Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

WTC Worker Cleared in Clash With Police - Sep 30, 2003
A city supervisor at Ground Zero was cleared yesterday of criminal charges for trying to stop Port Authority cops from arresting a cleanup worker at the site. Three dozen supporters erupted in applause after a Manhattan jury acquitted Michael Kenny, 41, of resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and harassment in connection with the April 2002 incident. (New York Daily News)

Court Ruling on 9/11 Fund - Sep 30, 2003
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the government's Sept. 11 victim compensation fund can loosely limit award amounts - but criticized any attempt to cap their size. The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court judge, who tossed out three lawsuits challenging the victim's fund and its special master, Kenneth Feinberg. But the decision offered some encouragement to families who think they're being shortchanged. (New York Daily News)

A Profile of the Director of the Center on Terrorism and Public Safety - Sep 30, 2003
Charles Strozier is the director of John Jay's Center on Terrorism and Public Safety, begun after the 9/11 attacks. He has been teaching courses on terrorism -- often to police officers and firefighters -- at John Jay for more than a decade. After 9/11, he added classes like Terrorism and Politics and Terrorism and Apocalyptic Violence. He started a seminar series on terrorism that is part of a program that grants a certificate in terrorism studies on the graduate level. (New York Times)

Cost of Rebuilding Ground Zero Skyrockets - Sep 29, 2003
When federal, state and local government officials agreed to spend billions to rebuild the World Trade Center site, they signed on to repair damage to infrastructure and transportation in an effort to spark private reinvestment in the area. Over the past two years, that original scope expanded to include a range of other expenditures that could reach $1 billion. (Newsday)

Kerik: WTC site is sacred - Sep 29, 2003
No office building should rise on the footprints of the destroyed World Trade Center towers, former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said yesterday. "Would we build on Gettysburg? Would we build on a cemetery?" asked Kerik, who headed the NYPD during the terror attacks and recently returned from a four-month stint helping rebuild Iraq's police force. (New York Daily News)

Silverstein Marketing Space in 7 World Trade - Sep 29, 2003
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein is actively marketing 1.7 million square feet of office space in the new 7 World Trade Center, Crain's New York Business reports this week. (New York Daily News)

Bloomberg to Approve Using 9/11 Bonds for Midtown Tower - Sep 29, 2003
The Bloomberg administration is expected tomorrow to approve a controversial plan to finance a new midtown office tower with tax-exempt bonds created to help lower Manhattan. The plan by the Durst Organization and the Bank of America to build the new tower at One Bryant Park with $650 million in so-called Liberty Bonds has drawn the ire of some downtown business leaders and government watchdogs. (New York Daily News)

Run Honors 9/11 Hero - Sep 29, 2003
Thousands of relatives and friends of World Trade Center terror attack victims walked and ran yesterday in their memory. In the morning, some 4,000 rain-soaked runners crossed the finish line on Vesey St., retracing Firefighter Stephen Siller's last steps, in the second annual Tunnel to Towers Run. (New York Daily News)

Developer Loses Ruling in Trade Center Insurance Dispute - Sep 27, 2003
Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who controls the commercial leases at the World Trade Center site, suffered a major setback yesterday in his effort to collect $7 billion in insurance payouts by having the Sept. 11 disaster considered as two separate terrorist attacks. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected Mr. Silverstein's argument that as a matter of law, the two planes that struck the trade center constituted two attacks requiring two insurance payouts. In addition, a separate ruling, involving three companies that insured the trade center, could make it more difficult for Mr. Silverstein to press his claim against 18 other insurance companies. (New York Times)

Time Granted in Dispute Over Insurance for 9/11 Site - Sep 26, 2003
The developer Larry A. Silverstein, who controls the commercial leases at the World Trade Center site, and the Port Authority have one month to settle their dispute with a lender over insurance proceeds needed to rebuild the complex. (New York Times)

