Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 22:22:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #112:Perilous Pledge,Architects Sorted... A news story on a transportation design concept at http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57353.htm carries the disturbing aside that Port Authority Executive Director Joseph Seymour (is he jseymour@panynj.gov?) has "pledged" in response to footprint-fanatic self-appointed family spokespeople to reroute the pedestrian passage to the ferry terminal from the sensible,central location in line with Dey Street to the north-end route along Fulton Street. As many of you have seen in past emails,I've been recommending Fulton Street as a route of a water-to-water streetcar line crossing West Street on a bridge with pedestrian lanes...I think this would add more functionality to the whole transportation setup.I dare say that modern light rail is more convenient to the disabled than pure pedestrian passages. Now,there are two angles that can be taken on this. Should Seymour be taken to task for knuckling to a demand that puts the pedestrian passage in a less useful place that complicates the potential for the streetcar line, or should the streetcar line be promoted as a more effective use of the family-claim-friendly route, even as we keep campaigning for new towers south of it? A problem we have in dealing with both the PA and Lower Manhattan people is that we're not a recognized constituency like the "civic groups" and the family groups...not sure what angle can be pursued in getting them to meet with us and acknowledge our concerns. http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57327.htm reports a report commissioned by Whitehead's people from McKinsey to add ammunition for pro-downsizing arguments.They claim downtown employment will never recover.This is still wildly at variance with the report last year that there was a critical longterm office space shortage,and huge amounts of state of the art office space would NOT go unused,even if their tenants vacated other less desirable downtown space! http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57442.htm reports that the panel of advisors Whitehead's people have convened have already pruned the 400 or so Requests For Qualifications they have received down to 50,and expect to have the number below 20 by tomorrow and the final five by the end of the month. I have emailed two members of the panel for whom I found email addresses,pointing to my commentary page at http://www.put.com/wtc/comments.html for my views. Not sure if this will have any effect but it shouldn't hurt. The RFQ document the architects were required to respond to has already been revised twice according to Reconstruction Report...I gather Eli Attia,still pushing for the whole-site open competition he wants,was not among those who made submissions of their qualifications,but 96-year-old Philip Johnson was. Crudele's build-nothing blast in the Post has attracted 3-1 opposition in printed letters to the editor,as http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/57355.htm shows.He has sent blinkered one-line retorts to a few people who have emailed him at jcrudele@nypost.com (claiming that most respondents were on his side)...by all means send him pro-rebuilding letters. My local newspaper the Putnam County Courier once again made my pro-rebuilding letter the leadoff in its Letters to the Editor section (not reproduced on the web).I mentioned the WTCRM resource page at http://www.put.com/wtc/ and the plan for an October rally...but despite expectations we have yet to hear back on the rally permit! The One Liberty incident where family group people upstairs got building management to ask us to leave has now been mentioned on the NYCS board...I would have preferred that this not be discussed on a public forum until after the weekday managers gave us a final decision after the weekend dispute,but I would have expected this to happen by now. To clarify,I consider the claim that the objecting family members "lived" upstairs to be a falsehood...not that they are in fact illegally living in that non-residential building. That these people still need to look at the empty pit long after there are no longer recovery operations to look at indicates that they are among the most emotionally traumatized and disconnected-from-reality among the family members. Depending on what way this finally comes down,we'll react accordingly. I expect to be back there Saturday morning...don't know yet which side of the street...I hope Joe can find out the decision. No report yet from tonight's peition-volunteers meeting at Gary Taustine's...again,anyone who wants to join the efforts please contact me! And everyone at some distance from NY should still send pro-tower-rebuilding comments to the addresses given last time for the site plan commentaries...the deadline is the 30th! The NY Soaring Towers Coalition has,after I noted the potential for twisting by Whitehead's spin doctors, revised its principles to ensure that it is understood to advocate full functional,not just ornamental,height being reclaimed by the site.They are also instituting new rules on their message boards...not as restrictive as the Team Twin Towers rule against any board postings, but they provide that only officials of the group speaking for the group may mention the group in what they write; members not speaking for the group may not mention their membership,and officials speaking as individuals are to obscure their identities. I note that Downtown Express (linked at the WTCRM page) posted an article definitely acknowledging the strong pro-Towers sentiment at the September 5th hearing...of course,the news site linked to from the renewnyc.org site is the wilfully-blind lowermanhattan.info site! Another site with submissions and polls among its news that I don't think I've mentioned before: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/articles/wtc/towers/ The http://www.pbs.org/americarebuilds/dialogue/ site continues to claim that essays "will be posted on September 17" but they haven't been yet.Anyone who hasn't submitted a pro-rebuilding essay or taken their poll...please do as long as they're open! See you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11! -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.