The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 113

The 9/11 Memorial continues taking shape as the trees that will comprise the memorial grove are starting to be installed this weekend.

Sixteen swamp white oaks are the first of nearly 400 trees arriving on Saturday at the World Trade Center site, where more than 2,700 people were killed when terrorists attacked the twin towers.

Eventually the green sanctuary will dot a cobblestone plaza surrounding two huge pools built on the footprints of the destroyed towers.

"After all the tragedy, the idea of the first living component going back is emotionally significant to the rebuilding process," said Tom Cox, CEO of Environmental Design, the Houston company that has cared for the trees and is taking them to the trade center site.

Cultivated for four years at a New Jersey nursery, the 16 trees were being loaded onto eight tractor-trailers at midnight Friday for the 35-mile (56-kilometer) trip to Manhatan. Cranes were to set them into place Saturday morning before crews plant them on the eight-acre memorial plaza.

Joe Daniels, president of the memorial foundation, called the trees' arrival "a big milestone ... after nine years of both recovery and construction."

Designers Peter Walker and Michael Arad envisioned a peaceful, green space that would bring solace to Sept. 11 victims' families and visitors. Benches will invite visitors to linger and walk along its cobblestone and stone pavers accented with plantings and low ground cover.

The memorial plaza will essentially become is a rooftop garden, built atop the deep chasm left by the destroyed towers on Sept. 11, 2001. The museum commemorating the 2001 attacks, commuter train platforms and a parking garage are being built as far as 70 feet (21 meters) below ground.

That photo is courtesy of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum live camera, and was a screen capture taken August 28, 2010. It shows the installation of the first trees for the memorial just to the left of the North Tower footprint. This view also shows the tower footprints that are nearly completely clad in granite. The structure running along the bottom third of the photo is the MTA's 1 Line, which is adjacent to the PATH terminal that is being built. The Freedom Tower (1WTC) is being built in the top right corner.

Can Harlem Do No Better?

Harlem is currently represented in Congress by Charles Rangel, a 20-term Democrat who is facing 13 ethics charges that could result in his expulsion from Congress and criminal charges stemming from multiple ethics, legal, and tax problems that I've repeatedly commented upon.

Facing him in a primary is Adam Clayton Powell IV, whose father was Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Powell the younger came out and made the ludicrous claim that his father would be appalled by Rangel's actions.

Challenger Adam Clayton Powell 4th attacked Rep. Charles Rangel's character on Thursday night with the audacious claim that his dad - the current congressman's rogue predecessor - would be appalled by Rangel's behavior.

"My father...might be turning over in his grave if he saw some of the political trickery that has been going on over the last 40 years," Powell said at a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

The Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., elected to the House from Harlem in 1944, was one of the most powerful black politicians of his era. But a corruption scandal - including helping himself to taxpayer funds for vacations to the Bahamas - led to his expulsion in 1967.

He got his seat back after the 1968 election but not his clout. Neophyte Rangel finished him off in the 1970 primary. Two years later, Powell died.

Really? Powell's father engaged in corruption and all manner of unethical behavior that led to Powell's expulsion from Congress. Rangel won the election in 1970 over Powell on the basis of cleaning up the corrupt mess that Powell left.

Now, the son is in the position that Rangel was in 40 years ago, except that Powell is revising history to ignore the reason that Rangel entered Congress in the first place; his father's corruption.

And there's little reason to think that Powell IV will do any better than Rangel or Powell's father in the corruption department. Harlem needs better representation - one that does not have links to the stench of corruption left by either Powell or Rangel. Harlem must do better, but alas I expect Harlem to reelect Rangel to yet another term in office despite the legal and ethics woes.

Gazans Get Another Chance On Greenhouses

Daylife is running the following photo and caption obtained from Getty Images:

Palestinian women dig a pool at a farm, part of a project implemented by the Agricultural Union of Agricultural Work Committees funded by the European Union, in Deir al-Balah, in the centre of the Gaza Strip, on August 10, 2010.

The photo jogged some memories I had of the Gaza disengagement and subsequent activities by Gazans in 2005, so I did a little more digging.

It turns out that the piping you see behind the women digging a pool for agricultural purposes is the remnants of greenhouses destroyed by Gazans following Israel's withdrawal from Gush Katif. Deir al Balah was adjacent to the Israeli community. When Israel forcibly removed its settlement in Gush Katif, the Gazans, instead of using the greenhouses for economic gain, destroyed them and used the area as a launching pad for kassam rocket attacks against Israel.

Now, Gazans are getting another chance to make good on the greenhouses.

Now Gaza Arabs are going to get a second chance to try to recreate the thriving greenhouses of Gush Katif. The United States Agency for International Development is to sponsor a project termed Family Agricultural Greenhouses, which will construct three new greenhouses.

USAID hopes the three greenhouses will support 900 families in the Hamas-run Gaza region.

The project has approval from both the Palestinian Authority and the Israel Defense Forces. Israel is working with USAID to coordinate the transfer of goods into Gaza to complete the project.

