Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 16:29:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein
Subject: WTC Rebuilding #127:Rally Planning,Competition Considerations,More


Last Thursday,the living memory of the General Slocum disaster came
to an end with the death of 109-year-old Catherine Uhlmeyer Gallagher
Connelly.She had been an 11-year-old girl when she survived the fire
and sinking that killed hundreds of children,and over a thousand all
told.The only other living survivor was an infant at the time.

When was the time,you may wonder...but I am sure that June 15th 1904
was considered a date that would be meaningful forever right after the
ship sank in the East River.(Given the much older demographics of the
persons in the Towers on September 11th 2001,only advancing life
expectancies can allow for the living memory to last as long as that
of the General Slocum sinking).

As has been mentioned before,the memorials built to the General
Slocum (principally Tompkins Square Park) became forgotten by the
great bulk of people as years went by.The "Little Germany" neighborhood
the Slocum's passengers came from lost its character completely.
It was only from reading Mrs. Connelly's obituary that I learned
that there was still a General Slocum Memorial Association.

We can not assume that extravagant memorials will continue to be
the focus of the intense emotion that overwhelmed the city after
both June 15th 1904 and September 11th 2001.It is not impossible...
people care about the ship that sank April 15th 1912,but that is
in large part due to Walter Lord's rescuing it from obscurity
decades afterward with his book A NIGHT TO REMEMBER.

(Robert Young and I had a short exchange on the memorability of
the Slocum and WTC disasters,he noted that the WTC attacks had
the historical-significance advantage of being acts of war...
but we don't see near as much attention to the sinking of the
Lusitania as of the Titanic,and the Titanic MEMORIALS built in
New York are on only a few people's top-tourist-attraction lists).

We can hope that the Financial District will survive as such,
if the WTC rebuilding properly reflects that heritage...and in
fact a vibrant Financial District will keep the memories of those
Financial District workers alive,where the evisceration of Little
Germany let the Slocum victims fade into obscurity.(I note however
that decentralization-obsessed US bureaucrats are demanding that
financial institutions widely disperse their employees...this is
an attack on the very idea of the city of New York,and Pataki only
woke up to it after the banking department that he appoints the
leaders of helped draw up the plan).

I was at a political dinner last night and chose to bring along my
WTC petitions,though not to actively seek signatures...I did get a
few.The sheriff of my county(the candidate of all major parties in
the last election but widely known to be a conservative Republican),
a former county Democratic chairwoman,and a former candidate for
supervisor of my town (as an enrolled Republican,he was the Democratic
nominee against a Republican).Support for tall towers crosses all
party lines!

Laurence Koppe has been asking on the NYSTC board about any official
Catholic Church position on rebuilding...I will mention again the
example I have referred to repeatedly...St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
(a 16th century rebuilding of a smaller structure) was deliberately
constructed on the sites of both the crucifixion and burial of St.
Peter.It is far from alone in being built on the site of a martyrdom.
Also,burial beneath cathedrals in their crypts is certainly considered
prestigious (more so than an open cemetery) in various Christian
denominations.

Of course,a man of religion who gave his life for religion is logically
honored by the site of his death becoming a building for religion...
those who gave their lives to,and were killed for engaging in,commercial
and financial enterprise should be similarly honored by a building
dedicated to their lives' pursuits.

Koppe has sought out dialogue with Jonathan Ehrlich,whose wife was
killed in the attacks,and made some posts on the Gotham Gazette board
months ago...no response from Ehrlich yet.He did not respond to the
responses to his GG posts.

Also on that board(the site says it is copyright by NYSTC though
whether those controlling it are legally NYSTC has yet to be
established in the ongoing disputes):

When asked for arguments for putting back the exact same Towers,
"savethewtc" made quite a number,but included one I find quite
incomprehensible...that the Twins "put New York on the map" and
"made" it the skyscraper capital of the world.New York achieved
that status in the 1890s,when it began its uninterrupted-until-1974
sequence of World's Tallest Buildings,and frankly its zenith as
such was in the 1930s,when five buildings,each much taller than
any anywhere else in the world,went up in quick succession.

For decades after that,the Terminal Tower in Cleveland
was tallest building outside New York,at over 500 feet
shorter than the tallest IN New York.No city had more than
a handful of buildings that could compare with any of many
in New York...such dominance has not been maintained,the
Twins just resumed the upward momentum of New York's tallest
point after a lapse of decades,and I HOPE not for the last time!