Bus Plan Could Reopen WTC Wounds - Sep 25, 2003
The proposed revisions to the World Trade Center rebuilding plan don¹t provide enough parking space for tour buses and could reopen the emotional fight over the merits of preserving the footprints of the Twin Towers down to the site¹s bedrock, according to a director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. ³It¹s not enough,² Madelyn Wils, the director, said about the proposed number of buses to be built underground across the street from the W.T.C. site. ³It¹s not even close.² (Downtown Express)

Mayor, Governor Back 9/11 Funds for Midtown - Sep 25, 2003
Mayor Mike Bloomberg said last week it is ³perfectly appropriate² to use money intended to help New York recover from the attack on the World Trade Center to construct offices in Midtown. Gov. George Pataki pledged to help the mayor achieve his goals. (Downtown Express)

Opposition to South Ferry Subway Project Grows - Sep 25, 2003
The Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityÂąs proposed $400-million-dollar renovation of the South Ferry subway station is getting a cold reception Downtown. The proposal for renovation of the station, which serves the 1/9 subway lines in Lower Manhattan, includes relocating the platform and making it accessible to all 10 train cars for easier passenger boarding. Currently, passengers must walk to the first five cars of the vehicle to exit, a lengthy process that can cause schedule delays. The sharp curve of the tracks at the current station also causes schedule delays. (Downtown Express)

Ground Zero Arts Proposals Are Complete - Sep 25, 2003
A total of 112 cultural groups submitted ideas for ground zero by last week's deadline, officials of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation said yesterday. The groups, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater and the New York Hall of Science, were responding to an invitation from the corporation, which is overseeing redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. (New York Times)

Barricades Going Down at One Wall Street - Sep 25, 2003
Security stations, trucks and police barricades blocking the Bank of New York's entrance at One Wall Street will be replaced by less intrusive security by April, the head of lower Manhattan's redevelopment agency promised the bank yesterday. (Newsday)

9/11 Counseling Program to be Extended - Sep 25, 2003
Federal officials are giving New Yorkers more time to seek counseling in a program to help cope with the horror of the terror attacks, Sen. Hillary Clinton said yesterday. New York's Democratic junior senator said Federal Emergency Management Undersecretary Michael Brown had committed to extending the deadline for Project Liberty treatment from December until June. (New York Daily News)

Silverstein's Legal Battles Continue - Sep 25, 2003
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein has accused his bankers of trying to "choke off" his cash flow, run him out of business and derail the rebuilding of lower Manhattan in an escalating legal battle that will be aired in court today. (New York Post)

Families to Hold Memorial Walk - Sep 25, 2003
Relatives of Sept. 11, 2001, victims will participate in a remembrance walk to Ground Zero on Sunday to honor those who died in the attacks - and soldiers fighting the war on terror. The Rev. Bill Minson, the event's organizer, said people with family in the military also are welcome in the second annual We Remember Walk. (New York Daily News)

Learning From 9/11, Bloomberg Seeks High-Rise Safety Changes - Sep 24, 2003
Legislation that would enact most of the fire safety improvements for tall buildings recommended by a task force that studied the World Trade Center collapse was announced yesterday by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Under a bill being submitted to the City Council next week, existing office towers in New York would have to comply with some of the stricter codes already in place for new buildings, including a potentially expensive requirement that sprinkler systems be installed. (New York Times)

Clinton Blocks EPA Nominee - Sep 24, 2003
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday charged that the White House orchestrated a deliberate effort to mislead New Yorkers about the city's air quality after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Clinton used a Senate hearing on the nomination of Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency to reiterate her demand that the administration again test the air quality of residences and businesses in lower Manhattan. (Newsday)

WTC Health List Draws 10,000 - Sep 24, 2003
More than 10,000 people have signed up for the World Trade Center Health Registry, less than two weeks after it opened, officials said yesterday. The registry, which aims to track health effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack over 20 years, includes people from 47 states and nine countries, so far. (New York Daily News)

