The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 193

The MTA is considering scrapping a key component of the Fulton Transit Hub - a $15 million connector between the subway system and the PATH transit hub being built at Ground Zero. Pennywise and pound foolish. The MTA was concerned that rising costs would torpedo the project, so they were going to scrap this part of the plan. As it is, the MTA has been scaling back the project ever since it was announced. Cuozzo slams the MTA for its shortsightedness. The MTA has completely botched the development, and has turned Fulton Street into a mess in the process.

Meanwhile, New York City is appealing the federal district court decision denying their motion to dismiss thousands of lawsuits brought against the city and private contractors working for the city during the Ground Zero cleanup. The health and welfare of thousands of workers and billions of dollars are potentially at stake here. The Village Voice has a piece about the health threats posed by the toxic cloud created by the collapsing towers and the fires that burned at Ground Zero for months after the collapse.

To date, 75 recovery workers on or around what is now known as "the Pile"—the rubble that remained after the World Trade Center towers collapsed on the morning of September 11, 2001—have been diagnosed with blood cell cancers that a half-dozen top doctors and epidemiologists have confirmed as having been likely caused by that exposure.

Those 75 cases have come to light in joint-action lawsuits filed against New York City on behalf of at least 8,500 recovery workers who suffer from various forms of lung illnesses and respiratory diseases—and suggest a pattern too distinct to ignore. While some cancers take years, if not decades, to develop, the blood cancers in otherwise healthy and young individuals represent a pattern that experts believe will likely prove to be more than circumstantial. The suits seek to prove that these 8,500 workers—approximately 20 percent of the total estimated recovery force that cleared the rubble from ground zero—all suffer from the debilitating effects of those events.

The basis for the suits stems from the plaintiffs' argument that the government—in a desperate attempt to revive downtown in the wake of the catastrophic events on 9-11—failed to protect workers from cancer-causing benzene, dioxin, and other hazardous chemicals that permeated the air for months. Officials made these failures worse by falsely reassuring New Yorkers that they faced no long-term dangers from exposure to the air lingering over ground zero.

Also, here's an interesting background piece on Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, who are designing skyscrapers at Ground Zero. Not only are both British based architects, but both attended Yale.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center, spitzer, silverstein, mount sinai, respiratory ailment, wtc cough, bloomberg.