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Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Citizens Union

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Latest Ideas and Opinions

Slain Detectives Add to Pain of 9/11 Anniversary - Sep 12, 2004
"On hearing the name of this 53-year-old executive who died in the south tower, you could not help but think of another Parker, 43-year-old Detective Robert Parker of the Snyder Ave. stationhouse," writes Michael Daly in the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Forging Ahead on 9/11's Third Anniversary - Sep 11, 2004
"There's not much more that can be said now that hasn't been said before. The rhetoric may be achingly familiar — but so, then, is the continued pain of the surviving families of those who died in New York that day: passengers aboard the planes; workers in the World Trade Center, and the city's heroic police, firefighters and emergency workers," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Still, New York and the nation forge ahead." (New York Post )

Remember 9/11, Work to Prevent Another Attack - Sep 11, 2004
"Yesterday's fight over the kind of memorial that should arise from Ground Zero has pretty much been settled. So have myriad other disputes over the best way to honor the victims of 9/11 - our loved ones, our co-workers, and our fallen police and firefighters and ambulance workers," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "The challenge today is to remember their sacrifices as we work to prevent another terrorist attack. The challenge now is to grieve quietly and act decisively." (Newsday )

Development is Desecrating Ground Zero - Sep 11, 2004
"Each year on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, family members journey down to bedrock to stand on the footprints of the twin towers, the final resting place of many of those killed during the first battle of the War on Terror," write Anthony Gardener and Patricia Reilly in the New York Daily News. "If the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and Port Authority have their way, today's anniversary ceremony will be the last to include that journey." (New York Daily News)

Facing The Truths of 9/11 - Sep 11, 2004
"Three years after an unthinkable Tuesday morning of a sunny New York September, it is today plain that we are living through an extraordinarily epochal moment in the world's history, one that scholars of the future will view as having marked a great eruption in tide and time," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Remembering the 2,749 Victims of 9/11 - Sep 11, 2004
"On this Sept. 11, we look back to the day when innocents and innocence died. When the sky fell and cries of despair rose to the heavens - despair that was conquered by faith and love and courage and the inspiration of a city full of valor and a country full of compassion," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "Since then, we have attempted to come to terms with mass murder, but acceptance is both impossible and unwanted. So we mourn, we rage and we soldier on. We go to work, to school, to houses of worship, and we mark the passage of three years - 1,095 days. But no matter how life changes, the 2,749 names on this dreadful roster are ever constant, each forever representing a crime against humanity." (New York Daily News)

Book Review: In The Shadow of No Towers - Sep 11, 2004
"'In the Shadow of No Towers' is an odd, thin but robust hybrid of a book -- an intimate memoir of the attacks on the World Trade Center, which Spiegelman witnessed from close range, a rant on their effects on the world at large and within the author, and a monograph on the Sunday newspaper comic strips of the early 20th century, all within 42 oversized pages," writes David Hajdu in the New York Times. (New York Times )

What We Know -- And Don't Know -- About 9/11 - Sep 11, 2004
"In the three years since 9/11, we've begun to understand that it's possible to know what happened without knowing what happened. It's the difference between knowledge that is both private and communal - our memories of where we were, what we saw, what we lost - and knowledge that is truly public," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "Some of what we need to know publicly has been provided by the report of the 9/11 commission. Other answers are lacking." (New York Times )

Republican 9/11 Vs. New Yorker's 9/11 - Sep 9, 2004
"Whatever finally emerges from the convention, whether Bush gets his bounce or Bloomberg escapes without damage on his failed promise of economic bonanza, walking around the city from Tuesday night on was to realize that 9/11, which will never really leave us, had come back fully graphic," writes Mark Jocobson in New York Magazine. "The idea of the modern political convention as one big stage play is something most everyone is used to by now. But being cast as extras in the Republicans’ best-case script (the heroic W. returns to the scene of the ultimate crime) can set locals seething." (New York Magazine )

9/11 Has Turned Americans Into Fans of New York - Sep 8, 2004
"While New Yorkers work out the details of life past 9/11, the rest of the nation not only seems to like our toughness in the face of death, but also actually seems to like our wild and crazy town," writes Joseph Dolman in Newsday. "I'm not sure this good feeling can last. But what if it does?" (Newsday )

Cities Need More Anti-Terror Money - Sep 7, 2004
"Every mayor's worst nightmare is getting the call that his or her city has been hit by a terrorist attack," writes Wellington Webb, the former mayor of Denver, in the New York Daily News. "After talking to mayors around the country as the third anniversary of 9/11 approaches, though, I've concluded what really keeps them up at night is knowing that they do not have the resources to prepare for, or respond adequately, to an attack, especially one using biological, chemical or radiological weapons." (New York Daily News)

Republicans Have Right to Discuss 9/11 - Sep 1, 2004
"Dems say Republicans have no right to be talking this week about Ground Zero. Such talk, they say, amounts to "exploitation" of a sacred event. Some of the 9/11 families agree," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "But it's baloney." (New York Post )

New York Officials Exploit Security Funding Issue for Political Gain -- Instead of Working to Solve it - Aug 31, 2004
"New York isn't getting its fair share of homeland security funding. The prob lem is solvable — but Gotham's congressional delegation would rather use the shortfall as an excuse to complain that the city is getting shafted by President Bush and the Republican Congress," writes Nicole Gelinas in the New York Post. (New York Post )

Republicans Discuss -- But Don't Exploit -- 9/11 - Aug 31, 2004
"Three 9/11 widows testified movingly to their sacrifices, and to the nation's. Done differently, it might have come off as tawdry and exploitative — but it was none of that. It seemed majestic. So, too, was former NYPD officer Daniel Rodriguez's soaring rendition of the hymn that became New York City's post-9/11 anthem, 'Amazing Grace,'" writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Then there were the headliners: Sen. John McCain — and Rudy Giuliani." (New York Post )

Bush Says Remember 9/11, But His Response Has Not Been Memorable - Aug 31, 2004
"With their convention set here in the city, the Republicans want to send a message that America should remember 9/11. I am reminded, though, that Nov. 2 is Election Day and that accountability should be our top priority," writes Laura Van Auken in the New York Daily News. "Forgive me, but I don't consider 9/11 or the thousand-plus days since then the best example of our nation's greatness. Sadly, three years since the day of my husband Ken's death, I still find myself praying for some strong leadership." (New York Times )

As Republicans Benefit From Ground Zero, Has New York Benefitted from Repbulican Rule? - Aug 29, 2004
"Republicans understand the inappropriateness of exploiting [Ground Zero] before families have lost the jagged edge of their grief. Yet, the convention doesn't seem to mind benefiting from the aura of a heroic, battered but not fallen city. The Republicans know that thousands of tourists still travel across state lines to say prayers, leave deli-bought bouquets and peer into the pit," writes Ishle Yi Park in Newsday. "But until now, how much have visiting Republicans really helped diverse, urban New Yorkers?" (Newsday )

Using Ground Zero to Turn Politics into Black and White - Aug 28, 2004
"The power of the W.T.C. site is its ability to recall the stark division between good and evil as contrasted between people who flew airplanes into buildings to kill and those who fought to survive and to help others survive. Vast portions of the world, even those suspicious of America’s position as a dominant super power, poured out sympathy and support for us. In this place and at that time, the world simplified into black and white," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "But people soon figured out that giving speeches at W.T.C. imparted definitiveness to causes, even if the issues asserted were not so clear." (Downtown Express)

Downtown's Questions for the President - Aug 28, 2004
"With President George W. Bush and his Republican friends and supporters coming to town next week for the Republican National Convention, we in Lower Manhattan – the geographic community hardest hit by 9/11 – have some questions for them," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

