Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 00:33:40 -0500 (EST) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #398:Coscia Vs. Silverstein,Daily News Wrong Again, Doctoroff and Gargano Face Off First off... WHERE IS THE DECEMBER 8 HEARING ON LIBERTY BONDS FOR SILVERSTEIN GOING TO BE HELD?? I have not seen the specifics and desperately want to find out!!! Does anyone know? The Memorial foundation has signed up major ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day to creat a campaign to raise money for the official memorial plans... not wasting public money for once,because the agency agreed to do it for nothing! Obviously,they need to be told that their "civic gesture" of volunteering on behalf of plans we hate is NOT appreciated...they'd even have to be across town from those gaping wounds!...their address is 180 Maiden Lane, New York,New York 10005,and their parent company is Omnicom Group,of 437 Madison Avenue. Peter Walukiewicz alerted me to an article on new appointments to the "Leave Manhattan Destroyed Committee": http://nydailynews.com/news/local/story/366513p-311990c.html Now,we know Pataki and Bloomberg have been bad news for the rebuilding process,and their putting in key point men just escalates this. Doctoroff is the man who said early on there was "zero chance" of new Towers and Gargano is Pataki's main man at the Port Authority board (Vice Chairman) as well as head of the Empire State Development Corporation [technically,legally named New York State Urban Development Corporation] under whose wing the whole Lower Manhattan operation fits. (He would have been one of the first out the door in 2002 if McCall had beaten Pataki,and will be out when Pataki leaves next year...but he wants to blight us for generations with his legacy at the WTC site). Shortly after these appointments the NY Post ran a story saying Pataki and Bloomberg personally had a "huddle" about what their appointees would be doing,as Bloomberg pledged to make sure the distinctive character of the Financial District was destroyed (of course he didn't put it like that,but it's the same old condemning of there being a place in the city that falls quiet after business hours...wait until the breakneck population growth they are recklessly fanning collapses because that character is precisely why people want to move there!!) Shortly thereafter,the Port Authority (Gargano is vice chairman, remember) started a bid to block the memorial foundation's construction planning by announcing its own plans and wanting to take over the contractor selection...the Post quoted someone as saying this "kills the fund-raising" for the Memorial for now,and we say,good!! The NY Times had a story I haven't seen; http://nydailynews.com/11-19-2005/news/story/367048p-312447c.html focuses on the PA's retail plans and talks of sidelining Silverstein. http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/54130 has more quotes from PA chairman Anthony Coscia (he spoke to them as well as the Daily News) seeming to want his own legacy of knuckling to short-term market forces.Of course,will Coscia last as PA Chairman once Governor-elect Corzine takes office in New Jersey in a month and a half? http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_323124619.html (an Associated Press story taken by many sources) casts Gargano and Doctoroff on opposing sides...these plans are a salvo by Pataki's people against Bloomberg's to some extent.Doctoroff didn't like the view of the (hideous) memorial being blocked by the PA's suggestions, of course what we don't like is the continued effort to change the character of the site. A Daily News editorial http://nydailynews.com/11-20-2005/news/story/367217p-312592c.html is wrongheaded,encouraging worse,short-term-minded,nothing-like-old plans and invoking the market excuse again...WRITE! (voicers@edit.nydailynews.com and you must supply postal address and phone number,which they do not print...they prefer very short letters...the more times you take the time to make your voice heard the more effectively we fight!) Robert Yaro of the RPA and Civic Alliance is getting his anti-commercial, pro-radical-departure voice heard in the papers all the time and we MUST keep counteracting to remind the media what most people's priorities REALLY are! Today's NY Times Magazine has a centerfold ad for office space in 7 WTC announcing its opening as March 2006 and giving a website http://www.wtc.com/7 (actually a redirect).Perhaps most annoying from the standpoint of the carve-up-the-site crowd is use of the address "250 Greenwich Street" for the building. Letters critical of the proposed dog ban at the memorial have been printed: http://nydailynews.com/11-19-2005/news/ideas_opinions/story/367034p-312437c.html Joy Goldberg is planning a holiday party,mainly for rebuilders and their friends,on DECEMBER 11 at 5 PM at a 96th Street restaurant... if that day's clear for you, and you're interested,please get back to me ASAP. 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.