The Battle for Ground Zero, Part 196

The long awaited demolition day has come. The beginning of the deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank tower is scheduled to begin today. The building is being dismantled in pieces because of the fear of toxic debris and possible findings of additional remains. The whole process is explained at the LMDC website in a handy dandy video. Gothamist has more.

The "temporary" Rector Street bridge across West Street will remain for at least another decade. The bridge replaces one of the spans that was destroyed on 9/11.

Meanwhile parishioners of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church are still waiting to learn where the church will be built. The congregation just celebrated its 90th anniversary. It was destroyed on 9/11 by the collapsing towers that devastated the Deutsche Bank building next door.

The incoming Senate chair of the Environmental Protection Committee has pledged that she will support programs to assist sick Ground Zero workers.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, in a wide-ranging discussion as she prepares to become chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee next month, told The Associated Press that sick ground zero workers deserve long-term care.

"We are taking care of the families who lost loved ones and nobody complains about that," Boxer told the AP. "Why wouldn't we take care of the people who are surviving and coughing and sick — and dying, I might add — as a result of their work? To me it's clear, I don't have any hesitation about what our obligation is."

Boxer's declaration is a big boost to sick workers and New York lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Clinton and Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, who have cajoled the Republican Congress and the Bush administration for years to do more for those who toiled on the toxic debris pile.

It was Schumer and Clinton's job to get more aid for those workers - and I would hope that they continue to do that job. If this makes it easier for those workers to get the medical care they need, so be it.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the government spent $90 million (€67.51 million) on health monitoring programs and this year spent an additional $75 million (€56.26 million) — the first federal dollars specifically for treatment. Health experts estimate that funding could run out in about a year.

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