City's Security Still Lacking - Aug 26, 2004
"They stood in the sun in quiet insanity. There were 27 cops guarding an empty lot on Madison Street yesterday, about a block from Police Headquarters. Sunlight on asphalt. Two sergeants were out directing traffic. A captain stood between slabs of concrete, ready to throw back a tank attack," writes Jimmy Breslin in Newsday. (Newsday)

In Post 9/11 World, Drivers License Restrictions Are Appropriate - Aug 20, 2004
"Advocates for illegal aliens are up in arms over New York state's decision to crack down on the out-of-control issuance of driver's licenses here..." writes the New York Post. "Hasn't anyone heard of 9/11?" (New York Post )

Bush Must Come Clean About 9/11 Air Quality Deceit - Aug 19, 2004
"Nearly three years after 9/11, the scandal keeps growing over the federal government's handling of the massive pollution released by the twin towers collapse," writes Juan Gonzalez in the New York Daily News. "With the Republicans coming to town, President Bush and Christie Todd Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, should answer questions about their own roles at Ground Zero." (New York Daily News)

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Should Heed Criticism About Grants - Aug 17, 2004
"Leaders of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. were privately described by one reporter as "apoplectic" after the release last week of a report by Good Jobs New York, an advocacy organization. The report - available online at www.goodjobsny.org - charges that the LMDC's process for allocating more than $1 billion to rebuild downtown is vague, secretive and skewed toward the wealthy and well-connected," writes Errol Louis in the New York Daily News. "Community groups have been saying the same thing for months. The corporation should acknowledge the problems and fix them rather than continue hiding its head in the sand." (New York Daily News)

9/11 Commission's Work is Over; Its Members Should Acknowledge That - Aug 12, 2004
"Members of the 9/11 Commission are rapidly becoming the dinner guests who won't leave," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "On Tuesday, Co-Chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton were on Capitol Hill, insisting that Congress pass the panel's recommendations in toto, despite legitimate reservations from some Pentagon officials." (New York Post )

In Case of Attack, This Businesswoman is Ready - Aug 11, 2004
"Abigail Trenk, president of Air Pegasus, the heliport at 30th Street and the Hudson River, was at her desk at 6:30 yesterday morning, as she has been practically every day since the raid at the World Trade Center," writes Jimmy Breslin in Newsday. "Her city and country can count on her to be a bulwark in the suddenly popular anti-terror field of helicopters." (Newsday)

New Intelligence Shows Terror Warning Was Valid - Aug 10, 2004
“The latest disclosures of al Qaeda's plans for another major attack in New York City in hopes of disrupting the election should finally put the lie to those who claim the recent terror alert was a politically timed sham,” writes the New York Post. (New York Post)

Schumer: The Sour Taste of Pork - Aug 8, 2004
"It was always thought that Homeland Security funds would be distributed based on assessed threat, and in the first year, New York received a fair share," writes Senator Chuck Schumer in the New York Post. "But as the specter of Sept. 11 faded, the funds increasingly became treated as political pork instead of aid based on need." (New York Post)

Careless Intelligence Reform Could Make Matters Worse - Aug 8, 2004
"There is a genuine urgency to ensure that the nation's 15 intelligence agencies communicate and cooperate more effectively than they did before Sept. 11, 2001," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "But there is also a real danger that, in the rush to do something, what gets done will either be cosmetic or actually make matters worse. Congress should take the time to get this right." (Newsday)

For 9/11 Commission Recommendations to Work, Congress Must Reform Too - Aug 8, 2004
"The commission's other proposed reforms - calling for a new national intelligence director and a new National Counterterrorism Center - will not work unless Congressional oversight changes too," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "Yet almost nobody really expects much reform." (New York Times)

Terror Warnings Need Maternal Instincts - Aug 7, 2004
"We need mothers somewhere behind the lectern of terror warnings," writes Jane Flanagan in Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Learning to Live With Fear - Aug 7, 2004
"For the last three years, few of us living or working in Lower Manhattan were able to go through our daily routines without the thought of a terrorist attack in the back of our minds. Somehow though, many of us carried on and were able to keep those thoughts distant," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. That all was jolted Sunday." (Downtown Express)

Use the Broken Windows Approach on Terrorism - Aug 5, 2004
"If you want to fight the war on terror and win, then you want to talk to George Kelling," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "He's the Rutgers University professor who authored the seminal 'broken windows' theory of law enforcement that prompted a sea change in local policing in the 1990s, helping make millions of Americans safer." (New York Daily News)

Terror Alerts Are Doing Little Good - Aug 5, 2004
"Our lives have changed so much since Sept. 11, 2001. We know that we may never again be free of the threat of terrorism. It's been a tough adjustment for everyone, and the burden on President Bush is especially heavy. Given the unprecedented circumstances and the costs of making a mistake, it's easy to understand why the administration has had so much trouble managing the way it informs the public about potential danger," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "But after 17 months in which alerts blinked from yellow to orange and back a half-dozen times, the White House should be past its learning curve. It isn't. The events of this week showed starkly that the system is not working." (New York Times)

Terror Threats Have Become a Part of Life - Aug 4, 2004
"A smooth Tom Ridge struggled yesterday to show New Yorkers that the latest terror alert isn't just a cheap White House excuse to mess with their heads," writes Joseph Dolman in Newsday. "He didn't quite succeed, but it doesn't really matter - at least not to me." (Newsday)

Security Checklist - Aug 4, 2004
"The new terror alerts in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., are jolt ing reminders that while Congress is on summer vacation, the Islamofascists don't do recess," writes Michael Malkin in the New York Post. "While the Bush administration has done much to prevent another attack on the homeland, there is still plenty more to do." (New York Post)

Terror Alert is Justified, Even if Intelligence is Old - Aug 4, 2004
"Yes, it does appear that this alert was based largely on evidence that al Qaeda operatives began collecting detailed information about specific locations well before 9/11," writes the New York Post. "But so what?" (New York Post)

New Yorkers Show Strength During Terror Alert - Aug 4, 2004
"Most feel afraid, but go anyway. Some probably don't believe the reports that they're working in the cross hairs of a terror target. Others, no doubt, show up simply because they need the paycheck," writes Michael Goodwin in the New York Daily News. "Whatever their reasons, the millions of New Yorkers who have gone about their lives the last two days are demonstrating an inspirational courage against an insidious enemy." (New York Daily News)

Reopening of Statue is a Farce - Aug 4, 2004
"In 1916, the massive explosion of the Black Tom ammunition depot - a blast blamed on German saboteurs - rocked the Jersey City waterfront and damaged the nearby Statue of Liberty. The right arm was weakened, and so the public was no longer allowed to climb up into the torch. You could still get to the crown, though," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "On 9/11, no damage at all was done to the Statue of Liberty, but the resolve of the Interior Department, which oversees the monument, was weakened. And so the public can't climb up into the statue. Which means that yesterday's pomp-and-circumstance "reopening" of the base - the stump - was a farce." (New York Daily News)

Statue of Liberty's Reopening Shows Limits of Resolve - Aug 4, 2004
"The limit of our national resolve and confidence is now marked by a glass ceiling under the feet of the statue that stood so defiantly when the twin towers fell nearly three years ago," writes Michael Daly in the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Due to Security Measures, Statue of Liberty's Reopening is Bittersweet - Aug 4, 2004
"For anyone who has ever trekked up the spiral staircase of the Statue of Liberty and peered through the crown's narrow windows, the statue's reopening this week, for the first time since the 9/11 attacks, is bittersweet. Its surrounding grounds and facilities have been spruced up, and members of the National Park Service gamely claim that the statue, an international icon, is better than ever. But there's no way to ignore the loss of what was the main attraction: tourists can no longer knock themselves out by climbing those storied 354 steps," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "It's perhaps an unavoidable result of the vigilance against terrorism, but a sad one nonetheless." (New York Times)

