The Battle for Ground Zero, Part 200

As I had warned months ago, Eliot Spitzer is saying that he will take a fresh look at the rebuilding at Ground Zero, although they said that they would go along with the plan to lease 1 million square feet of space at Ground Zero.

Via the NYT:

Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer’s choice to lead the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said yesterday that the Spitzer team would take a “fresh look” at the Freedom Tower project at ground zero.

Mr. Spitzer cautioned that it was premature to say whether plans would change, but the new Port Authority leader, Anthony E. Shorris, said there was little flexibility to make a major overhaul.

The comments came at a news conference where Mr. Spitzer named Mr. Shorris to be executive director of the Port Authority and also tapped 11 others for top jobs in his administration. Half of the appointees are current or former members of Mr. Spitzer’s staff in the attorney general’s office, and others, like Mr. Shorris and Priscilla Almodovar — his choice to be president of the state housing finance agency — have been advisers to the governor-elect.

Mr. Spitzer’s selection of so many people close to him came despite promises made during the campaign that he would look broadly for the best possible talent. He said yesterday that he would make a wide search to fill other top jobs.

Mr. Shorris’s remarks about a top-to-bottom review of the Freedom Tower reflected private comments made recently by some Spitzer advisers. They have vowed to examine everything from the project’s cost and leasing viability to its height, which Gov. George E. Pataki helped set at 1,776 feet.

The Post also has more. Pataki says it would be a tremendous mistake to go back on the plans. Yes, it would also seal the fate of Pataki's botched oversight of the Ground Zero rebuilding process that was more process (and the lack thereof) than actual rebuilding.

People can head to Battery Park City tomorrow to sign the first structural steel to be used on the Freedom Tower. Let's hope that it is not an empty gesture and that the Tower will go forward as planned.

Also, the FDNY made a hero of 9/11 an honorary member of the Fire Department of New York.

Welles Crowther, 24, a Rockland volunteer firefighter, rushed from his equity-trading office on the south tower's 104th floor to the fires and led many to safety.

His parents pieced together his actions after several people described being saved by a man wearing a red bandanna - Crowther's trademark.

After his death, his parents found his FDNY application.

Some reports indicate that he saved more than a dozen people and was last seen heading back up the stairwell of the South Tower to assist more people when it collapsed.

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