The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 83

Eliot Spitzer v. John Whitehead threatens the long term rebuilding prospects at Ground Zero. Spitzer appears to be the frontrunner to be the next Governor, which means that Whitehead would likely be tossed aside by the next administration in New York.

The problem is that Spitzer may have committed a crime by personally threatening Whitehead. The details are murky and have a he-said, he-said milieu to them, but Steve Cuozzo notes what this means for Downtown:

Spitzer's reported threatening of John Whitehead, the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., has been properly denounced as an unconscionable attack on a man of unquestioned personal integrity. But much more is at stake: the future of Downtown, whose destiny would fall largely into Spitzer's hands should he succeed Gov. Pataki in office.

In contrast to the spent and demoralized Pataki administration, the next governor will be itching to get a grip on the stalled redevelopment agenda. He might or might not buy into Pataki's master plan, his commitment to leaseholder Larry Silverstein, or even to the Freedom Tower or memorial.

By denying Whitehead's painfully plausible account of a phone conversation last spring, Spitzer has, in effect, called the central public figure in Downtown redevelopment for the past four years a liar.

Whitehead has been the one constant at the LMDC over the past four years. Many other leaders have come and gone, including Kevin Rampe and even Daniel Libeskind himself, but Whitehead has been through the ringer and still managed to keep the LMDC plugging along.

A contractor is being sought for the first stage of the memorial construction - to pour the foundations. Take Back The Memorial (TBTM) isn't happy with the situation, given that the size and scope of the memorial continues to be downsized. It only recently came to light that the memorial fountains will not operate year round because of issues with the water freezing. The memorial planners didn't anticipate the costs of running the system year round with heated water, so they've scaled back the water feature to be used only during warm weather. So TBTM went with an op-ed in the NY Daily News, which garnered some interesting responses. Money is an obvious factor in the design and construction, but issues that were apparently worked out previously are now being reevaluated and deemed unworkable. More is going on behind the scenes than meets the eye.

Meanwhile, someone finally realized that counter-terror aid should be distributed according to need, not on a per-capita basis or due to political connections. New York City will definitely benefit from this decision as will those designated municipalities as long as they make the list for two consecutive years.

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