Act on 9/11 Commission's Report Quickly, But Not Hastily - Aug 3, 2004
"In its zeal to restructure the nation's intelligence community, Washington shouldn't confuse acting quickly with acting hastily. Quickly, as in without undue delay, is good," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "Hastily, as in rashly, with a lack of deliberation and caution, is not. There is too much at stake to risk a campaign-fueled rush to judgment before the November election." (Newsday)

Security Measures Are Working - Aug 3, 2004
"'Homeland Security System Actually Works.' No one head lined coverage of the 9/11 Commission report that way. But they should have," writes James Jay Carafano in the New York Post. "Of course, the commissioners couldn't bear to say it outright. And few in the press could read it between the lines. But the panel's report pretty much endorsed everything that's been done since 9/11 to make us safer." (New York Post)

For Better or Worse, US Will Have Intelligence Czar - Aug 3, 2004
"President Bush yesterday — for better or worse — proposed the creation of a national intelligence czar to help facilitate the War on Terror," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "For better, because the United States hasn't been well-served by the present, scattershot approach to the collection of critically important intelligence. For worse, because the "czar" approach to difficult public-policy problems hasn't worked all that well over the years." (New York Post)

New Intelligence Post Should Cause Dramatic Reform - Aug 3, 2004
"President Bush was right to propose the creation of an intelligence czar, as urged by the 9/11 commission and supported in slightly different form by Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "With both candidates behind the idea - as well as backing the establishment of a counterterrorism center - a seismic temblor is rattling the country's 15-agency intelligence superstructure." (New York Daily News)

Bush's Takes Wrong Action on 9/11 Commission - Aug 3, 2004
"At a time when Americans need strong leadership and bold action, President Bush offered tired nostrums and bureaucratic half-measures yesterday," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "He wanted to appear to be embracing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, but he actually rejected the panel's most significant ideas, and thus missed a chance to confront the twin burdens he faces at this late point in his term: the need to get intelligence reform moving whether he's re-elected or not, and the equally urgent need to repair the government's credibility on national security." (New York Times)

Terror Warnings: What Else is New? - Aug 2, 2004
"It in no way diminishes the gravity of the terror warnings issued yesterday in Washington and at City Hall to ask: So, what else is new?" writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "There was never any reason to think al Qaeda had quit plotting yet another strike on the American homeland. The information made public yesterday only confirms that unhappy reality." (New York Post)

New Yorkers Shouldn't Let Terror Warnings Ruin Our Lives - Aug 2, 2004
"Some might question the wisdom of Mayor Bloomberg's urging New Yorkers to go about business as usual today - including and especially those who work in or live near the targeted buildings. But wise this advice is," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "Not only because the terror threats carry no time frame, but because the most powerful weapon in our counterterrorism arsenal is the courage of the ordinary citizen and his or her determination not to be cowed." (New York Daily News)

$2 Billion is a Good Start, Governor - Aug 1, 2004
"Gov. George Pataki won a big battle for Downtown Thursday when he got President Bush to support transferring $2 billion in 9/11-related tax credits to a link connecting Lower Manhattan to the Long Island Rail Road and J.F.K. Airport," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "We believe this project will provide a permanent stimulus to Downtown’s economy." (Downtown Express)

Stop Playing Politics With Security Funds - Jul 27, 2004
"The White House and Congress are duly engaged in studying the recommendations of the 9/11 commission with promises of quick action where warranted. This is well and good, but the government needs no further deliberations regarding one policy of obvious and festering stupidity," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "We speak, of course, of Washington's insistence on sending hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-terror aid every place but where it's needed most, namely right here in New York, Ground Zero, the No. 1 target for Osama Bin Laden and his determined spawn." (New York Daily News)

Governor's Shift on West Street a Welcome Development - Jul 25, 2004
"As we continue to wrestle with the questions of how best to spend the last of the available federal money to help Downtown, there was a heartening development last week," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "Gov. George Pataki indicated for the first time a real openness not to go forward with the plan to build an $860-million vehicular tunnel under West St. and adjacent to the World Trade Center site. Up until now, the governor had continued to talk about the tunnel like it was a fait accompli." (Downtown Express)

Not Quite the End of the Road for 9/11 Commission - Jul 25, 2004
"At the end of the day with the final report of the 9/11 commission, it was not quite the end of the day," writes Les Payne in Newsday. "Indeed it may be only the end of the beginning." (Newsday)

To Fight Terror, US Must Combat Bureaucracy - Jul 25, 2004
"Perhaps the most far-reaching finding of the 600-page report by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was that the most important failure was 'one of imagination,'" writes the editorial page of Newsday. "It was a failure that ran from top to bottom." (Newsday)

How Will Historians Look at the 9/11 Commission Report? - Jul 25, 2004
"[H]ow will future historians view [the 9/11 Commission Report}? How well will its findings stand up 10, 20 or 50 years from now? How will historians use it when they turn to writing the history of our time?" writes Allan Megill in Newsday. "If they are any good, the historians will rip the report to shreds, for in various ways it falls short as a historical work. It is almost inevitable that it should fall short, given the time constraints and the commission's agenda." (Newsday)

'Rescue Me' is Best Depiction Yet of Post 9/11 World - Jul 25, 2004
"Artists of every ilk have tried to come to terms with Sept. 11 in the past couple of years. There have been few notable successes, especially in the self-poisoningly sentimental realm of television. The hardest part about getting 9/11 right has not been coming to terms with the enormities of that day or even distinguishing the false sentiments from the genuine emotions it aroused. The hardest part, artistically, has been gauging just exactly how far we find ourselves from that distant morning at this very moment," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "That's what 'Rescue Me' gets so memorably right." (New York Times)

9/11 Commission Report Will Only Fuel More Questions - Jul 24, 2004
"With the release of their report, the members of the 9/11 Commission undoubtedly hope to provide the fullest account of the events surrounding 9/11," writes Philip Klinker in Newsday. "But if history is any guide, the commission's report will do little to quell the controversy surrounding 9/11. Indeed, as with previous commissions, the 9/11 report will likely only fuel further questions and speculation." (Newsday)

9/11 Commission's Urgency Being Ignored - Jul 24, 2004
"Utmost national urgency. Must get to work immediately. Cannot afford delay. We're in danger of letting things slide. We do not have the luxury of time," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "That was the 9/11 commission on Thursday, warning that we're surely dead in our beds unless the government right this minute takes up the business of overhauling American intelligence and appointing a cabinet-level anti-terror czar." (New York Daily News)

An Overhaul is Necessary, But Beware of Bureaucracy - Jul 23, 2004
“Faced with intelligence failures chronicled in the 9/11 Commission report released yesterday, the natural impulse is to do something dramatic to change the status quo. That's one reason the commission's call for a cabinet-level post of national intelligence director and a National Counterterrorism Center have gotten the lion's share of attention,” writes the editorial page of Newsday. “Some reorganization may prove advisable. But a bureaucratic shuffle is no silver bullet.” (Newsday)

9/11 Commission Report Vindicates President on Anti-Terror Efforts - Jul 23, 2004
The 567-page report made public yesterday by the 9/11 Commission concludes that President Bush and his top advisers, almost immediately upon taking office, "began developing a new strategy with the stated goal of eliminating the al Qaeda threat [to America] within three to five years." (New York Post )

Take the 9/11 Commission Report Seriously, It’s Full of Good Ideas - Jul 23, 2004
“The final report of the 9/11 commission is a sobering, authoritative account of the forces, people and events that played roles in one of the very worst turning points of U.S. history. It's recommended reading for all Americans,” writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. “The panel did the country a service in evenhandedly laying out the terrible, infuriating facts of how the nation stumbled naively, often incompetently, toward becoming prey to an implacable enemy that was never taken seriously enough.” (New York Daily News)