A 9/11 Widow Finds a Renewal Amid Sorrow - Sep 23, 2003
If life is a lottery, it is hard to say just yet whether Virginia S. Bauer has won or lost. She has had her share of heartache. Her husband was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center. Yet she has also risen from the catastrophe to build a new identity, as one of the state's best-known advocates for 9/11 widows and as the new executive director of the New Jersey Lottery. (New York Times)

WTC Relic Sold On Web - Sep 23, 2003
A memorial sculpture made of steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center has been sold on the Internet, infuriating relatives of 9/11 victims and the artist who created the poignant tribute. It wasn't immediately clear how one of the sculptures - distributed exclusively to victims' families - got into the hands of the company that hawked it on eBay. (New York Daily News)

Court Hears of Tussle at Ground Zero - Sep 23, 2003
A city Ground Zero supervisor was portrayed variously yesterday as a hothead and a hero to a Manhattan jury weighing charges that he resisted arrest. Michael Kenny, a construction project manager at the World Trade Center site, was arrested April 13, 2002, after he tried to stop Port Authority cops from arresting one of his workers. The worker, Clint Collins, angered cops when he tried to stop them from entering the site without protective gear, lawyers for Collins and Kenny contend (New York Daily News)

Design Team for Trade Center Reveals a Revised Master Plan - Sep 18, 2003
Rebuilding officials released a revised and expanded master plan for the World Trade Center site yesterday that includes a taller, slimmer set of office towers surrounding the central memorial area and a large new park immediately to the south. (New York Times)

Name "World Trade Center" May Endure Downtown - Sep 18, 2003
A series of decisions points to "World Trade Center" as the formal, future name of that acreage downtown, Daniel Libeskind designs and all. (New York Times)

Two Years Later: Despite Feeling Threatened, Few Bother With Preparations - Sep 9, 2003
Two years after the Sept. 11 attacks, a majority of Americans are concerned that they may face more terrorism, and they feel unprepared and have little faith that hospitals and law enforcement agencies can adequately respond, according to a study released yesterday. Fewer than one in four families have an emergency plan in place, though 81 percent of New Yorkers fear another terrorist attack will occur, according to the survey. (New York Times)

9/11 Detainees: Plans for Terror Inquiries Still Fall Short, Report Says - Sep 9, 2003
The Justice Department, criticized for its treatment of hundreds of illegal immigrants jailed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has not done enough to avoid a repeat by spelling out clear criteria for determining who is considered a terrorist suspect, an internal report concluded today. (New York Times)

Asian-Americans Face Cultural Barrier to 9/11 Counseling - Sep 9, 2003
According to a study being released today by the Asian American Federation of New York, many Asian-Americans rejected professional therapy after Sept. 11. Even some counseling services developed for Asians were not used much more in the year after Sept. 11, the study found. (New York Times)

Two Years Later: Fake Licenses Are Still Seen as Easy to Obtain - Sep 9, 2003
Despite many states' tightening of procedures for issuing driver's licenses after the Sept. 11 attacks, undercover federal investigators still found it relatively easy to obtain fake licenses by using counterfeit documents, according to a report by the General Accounting Office. (New York Times)

9/11 Families to Protest Ashcroft and Patriot Act - Sep 9, 2003
An anti-war group comprising Sept. 11 victims' families will converge on lower Manhattan today to protest Attorney General John Ashcroft and the controversial Patriot Act. The families, who sang songs of peace with Iraqi children at a Baghdad shelter shortly before U.S. troops invaded, will join the American Civil Liberties Union and others to denounce the anti-terrorism legislation. (New York Daily News)

Families Want Names on 9/11 Wall - Sep 9, 2003
The families of three retired firefighters who died at the World Trade Center want them included on the list of firefighters who died in the line of duty. The families plan a news conference tonight at Ground Zero to call on the Fire Department to inscribe the names of Capt. James Corrigan and firefighters Phillip Hayes and William Wren on the wall at the department's Brooklyn headquarters that lists firefighters who died in the line of duty. (Newsday)

