Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 17:33:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein
Subject: WTC...Finding Allies,Tracking Currents


I forgot in the last email to acknowledge Jason Fane,who invited me
and Joe Wright to his place after the dinner and before I had to go
to make the 8:48 train home.We talked a bit about some rebuilding
related considerations...he's more confident Silverstein could block
efforts to cancel his lease than some of the pressure groups that
were at LTTC II would lead us to believe.

He's also pointed out logical allies in labor unions,you can
bet that the elevator constructors and steel erectors see far
more paychecks in giant new towers than walkways and lawns and
reflecting pools!

Some people out there ignore the contractual obligations completely,
like the recent poster at the pps.org/downtownnyc/ board who proposes
turning the place into a sanctuary for the "Ball Eagle".Just about as
demented as the NY Times board poster Joe mentioned who wants the site
to be farmland.

I learned at LTTC II about a website that tracks the rebuilding
process from an anti-Towers perspective...www.reconstructionreport.org.
Probably good to keep an eye on it.

I spotted one mention that Silverstein's lease apparently requires
that the buildings be repaired/replaced exactly,though it is expected
that this provision will be renegotiated.

The NY Daily News indicates that people close to Whitehead and Tomson
(or perhaps they themselves,it was off the record in terms of attribution)
are taking the make-the-offices-smaller advocacy voiced at LTTC II as
a cue to pressure the Port Authority to yield on that point,so perhaps
we should send the PA letters urging them NOT to yield.We want that
office space built,we just want it in fewer,taller buildings than now
contemplated.

Obviously if the PA does accept a smaller-scale development on the
site it will have to accept less revenue from Silverstein,and we may
find allies among those who'd be forced to make up this shortfall.
From the New Jersey commuters who'd be forced to pay higher fares
on bridges and tunnels across the Hudson,to the shippers whose container
vessels would pay higher port fees,and the longshoremen who'd lose work
when those vessels were diverted elsewhere,to the people affected by
higher charges at airports.So the people who'd rather pay the existing
fare at the World Trade Center PATH station when it reopens than pay more
at the Uncle Osama's Victory Garden station when IT opens may be on our
side if approached carefully.

(That station might have fewer passengers to begin with,for all the
intermodal-transfer stuff,if there are fewer jobs at the place where
it comes out.And played carefully,the "we want jobs" issue may be
positioned against the "we want less office space" issue,since the
fewer offices,the fewer jobs either IN them or doing things for the
people who go to them).

On Friday Mayor Bloomberg urged that the site be predominantly used for
housing.It would require multi-state legislation amending the Port
Authority's charter to allow that...I wouldn't mind having some
residential component in new Twin Towers but of course I'm against
any development that forces buildings to be shorter than the Twins.

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