Anita Tucker, a former resident of Gush Katif, doubts that the new plan will be successful. Tucker explained that while Gaza Arabs were at one point beginning to succeed in agriculture with help from their Jewish neighbors, the rise of the PA and later of Hamas created a situation in which rival terrorist groups battle for control at the expense of civilians, and ultimately destroy efforts to build local industry.

Gov. Christie Fires Education Boss Bret Schundler: UPDATE: Schundler Requested Firing To Get Unemployment Benefits?

I can't say I'm surprised by this. Bret Schundler, the state education commissioner, was fired by Gov. Christie in the wake of the failure by the state to win Race to the Top grant money from the federal government.

A deputy commissioner will be named acting commissioner while the governor searches for the next person to fill the $141,000-a-year position, the officials said.

Rich Bagger, Christie's chief of staff, asked Schundler to resign on Thursday evening because he "misled" the governor and senior staff about what happened during a presentation in Washington, D.C., the officials said.

On Wednesday, Christie publicly said Schundler had tried to give the correct information to a bungled question during the presentation, but video from the U.S. Department of Education released Thursday proved that did not happen.

The state's application included incorrect data based on wrong year information, and Schundler takes the fall.

Schundler, who had previously run for governor and failed, apparently claimed that he would resign if asked, but then resisted when the governor indicated as much.

The application clearly wasn't strong enough in other areas to overcome the botched question, and that fault rests with the Education Department and the union, which helped put together the application.

Instead, the state will have to come up with fixes for its awful education funding system and failure to educate students without the federal funds.

UPDATE:
Rather than resigning, Schundler appears to have asked to be fired so that he could collect unemployment.

Ousted state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler today said he asked Gov. Chris Christie to be fired from the work he considered his “life’s dream,” rather than resign, so he could receive unemployment benefits to pay his bills.

“I asked if they would mind writing a termination letter, instead of a resignation letter, because I do have a mortgage to pay, and I do have a daughter who’s just started college,” he said in an interview this morning. “And I, frankly, will need the unemployment insurance benefits until I find another job. ... And they said fine. They said sure.”

Gov. Paterson's Ticket Mess Gets Worse

The Public Integrity Commission already found that Gov. David Paterson (D-NY) misled investigators and was engaging in unethical behavior when he obtained free tickets to Yankee World Series games at the new Yankee Stadium. Now, the independent counsel (and former Court of Appeals Chief Justice) Judith Kaye has made similar findings. Kaye was brought in to investigate the matter by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo:

Kaye, acting under orders from the attorney general, forwarded her findings to Albany County District Attorney David Soares to weigh criminal charges.

"The evidence indicates at a minimum the above-described portions of the governor's testimony before commission staff were inaccurate and misleading," the report found.

"The evidence developed in the [Office of the Attorney General's] investigation under the independent counsel warrants consideration of possible criminal charges."

Paterson believed that he was entitled to the tickets because he was Governor of New York and that his presence at the World Series game was somehow related to his official duties as governor.

The report makes a strong case for perjury, and notes that Paterson had a window of opportunity to correct himself and the testimony, but did not do so before the close of the proceeding. That puts him in a real bind, and it will be up to Albany County DA David Soares to consider charging the governor on perjury and perhaps obstruction of justice.

If we want to see Albany cleaned it, justice demands nothing less.

There is an ongoing culture of entitlement among elected officials who think that they can do as they see fit, regardless of the legality and ethical considerations. Paterson has been a longtime Albany fixture, and thought nothing of taking the free tickets, even though he knew or should have known that it violated state ethics rules on accepting gifts from entities that employ lobbyists, such as the New York Yankees. The team did nothing wrong here - the illegality stems from Paterson's failure to follow the law and make the necessary payments and disclosures. Then, Paterson compounded the mess by obstructing the investigation by giving false and misleading statements.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 112

Silverstein Properties and the Port Authority are set to make a deal to complete financing on two of the office towers planned for the site.

The deal has been in the works since a handshake agreement in March. How did the Port Authority agree? Well, it was simple horsetrading.

According to multiple people familiar with discussions, in order to win the support of the Christie administration and the New Jersey side of the Port Authority board, the New York side of the Port Authority agreed to commit significant funds toward New Jersey regional transportation projects when the agency reevaluates its priorities for its capital plan in the fall.

The funding is justified as a means of achieving balance after the new World Trade Center deal, which is valued by the agency at about $1.2 billion in new subsidy and foregone rent. That expenditure is being treated as a New York-specific project, and thus, by the one-for-one logic often employed in Port Authority capital plans, corresponding money should go into New Jersey.

This is not all that unlike the trading that went on for years in the New York Legislature, when a governor and lawmakers wanting to spend money on a large project in New York City would need to devote an equal sum to some project upstate in order to make it politically palatable. (Former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno has boasted that this is how he won the money to rebuild the Albany airport.)

Still, it's hardly the cleanest system in the world to have deals such as this one. In the extreme, such trading paints a portrait of the Port Authority as an entity that is simply a vehicle for two separate governors who spend money on two separate sets of priorities. This is opposed to the ideal: an agency that solely has at heart the interests of the region as a whole, and prioritizes spending on transportation projects accordingly.