Businessman Charged in 9/11 Grant Scam - Sep 9, 2003
A fraudster tried to cash in on the Sept. 11 attack by claiming $270,000 in federal grant money set aside for affected businesses - even though his company was located 205 miles from Ground Zero, the feds charge. (New York Post)

9/11 Brought Changes for New York Historical Society - Sep 9, 2003
At the New-York Historical Society, it sometimes seems like the history of New York started Sept. 11, 2001. The venerable museum has mounted a dozen exhibits on the World Trade Center disaster and has a full slate of free programs to mark Thursday's second anniversary. (New York Daily News)

Two Years Later, 9/11 Survivor Still Recovering - Sep 9, 2003
On 9/11, Lauren Manning was on her way to work as a senior executive at Cantor Fitzgerald when she was engulfed by a fireball in the lobby of 1 World Trade Center. Burned over most of her body, she was given little chance to live. She spent months in a drug-induced coma before pulling through faster than even optimists had thought possible. (New York Times)

Two Years Later: Trying to Shed the Numbness in Middletown - Sep 9, 2003
For the grieving widows, mothers and children of Middletown, it was a year of shedding the numbness, embracing the rituals of death and, for even some of the most distraught, dipping a toe into the pleasures of living. Two years after they were battered by the horrors of terrorism, the 36 families here who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center are still haunted by the final panicked phone calls or bewildered by the demands of raising children alone. (New York Times)

Two Years Later: Living at Ground Zero, and Tiring of the Neighborhood Sideshow - Sep 9, 2003
With ground zero as their front yard, the residents of 125 Cedar have developed a low tolerance for the constant procession -- tourists, construction workers, dignitaries, vendors hawking DVD's of the attacks -- that rolls by night and day. (New York Times)

Moving On After 9/11, From Park Slope to Staten Island - Sep 9, 2003
Life two years later for the family of Dave Fontana, one of 12 firefighters lost on Sept. 11 from Squad 1, the elite fire company in Park Slope, Brooklyn. (New York Times)

9/11 Still Strains New York Psyche - Sep 8, 2003
In the second year of living with the memory, the simmering disquiet persists, a lengthening shadow that won't leave. A New York Times poll of 976 adult New Yorkers, taken last week, underscores how much lasting damage 9/11 inflicted on the city's psyche. Two-thirds of the people questioned said they were very concerned about another attack in New York. (New York Times)

Downtown Grants Found to Favor Investment Firms - Sep 8, 2003
More than a third of the emergency grant money intended to help small businesses in Lower Manhattan survive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack went to investment firms, financial traders and lawyers, a result that some New York legislators who helped secure money for the program say they never envisioned. (New York Times)

Apartments Rising In Lower Manhattan - Sep 8, 2003
Two years after the World Trade Center collapsed into ashes, lower Manhattan is being reborn. More than 2,000 apartments have been built within a few blocks of Ground Zero since Sept. 11, 2001, and an additional 17 buildings are under construction or in the planning stages - reinventing an area once predominantly filled with offices. (New York Daily News)

Flags Draped Around Liberty Island - Sep 8, 2003
Hundreds of specially designed flags were draped around Liberty Island yesterday in an emotional tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. More than 600 volunteers unfurled the flags, which were created by Chinese performance artist Pop Zhao. (New York Post)

Two Years After 9/11, Security Still Has a Long Way To Go - Sep 7, 2003
As the two-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks approaches, New York has experienced significant security breakdowns and inconsistencies. Still, this much is certain: Despite those breaches, New York's police, the FBI, and Port Authority police seem better prepared today than they were a year ago to track terrorists, share intelligence information and respond to acts of terror. (Newsday)

For Some Survivors, Ground Zero Is No Place for Private Day of Remembering - Sep 7, 2003
Two years later, the families of people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, are deciding where to mark, in the least painful way, what was probably the most painful day in their lives. Those who have chosen to stay away from the events at ground zero on Thursday plan to attend hometown ceremonies, commune with nature, spend time with family or continue traditions started last year. (New York Times)

