Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 21:40:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein 
Subject: Three Days to the Hearing!


This is a followup regarding the public hearing this coming Thursday.
I have some more precise information and I've added some newly found
addresses of pro-rebuilders to the list(requests to be removed from
the email list are always promptly honored!).

The site is the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts,
on Spruce Street between Gold Street and Park Row,
at Pace University's downtown campus.

The hearing is supposed to be from 6 to 9 PM with the doors
opening at 5:30.

This hearing is the first of five,they say...no idea
where or when the others will be or if people will be
prevented from attending or speaking at more than one.

We need to get as many pro-rebuilding people there as
possible,I'm glad a number of you have said you'll show
and will welcome the opportunity to meet you.I expect to
arrive early and we can do a little networking.

Beyond the ideas to draw on for speeches I sent to the list
a few days ago...remember that we need comments that support
the reconstruction of the Twin Towers from every angle...and
somebody's got to ask for the show of hands for wanting to
work on the 110th floor.

Some speeches should lead off with the need to rebuild the
Towers,and others build up to it (fairly quickly,since we
will not have much time at all to speak if we get to a mike).
An idea I got lately is pointing out that the chatter of
reinventing Lower Manhattan as a much more residential place
is offensive to the memory of those who died because it's
recasting the area as if the Towers and everyone in them
never existed.Start with calling for a proper memorial,and
end with demanding new not-one-inch-shorter Towers.

Note that even if the three hours were all one-minute
public comments there would only be time for 180 to speak;
I am sure that there will be a considerable opening presentation
by Whitehead,Tomson,Sinagra,etc. setting out their ideas before
we get a chance to tell them what they SHOULD be planning.

This is the only one of the five public hearings before the
May 27th deadline for comments on their "Principles and Preliminary
Blueprint for the Future of Lower Manhattan"...they allow until
June 26th for "submissions of ideas to be considered for Phase I
of the RFP" (Request for Proposals).

(Note that by the time of the July event at the Javits,
"Listening to the City",they don't want to hear comments
about either!)

The hearing itself,fortunately,is "to solicit input on possible
ideas,including those that are suggested in" the "Principles".

The "Principles" document is an exercise in vagueness,just
promising to solicit lots of input and come up with memorials,
redevelopment,transportations solutions,etc....it does not rule
out the Twin Towers explicitly,but comments regarding the document
should focus on its failure to explicitly commit to restoring the
Towers,and the need to revise it so that it DOES make that commitment.
(I'll point out that crude language either at the hearing or in a
written comment is a terrible idea...be positive,no matter what you
think of them).

The Request For Proposals...comments concerning it should address
the need for minimum specifications for the rebuilt WTC Towers to
ensure they are no shorter than the old,and infrastructure design
needing to support buildings at least the size of the old Towers;
designs that fail to meet these specifications should be ruled out
in the final text of the RFP.

They are accepting comments by email to renewnyc@empire.state.ny.us
(they finally realized how stupid it looked for a government agency
whose parent had its own domain to be using an often-stuffed Hotmail
box!) and by mail to
	LMDC/Port Authority Comments
	c/o Empire State Development Corporation
	P.O. Box 4438,Grand Central Station
	New York,New York 10017

I hope you've read the Newsday Op-Ed piece by architect
Eli Attia...he makes a point that is worth raising at
the hearing again and again..."any 100 story building is
safer than any 50 story building".

On the other news front,I met with my redistricted
Assemblywoman-to-be yesterday as part of a political
meeting...she seems receptive to rebuilding the Towers
and the reasons we shouldn't build shorter...and George
Pataki,the governor who appointed John Whitehead (who
spent most of his life living in New Jersey,I note!)
to his job,and who appointed Charles Gargano as vice
chairman of the Port Authority and chairman of the
Empire State Development Corporation,and who appointed
the Executive Director of the Port Authority...
lives in her district too!

I would love to see the man who named the people who
are trying to play down the rebuilding that is their
most important job represented by a pro-rebuilder...
and preferably as a private citizen,since he doesn't
deserve to be reelected!!

==>IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO GET ON THE VOLUNTEER EMAIL LIST
FOR THINGS REGARDING THE JULY RALLY...I know some of you
weren't yet on my list when I announced the effort to
gather rebuilding supporters outside the Javits Center
when the Whitehead group stage their "Listening to the
City" sham-show inside.I have had a number of you sign
up,with heartening offers of specific help with the
flyers and shirts...and pledges to travel there from
as far as Virginia.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.