Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 00:05:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein
Subject: Chat Today...Plans Slow...Polls Worrisome


http://www.gothamgazette.com/commentary/garvin_transcript.shtml
has the transcript of the Java-chat with Alex Garvin today.
The first question out of the box was a pro-Towers query from
Alex Butziger and Tal Barzilai...Garvin offered vague hopes but
no promises,and the moderator threw in a "zero chance" quote
from the Deputy Mayor (Doctoroff) who Bloomberg has handling
rebuilding.

Otherwise,the Towers issue was largely unaddressed in the
questions the moderator let through...and also in some
articles elsewhere on the gothamgazette.com site.
Garvin said they were still working on the revised
Principles and Preliminary Blueprint,which according to
the renewnyc.org Timeline were supposed to be out June 5.
He also said that what surprised him most about the May
23rd hearing was people's strength of feeling,which may
augur well since the pro-Towers people expressed a lot more
enthusiasm than the anti side.

Did anyone on this list attend the release of the Imagine
New York report last night?...they have NOT put the 49
vision statements on their website as of yet.

The Gotham Gazette site also has a link to a New York
Times/CBS poll that I have to say is disturbing.
They asked how tall people would want new office buildings
at the site to be (apparently apart from the 25% who want
only a memorial),and only 26% said as tall as the Twins
while 38% said shorter!

A fear factor may still be at work...but we also have to
work at spreading our message.Garvin again promoted the
July 20th event at the chat...the audience at the chat
itself was rather small,but who knows how many will be
reading the transcript.

Note the LARGE number of people who seem neutral on the
Towers issue and can yet be persuaded.

There was some discussion of subway improvements at the
chat,none of streetcars(which I think could play a logical
role).I had some disagreement with Randy Warner over the
issue of preparing a comprehensive planning proposal...the
issue is,do we help ourselves by trying to address other
people's concerns?

He feels that rebuilders should stick to the single issue
of getting the Towers back,and let all the other issues and
constituencies take care of themselves.I'm thinking that it
can build support for the Towers to show that the other
issues that people are demanding be addressed in rebuilding
can be accomodated in the context of the Towers being the
necessary centerpiece of any rebuilding plan.

I am of course interested in input from list members on this;
I note that I got no response at all in my mention of the
possibility of pro-rebuilders getting together for online
chat in a talker I have running.

Argus Sventon and Izeklah were also at the Garvin chat but
like me no questions of ours were put to him by the moderator.
They will take questions for him,still,at rebuilding@gothamgazette.com.

Latest news reports mention the constraints placed on commercial
space by the dedication of land to the memorial,and the likely
preservation of much of the plaza against street-grid advocates,
but I have not tracked down the full texts of these stories.
I do think an open-space-vs.-traffic argument should help save
the superblock,but we have to wait for the release of the BBB
development options before putting together detailed talking
points for July 20th.

The road ahead of us to getting the Towers back is a long one,
and it's bound to happen in a form that won't be the ideal for
many of us...but we can't rest with the challenges ahead.
I'll keep word coming of any developments that come to my attention.

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