No Surprises, But a Reminder of Urgency, in 9/11 Commission Report - Jul 22, 2004
"The report due to be released today by the independent commission investigating the 9/11 terror attacks won't have any startling revelations that haven't been dribbled out already in interim staff reports," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "But it does arrive at some sobering conclusions that at once indict but also, paradoxically, exonerate the Clinton and Bush administrations alike in their failure to detect, anticipate and prevent al-Qaida's devastating plot." (Newsday)

9/11 Commission Doesn't Confront Outdated Intelligence System - Jul 22, 2004
"If this or the next administration heeds the advice of the 9/11 Commission, we'll see an intelligence czar in the president's cabinet," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "While this may do no harm — as long as it doesn't further stifle dissenting opinions — it's like trying to save the horse-and-buggy trade by adding another boss to the livery stable." (New York Post )

Political Ambitions Keep 9/11 Commission from Making Tough Recommendations - Jul 22, 2004
"The 9/11 commission's report comes out today, and we're eager to see it. But here's what we won't see: hard-hitting findings and recommendations that could really make a difference in fighting terror," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "Why not? Because no matter how tough its rhetoric, the report wants to make nice." (New York Daily News)

9/11 Commission Report Presents Chance to Reform Intelligence Bureaucracy - Jul 22, 2004
"Washington squandered many chances before Sept. 11, 2001, to reform the nation's outdated, encrusted intelligence bureaucracy. After the 2001 terrorist attacks exposed those agencies' horrifying shortcomings, the Bush administration made a stab at reform. But it involved half-measures that avoided the politically risky steps needed to fix the whole problem," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "With the publication today of the report by the bipartisan commission on 9/11 and its recommendations on how to better protect the country, President Bush and Congress are getting another chance. The nation cannot afford for them to pass it up." (New York Times)

Lawsuit Shows Libeskind's Greed - Jul 19, 2004
"What's crystal clear is that Libeskind isn't interested in collaborating with those actually tasked with the responsibility of rebuilding Ground Zero," writes the New York Post's editorial page. (New York Post)

A Visit to Ground Zero - Jul 14, 2004
"Although I've been to New York City before, my business never took me inside the World Trade Center," writes Robert Klein Engler in the American Daily. "Now, I am going to view its emptiness." (American Daily )

From Funding to Threat Levels, Ridge Plays Politics With Terror - Jul 12, 2004
"The Department of Homeland Security needs a new name to fit its true function," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "Why not the Department of Pork and Public Relations?" (New York Daily News)

West Side Stadium Will Hurt Downtown Development - Jul 11, 2004
"All told, the W.T.C. is expected to get back about 10 million square feet of office space, roughly the same amount that was destroyed on Sept. 11," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "The financing and demand to build those offices is too uncertain for the city to proceed with all aspects of its grandiose plan to develop the West Side rail yards with a stadium, about 28 million square feet of office space nearby, an expanded Javits Convention Center, and an extended 7 subway line." (Downtown Express)

Airport Security Should Not Be Contracted Out - Jul 11, 2004
"Bashing federal bureaucracies is a favorite sport among Republicans on Capitol Hill, but their fun should not come at the expense of national security. That is what is likely to happen if airport security checkpoints are once again turned over to profit-driven private contractors," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "Under a little-noticed provision of the post-9/11 aviation security law that would undoubtedly shock most travelers, airports may soon have that option." (New York Times)

Freedom Tower Ceremony is Premature - Jul 8, 2004
"This is what it has come to at Ground Zero: A premature, election-year press conference held on Independence Day to celebrate the start of construction on a building called the Freedom Tower, which is designed to be precisely 1,776 feet tall and to rise next door to a vaguely conceived but lavishly outfitted museum called the Freedom Center," writes Christopher Hawthorne on Slate. "Who says patriotism is dead?" (Slate)

Trip to Ground Zero Makes Pain All Too Real - Jul 7, 2004
Stefani Falk, 16, was one of 17 Salem drama students to visit New York in mid-June as part of the Learning on Location program. The students were there to learn about theater, and they took acting classes from Broadway actors. They also toured the city, including the site where the World Trade Center stood. Falk, who will be a junior at North Salem High School in the fall, wrote this essay about her impressions after visiting the site. (Salem Statesman Journal)

9/11 Grants Handed Out in Seemingly Arbitrary Manner - Jul 6, 2004
"The average government agency can't spend more than a nickel without creating a paperwork trail," writes Errol Louis in the New York Daily News. "But the LMDC is handing out more than a billion without an application form, a timetable for decision making or a way for people seeking funds to track the fate of their requests." (New York Daily News)

After Errors, Pataki is Hitting Stride on Lower Manhattan - Jul 5, 2004
"Gov. Pataki is finally making sense on lower Manhattan. His master stroke: cobbling together the bucks to bring the Long Island Rail Road to downtown. Doing that would link Wall Street to an army of suburban entrepreneurs and white-collar workers and provide more grist for the Financial District's revival than any of the largely cosmetic projects now planned for the area," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "That's a welcome comeback for Pataki, who has made more than his share of goofs on reconstructing downtown." (New York Daily News)

Much to Do, and Money Concerns, at Ground Zero - Jul 5, 2004
"We applaud Mr. Pataki's determined public and private efforts to move the tower, the memorial and the cultural centers closer to reality. But the governor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Gov. James McGreevey of New Jersey still have much to do," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "...The problem on all fronts is money." (New York Times)

Laying of Cornerstone Marks New Era - Jul 4, 2004
"When Gov. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and developer Larry Silverstein stick shov els into the dirt at Ground Zero today, they'll be launching a new era — not just for Downtown, but for all New York," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "And for America." (New York Post)

A Heartfelt Beginning to Construction at Ground Zero - Jul 4, 2004
"From the opposite end of The Pit Friday afternoon, you could see workers erecting three white tents they had unloaded from a yellow truck parked where the north tower once stood," writes Michael Daly in the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Park Row Closure Reflects Police Arrogance, Not Security Needs - Jul 3, 2004
"[A]lmost three years [after 9/11], we have much more freedom of movement and many of us also have a feeling that we are better protected from a terrorist attack because no American police force spends as much time, effort and money on anti-terror measures as the N.Y.P.D," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "But that does not mean every security measure proposed by the police is warranted." (Downtown Express)

Plan to Pay for Rail Link With Unused Tax Credits a Good One - Jul 1, 2004
"New York Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff came up with an intriguing idea: Why not petition the White House for permission to devote as much as $2.6 billion in unused Liberty Zone tax credits to the [lower Manhattan rail link]? Pataki sent his request off to Washington on Monday, and at least one insider says the Bush administration is open to the proposal," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "The crucial point to remember is that Pataki's request isn't just a shakedown for a larger slice of pork." (Newsday)

Terrorists or Tourists? - Jun 30, 2004
"Are they vicious foreign terrorists, scheming to blow up New York? Or just a couple of wide-eyed visitors from abroad, snapping sentimental photos of the Statue of Liberty and other tourist cliches?..." writes Ellis Henican in Newsday. "You see? That's the problem, right there, living in a city that is two things at once - a proven terrorist bulls-eye and a world-class tourist haunt. How can we ever tell the genuine evildoers from the look-at-my-vacation-pictures idiots?" (Newsday)

Subway Security Plans Assures Delays, But is System Ready for Attack? - Jun 24, 2004
"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a message for anxious riders. 'If you see something, say something,'" writes Ray Sanchez in Newsday. "This valuable advice comes at a time when investigations of suspicious packages on New York trains account for hundreds of delays every month." (Newsday)

Victims Compensation Fund Was a Good Way to Avoid Lawsuits - Jun 22, 2004
"In a triumph of reason over litigiousness, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund announced last week that an astounding 97 percent of eligible families who lost a loved one in history's bloodiest terrorist attack on the United States submitted claims to the fund instead of filing lawsuits," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "It was a good show all around and a solid demonstration that there are alternatives to slugging it out in court over negligence when people of good will honestly set out to find them." (Newsday)

United Airlines, Whose Problems Don't Relate to 9/11, Still Doesn't Deserve Bailout - Jun 22, 2004
"Last Thursday the federal government wisely turned down United Airlines' second application for a loan guarantee, this time for $1.6 billion," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "The bankrupt carrier's problems are unrelated to the Sept. 11 terror attacks, so there is no reason for it to benefit from an emergency program that was meant to ensure the viability of commercial aviation, not stack the deck against competition." (New York Times)

House Shortchanges New York on Security Funding - Jun 21, 2004
"It's a very simple concept: Federal money for police, firefighters and other first responders to a terrorist attack should go to the cities where the threat of attack is greatest. That's just common sense," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "Unfortunately, most of Congress doesn't see it that way. Lawmakers insist on treating first responder money like any other barrel of pork, to be spooned out in a way that ensures every place gets a helping, whether at much risk of attack or not." (Newsday)

With Benefit of Hindsight, 9/11 Commission Pursues Political Agenda - Jun 21, 2004
"It's time folks stopped calling the body headed by former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean the 9/11 Commission — and started addressing it by a substantially more appropriate name: The 20/20 Hindsight Commission," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Because the panel's latest report — suggesting that only chaos at the top levels of government prevented the 9/11 jetliner-bombs from being shot down — scales the heights of absurdist fantasy." (New York Post)

On Transportation, Encouraging Words from Washington - Jun 20, 2004
"House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said a week ago that he thought Congress would approve more money to help Downtown rebuild after 9/11. 'I think there will be some more,” he told Downtown Express during an appearance in New York on June 7. “Some of that is for transportation,'" writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "The short statement revealed several things — all of them positive." (Downtown Express)

Congress Keeps Homeland Security Full of Pork - Jun 20, 2004
"While New York City lives day to day in Al Qaeda's cross hairs and pays for its own protection, Congress continues to use anti-terror funding like a wasteful pork-barrel piggy bank," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "And so, shamefully, the House voted early Friday to keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help burgs and hamlets across the country prepare for attacks that will surely never come while giving short shrift to cities, like New York, that are truly threatened." (New York Daily News)

9/11 Commission Highlights Need for Overhaul of Air Defense - Jun 20, 2004
"The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks is doing a superb job of piecing together all that went wrong on that horrific day," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "But its most useful work has been to shine an unsparing light on the nation's protective and predictive systems that failed - and could fail again unless they are overhauled to deal with the unpredictable nature of the terror threats Americans face." (Newsday)

Governor Should Step in to Push Stalled Rebuilding Project - Jun 18, 2004
“When Gov. Pataki and a host of dignitaries break ground for the Freedom Tower on July 4, a grim relic of 9/11 will cast a pall over the proceedings: the burned-out, 15-story hulk of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall, a block north of Ground Zero,” writes the editorial page of the New York Post. “Astonishingly, neither Albany, City Hall nor CUNY, which owns the hall, seems to have any sense of urgency about repairing or rebuilding it — nearly three years after the terrorist attack.” (New York Post )

Victims Compensation Fund Was a Success - Jun 18, 2004
“Congress had two purposes in mind when it established the Victim Compensation Fund after 9/11. One was economic: to provide the families of the World Trade Center victims with prompt and fair compensation in exchange for their agreement not to sue the airlines and send them into bankruptcy. The other was to provide a compassionate and collective response to an act of shocking barbarity,” writes the editorial page of the New York Times. “…Though it suffered constant criticism and the occasional lawsuit, it was largely a success.” (New York Times)

9/11 Commission Shows That Terror Targets Are Still Vulnerable - Jun 17, 2004
"[The 9/11 Commission's reports] are much more than a rehashing of what went wrong and who is at fault: They are a blast of cold air in the face of complacency," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "The reports tell Americans that they can be hit again, much harder, if the nation does not act swiftly to protect targets that remain vulnerable." (Newsday)

United Airlines, Whose Woes Don't Relate to 9/11, Shouldn't Be Bailed Out - Jun 17, 2004
"As part of its overall strategy to emerge from bankruptcy court and restructure the company, United Airlines is hoping to get $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees. This plan should be thwarted," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "United is not entitled to a form of taxpayer support that was meant to stabilize the airline industry in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. United's woes nowadays have little to do with that tragedy." (New York Times)

Cultural Picks for Ground Zero Will Be Ineffectual - Jun 15, 2004
"It seems that a majority of the LMDC's members, swayed by a neighborhood poll, concluded that a great opera house would be too powerful--and too highbrow--to fit into their plans for the World Trade Center site. Instead, they opted for institutions whose collective impact may be minor to the point of invisibility," writes Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal. "...Too bad the LMDC didn't think Ground Zero sacred enough to give the go-ahead to a thoughtfully conceived project worthy of the site's never-to-be-forgotten significance. (Wall Street Journal)

With Institutions Picked, What's Next for Arts at Ground Zero? - Jun 15, 2004
"So what's next?" asks John Rockwell in the New York Times. "Now that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has made its choices for the cultural institutions at the World Trader Center site, what will be the likely impact on the social and artistic fabric of Lower Manhattan and New York City?" (New York Times)

Subway Photo Ban Justified in Light of Terror Threat - Jun 8, 2004
"Fearing that terrorists may use cameras to help plan an attack in the subways, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering banning their unauthorized use throughout the subway system," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "That would be a pity. But it may be necessary." (New York Post)

Ideas for Art at Ground Zero - Jun 6, 2004
"What artistic idea would be sufficiently bold and soul-stirring to lead ground zero into its future?" writes the New York Times. "To jump-start the discussion, here are eight suggestions from the chief critics of the New York Times. (New York Times)

Libeskind's Threatened Lawsuit More Proof That His Ego Is Out Of Control - Jun 5, 2004
Daniel Libeskind, the self-proclaimed genius and celebrity architect selected to design the redevelopment of Ground Zero, is throwing another public hissy fit," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Libeskind...seems to be more concerned with shameless self-promotion than about restoring New York's skyline and commercial vibrancy." (New York Post)

Daniel Libeskind's Perverse Vision for Ground Zero - Jun 2, 2004
"[Libeskind's] “master plan” for the site suggest a special sort of memorialization that in German is called Mahnung, implying not just an incitement to remember, but to remember and take heed. A Mahnmal serves at once as reminder and warning: like the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm church on the Breitscheidplatz in downtown Berlin, which stand to this day as a reminder of the devastation that German militarism once brought down upon Germany itself," writes John Rosenthal in Policy Review. "Stripped of the pseudo-patriotic packaging in which he sought to market it, the basic conception of Libeskind’s World Trade Center “master plan” addresses a similar message to New Yorkers and Americans, implying that they were themselves responsible for the fate that befell them on September 11, 2001 and that they must atone for the wrongs which elicited the catastrophe. It is a tribute to America’s enemies and an insult to the memory of those who were killed in the attacks." (Policy Review)

Warning, but No Funding: Washington Sends City Mixed Message - May 28, 2004
"Beyond advice, what the city really needs from Washington right now is a fair deal when it comes to money. As Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the 9/11 Commission last week, federal Homeland Security money should be allocated according to need - and not according to the strange and costly rules of pork-barrel politics," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "t bottom, Washington is sending the rest of America a weirdly mixed message. These are starkly perilous times, it is saying, yet they're not perilous enough to demand suspension of the usual political games." (Newsday)

Federal Security Aid is Lacking, Especially for FDNY - May 27, 2004
"Washington has a perplexing penchant for penny-pinching when it comes to funding New York's safety needs. Last year, the NYPD got $150 million in federal counterterrorism aid under the high-threat urban area program. This year, that has been whittled by 69% - to a miserly $47 million," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "Now, according to a report by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan), it appears that the feds have the NYPD rolling in clover compared with the Fire Department." (New York Daily News)

For Al Qaeda, USA Means New York - May 27, 2004
"For all the cautious nonspecificity, the announcement still hits like a hammer: There is 'credible evidence' from 'multiple sources' that Al Qaeda intends to unleash mayhem in the U.S. in the 'next few months.' Not that this is a bolt out of the blue: It has been an article of faith that Al Qaeda means further harm," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "All the same, Attorney General John Ashcroft's warning was as sobering as things get. There's a big hit brewing. Here it comes. Soon." (New York Daily News)

Bringing Culture to Ground Zero - May 27, 2004
"Ever since 9/11, there has been serious talk of including a strong cultural presence in the rebuilding at ground zero. It's worth remembering why," writes the New York Times editorial page. "...[G]round zero is about more than remembering the lives of those who died in terrorist attacks or the events that caused their deaths. It is also about the creation of new vitality. The emergence of a new cultural hub in Lower Manhattan is a way of going beyond memory, a way of enriching, fulfilling and reinterpreting the emotional context of 9/11 itself." (New York Times)

NYC Rescue Workers Should Have Military-Style Communication - May 26, 2004
"When a marine under attack needs to call in naval gunfire from 10 miles at sea to enemy positions only yards from his foxhole, he must have communications with the Navy that work in any conditions reliably and redundantly. That requires diverse equipment, regular training and technical experts in all frontline units," writes Joseph Lehman of the 9/11 Commission in the New York Times. "During the 9/11 hearings, witnesses have repeatedly reminded the commission that police officers and firefighters are not the military. In valor and professionalism they are certainly the equals of military professionals, however, and it is past time that they be provided with the quality of communications support that is taken for granted in the military." (New York Times)

New York's Business, Political Leaders Ignored 9/11 Health Risks - May 25, 2004
With the city facing heat from cops and firefighters who say they became sick working at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill, we would do well to remember the warnings. More than two years ago, on Oct. 26, 2001, the Daily News published a front-page story, "Toxic Zone," by this reporter that created a furor in our town," writes Juan Gonzalez in the New York Daily News. "...The city's political and business leaders immediately tried to kill the messenger." (New York Daily News)

9/11 Commission Has Change to Influence Flawed Funding Plan - May 24, 2004
"Mayor Bloomberg and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani last week delivered a powerful one-two punch in their testimony before the 9/11 Commission. Giuliani rightly implored the commissioners to focus not on assigning blame for the attacks but on helping prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. And Bloomberg testified about the need to better allocate funds for first responders," writes John Sweeney in the New York Post. "Both points are very valid - but have gone largely overlooked until now." (New York Post)

Bloomberg's Emergency Plan Codified Chaos of 9/11 - May 24, 2004
"Mayor Bloomberg's attempt to formulate a citywide incident management system needs to be revised, or the city will be codifying the chaos that occurred at the World Trade Center on 9/11," writes Peter Gormani in the New York Daily News. "The Bloomberg plan envisions the Police Department as commander of hundreds of firefighters at chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or hazardous materials incidents. It's a blueprint for mass confusion and untold numbers of unnecessary injuries and deaths." (New York Daily News)

9/11, When Silence Was Deadly - May 23, 2004
"This past week in New York you had a gaudy commission holding hearings on the 9/11 catastrophe. They renewed your deep belief that a Washington commission consists of people from a company town who carry one basic ability: to bore and miss all central points," writes Jimmy Breslin in Newsday. "The five central radios were not used at the World Trade Center. The fire commissioner was Von Essen. They might have asked him why firefighters couldn't hear anything at the north tower and they died." (Newsday)

9/11 Commission NYC Hearings Were Productive - May 22, 2004
"When the talk is about protecting the country from any more terrorist attacks, Lower Manhattan must be one of the centers of attention," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "Thus it was good to see the 9/11 Commission hold productive hearings this week in New York City." (Downtown Express)

NYC Still Not Prepared - May 20, 2004
"The [9/11] commission was careful to note - again and again - the courage and sacrifice on 9/11 that the whole world saw from New York City's police and fire departments, from the Port Authority's police force, and from other agencies," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "But still, some things went terribly wrong in the confusion and challenge of that day. It is the commission's job to figure out what emergency systems failed on 9/11 and how similar failures might be prevented in the event of another attack." (Newsday)

Grandstanding at 9/11 Commission - May 20, 2004
"The 9/11 Commission completed two days near the scene of the crime yes terday, doing what it does best: grandstanding. Convened at the New School University, the commission sure did put on a show: heart-rending video, dramatic finger-pointing, weeping relatives of victims - and histrionics so out-of-control that audience members had to be carted out by security guards," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Substance? Forget about it." (New York Post)

Searching for Proper Tone To Investigate 9/11 Rescue - May 20, 2004
"The two days of hearings may have resolved nothing definitively about Sept. 11, but they did pose a central question: whether emotions are still too raw to permit aggressive self-examination in a city where criticism of the city's performance on that dreadful day 2˝ years ago is seen in some quarters as a form of urban treason," writes Joyce Purnick in the New York Times. (New York Times)

Lesson of the Hearings: Solve the Battle of the Badges - May 20, 2004
"The rivalry between the two great institutions, the Fire Department and the Police Department, is an old story. But it is one the city can no longer afford to tolerate," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "It may have taken the arrival of outsiders, in the form of the investigating committee and some of its witnesses, to force New Yorkers to see how irrational all this looks to the outside world." (New York Times)

Port Authority, Lawyers, Making Off With Rebuilding Funds - May 11, 2004
"In some cities, $100 million would buy a revitalized business district. In New York, it buys you legal fees. In some cities, $2 billion would buy a gleaming new mass transit system. In New York, it buys a whistle stop for 35,000 commuters from across the river," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "This is the harsh new math chomping away at the resources for rebuilding lower Manhattan, threatening to leave the city's fractured skyline in a state of permanent incompletion." (New York Daily News)

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Should Help Hudson River Park - May 9, 2004
Gov. George Pataki said Wednesday that it was time to “renew our commitment to making Hudson River Park the world class park it must be.” We couldn’t agree more and we hope Pataki soon finds a way to build the rest of the park either by authorizing the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to spend the $70 million needed to build the Tribeca section or helping secure other federal money for the plan or both. (Downtown Express)

Governor Must Keep Rebuilding On Track - May 9, 2004
Gov. Pataki was positively ebullient last week about rebuilding at Ground Zero - even as legal developments threw a monkey wrench into the financing scheme. If the gov sticks to his guns and makes sure the site is rebuilt quickly - and as the commercial engine it was pre-9/11 - he'll deserve much praise. But it'll be one heckuva of a fight," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "The anti-development Luddites who've been itching to scuttle the plan pounced on the legal news." (New York Post)

Tunnel Plan a Good One, But Costly - May 6, 2004
"The governor wants to give Long Islanders a faster way to get to jobs near Wall Street. And he wants to give downtowners a quick-and-easy train ride to Kennedy Airport. Meanwhile, he doesn't want to do the job on the cheap. He has recommended construction of a new tunnel in a project he pegs at $6 billion," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "He has sketched out a great blueprint. But it leaves a big question unanswered: Where will the money come from?" (Newsday )

City's Transportation Emergency Preparedness Is Off-Track - May 6, 2004
"Recent subway fires have exposed numerous problems with the way the Metropolitan Transportation Authority handles emergencies. Failures in communication were documented. Potentially lethal errors were committed by the people in charge," writes Ray Sanchez in Newsday. "So what are the chances that the MTA and NYC Transit could mount an effective response to a Madrid-style attack?" (Newsday)

