The Deutsche Bank Demolition, WTC Rally, and More

It's now after 2PM and the local radio station websites are silent about the progress of the protests. If someone has pictures or video of the protests, plug your links here. You'll probably beat the mainstream news by hours. Where are the quotes to go with stories for the evening news? Surely someone said something important about the proposed IFC. Surely some reporter could report on the crowd size - to say either it was large (and support the idea that the IFC is in trouble because of large opposition) or that it was sparsely attended (to support the idea that it was a fringe group attacking the IFC plans). Alas, there is no report whatsoever.

Oh, and get this - CBS seems to think that it's only one person who thinks that the IFC will have a political slant. The headline reads: One Woman Says Freedom Museum Will Have A Political Slant - as provided in a related link to a story on the rally against the IFC. Sorry, but that doesn't wash. The IFC will have a political slant. No matter which side of this debate that you find yourself on, it will have a slant. Pro-US, Anti-US, whatever. The CBS story makes it seem like Debra Burlingame is the one with the agenda, when it is the IFC's makeup and agenda that has serious issues.

While protestors rally against the IFC at Ground Zero, the slow pace of reconstruction is evident with the lack of progress at either the Fiterman Hall or Deutsche Bank buildings, both of which need to be demolished due to extensive damage and contamination. The Times focuses on the difficulties of the Deutsche Bank demolition due to the contamination, but aren't pushing for the demolition to be sped up.

Deutsche Bank declared the structure a total loss. Two of its insurers, the Allianz Global Risks U.S. Insurance Company and the AXA Corporate Solutions Insurance Company, maintained that it could be cleaned and salvaged. They battled in court.

Under a 2004 settlement, the development corporation acquired the property. Demolition has since been delayed as the scope of needed environmental safeguards and contaminant cleanup has grown. Consultants to the corporation have confirmed that the tower has excessive levels of asbestos, dioxin, lead, silica, quartz, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chromium and manganese.

The corporation is now seeking bids for exterior scaffolding, cleanup and demolition. It expects work to begin this summer. But along with what officials regard as a blight on the Lower Manhattan skyline, the view that Dr. van Inwegen enjoyed from his 35th-floor cubicle - sailboats and liners, tugs and ferries - will also disappear.

"It was great working by the water and thinking of the history of Manhattan: trade, commerce, shipping," he said. "You still got that feel looking out the windows at New York Harbor. That's all gone. A memory."

It will remain a memory unless and until the State - by which I mean Governor Pataki pushes the LMDC and Port Authority to kick things into high gear. These sites need to be cleared so that new buildings can go up. Fiterman Hall is part of CUNY, and that college needs the space desperately. Yet that building is virtually ignored for nearly four years. The Deutsche Bank looms over the morass that is the Ground Zero pit like the monolith from 2001.

Related links:
Kate Fratti seems to think that the IFC is a good idea to be included at the WTC complex, arguing that there is sufficient space for a memorial, footprints, and the IFC. I'd challenge that assessment based on the amount of space actually used for the memorial and footprints versus the amount of space set aside for the IFC. If, based on publicly available materials from the LMDC and news reports are correct, the memorial would be 40,000 sq feet, and each footprint is an acre each (43,560 sq. feet). That puts the total space for the memorial and footprints at 127,120 sq. ft. That's little over 1/3 the space allotted for the IFC.

Does the LMDC really think that the IFC deserves more space than the memorial and footprints? Is that the kind of prioritization the site needs? Is that fair to the families?

Why aren't these questions being asked by the media?

Also, a Google search of IFC and protest turned up no news stories that are more recent than 2 hours ago about the protest.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC