The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 53

A judge has told the families of some 9/11 victims and NYC to try and reach a compromise. The families had been seeking to remove more than half million tons of debris from the Fresh Kills landfill where WTC debris was transported from the site for months following the terrorist attacks. The families had been complaining that the site disrespected the memories of those lost since it was on top of a garbage dump.

His comments came amid a lawsuit by a group called WTC Families for Proper Burial, which represents relatives of more than 1,100 victims and is seeking to force the city to move up to half a million tons of debris out of the former dump.

Hellerstein acknowledged the families were "deprived not only of their loved ones, but the opportunity in a substantial way to grieve." Still, he suggested a memorial would be more realistic than unearthing all the debris.

He said the families should think "symbolically" and consider moving only a "part of what was a landfill and now is more hallowed ground" to another site.

The 9/11 families' lawyer, Norman Siegal, and lawyers for the city told the judge they wanted to work together and report back with potential solutions Dec. 8.

The NY Daily News is also covering the story.

We'll be watching as there is no way that all that debris could be relocated to some other suitable site, not to mention the significant costs associated with any move. A compromise agreement is going to need to be worked out since there really isn't any feasible way to deal with this, unless those families are going to press for turning the entire WTC site into a memorial and thwart any further work at Ground Zero whatsoever.

The debris had been carted to the Fresh Kills landfill since it was the only area within a short distance of the WTC site that was capable of handling the nearly 2 million tons of debris that was removed from Ground Zero and sorted to find remains and remnants and personal belongings of those killed, wounded, or survived the terrorist attacks. A group of firefighters, police, and other rescue personnel spent months sorting through the debris day and night to try and bring closure to those families who never saw their loved ones again.

The Fresh Kills site has been scheduled to be turned into a park and the area where the WTC debris was situated is slated to become a memorial park.

Gov. Pataki is urging that a second Ground Zero office tower be commenced. This would be in addition to the Freedom Tower that is supposed to start construction next year and 7WTC that is nearly ready for occupancy. There's no word on the design or any details, but this news comes as no surprise as the issue of Liberty Bonds is at the heart of the matter. Those bonds are central to the reconstruction efforts, but only a fraction has been used thus far for downtown.

Meanwhile, in what should be a cautionary tale for rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast, nearly 20% of loans to businesses affected by the 9/11 terror attacks have fallen into default.

The SBA directly lent $1.2 billion to more than 10,000 companies that made specific arguments about how their businesses were hurt by the 9/11 suicide hijackings, which destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.

Of that amount, $245 million is in default, the records show. The SBA investigators consider a loan in default if it has been charged off or liquidated or is more than 60 days delinquent.

SBA officials say they have written off less than $10 million of the default total and will make strong efforts to recover much of the rest of the money by collecting collateral, negotiating settlements with borrowers, or bringing delinquent loans up to date.

The $245 million "does not represent the actual loss to the government, which, because of settlements and recoveries on collateral, will be less than this amount," SBA spokesman Michael Stamler said.

Among the loans already written off, taxpayers are picking up the tab for a $992,000 loan made to an Atlanta hotel; $986,000 to a Florida boat dealer; $620,000 to a Maine broccoli farm; and $38,900 to a Lubbock, Texas, computer store.

There's no word in the article as to how many of these businesses are actually located in the NYC Metro area, but it clearly is meant to highlight businesses that may only remotely be related to NYC or the terrorist attacks. This would suggest tighter rules for providing loans to businesses claiming to be affected by terrorist attacks or natural disasters.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.