Stop Insurance Companies From Cashing in on 9/11 - May 6, 2004
"A fake son. A made-up missing mother. A brother who never existed. When scammers tried to swindle the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund out of a million or two, New York was disgusted. But now wehave an entire industry pleading poverty from 9/11 to enrich itself," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "I refer to the insurance industry, which quietly has been bilking New York for the last 2-1/2 years." (New York Daily News)

Assessing Rebuilding After A Busy Week - May 6, 2004
"Governor George Pataki announced plans yesterday for a July 4 groundbreaking for the tallest tower to be built at the World Trade Center site. For New Yorkers who have been suspicious that the saga of ground zero would be central to the Republican Party's convention in the city in late August, this was good news," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "The initial work on the grand tower can now begin on behalf of the larger community affected by Sept. 11, and not be used as a backdrop for one campaign or political party." (New York Times)

9/11 Gives New Life to Broadway Musical - May 2, 2004
"The musical 'Assassins' was first seen Off Broadway just as Gulf War I was getting under way in January 1991. It received lackluster reviews (one of them by me) and vanished less than a month after its opening. Why has it become Broadway's newest hit in 2004?" writes Frank Rich in the New York Times. "Though the text has been slightly tweaked, a song added and the production overhauled, it's not the show that has changed so much as the world. The huge difference in response to 'Assassins' from one war in Iraq to the next is about as empirical an indicator of the larger drift of our post-9/11 culture as can be found." (New York Times)

Silverstein's Insurance Setback Spells Trouble - May 1, 2004
"Larry Silverstein's big setback at the hands of some of his insurers this week spells trouble at Ground Zero - but not for the reason you might think," writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post. "The peril is not that the verdict leaves Silverstein short of what he needs to rebuild all the office towers at the World Trade Center site, but that it will encourage those who don't like the master plan to try and re-start the entire planning process from scratch." (New York Post)

Don't Use Liberty Bonds For Power Plant - Apr 30, 2004
"No one denies that New York City will need all the electric power it can get in coming years. But there's insufficient justification for financing a new generator in western Queens partly with tax-exempt Liberty Bonds," writes the editorial page of Newsday. (Newsday )

How to Spend Rebuilding Cash - Apr 26, 2004
"About $1 billion is left from the federal Community Development Block Grants that Congress and President Bush authorized to help Lower Manhattan recover from the aftershocks of Sept. 11, 2001," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "There are many projects deserving of some C.D.B.G. money and most can be funded with relatively modest sums. It’s triage time, and here’s how we think it should be spent." (Downtown Express)

One 9/11 Mom's Questions for Bush and Cheney - Apr 25, 2004
"President Bush and Vice President Cheney will testify before the 9/11 commission at the White House on Thursday. The meeting will be behind closed doors, so we won't hear what questions are asked and how they are answered," writes Joan Molinaro in the New York Daily News. "As someone who has been searching for the truth about how my son, Firefighter Carl Molinaro, and nearly 3,000 other brave souls were brutally murdered on 9/11, I have some ideas about what the commission should be looking for." (New York Daily News)

Bush Administration Aids 9/11 Rescue Workers, But Only When Forced To - Apr 24, 2004
"The Bush administration moved quickly last week to avert another potentially embarrassing 9/11 scandal. Last month, acting through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the administration attempted to weasel out of its pledge to pay health claims for injuries incurred by workers engaged in the rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Center site," writes Clare Hurley on the World Socialist Website. "It was one more example of the hypocrisy of the administration, which invokes September 11 to justify all of its policies while exhibiting contempt for those who have suffered serious health problems as a result of responding to the terrorist attacks." (World Socialist Website)

Feds Shouldn't Leave New York to Pay 9/11 Medical Costs Alone - Apr 13, 2004
"It’s hard for us to believe, but it’s true. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is arguing that the city of New York must bear the cost of $350 million in medical costs for workers who cleaned up the World Trade Center site after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001," writes the editorial page of El Diario. "That horrible act was clearly an attack on the United States, not just New York City. The human cost is immeasurable. But the medical cost for the workers can be measured in dollars and cents, and should be shared by the taxpayers among the 293 million people who live in the U.S., not just the 7.5 million people who live in New York." (El Diario)

Assembly Speaker: Governor Should Support Our Anti-Terrorism Plan - Apr 12, 2004
"The Assembly majority has a comprehensive plan to safeguard New Yorkers from the threat of terrorism. The Terrorism Prevention, Preparedness and Enforcement Act would crack down on potential terrorists with increased criminal penalties, ban weapons that could be used in an attack, increase security at targets like nuclear power plants and transportation systems and provide law enforcement with new resources," writes State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the New York Daily News. "We believe our proposal advances effective ideas for safeguarding New Yorkers that should be carefully considered by the state Senate and Gov. Pataki." (New York Daily News)

Don't Let Historic Preservation Slow Ground Zero Development - Apr 12, 2004
"The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has retreated from its initial finding that there would be 'no adverse affect' on historic World Trade Center site elements from currently planned development projects. Instead, it is proposing a programmatic agreement to 'ensure ongoing and meaningful consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office and the consulting parties.' It is also expanding the list of historic elements," writes David Stanke in Downtown Express. "While this is a generous show of good faith by the L.M.D.C. toward the wishes of a few 9/11 families, it risks opening a Pandora’s box of complaints about every proposed piece of construction on the site." (Downtown Express)

Cooperation With 9/11 Commission Will Make Us Safer - Apr 12, 2004
"The testimony of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11 Commission in public and under oath on Thursday shows once again how enormously valuable this commission is. Not that we were pleased by her testimony – we weren’t," writes the editorial of Downtown Express. "But we need to see the leaders in both the Bush and Clinton administrations face tough questions from the experienced public servants on the commission so that the panel can determine and help us understand to what extent, if any, the Sept. 11 attacks were preventable and much more importantly, to figure out what can we do to reduce the chances of future terrorist acts." (Downtown Express)

It's Time For Bush To Speak About 9/11 - Apr 12, 2004
"Over the last few weeks we have heard lawmakers and officials from two administrations talk about their feelings of responsibility, about how they compulsively re-examine the events leading up to 9/ll, asking themselves whether they could have done anything to avert the terrible disaster that day. It is beginning to seem that the only person free of that kind of self-examination is the man who was chief executive when the attacks occurred," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "It is time for the president to drop his political posture and reassure the country that his first and foremost concern is not his re-election but the safety of Americans at home and abroad." (New York Times)

9/11 Victims' Memory Lives on as Rice Testifies - Apr 9, 2004
"Lucy Fishman was in the empty sky over the old World Trade Center yesterday, living another day of her full, vibrant, rapid life. Oh, yes, you could see her yesterday. All the people who once knew her, the people from her company who survived the attack, talked about her as she stepped through the air, telling people what to do," writes Jimmy Breslin in Newsday. "She was extraordinarily clear to the eye yesterday because all morning in New York, there was the contrast of Condoleezza Rice on television, slim and stubborn and unable or unwilling to say why Lucy Fishman died on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center." (Newsday)

Statue of Liberty Reopening Highlights Problems With Government's Handling of Parks - Apr 7, 2004
"The Statue of Liberty's reopening has turned into an embarrassment for the Interior Department, and the most troubling aspect is what it says about the chronic underfinancing of the national park system," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. (New York Times)

Open Statue of Liberty, From Ground to Crown - Apr 6, 2004
"The federal government is letting Americans down by decreeing that visitors will be limited to touring the statue's base when the monument opens its doors again in a few months," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Clarke's Apology Was Cynical - Apr 4, 2004
"One has to admire the most cynical and brilliantly delivered apology in recent memory: Richard Clarke using the nationally televised 9/11 commission hearings to address the families of the victims. 'Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you, and I failed you,'" writes Charles Krauthammer. "Many were moved. I was not." (New York Daily News)