The result in the fall, particularly if there is a revenue increase, will likely be more money devoted to projects such as the renovation or replacement of the Bayonne Bridge, a top infrastructure priority of New Jersey (they want it raised up, or replaced with a higher bridge). Presumably this means there will be comparatively less to go around for New York priorities, such as Moynihan Station.

Since the Port Authority is a bistate agency, New Jersey interest demanded something to offset the expenditures at Ground Zero - so they got $1.6 billion or so in projected money over the next couple of years for projects that would benefit New Jersey. This is how business is done at the bistate agency and makes a mockery of the whole notion of a coordinated policy of improving infrastructure to benefit the region (the purpose of the agency in the first place).

Instead of treating the World Trade Center site as a separate entity not subject to the typical bistate bickering, it's fallen into the same politicking that has caused incessant delays in rebuilding. The problem had nothing to do with Silverstein Properties, and everything to do with the behind-the-scenes politics within the Port Authority.

The deal will enable construction of Tower 3 and Tower 4 (which is already underway at and above the pedestal base across the street from Russell Simmons' loft).

This is what's being built at Ground Zero except that the Foster and Partners designed 2WTC, which would have been at the corner of Vesey and Church has been delayed indefinitely. The financing deal will not cover that site.

It's a huge mistake and consigns the site to construction for the indefinite future because that building will eventually be built - the only question is when. Since the site construction is ongoing, it would have been best to build the site out at one time so as to minimize the impact on the surrounding community as much as possible. Instead, the immediate vicinity (including the 9/11 memorial and museum and transit hub will be adjacent to an empty hole/work-site for the foreseeable future.



Considering that the real estate market is showing signs of strength in Manhattan, with Vornado getting approval to build a skyscraper rivaling the Empire State Building in height two blocks from the iconic tower and an ongoing demand for Class A office space, this is a serious mistake on the part of the Port Authority. The funding should have been made available to ease Silverstein's access to financing to rebuild the site in a timely manner.

New Home Sales Plunge Again To Record Lows

New home sales drop in July to lowest levels on record. Even with that grim news, Toll Brothers made money in the quarter (and profits for the first time in three years).



So, how did Toll Brothers do it?

Well, for starters, they did it by cutting costs and managing its portfolio (eeking out a profit on 1.6% less revenue) - but the MSNBC news report claims that the key was the homeowner tax credit which expired in April (then June). No doubt that their results would have been far worse for the reporting period if the credit wasn't there, but we'll now see just how badly they get hammered in upcoming months.

By stealing sales from future months, the expired credit means the homebuilders will be right back in the mess as the housing numbers are downright putrid if you're a seller and buyers are staying on the sidelines hoping prices continue down and become more affordable.

Toll Brothers managed to build a profit based on trimming expenses. This wasn't organic growth; it was merely limiting expenses. That will benefit the company once the real estate market turns around and in the long run because it will have shed unnecessary expenses and streamlined its business, but the turnaround may not have anytime soon.

The expired credits simply goosed sales that would have occurred in any event from one quarter to the other. Now, those sales are gone and the ongoing bad real estate conditions will only appear far worse than if no credit had been available.

Some folks are speculating that the homebuilder stocks are rallying because we might have hit bottom and there's only one place for them to go - up. That's far too optimistic given current market conditions and the way that the absurdly low interest rates are not driving increased business for mortgages and refinancing.

Deadbeat Democrat Stiffs State

State Senator Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) seems to think that the law still doesn't apply to him. He still owes the state Board of Elections more than $10,000 in fines for not turning over records in a timely fashion.

The Bronx Democrat still owes the state Board of Elections $10,310 for failing to turn over timely financial disclosure forms, board spokesman John Conklin told the Daily News on Tuesday.

Espada had vowed to pay off the full balance of his penalty - $13,553 - when Senate President Malcolm Smith threatened to take formal action against him last year.

He's coughed up a paltry $3,243 since his promise.

"It's a disgrace," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "After repeated promises to do otherwise, the majority leader is still in violation of the state election law."

Espada racked up the fines two years ago for failing to register 41periodic campaign spending reports as required by law.

He's since handed over just 20 backdated reports, Conklin said.

Watchdogs say that without the reports there is no way of knowing who contributes to Espada's campaigns - or how he spends the money.

"We knew he was an extortionist, holding the chamber up for ransom, but now he's a deadbeat, too," one exasperated Senate Democratic colleague scoffed, noting the coup effort Espada led last summer.

Neither Espada, who faces a tough three-way primary on Sept. 14, nor his spokesman could be reached for comment.

Despite his chicanery and clear disregard for state law, Espada may yet win the primary and general elections in November. That's not only an indictment of the state of current politics in New York, but a refusal by his constituents to send him packing despite his disregard for state law and other legal and ethics problems.

Vaccinations Could Prevent Salmonella Outbreaks

Vaccination of chickens in the United Kingdom is required, and the result has been the near elimination of salmonella from egg and chicken production.

So why isn't it being done in the US and elsewhere? Cost seems to be the one stumbling block, but with massive recalls underway, I suspect that the mindset will change.

Low-cost vaccines that may have helped prevent the kind of salmonella outbreak that has led to the recall of more than a half-billion eggs haven't been given to half of the nation's egg-laying hens.

