The Post has an editorial up rounding up the latest controversy that was finally resolved; the way the names of those murdered on 9/11 would be placed on the memorial. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it beats the one that Arad had proposed.
Steve Cuozzo tells incoming Governor Spitzer to rebuild all the office space destroyed by 9/11, and provides compelling information to back up the plea. Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg has wanted to reduce the amount of office space in Lower Manhattan arguing that there isn't a need for the rebuilding of so much office space. I think that Bloomberg is dead wrong on his view of the real estate market, and his push to get development on the West Side in Midtown isn't getting people excited enough to actually take steps to build there. Companies instead are looking to Lower Manhattan and building there (Goldman Sachs) or leasing large amounts of space (Moodys at 7WTC).
Pataki continues to be defensive about his handling of the rebuilding at Ground Zero. Face it George, you didn't do a good job. You put someone who had absolutely no experience building skyscrapers and managing a project of this scope in charge of developing the master plan (Daniel Libeskind) whose vision for the site was quickly revised to face the engineering and technical realities of building skyscrapers. You let political correctness creep in with the IFC and Drawing Center, and it took a protracted battle to eject them from the site (though the Drawing Center would get money in return to build a gallery elsewhere in Lower Manhattan). The cost for the memorial is an incredible $500 million, and that's only after finding ways to cut the cost from an estimated $850 million-$1 billion. The design of the memorial is still widely criticized, though one major criticism, the way the names were arranged, has been resolved.
It's nice that George has stuck by the pledge to get the Freedom Tower built, but progress has been in fits and starts. And don't get me started about the debacle that is Fiterman Hall and the Deutsche Bank building. Fiterman Hall is still unoccupied and no plan is present to deconstruct that building that was too badly damaged to be salvaged. The Deutsche Bank building is undergoing the first phase of deconstruction, but that has been marred by the discovery of human remains years after searches were supposedly thoroughly undertaken. Remains may still be found elsewhere in the Ground Zero environs because every crevace and nook and cranny has yet to be explored. There is the distinct possibility that more remains may be found in the course of construction at Ground Zero as access roads were quickly paved so that access to the Pit was established so that the bulk of debris could be removed. As the site is developed, more finds may be inevitable.
UPDATE:
Deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building, which had been interrupted by a worker dispute just a day after it began, will resume tomorrow as the workers resolved the dispute.
Meanwhile, it shouldn't be a surprise that people who were closer to Ground Zero have and retain more vivid memories of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, though one has to wonder that a sample size of 24 people is statistically significant.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center, spitzer, silverstein, mount sinai, respiratory ailment, wtc cough, bloomberg.
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