aid. Mr. Whitehead said that he met with the president earlier this month, and reported that President Bush said, "As you need it, we will provide it.'" (New York Times)

Idled Workers to Protest At Marriott - Jan 16, 2002
Marriot workers from the Marriott World Trade Center who were laid off a month after the attacks are expected to protest in front of the midtown Marriot Marquis today. They are angry about not given priority to work at other Marriott locations as well as a lack of financial compensation from the company after September 11. (New York Daily News)

Job Loss from September 11 To Impact For Years - Jan 11, 2002
A study released Friday predicts the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will reverberate through the U.S. economy for years, wiping out more than 1.6 million jobs in 2002 alone. The losses will hit cities with exposure to the tourism and airline sectors hardest, but will also spread across a wide range of industries, from dining to financial services, according to the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based economic think-tank. New York City will lose nearly 150,000 jobs in 2002, followed by Los Angeles with 69,000 jobs, and Chicago with at least 68,000 jobs. Already, 248,000 jobs have been lost nationwide because of the attacks, the institute said. (Newsday)

Financial Center Marriott Reopens - Jan 7, 2002
Declaring New York City open for business, Mayor Michael Bloomberg snipped a red, white and blue ribbon in the lobby of the Marriott Financial Center yesterday as dozens of hotel workers applauded the reopening of the first downtown hotel since Sept. 11. The terror attacks on the Twin Towers left the 504-room hotel on West Street covered in layers of dust and debris, and it also sustained water damage. The hotel plans to open just 125 rooms. (Newsday)

Wall Street Biz Group’S Mission: Rescue Downtrodden Downtown - Jan 6, 2002
Wall Street Rising, a new nonprofit business group that formed after Sept. 11, hopes to drum up downtown shopping, dining and tourism - as visitors stream into the area to mourn and pay their respects. The group is launching a Wall Street Rising discount card offering price reductions at local shops and restaurants. It's also planning a Wall Street Weeknights dinner program, with restaurants offering $30 "I love New York" menus. (New York Post)

Small Businesses Benefiting Downtown, Report Says - Jan 1, 2002
More than nine months after the attack on the World Trade Center, economic recovery grants totaling $292 million have been made to thousands of Lower Manhattan businesses. 75 percent of the economic aid distributed so far has gone to some 11,700 small businesses that employ an average of 10 people. (Independent Budget Office)

The New York State Action Plan - Dec 27, 2001
The plan for spending the federal aid money (the 11-page plan available online in pdf format) calls for raising the cap in aid to retailers and other small businesses from $10,000 to $100,000; those businesses that suffered actual property damage would get up to $200,000. (Crain's New York Business)

Schumer & Hil: Aid Coming - Dec 24, 2001
Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton assured small business owners, displaced workers and people who live near Ground Zero yesterday that billions of dollars of help is on the way.The senators told how the $10.9 billion in federal aid promised to New York would be spent. Although nearly $6.4 billion will cover cleanup costs, $4.6 billion will go directly to small businesses, nonprofits and other groups struggling to stay afloat since the disaster, the senators said. Of the $4.6 billion, $2.7 billion has been earmarked as grants for downtown residents and businesses. An additional $140 million will go to lower Manhattan hospitals. The rest will go toward transportation projects, job training for displaced workers and other programs. Schumer and Clinton pledged to continue pressing Washington for more help. (New York Daily News)

Deal May Land City 11B - Dec 18, 2001
The Senate and House were near a deal last night that would give New York City more than $11 billion this year to cope with the World Trade Center attack. (New York Daily News)

Rudy Thrown for Loss - Dec 13, 2001
A 65-page study of the Far West Side predicts that the area from Eighth
Avenue to the Hudson River and between 24th and 42nd Streets could become another midtown within 20 years. To accomplish this, the study, which was released by the mayor, proposes zoning and transportation improvements, including extending the Number 7 subway line west of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. This would encourage the building of ommercial districts, manufacturing and apartments in the area. The report also called for an improved waterfront and green space connected to the planned Hudson River Park. (New York Daily News)

Exchange Says It Has Trading Floor in Waiting - Dec 12, 2001
The New York Stock Exchange said yesterday that it had a fully equipped alternative trading floor ready to go somewhere in New York City should a disaster like the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center render its current building unusable. (New York Times)