The vaccines aren't required in the U.S., although in Great Britain, officials say vaccinations have given them the safest egg supply in Europe. A survey conducted by the European food safety agency in 2009 found that about 1 percent of British flocks had salmonella compared to about 60 to 70 percent of flocks elsewhere in Europe, said Amanda Cryer, spokeswoman for the British Egg Information Service.

There's been no push to require vaccination in the U.S., in part because it would cost farmers and in part because advocates have been more focused on more comprehensive food safety reforms, those watching the poultry industry said.

But Darrell Trampel, a poultry veterinarian at Iowa State University, predicted vaccination will become more common after the recent outbreak.

"I think (vaccination) will move from hit and miss to being a standard," Trampel said.

The salmonella vaccine prevents chickens from becoming infected and then passing the bacteria on to their eggs. It has been available in the U.S. since 1992.

I also think that people would be willing to pay a few cents more per package of eggs or chicken pieces if they knew that the items were vaccinated against salmonella.

The potential cost savings to the nation could be considerable given that salmonella costs $2.6 billion annually in lost productivity, hospitalization costs, and fatalities. The vaccinations would be substantially less than that, giving a net benefit to the nation's health system.

So why is the FDA still holding to the belief that vaccinations should not be mandatory - they have no problem with voluntary vaccination?

Well, critics are also attempting to focus on improving food handling and comprehensive food safety reform and avoid the issue of vaccination. That's nonsense given that this is a workable solution that can reduce the potential for outbreaks especially in conjunction with improved sanitary conditions at facilities.

New Jersey Loses Out On Race To The Top Federal Grant Because of Clerical Error

Someone within the Christie Administration should lose their job over this. The state lost out on an opportunity to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in Race to the Top grant money for education reform because of a clerical error. The error involved using wrong year information when filling out the application.

New Jersey fell three points short of being one of the 10 finalists selected for hundreds of millions in federal education funding through the Obama administration's Race to the Top education grant program.

While the state scored high and low on a wide range of topics — including 10 points lost for lack of data systems to improve education — one 5-point answer was answered in error.

The state received nearly full points for its answer on the identical question on the application submitted for the first round of funding by the Corzine administration.

Here's a look at the question and answer, as well as the comments from reviewer's grading sheets, obtained Tuesday by The Star-Ledger and expected to be released today by the U.S. Department of Education.

The question answered in error is on PDF page 260 (see application), and the problematic answer is on PDF page 261. They read:

Q: The extent to which— (i) The percentage of the total revenues available to the State (as defined in this notice) that were used to support elementary, secondary, and public higher education for FY 2009 was greater than or equal to the percentage of the total revenues available to the State (as defined in this notice) that were used to support elementary, secondary, and public higher education for FY 2008


A: (i) EDUCATION SPENDING AS A PERCENTAGE OF STATE SPENDING
In fiscal year 2011, despite huge budget strains, the Governor is proposing an increase in state revenue-based support for education by 2.2% ($238 million). As proposed, preschool-12 education spending as a percentage of the state budget will be 35.4%. Federal ARRA funding will not be available to school districts in FY 2011, but the Governor and the executive team remain committed to funding education even as state revenue-based support for most other areas of state spending has been cut. This demonstrates that, despite severe fiscal challenges, the leadership in the state of New Jersey remains committed to education.

Unions will try to make hay over the gaffe, but note too that the last New Jersey attempt to obtain these funds failed as well. Gov. Corzine submitted the last attempt, and didn't even make the cut. That doesn't excuse the gaffe here though.

Still, if the education system in New Jersey is to be improved, it must come from within the state as federal money will only gloss over real problems and funding issues. After all, in a state where localities are spending nearly $20,000 per student (the statewide New Jersey average per capita spending is $16,491 in 2007-2008; second highest in the US behind New York) and still failing to educate those same students is doing something seriously wrong with all the money provided through existing state and local funding structures.

UPDATE:
Gov. Christie is trying to spin this to his advantage, admitting the mistake but also noting that not only did New Jersey provide the proper information in an in-person session but that no one at the federal Education Department attempted to contact New Jersey about the discrepancy. Can't say that I can blame Christie for trying to spin this.

Reaching Skyward

It wasn't long after the 9/11 attacks that pundits and prognosticators thought that the era of skyscrapers in the US was over. They essentially wrote the obituary on skyscrapers - in fact any that would challenge the then tallest buildings in the US, the Sears (now Willis) Tower and the Empire State Building within the US.

What a big difference a few years and a whole lot of perspective have brought.

Now, we're going supertall for residential buildings all over New York City, including the Beekman in Lower Manhattan. At the same time, the Empire State Building's owners are hoping to block construction of a whole new class of proposed skyscrapers because it might alter views both of and from the Empire State Building.

The building boom around New York City has resulted in some pretty spectacular skyscrapers, and more are on the way.

The City's skyline has constantly changed and grown steadily taller. It's the function of being on an island with limited real estate. So, places that were previously seen as more difficult to build tall such as around 34th Street and the West Side are now being developed with new skyscrapers. The skyline is organic - and sometimes the change is good and sometimes not. But trying to keep a lid on nearby buildings stands in the way of modernizing the city's infrastructure, office space, and residential areas around Manhattan.

With that in mind, the Empire State Building owners (the Malkins) are battling a project by Vornado to build on the former Hotel Pennsylvania site with a tower that would rival the height of the Empire State Building two blocks away. The Malkins want an exclusion zone preventing towers rivaling it in height and are prepared with tons of renderings to try and sway public opinion (Vornado has its own rival renderings).

It would be a shame if the Empire State Building's owners cut down rival skyscraper projects nearby. But that's the way the real estate business in New York City is done. The Malkins are in the midst of a multimillion dollar upgrade to the Empire State Building in a bid to boost rental prices and occupancies among higher profile tenants. A rival tower would detract from that bid.

It's the same reason that some real estate ventures, including Forest City Ratner opposed rebuilding all the office space at Ground Zero because it would lessen demand for their rival office space at the New York Times headquarters in Midtown or in new towers built in Downtown Brooklyn.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 111

After years of delays and controversy, it now appears that 1WTC (Freedom Tower) is finally getting its due. In fact, it is one of the hottest properties in the city as major companies are looking at its floor plan to consolidate operations in a modern office building built to the most current specifications.

Believe it or not, Bank of America — having comfortably settled into its grand new tower at 1 Bryant Park — is on the prowl for up to 1 million square feet more of office space in Manhattan.

And that could spell more good news for 1 World Trade Center, the supertall, and suddenly superhot, Ground Zero tower now under construction by the Port Authority.

Condé Nast recently signed a letter of intent with the PA for about 1 million square feet in the 2.6 million square-foot skyscraper, and this column last month broke the news that Bank of NY Mellon is at least taking a good look at it.
MAKE ROOM: Bank of America is inquiring about space at 1 WTC, the suddenly super-hot, tower under construction by the Port Authority.

Now, we’ve learned, BofA has requests for proposals out with landlords both in Midtown and downtown to replace roughly 1 million square feet it has in some older buildings including 1185 Sixth Ave. and 114 West 47th St., where leases expire in a few years.

4 WTC is still under construction, but steel rising above its pedestal base is delayed pending a final financing agreement between the Port Authority and Silverstein Properties.

Conde Nast is already planning on a 1 million sf allotment of space at the Freedom Tower. Vanatone is also expected to have about 400,000 sf of space. With Bank of America or Bank of New York looking at 1 million sf of space, that could potentially speak for nearly all of the 2.6 million sf space in the tower. That speaks volumes for the belief that the real estate market would more than accommodate the construction of office space at Ground Zero to replace that which was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.

In fact, the demand seems to vindicate the vision of Larry Silverstein who vowed to rebuild the office space despite the souring economic climate. Tenants want modern office space and environmentally sound construction (LEED classification) because it reduces costs. The Ground Zero construction fits that bill and it's interesting to watch how demand has grown for the office space at Ground Zero.

While much of the focus recently has been on the Cordoba House proposal near Ground Zero, the pleas by St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church to rebuild on its site adjacent to where 2 WTC collapsed atop the church have gone unanswered and unfulfilled.

Unlike some religious leaders who have spoken in favor of the Muslim center, including the pastor of Trinity Wall Street, the historic Episcopal church near ground zero, Bishop Andonios said he and other Greek Orthodox leaders remained neutral.

“We didn’t want to say anything that might jeopardize the plans for rebuilding our church,” he said in a telephone interview. “That is our No. 1 concern: building our church.”

Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said there was never any doubt that the church would be rebuilt. In 2008, the authority agreed to accommodate a 24,000-square-foot church building just east of St. Nicholas’s original location on Cedar Street, and promised $20 million to subsidize construction. But the following year, he said, final negotiations broke down over the precise siting and size of the building.

Bishop Andonios said the issues were more complex than that, and he criticized the Port Authority as having “cut off all communications” with church officials. He expressed some discomfort at stepping into the dispute on the side of those who are adamantly opposed to the Cordoba project.

“To us, this is an opportunity for everyone — to see some progress in our negotiations with the Port Authority,” Bishop Andonios said. “But also, for the people involved in the mosque, this controversy is their opportunity to dialogue with the community; to reach a better understanding of people’s sensitivities, perhaps.”

It was the news media, and then a number of political candidates, who first brought attention to the purported disparity in the official treatment of the developers of the Islamic center and of the Orthodox church, the bishop said.

“Some Greek-American newspaper reporters called me first,” Bishop Andonios said. “Then I heard from the candidates. Then it was Fox News.”

The situations are not analogous - the church and Port Authority have to work out a deal to relocate and rebuild and the Port Authority and Church agreed in principle that rebuilding would happen.

The delays are due in part to the continuing saga of the deconstruction of the former Deutsche bank building and using the church site as a staging area for construction. Once the former Deutsche bank building is demolished, staging for the rest of Ground Zero can proceed on that site (which will be used as the vehicle security center and possible office tower (5WTC)).

UPDATE:
Silverstein and the Port Authority are still at odds over financing on 4WTC, and a deadline to get a deal done so that Silverstein can ready bonds this fall is nearing.