Uncertainty Lingers Over 9/11 Air Pollution - Sep 7, 2003
The air in Lower Manhattan after Sept. 11 has swirled back into the news -- what people knew about it, when they knew it and what they said about it. The underlying issue, researchers, doctors and politicians say, remains just as unresolved today as it was back then in the chaotic, emotional days after the attacks: How do you communicate something about which no one has ever had any experience? Was there a standard of confidence about the environmental risks and unknowns that was scientifically or perhaps even morally appropriate under the circumstances? (New York Times)

New Video: A Rare View of 9/11, Overlooked - Sep 7, 2003
An unseen video tape of September 11, a kind of accidentally haunting artifact, has surfaced publicly only now, on the eve of the second anniversary of the attacks, after following the most tortuous and improbable of paths, from an insular circle of Czech-American working-class friends and drinking buddies. (New York Times)

24 Hours At Ground Zero - Sep 7, 2003
Two years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the 16-acre site now known as Ground Zero has become a faded memory for most - it sits mostly paved over and populated by cranes and construction crews. As life rushes past, The Post watched, capturing 24 hours in the life of Ground Zero, from sunrise to sunrise (New York Post)

Neighborhood Around Ground Zero Is Fastest Growing In City - Sep 7, 2003
The area around Ground Zero has become the city's fastest growing neighborhood, but it's overpopulated and undeserved, residents charge. Following 9/11, vacancy rates in some Lower Manhattan buildings approached as 50 percent. But because of residential grants and bargain hunters flooding the market, the vacancy rate in some Lower Manhattan neighborhoods is now less than one percent - nearly a quarter less than the average for the rest of Manhattan, realtors say. (New York Post)

Companies Honor the Fallen As They Forge Ahead - Sep 7, 2003
The companies that once occupied the north and south towers and lost employees on Sept. 11, 2001, have searched for ways to remember their fallen colleagues as they strive to continue their work in new offices. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Children's Journeys of Grief - Sep 7, 2003
Two years later, psychologists caution against measuring as a group how the children who lost parents on September 11 are doing now. Perhaps the only useful generalization to make is a statistical one: there are about 3,051 children who lost a parent, according to a Newsday analysis last year, 2,172 of whom were 17 or younger that day. (Newsday)

Love, Terror and the Chance of Love Again - Sep 7, 2003
For some, it is unthinkable. The other side of the bed must remain forever empty. Children must cleave to the parent they have. Lives shall be lived alone. But there are other widows, widowers and partners of those who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, who are dating again. They have found that every tentative new love is alloyed with an inconsolable regret. And every new journey of the heart traverses a minefield of expectations, emotions and financial quandaries. (New York Times)

Children Still Suffering Psychological Effects of Attacks - Sep 7, 2003
As the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches this week, some of those who are still suffering in the city are children. Many are from poor neighborhoods and attend underperforming schools. Some are from families where there is little support for the problems. And now, funding for the therapy that could address the anguish of some of those children is being discontinued. (New York Post)

Personal Tributes to 9/11 Victims - Sep 7, 2003
A grand memorial for all 2,792 who died when the twin towers were destroyed is to be built someday at the former site of the World Trade Center. But as a bitter feud brews over exactly what the memorial should be, the loved ones of the lost have quietly created personal tributes. (New York Daily News)

Profiles: People Picking Up the Pieces After 9/11 - Sep 7, 2003
A series of short profiles of people working to rebuild New York: the chief of forensic biology at New York City medical examiner's office, the head of New York City FBI office, and others. (New York Post)

Bloomberg: It's Ok For President To Skip WTC Ceremony - Sep 6, 2003
If President Bush wants to skip New York's ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, that's fine with Mayor Bloomberg. Playing the good Republican, Bloomberg praised Bush for keeping politics out of next week's ceremony. (New York Daily News)

300,000 Around WTC to be Studied for 20 Years - Sep 6, 2003
Some 300,000 people who lived, worked or were near Ground Zero after Sept. 11, 2001, are being asked to join an official registry to monitor any health effects from the World Trade Center debris plume. (New York Daily News)