Back to work - Dec 11, 2001
Many of the banks and stockbrokers that lost their offices at the World
Trade Center moved to other locations in the city, notably the Midtown area. Whether they return to Lower Manhattan is an open question. There were already signs of a recession before September 11.According to one estimate, the district has lost 100,000 jobs, half of them from the World Trade Center. Warren Wechsler, of the Real Estate Board of New York, believes that the state of the economy will determine how quickly Lower Manhattan recovers. (BBC News)

Downtown small business struggling - Dec 10, 2001
Downtown small businesses struggling in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks will have to jump through fewer hoops to get financial relief from New York City. Small companies doing business in a larger swath of lower Manhattan will now be eligible for financial grants - a change from prior rules. Originally, grants were only doled out to proprietors near Ground Zero. At the same time, businesses that operated in the World Trade Center itself can bypass the eligibility requirement that they first apply for a government-backed emergency loan. (Dow Jones)

Senate Rejects $17 Billion Bill to Aid the City - Dec 8, 2001
Backed by a veto threat from President Bush, Senate Republicans on Friday killed a Democratic plan to provide $17 billion of aid to New York, along with a similar amount of money for various domestic programs to combat terrorism.

The vote was a political victory for Mr. Bush and a major setback for Senate Democrats, who had tried to provide more money than the president sought for New York and for antiterrorism activities.

The Senate vote was 50 to 50. Sixty votes were needed to approve the Democratic plan, because it called for spending in excess of limits previously set by Congress.

Democrats had said the $17 billion in their plan, combined with $3 billion already spent in aid to New York, would fulfill a federal promise made to the state in the week after the attack on the World Trade Center.

The New York senators, Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both Democrats, said they now expected that the state would receive $9.5 billion under a compromise devised as an alternative to the $17 billion proposal. The $9.5 billion of aid to New York envisioned under the Senate compromise includes $5.8 billion to remove debris and repair public works at the site of the World Trade Center; $2 billion for community development grants; $140 million to reimburse New York hospitals; and $10 million for mental health services to children in New York. (New York Times)

NYSE’s Chairman Unplugs His Plans For a New Exchange - Dec 3, 2001
Richard Grasso, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, has essentially abandoned his idea of constructing a 900-foot skyscraper over the new stock exchange to help defray the costs of the project. Instead, Grasso is reportedly considering abandoning the location at 33 Wall Street in favor of the World Trade Center site. This would be a major setback for the Giuliani administration which has committed the city to buying property at 33 Wall. A $950 million bond deal to finance the project has been postponed indefinitely. (New York Observer)

New NYSE Plan Looks Less Lofty - Dec 3, 2001
City officials expect to go ahead with a new $1.1 billion building for the New York Stock Exchange, but a grand vision - which included a 900-foot skyscraper - will likely be scaled down. "The New York Stock Exchange and the city are going to revise that plan. I'm very confident that the stock exchange will remain [in the same area]," Mayor Giuliani said yesterday. (New York Post)

House Panel Boss Backs $6B in City Aid - Nov 30, 2001
Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, has endorsed a $6.1 billion stimulus plan for lower Manhattan drafted with Governor Pataki, boosting chances that some Sept. 11 tax relief will be enacted for the city this year. (New York Daily News)

The Power of Partnership - Nov 29, 2001
The New York City Partnership, a group of civic-minded business leaders has put together a study the size of two phone books that recommends ways to support Wall Street right now, in its time of need, while building a more nimble and diverse economy for the future. The Partnership is lobbying to ensure Congress signs over the $20 billion George Bush promised New York in the wake of the attack, plus a $5 billion package of tax breaks for lower Manhattan. recommendations -- a swift rebuilding of downtown's infrastructure, incentives for corporate retention, bailouts for small businesses, a life raft for retail during the holiday season. (New York Magazine)

Billions at Risk as New York Makes Missteps - Nov 20, 2001
New York has fallen far down Washington's list of priorities since September 11 and as a result could lose billions of dollars in aid. Some of the reasons for this are beyond New York's control, but members of Congress from both parties says New York officials bear part of the blame. Federal, state and city officials from New York have seemed to have different agendas, and it has been difficult to determine who really speaks for the city. As a result, many observers are skeptical that New York will ever get all of the $20 billion it was promised by President Bush after the attacks.
(New York Times)