MTA Playing Games With Proposed Fare Hikes

The MTA has threatened to make the unlimited Metrocards limited or increasing their costs significantly. Previously, they indicated that the 30-day unlimited Metrocards would see an increase to $104 from $89. If that wasn't bad enough, the MTA now thinks that the proposed fare hikes aren't sufficient.

Now, the MTA thinks that the 30-day unlimited cards should increase to $130. That's an increase of $41 (or roughly $492 per year). It would represent a 46% fare hike.

Seven-day unlimited Metrocards would increase as well - from $27 to $38. That would be a 40% fare hike.

If there's anything that will drive people to avoid the MTA system, that's it.

More to the point, this is all part of the MTA fare game. They want people to feel somehow better about the situation when the fare hikes fall into a range below the highest ranges (if the 30-day unlimited card fare hike is approved for $110, rather than $130 for example). It's an ongoing shell game that the agency plays every time a fare hike is considered.

The unlimited Metrocards have done wonders for reducing congestion around the city and helped rejuvenate many areas of the city that are accessible by mass transit. The proposed hikes would hurt the working class hardest since they have the fewest alternative options. Whatever gain the MTA may hope to achieve through higher fares will be offset by those people who simply stop taking the buses and subways.

New Orleans Still A Year Away From Upgraded Levee System

While the system of levees and pumps is not scheduled to be completed until next year, the Army Corps of Engineers is working to meet the 2011 deadline on increasing New Orleans flood protection system.

The NY Times reports that the Corps has already instituted a number of significant changes and improvements to the levee system, which actually will begin functioning as a coordinated system for the first time in its history.

The sheer scale of the nearly $15 billion project, which is not due to be completed until the beginning of next year’s hurricane season, brings to mind an earlier American age when the nation built huge works like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Hoover Dam and the Interstate highway system.

While New Orleans’s bulwark is still almost a year away from full strength, the city’s reinforced defenses are already stronger than they were before Katrina. Even so, experts argue, that the city’s defenses after 2011 will still provide less protection than it needs to avoid serious flooding in massive storms.

For a region devastated by a storm and by a loss of faith in the government’s ability to safeguard it, the new system is a test of more than the prowess of the Army Corps of Engineers. Some residents say they may never fully get over the failure in Katrina. “Do I trust them?” asked Beverly Crais, a Jefferson Parish resident. “No. How can I trust somebody who makes that big of an error?”

That could be part of the reason that the top of the Lake Borgne wall is crenelated like the fortifications of a castle. The indentations, the engineers say, will weaken waves that splash against the top. But it will also send a clear visual message to anyone who sees it: there is safety behind this wall.

The patchwork of walls and levees that fell apart after Katrina were, in the words of the corps’ own report on the disaster, “a system in name only.” But projects like the wall — vast but largely unseen, because they take the first line of defense away from the center of New Orleans — are knitted into a single barrier.

“It’s a comprehensive-system approach,” said Karen Durham-Aguilera, a civilian engineer responsible for work on what is now known as the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System. “We’re not even in the same universe any more.”

The lessons of Katrina were learned at a tremendous cost in life and property, but they can be seen throughout the works.

Where some of the old levees were built with dredged mud and shell fill that washed away in the storm, the new earthworks are toughened with clay. Many old floodwalls were shaped, in cross section, like the letter I and stood on muddy soil that seemed almost eager to give way; most of the new work is sturdier, shaped like an inverted T and braced with pilings driven diagonally into the ground. The corps is strengthening some soil, by mixing cement deep into the ground.

That definitely seems like a significant improvement, but the Army Corps' own website information suggests a subtly different picture.

In fact, the Corps' own map suggests that significant stretches of levees South of the city are not quite up to the standards put in place to defend against a 100-year storm.

New Orleans may still hope that this hurricane season is a quiet one, so that the city can be in a much better position to handle a significant storm once the flood control systems are upgraded.

The fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is August 29.

Philadelphia Socks It To Bloggers?

If you want to do business in Philadelphia, you have to pay a $300 business privilege license fee. It's a one-time fee and the city now appears more than willing to extend the fee to bloggers to raise money for the cash-strapped city.

That's raising the ire of some folks, especially when the possibility of actually making money from the blogging is limited.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.

"The real kick in the pants is that I don't even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous," Bess says.

It would be one thing if Bess' website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn't outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can't very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.

When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city's now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, "I was told to hire an accountant."

She's not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number — though no one knows exactly what that number is — of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.

Even if, as with Sean Barry, that profit is $11 over two years.

Barry's music-oriented blog, Circle of Fits, is hosted on Blogspot; as of this writing, its home page has two ads on it, but because he gets only a fraction of the already low ad revenue — the rest goes to Blogspot — it's far from lucrative.

Curiously, the solution proffered by Andrea Mannino of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue is to consider the annual $50 fee option rather than the lifetime option. Yet, that actually becomes more expensive if you plan on blogging for more than six years. She believes that the mere act of putting an advertisement on the blog makes it a business.

The end result of this will less revenues for Philadelphia as people see the anti-business position and move outside Philadelphia to avoid the extraneous charges and harassment by tax officials for the possibility of income derived from advertising. Moreover, such income derived from blogging would be picked up on the personal income tax returns so it isn't like the Department of Revenue isn't getting money from those businesses actually deriving income from website operations like blogs.

