Here's what the WTCRM thinks about it in Newsletter #3
Not surprisingly, the transfer of the site from the two states to the city alone, pressed by Bloomberg, is not too popular with those whose ownership rights are thus taken away...
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/72550.htm tells of New Jersey's opposition to the swap.So far no organized opposition from the New Yorkers outside the city limits(of whom I am one).
There's also growing opposition to the swap from the other side, from elected officials in Queens who will have far less leverage over Port Authority-owned airports.
The swap of course would allow the redevelopment process to be Bloomberg-ized,and introduce new layers of political and bureaucratic approval. Not surprisongly, Silverstein is also strongly opposed.
Opposing the swap deal should be part of our next rally agenda.
On another front,
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/72644.htm tells that Westfield America,the WTC retail lessees, is against the Libeskind plan and its very different flow for the retail space,which they see as a downgrade on what they had before. The letter they wrote weeks ago was just unearthed by the Post.
Frankly,the different treatment of the retail space is the fault of the program requirements issued by the "Leave Manhattan Destroyed Committee",with its obsession with the urban-utopian street-level focus.Perhaps Westfield
would back the WTCRM architectural competition since we have no such requirements!
I was very disappointed that the article for which Jessica Bruder,freelance journalist,interviewed me appeared recently in the Washington Post and turned out to slam the idea of building tall on the site and sucked up outrageously to the fears of working high up that the terrorists sought to create. Those in the area can write to the Post and condemn it...
I can give her Yahoo email address to those who have read the article also.It's at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Mar28.html for your reading annoyance!
Izeklah continues to work on his www.restorewtc.com website and I continue not to understand what it would offer that existing pro-rebuilding websites don't,though if course I'll link to it from
http://www.put.com/wtc/ when available.
Daniel Libeskind will be presenting his WTC plan at the 250 Broadway hearing room used for Community Board 1 meetings on Monday,April 14th at 6 PM. This is a serious opportunity for NYC-nbased rebuilders at the very least to take up seats that might otherwise be taken by those there to demand that the plans be made even worse.Be prepared for oppressive security...they demand photo ID from whoever shows up!
Tom Auchterlonie's proposal on the NYCS board that pro-rebuilders who attend invite Libeskind to dine with them seems unrealistic, but dialogue is useful.
Attending or not,feel free to write Libeskind at info@daniel-libeskind.com but of course he buys all the reluctances to build as tall as we must in terms of occupied space.I continue to urge writing to Bank of America as a potential prove-this-wrong anchor tenant demanding a very tall signature tower.
See you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11!
Louis Epstein
