Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:48:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: World Trade Center Rebuilding News With this email I have integrated the hundreds of email addresses supplied by Erik Sieb,with the result that we now have over 700 people who have expressed themselves in favor of rebuilding full size at the WTC site (and have yet to request removal from the list) receiving this... a far cry from the dozen-plus addresses I began with in mid-September! The goal of new construction at least as tall as the lost Twin Towers remains out of our reach so far,we must continue to work towards it, raising our voices repeatedly and fearlessly so that we are heard. The pro-downsizing contingent continue to work through the media... today's top NY Post regional news headline was speculation that the PA would cancel Silverstein's lease to make way for smaller construction though the article text made clear there was little more to this than speculation. Today I called the Whitehead people's offices to see if the date for the first-week-in-August public hearing referred to in the Timeline on the http://www.renewnyc.com/index.shtml website had been set...and learned that it has definitely been postponed for weeks,probably until the first week in September. Therefore,the Phase II plan deadline has clearly been delayed, since that hearing is part of the Phase I comment process that was to have ended August 19th...though I still urge everyone to get written comments in on Phase I by August 19th! With the anniversary of the attacks in the second week of September,I don't know if they are counting on that to stir sympathies for arch-memorialists.When they set the date and exact place for that hearing we need to be there in force, spread through all the areas of the auditorium among which they rotate speakers.The Schimmel Center at Pace is still in the running as venue despite the implication in the Revised Blueprint that someplace more disabled-friendly would be chosen. The woman I spoke to was still trying to put a downsizing spin on the LTTC II reactions to the plans...she had the idea that people wanted the buildings reduced in size though the "skyline elements" (those silly poles on top) needed to be enhanced. I told her I wanted new buildings at least as tall as the old Twins,and she wanted me to tell her that I didn't mean occupied commercial space.I said it might be mixed-use,but the new towers had to be occupied at least as high as the old ones. She cited substantial sentiment that people should never again go that high,and I told her that was what the terrorists wanted and must not have.I cited Attia's maxim of any 100 story building being safer than any 50 story building and his caution that 50 story buildings would have killed more people,much faster,if hit by the same attacks the Twins endured on September 11th.She wasn't convinced,of course...but we've got work to do. If you were not at Listening To The City II, do your best to sign up for the online version... see http://www.weblab.org/LTC.html for registration (not quite open yet but you can get email notification) and http://www.weblab.org/sgd/ for how the thing works. Whether you were there or not, write comments on the "six-pack of mediocrity" that urge fewer,taller,occupied buildings no shorter than the Twins (put in a plug for a favored embodiment if you like) and send them to lmdc@empire.state.ny.us or LMDC Invitation for Public Comment Site Plan Options c/o Empire State Development Corporation P.O. Box 4438,Grand Central Station New York,New York 10017 the plan website is http://www.renewnyc.com/concepts.htm They are also taking comments in via the website,but ones composed beforehand may be better prepared.They need to hear as many voices as possible telling them building height is more important than putting back Greenwich Street. They view everything through the prism of the memorial and are encouraged to do so by a loud minority that wails in outrage at any hint of treating what the victims did for a living as important, to the benefit of the other minority that hated the Twin Towers and wants to grab the opportunity bin Laden handed to them to remake the area. In fact of course it is the skyscrapers that get built that determine the context of the memorial.If they are shorter than the Twin Towers the memorial commemorates the victory of the killers and honors the killers more than it does the victims,no matter what it may claim...if the skyscrapers show evidence that we were NOT "cut down to size" then and only then are those who died properly honored. If you're from nearby mention your concern that any downsizing of the buildings (and the revenue from them earned by the PA) will come out of the pockets of users of PA trains,tunnels, bridges,airports,and harbors. If you're from far away mention the tourist appeal of the new buildings,the observation decks,etc...any memories of the old Towers,or regrets at not having visited them,and so forth. They want to think that the memorial will be the big tourist attraction.Make clear it is the new Towers that would be what you wanted to visit! If you'd contribute to funding of new buildings provided they were tall enough,or would envy anyone lucky enough to work on the top floor,don't forget to say that. Write in your own voice about the issues you think most important, but do add your voice so they hear from as many people who want gigantic towers on the site as possible. Petition news...Eli Attia's petition for an open design competition has moved ahead of Anita Solomon's anti-commercial-building petition, both are between 4900 and 5000 signatures but Attia's is now ahead. Not all his signatories are pro-rebuilders but this is still a good sign. The specifically pro-rebuilding petitions with known signature counts lag far behind...I do not know how many have signed the pro-rebuilding petition at ipetitions.com linked from http://www.teamtwintowers.org/ . My recently written "soft" petition is at http://www.put.com/wtc/petition.html and all are welcome to print it out and collect signatures. It is deliberately written to attract as many signatures as possible...it avoids the contentious issues of exact design or location,just spells out that there should be proper consideration of proposals for building at least as tall as the WTC in terms of antenna height,roof height, and occupied human space. "Jerzeez Finest",a mailing list member from New Jersey, wants to write a petition of his own and gather signatures through school friends...he thinks he can get 5000.I don't know just what his petition will call for.(Vincent Franco's and Kathryn McGinley's online petitions each have their individual features,as does the one from Team Twin Towers). I expect in the future to write a "hard" petition,which will spell out rationales and make more specific demands,and likely not get as many to sign it as the "soft" petition. I mentioned the Federal Hall exhibit (which with the revised schedule will now have a lot more of its run before the next hearing) as a potential place to canvass for petition signatures. But should the sheets,when filled,be mailed off to the Port Authority...or perhaps accumulated to be delivered en masse at the hearing? If economic downturns are cited as a reason we can't afford to build tall...take a look at just how many of New York's tallest buildings were built during the Depression! I've been pointed to a plan for the site by Ilene Skeen at http://iskeen.50megs.com/iskeen/blogger.html and Russell Barton has indicated a plan of his own.Of course there are the proposals by Scott Hines and Argus Sventon...there is no shortage of plans better than what the powers-that-be have laid before us,though I have yet to finish my own. I should also acknowledge a Rayden Tron note about large mixed use buildings with bearing wall construction,but I think the concerns I noted recently remain relevant.Ilene Skeen's plan with its rotated setbacks obviously dispenses with bearing wall construction and I don't know how difficult this would make interior layout. See you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11! -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.