Amateur Astronomer Catches Meteor Streaks On Jupiter

The Earth isn't alone in experiencing meteor streaks (shooting stars) as debris from comets or meteorites hit the atmosphere. Astronomers have caught similar events when looking at Jupiter, but it now appears that they are far more common than previously thought.

A Japanese amateur astronomer witnessed a flash on Jupiter over the weekend - less than three months after similar blip, apparently caused by a meteor fall, created a sensation among astronomers. The event suggests that the giant planet may be experiencing shooting stars more frequently than scientists thought, and that it's just a case of looking in the right place at the right time.

That's what Masayuki Tashikawa was doing early Saturday morning Japan time (around 18:22 GMT or 2:22 p.m. ET Friday), when he had his video-equipped telescope pointed in Jupiter's direction from Kumamoto city on the island of Kyushu. In the 4-second video clip above, the second-long flash can be seen toward the lower left, about halfway through the clip.

The Cost of Removing A Tenured Teacher

$400,000. Four years and $400,000 later, the city of Paterson finally fired a tenured special education teacher who was accused of physically abusing students.

Even after an investigation by the state Division of Youth and Family Services concluded in 2005 that he had physically abused children, the tenure case dragged on for another 3 1/2 years. In the end, an administrative law judge believed staff members and students at elementary School 4 who said they saw Robinson hit "A. T.," routinely beat "J. T.," punch a girl called "V. H." and shove "N. H." against a blackboard until he cried.

Robinson, now on unemployment at 53, denies all these allegations and says he was a victim of colleagues with a vendetta. He said some of his students, ages 10 to 14, routinely got angry and threw chairs, and his critics misinterpreted his efforts to break up fights. He said he was gifted at dealing with the cognitively impaired and emotionally disturbed. "I was so good that whenever they had bad kids in the district, they sent them to me," he said in an interview in early August.

Robinson had been working in Paterson schools for 18 years when a staffer came forward in February 2004 to say that she had seen him punch J. T. in the chest for failing to do his homework, according to the administrative law judge's decision. Robinson was suspended pending an investigation. Carol Smeltzer, an attorney for the school district, said that after an investigation began, witnesses came forward to describe other incidents in several previous years. She said witnesses were afraid to speak out before, because "teachers were terrified of this man."

The district filed tenure charges in June. Robinson's pay was suspended once for 120 days, as is standard, and then again for witness tampering. Smeltzer said the law required the district to pay Robinson through the rest of the case; his wages hit $283,864. "There's no incentive to resign when as long as you plod along you're making all this money for staying at home," Smeltzer said.

Robinson said he was "stressing" during that time, but kept busy painting and cutting the grass.

Smeltzer said the case dragged on because it had many separate allegations, the judge was too busy to schedule consecutive hearing dates and there was no mandated deadline for finishing. Meanwhile, the district's legal bills topped $123,863, she said.

Robinson's union, the Paterson Education Association, paid for his defense. Its president, Peter Tirri, said, "I wondered if the district's case was weak and maybe that's why it took so long."

No, the problem is that districts have little power to fire teachers accused of criminality. Indeed, the ALJ found that the teacher hit students. That was insufficient to fire the teacher, and the union has no interest in streamlining the process since they can continue receiving paycheck after paycheck for doing no work.

It's a system that is broken not just in New Jersey, but around the nation. New York City recently took steps to streamline the rubber room process (where teachers were allowed to collect paychecks by sitting around in a Department office building).

It's a system that absolutely needs fixing since it is costing everyone. Students are harmed because of the money going to pay teachers on the payroll who aren't allowed in classrooms. Teachers who are deserving are incapable of being paid better because they're sharing their payroll with teachers who are taking up space (and sometimes not even teaching).

Iran Unveils Its Ambassador of Death

It's that time of year when Iran announces its latest weapons systems amid great fanfare (and frequently more than a little photo editing assistance). It announced a new unmanned missile system - realistically it's a form of a UAV that may have a payload system.

The news comes on the heels of Iran fueling its Bushehr nuclear reactor. Iran framed the missile as both the ambassador of death and a "message of hope."

The Iranian military displayed the drone, dubbed the Karrar - or "striker" - at a ceremony attended by top officials. State media say it can carry out long-range attacks up to 1,000 kilometers carrying a 200-kilogram bomb.

President Ahmadinejad called the Karrar a symbol of death to Iran's enemies.

But he also argued the drone serves as "a messenger of salvation and dignity for humanity". The Iranian leader said it is aimed at deterring any act of foreign aggression.

As tensions continue to rise over Iran's disputed nuclear program, so too have discussions of a possible military action by Israel to disrupt it. Israel has not ruled out a strike, in the face of Iranian officials' repeated vows to destroy what it refers to as the Zionist entity.

On Saturday, Iran began loading its long-delayed Bushehr nuclear power plant with fuel. Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency were on hand to witness the launch of the Russian-built reactor.

Right. This missile is meant to act as a purported deterrent against a possible strike against Iran from Israel or the US. Iran continues building up its long range capabilities against its enemies in the region. That not only includes the Israelis or US bases, but the other Arab countries in the region.

