Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 20:08:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein
Subject: WTC Rebuilding...Shouting Into Deaf Ears


I took a look through the Online-Listening-To-The-City
boards today and urge the members of the email list to
look at it from time to time.They set up 22 30-person
groups,in other words 660 people registered out of the
2500 they SAID they would have to reach before they
started excluding people.

Most of these groups have at least one vocal pro-rebuilder.
One I've added to the email list is Gary Taustine of
gramercynews.com who has helped make Group 7 the busiest
by collating pro-rebuilding statements from the other groups.

He favors leaving the fate of the site to a New Yorkers-only vote,
which of course leaves those of us from around the world desperate
to see those symbols of America and free world trade restored to
their full glory just as disenfranchised as the deceptive registration
system for the online dialogues.

I have now heard from more people who signed up and were rejected for
the unpublished and implicitly non-existent reasons of geographic
distance (mind you,one of the "facilitators" this time is from Australia!)
and prior participation...and also more people who DID get in.
Being on the outside,I can only do my best to help those on the
inside press the not-one-inch-shorter case.

One sentiment I have seen expressed time and again is the "In my
heart I would have wished to bring back the Twin Towers,but that's
not going to happen,so the best we can hope for is..." view.
This of course is music to the ears of those who want stunted symbols
of surrender...they want us to accept our defeat as a done deal,
since the only way they can win is by convincing us that we have
already lost,since if we all fight them we will crush them.

One thing that bears repeating is Eli Attia's crystal clear
"Any 100 story building is safer than any 50 story building".
He laid out the reasons at the phoenixusa.org site where the
petition for an open design competition is now past 8300 signatures.

The discussion proper of what should be built is scheduled for
August 2nd to 7th...I hope our side scores the most telling points.

In one group a survivor of a 9/11 victim tried to portray herself
as a lonely,righteous struggler surrounded by evil pro-rebuilders.
Her group,last I checked,regrettably lacked a strong pro-rebuilding
voice.

We need to sensitively get across to the survivors that there is
a difference between preserving the memory of the fallen and
ensuring the legacy of the murderers.By denying the killers an
architectural legacy,we are honoring the victims,by making the
effect of the killers on the skyline more lasting we are disgracing
the victims.

Likewise the "nobody would want to work up there" is repeated as
certain truth by nobodies who wouldn't work up there.Everyone who'd
be honored to work up there needs to say so loudly and proudly.
It's a certainty that top floors would rent,and the highest floors
would be lucrative tourist attractions as restaurants or observation
decks or whatever.And the lifetimes of the buildings would be bound
to see future peaks in office space demand.

They would be among the most desirable offices in the financial
district,and their attractiveness might spur the conversion of
OTHER office buildings to housing,hence no need for housing ON
the site.

There's no way for people who were rejected to communicate directly
through the site with those who were accepted,so we can't bring
people in to sites like Team Twin Towers etc without a registered
person posting links in his or her group (Jesse Barone did this for
his group).

There IS a certain tendency of women to be the vocal advocates of
not bringing the Towers back but there are definitely exceptions.

One group has someone trying to push the Franck Lohsen McCrery
"Liberty Square" proposal...in another I spotted discussion of
the put-the-streets-back concept that uniformly trashed the idea.
Again,not what the authors of the spineless six options want to
hear.

One thing that puzzles me is Derek Turner's wtc2002.com site
saying the Twins were 1320 feet tall instead of 1368 and 1362.
He's on the list,maybe he'll explain the lower figure...I hope
we can network with his plan's supporters to make the not-one-inch-shorter
coalition unstoppably huge before we get into design details.

Now,let's everyone use all the channels of comment and
protest that ARE available to us.The deceptive Online-LTTC
registration system may merit letters to editors,perhaps the
Post on past form is likeliest to print them.

No matter where you live,send in your comments on the site plans,etc...
if you've lost the addresses,
The resource link list remains at http://www.put.com/wtc/ .

Anybody who wants to volunteer for the petition/literature tables
in NYC,let me know so I can pass it to those already making plans!

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.