Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:48:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #115:RALLY APPROVED;NJ Meeting;Silverstein Ruling,More! LOTS of news to report this time! Most important is the approval being granted for the October 11th WTCRM rally,but to save that for last... A 1965-foot broadcast tower (not self-supporting) that was the tallest structure in Nebraska collapsed and killed two workers who were trying to strengthen it.No word yet if it will be rebuilt,but I very much doubt it will become a memorial site. The New Jersey meeting last night was quite sparsely attended... apparently about three dozen people were there.Team Twin Towers mentions that they got several speakers there,and of them Bill Hough got quoted by the Newark Star-Ledger;the TTT website says some other of their people were interviewed.However,Joe Wright reports that some broadcast news reports last night concentrated on mega-memorialist claims by family members.The most outspoken of these was apparently Diane Horning,who calls the whole site her son's grave.Tal Barzilai has mentioned on web boards that after her quoted remarks he told her of the Israeli experience and attitude of resilience rather than anguished memorialization of death sites...he has not indicated what her reaction to his statement was.(Care to tell us,Tal?) Natasha Sanchez and her mother Helen,who were petition signers on Saturday before last,finally made the pickup of the flyer/sticker "care package" Wednesday but I haven't heard yet if they got the stuff to the hearing.I hope the connection got made. Governor McGreevey attended,and TTT says they managed to introduce themselves to him and hand him their introductory statement.I have yet to hear what NYSTC did there. McGreevey's remarks,however,apparently were noted for a plea to bring excavated dirt back to the site...I'm not sure how much bonafide dirt there was there,between the paved surface and the bedrock foundations. Certainly much of the "hallowed ground" that would be part of a big green memorial would have to be trucked in from somewhere else. This is sort of similar to what I call the "grave mistake"...the effort to put back the remains that have been removed from the site but not identified,to create a "Tomb of the Unknowns".A Post story http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57847.htm refers to the medical examiners apparently seeking to help this effort though I hope they can hold onto the remains and keep doing identifications. Gotham Gazette,incidentally,has been showing disturbing behavior. They have not allowed posting of my remarks that responded to anti-rebuilder Scott Breedlove's call for a tomb-of-the-unknowns type 16-acre memorial,and when I tried to email them the rally for inclusion on their calendar,the box bounced as full.(This is the same rebuilding@gothamgazette.com address used for their chat guest advance questions,and apparently it's not a real address, but an alias that forwards to ggrebuilding@citizensunionfoundation.org). Larry Silverstein has been on the adverse side of a court ruling on the insurance proceeds.Perhaps more of concern to US is that the judge, in agreeing with the first three of many insurance companies that the two plane/tower collisions were a single "occurrence",also declared that public interest in the reconstruction of the WTC is not a valid consideration in the case. According to Reconstruction Report the Independent newspaper of London (they link to its article...find RR among the links at http://www.put.com/wtc/ of course) has done a story on apparent interest by the US Government in buying out Silverstein's lease. Dare we hope that Washington will insist that the Towers rise again? The Whitehead clique have announced that six teams of planners have been chosen...all the details are at http://www.renewnyc.com/press/9-26-02.htm if you want to look. Pataki,Bloomberg,Whitehead,Seymour,and Tomson all ooze applause for the process and its outcome,as does AIA official Rick Bell, the man who called rebuilding the Towers the only bad idea to come out of the Imagine New York project. Included in the press release copy are remarks intended to mollify New York New Visions,which according to RR recently complained about not getting enough say in the process.They certainly have had far more than the grassroots pro-Towers supporters have had! "The creation of a grand promenade on West Street" is among the items cited in the release,which can't please the saveweststreet.com campaigners in the area much. Meanwhile,take another look at http://www.9-11peoplesplan.org/ for some responsiveness to our concerns...not generally a virtue of the above-named planners. Comments for Phase I,remember,will be accepted for FOUR MORE DAYS; the three Phase II plans are now targeted for year-end and the Phase III final proposal for the spring...we must continue to put in our voices at every stage of the process to move the offerings in desired directions. And for our piece de resistance...THE RALLY! Approval finally came through yesterday...10 AM to 2 PM on OCTOBER 11TH (a Friday two weeks from tomorrow,10/11 chosen as a date to reflect moving beyond 9/11).Set-up and take-down of the speaker's platform and any tables will take place just before and after those hours. We do not have a keynote speaker but nominations are welcome. WTCRM is taking the lead on this occasion but TTT and NYSTC are welcome to attend and be recognizd. Once again,we will be on the Broadway sidewalk next to City Hall Park,roughly opposite the Woolworth Building.We will have speakers, flyers,petitions...there will be no financial transactions,which would have made the permit much harder to get. GETTING A LARGE ATTENDANCE IS VITAL...we told the city government we expected a hundred people(this sets the size of the cleanup bond), and surpassing this target would make a much better news story than falling short! I am not sure just how many that sidewalk COULD hold in the permitted area south of Murray Street,but let's fill it with as many warm bodies as possible!...if you want tall towers on the site and CAN be there, DO be there! Our first press release should go out tomorrow,but I've already announced the event on the CBS message board. 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.