Of course, Iran has been working on its long range strike capabilities for years now, and not all of its efforts have been successful. Despite obtaining missile technology from the North Koreans, the Iranians have had issues with the technology.

It also again highlights the need for missile defense for the US to protect its strategic interests in the region.

Why Does New Jersey Have Such Poor Vaccination Rates

New Jersey ranks 42 out of 50 states when it comes to vaccinations.

How is that possible?

Nobody knows for sure why New Jersey's vaccination rate has slipped so low, but public health professionals and pediatricians say they've seen it building for several years.

In low-income and immigrant communities, many lack health insurance, transportation to the doctor's office, or struggle to understand the complex schedule of up to 28 shots recommended by the time a child is 2 1/2 years old.

And there's also a growing resistance to vaccines among middle-class and wealthy people for whom money and insurance aren't an issue. Some reject the schedule of shots urged by the American Academy of Pediatricians and the CDC.

"There is a lot of angst over vaccines," said David Bendich, a pediatrician and president of the Essex Metro Immunization Coalition, which promotes vaccination among city children. "There is so much anti-vaccine feeling in the population. Nurses don't want to see kids cry. Even some doctors don't want to give four vaccines in one visit."

To improve vaccine rates, physicians and public health officials formed the New Jersey Immunization Network late last year. They fear what the anti-immunization trend might bring: a comeback for serious diseases like whooping cough and measles, all but wiped out generations ago. They note 1,500 cases of whooping cough erupted this year in California, where doctors say children were unprotected.

Some reasons being floated include a lack of transportation options and a lack of insurance, but even those reasons are dubious considering that one can obtain vaccinations for $10.

The real reason is that far too many people have succumbed to the anti-vaccination nonsense, including some doctors who think that the vaccination schedules are too intense.

It's one thing to spread the vaccinations out over a slightly longer period; it's quite another to avoid giving the vaccinations altogether.

Junk science has mainstreamed when it comes to anti-vaccination campaigns, and it's affecting the public health.

Some of the more vocal parents who question vaccines said they were surprised, but not alarmed, by the state's ranking.

"It's encouraging to me that parents are saying 'wait,' " said Sue Collins, co-founder of the New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination.

The law allows parents to delay vaccinating babies and toddlers, unless they go to day care. Mandates don't kick in until they reach school age.

It's discouraging that parents are delaying vaccinations when their children's health is at stake. All it takes is one measles or whooping cough outbreak to change opinions - especially if there are deaths or hospitalizations required. There is no reason that any child (or adult) should have to endure these entirely preventable illnesses.

States' Fiscal Problems Run Deep and Long

New Jersey's problems may be worse than many states, but they are typical. Short term "solutions" to solve politicians' campaign promises result in mortgaging the future and causing even bigger problems down the road. The legacy of bad deals has created a fiscal time bomb that is only now beginning to be addressed.

The decision to leverage cigarette tax revenue through the cigarette bond issue in 2004 was made by Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey. To balance the state budget, McGreevey borrowed $1.4 billion from investors upfront against the $600 million the tax was generating at the time — a move similar to the borrowing for pension benefits that Republican Gov. Christie Whitman approved to free up cash for her budgets.

Moody’s Investor Services downgraded the rating for the 2004 bond issue last week because fewer people are buying cigarettes in New Jersey and the cigarette tax is bringing in less revenue — roughly 6 percent annually — than was originally projected.

While that may be good for the state’s overall health, it may also mean the state could eventually have to come up with other funds to pay back the bonds that aren’t set to mature until 2034.

"It’s just another fiscal issue that has been dropped into the lap of this administration, and we are going to have to deal with it," Christie said.

Even worse than New Jersey's mess is that many states took their Master Settlement Agreement funds and spent it in one shot. The Master Settlement Agreement split up $206 billion among the states, but was meant to fund programs over a period of 25 years.

Some states, instead of taking the money as it came, reduced the value to present day value and took a lump sum payment - and spent it in a single year. Not only did this undermine the very reason for the settlement (to fund anti-smoking programs) but created deficits in future years because those very anti-smoking programs continued to need funding.

Throw in reduced numbers of people smoking and the tax hikes on tobacco couldn't cover the difference. Revenues couldn't match spending.

Politicians will often do what is necessary to be reelected, rather than what's right and fiscally prudent. Take the pension mess that Republican Don DiFrancisco did for New Jersey when, assuming the governorship on Gov. Christie Whitman went to the EPA in the Bush Administration, he passed a pension sweetener that added to the state's obligations.

He approved a bill in 2001 — when every legislative seat was up for grabs — that increased the pension benefits of both current and retired public employees by 9 percent.

A fiscal estimate conducted at the time, based on rosy stock market conditions that have since changed, predicted a surplus in the pension fund. A later estimate pegged the actual cost of the increase at $5.2 billion. Now, Christie is talking about rolling back the 9 percent benefits increase this fall.

Gov. Christie is having to clean up the mess of bad decisions by a host of governors in New Jersey. Many other states continue ignoring the fiscal disasters - especially New York. New York continues increasing the state budget despite revenues that cannot support it.