The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 104

While the hearing for the controversial Cordoba House is scheduled for next week, there are plenty of other happenings in and around Ground Zero that include a couple of lawsuits and even a little bit of positive construction news.

Let's start with the good news. Here's an updated panoramic photo from one of Ground Zero's twin memorial pools as it nears completion.

Now for the lawsuits: 

The mess with the former Deutsche Bank building demolition continues as lawsuits are again threatened over costs for the demolition. Bovis and the LMDC had agreed to wait until after the building was demolished before suing each other, but with the building now only a dozen stories tall, the lawsuit talk is again coming to the forefront. The demolition costs grew along with the delays as Bovis and other companies involved negligently operated the site and the deaths of two firefighters exposed serious problems with oversight on safety on the site.

Then, a group of victims' families are applying for certiorari to the US Supreme Court to hear their case that the City of New York must remove more than a million tons of World Trade Center debris from the Fresh Kills landfill where it was disposed following the attacks because it may still contain remains of their loved ones. They are demanding the city give it their loved ones a proper burial.

Charging that their constitutional due process and religious freedom rights have been violated, a group of families of 9/11 victims have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to force New York City to move more than a million tons of World Trade Center debris from atop a garbage heap at the Fresh Kills landfill.

The group, known as the WTC Families for Proper Burial, says it is unacceptable that even the unidentified remains of victims, mingled with the Trade Center debris, should remain atop household trash. After being rejected by a federal judge and appellate court in a lawsuit seeking to force the city to move the debris, the WTC Families filed the necessary petition for a writ of certiorari on June 1, asking the Supreme Court to decide on the case.

The city has rejected the WTC Families’ assertions as untrue, and says it intends to file a voluntary response to the petition by the Aug. 5 deadline, laying out for the justices why they should not hear the case.

While I feel for the victims' families, there is no way that the City or anyone else can move the 1 million tons or more of debris and find an acceptable location. All manner of heroic measures were taken to find the victims - nearly all of whom were pulverized by the collapsing towers and then consumed in fires that lasted for weeks following the attacks.

In one last bit of Ground Zero related news, the Queen of England will be here today. She will be stopped at Ground Zero to pay her respects along with a stop at the UN and to visit with rescue workers who were at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Hope she likes Baked Apple since the temps in New York are going to top 100 degrees today.