He also says that the focus of efforts for people with his
frame of mind is Silverstein...honestly,I think Silverstein
will not build the tall towers we want unless he is prevented
from building what he says he does want...phased construction
of five buildings averaging substantially smaller than the Twins.
He wants what will make him the most money...regardless of the
symbolic implications of building shorter.The technical requirements
of his repairing lease nominally say he has to build just what was
there before...but there is willingness to tear that up on all sides.

(Likewise,I despair sometimes of Tal Barzilai's reiterations that
the Port Authority can do whatever it wants.If the Governors are
persuaded to knuckle to the family-activists and direct their PA
appointees to approve nothing but empty footprints surrounded by
ornamental hedges spelling out LOOK WHAT OSAMA DID,that's what
will get built).

Niteowl has expressed puzzling cheerfulness about the Phase II
proposals being better than the six Phase I botches...reading
the official program requirements has made pretty clear that
only worse plans will be accepted.The two features that ensured
the failure of the Phase I plans (phased construction and the
complete restoration of Greenwich Street) have been turned into
explicit requirements.

Phased construction means you can't have too much office space
built at once (i.e. as one building)...complete restoration of
Greenwich Street (and Fulton too,though that would not be lethal
by itself) means the site is divided into a wide western wedge
certain to be claimed by memorialists and a narrow eastern one
on which any buildings will look crowded.

I expect that the new plans may be more stylish,given the
determination to draw on more minds...but they will likely
not offer any more building height than was offered before.
I know that "tall" buildings are being considered,but that
doesn't necessarily mean no shorter than before.

"So Long Astoria" has made a welcome return to the NYCS board...
as he escaped the attacks from one tower while his uncle in the
other tower did not,and wants the Towers back and doesn't care
about the footprints,he would be a VERY good interview subject
or rally speaker for our cause!I have asked him to attend or speak
at the November 2nd rally,and he might be able to be there,if
something else he was going to do is postponed.

Meanwhile the CBS "Ground Zero" message board seems to have
become unavailable in the last couple of days.It was the source
of hundreds of addresses as this email list built (I was conservative,
not taking those who simply said "Rebuild" without making clear they
did not think building shorter qualified) and it would be sorry to
see it go.And the Gotham Gazette board,though it notes the last
dates someone TRIED to post to each topic,has not accepted and
placed on the web any message for weeks now.

Other issues...vote.com has been suggested as a venue for a poll
we would like to conduct,though they decide what questions to ask
and only take single YES or NO questions (with little explanations
of arguments for the YES and NO positions).

The question we'd like to ask (wording suggestions welcome) is,
"Would you be more likely to visit the World Trade Center site in
the future if its redevelopment included towers at least as tall
as the old ones,than if it did not?"
I feel confident that YES would win,and discredit the "it's
the memorial that would draw millions!" mantra of the anti-rebuilders.

I'm encouraged by the track record of the previous WTC-related votes
at that site,which have typically seen the pro-rebuilding options
win by 2-1 or better (for example,asked if Pataki was right to rule
out rebuilding on the footprints,the NO vote was 70%).

Now,finally,the issues in the subject line for this email!

The rally plan for November 2nd is proceeding though final approval
has not yet been granted.I'm delighted to report that on Monday Joe
Wright and I were interviewed on the telephone by Edward Wyatt,the
main WTC reporter for the New York Times.He asked to be able to attend
a rally planning meeting,and we will hold one on Thursday evening
(tomorrow) at 7:30 at Gary Taustine's place.As of now it appears that
Jonathan Hakala will again be our main speaker.Other "campaign"
issues will also be discussed,such as our plan for an architectural
competition.

This plan has an uphill climb...I have spoken recently to Eli
Attia and to Lance Brown,who he recommended as an adviser on such
matters.Brown thinks a six-figure budget might be needed but I am
hopeful of saving a lot of the typical expenses...the quest for
credibility as well as the tight time frame (he says six months
is more typical) are ways in which this effort differs from the
norm.But of course there are also people out there with already-drawn
plans that meet our criteria,who would just need to add a little more,
and the list of those who applied for the last official opportunity is
also out there.(Don't recall the exact thread on the NYSTC board!).

I hope to see as many of you as possible at the rally on November 2...
I have been getting some emailed promises of attendance.And if not
then...before we meet 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.