The Bush Administration Should Not Decide What 9/11 Panel Sees - Apr 3, 2004
"The Bush administration's handling of the bipartisan commission investigating the 9/11 tragedy grows worse — and more oddly self-destructive — with each passing day. Following its earlier attempts to withhold documents from the panel and then to deny its members vital testimony, we now learn that President Bush's staff has been withholding thousands of pages of Clinton administration papers as well," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "This latest distressing episode followed the White House's pattern of resisting the commission in private and then, once the dispute becomes public, reluctantly giving up the minimum amount of ground." (New York Times)

Washington Must Help Pay For Tunnel Security - Apr 1, 2004
"Post-9/11, officials have improved to detect intruders as well as chemical, biological and radioactive threats in the tunnels. But critical upgrades of ventilation, fire standpipes, escape routes and emergency communication systems are not yet complete," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "Washington needs to step up its funding to speed those improvements in the two- to three-mile-long tunnels [that connect Penn Station to Queens and New Jersey], owned by Amtrak but also used by the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit. The work will be expensive, but the alternative is intolerable." (Newsday)

Bush's Shift On 9/11 Commission is Welcome - Mar 31, 2004
"In a tacit concession that he had blundered, President George W. Bush has properly reversed his insistence on executive privilege in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks, and is allowing National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify in public, under oath, to the bipartisan 9/11 commission," wrotes the editorial page of Newsday. "It's the right thing to do, for the country and for his own credibility, even if the concession came with great reluctance." (Newsday)

An Open Letter From Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to Downtown Community - Mar 29, 2004
"While the L.M.D.C., Port Authority, the city, the state and other government agencies have been laying out these plans and providing funding for their implementation, our actions have been shaped by, and our success will be realized through, the strength of Lower Manhattan residents, employees, and businesses," writes Kevin Rampe in Downtown Express. "This historic collaboration will produce the Lower Manhattan of the future quickly and not at the expense of our quality-of-life today." (Downtown Express)

A New Feeling Of Hope At Ground Zero - Mar 29, 2004
"Over the last year, the energy of the site has changed. A year ago, the site was adrift in a state of despair, a forbidden and foreboding place. But the temporary PATH terminal brought life and activity back," writes David Stanke in Downtown Express. "It gave hope for a return to the old vitality. It brought the public into the 16 acres and gave us the opportunity to directly face the remains of the disaster. No longer did we stand on the periphery and struggle to understand from a distance. The forbidden was exposed and the sacred space became part of our daily lives. With this transformation, the site became blank slate upon which we, as a society, can draw the future." (Downtown Express)

Cultural Center Would Spark Chinatown's Development - Mar 29, 2004
"As Chinatown’s traditional economic base of restaurants, factories and shops continued to erode [after 9/11], residents and community leaders like myself anxiously scanned the horizon for signs of a brighter future," writes Amy Chin in Downtown Express. "Throughout countless discussions, one vision surfaced repeatedly – a world class cultural and performing arts center in New York’s Chinatown to house and showcase the community’s cultural riches and to connect Chinatown to the rest of New York. This is an idea that has been floating around for decades, but it took a national atrocity to help us focus on big dreams for the future of our community." (Downtown Express)

High Stakes For Ground Zero Cultural Complex - Mar 29, 2004
"The W.T.C. cultural complex has the ability to engage our collective imagination in a positive manner. We have waited a long time for cultural and entertainment uses that speak to all of us," writes Madelyn Wils in Downtown Express. "The mix of institutions that ultimately will be chosen cannot just lure tourists who will visit the memorial, but should be inviting enough to attract regular visits by the people who call this area home. Whoever is picked to operate the theaters and museum must unite to develop cohesive programming that relates to the masses downtown. The W.T.C. cultural complex also needs to be the anchor that creates enough energy and excitement that will draw visitors to the great number of museums and smaller theater companies that already inhabit downtown." (Downtown Express)

Airport-Commuter Link is Key for Rebuilding - Mar 29, 2004
"As Lower Manhattan’s redevelopment moves forward, transportation remains Downtown’s most critical investment; it is the foundation on which the 21st-century, revitalized Downtown will be built. The retention of major Downtown employers and the attraction of new ones will depend largely on our commitment to improving Lower Manhattan’s transportation infrastructure," writes Carl Weisbrod in Downtown Express. "Projects including regional airport and commuter rail access and the creation of the World Trade Center/Fulton Street transit hub remain Lower Manhattan’s top priorities." (Downtown Express)

Assembly Speaker Failing On Anti-Terrorism Laws - Mar 29, 2004
"Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver doesn't like the criticism he's getting for single-handedly hamstringing New York state's ability to prevent another terrorist strike here. So what's his response?" writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Lob a few verbal grenades - then change the subject." (New York Post)

Condoleezza Rice Must Testify Under Oath - Mar 29, 2004
"The White House has offered to let national security adviser Condoleezza Rice testify in private before the 9/11 commission, and thanks, but that's an empty and unacceptable gesture," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "Rice was only at the hub of the Bush administration's anti-terror efforts before Sept. 11. What did she know? What didn't she know? What did she do? What didn't she do? The American people deserve to hear her answer those questions - publicly, under oath." (New York Daily News)

Controversy Over Clarke Harms 9/11 Commission - Mar 29, 2004
"So here we are in a familiar spot. Instead of talking about the bipartisan failures and systematic shortcomings of our terror policy, we're seething at one another about one man," writes David Brooks in the New York Times. "It's the Clinton scandals and Bork hearings all over again — except this time the pretext for our hatred just happens to be security policy. Conservatives, including myself, believe that Richard Clarke has turned himself into a mendacious glory-hound whose claims are contradictory. Liberals see him as the Erin Brockovich of the Bush years." (New York Times)

More Security Needed On Trains - Mar 26, 2004
"Ak Qaeda's 3/11 attack on the Madrid commuter rail system is a shrill warning call that America can't afford to ignore. There are two sobering lessons that we must learn. The first lesson: Terror can swing elections," writes Kris Kobach in the New York Post. "The second lesson of Madrid concerns future al Qaeda targets in America. We've spent billions securing our air-travel system since 9/11 ($4.5 billion this year alone), and justifiably so. But less than 2 percent of that amount has gone to rail security." (New York Post )

White House's Thin Skin Damages Anti-Terror Debate - Mar 26, 2004
"It cannot have escaped anyone's attention that the Bush administration has spent the better part of the week in full counterattack mode against Richard Clarke, the former White House antiterrorism czar who says the president and his senior officials greatly underrated the threat from Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in the months leading up to 9/11," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "Mr. Bush's team is so preoccupied with defending his image as a can-do commander in chief that it has no energy left to engage the legitimate questions that have been raised by Mr. Clarke and by others who have appeared before the independent 9/11 commission." (New York Times)

At 9/11 Commission, Few Play The Blame Game - Mar 25, 2004
"If blame is the Washington sport, then Day One of the new round of 9/11 commission hearings was structured like the Super Bowl," writes David Von Drehle in the Washington Post. "Witnesses alternated through the day between Clinton administration leaders and their Bush administration counterparts, covering turf marked off by Richard A. Clarke, counterterrorism chief under both presidents. In a book published this week, Clarke kicked off the blame game by charging that President Bush did too little to fight al Qaeda before the catastrophe of Sept. 11, 2001. But the players did not clash. Despite some sniping and testiness, the surprising theme was unity." (Washington Post)

Finally, Someone Admits The Government Failed on 9/11 - Mar 25, 2004
"[Former anti-teror chief Richard Clarke] committed a felony in Washington government," writes Jimmy Breslin in Newsday. "How can you admit you're wrong? How do you say that to the public? I'm wrong? What are you, crazy? The public is wrong, not the government." (Newsday)

Rice Should Testify For 9/11 Commission - Mar 25, 2004
"The proceedings of the 9/11 investigating commission became even more distressing yesterday as they revealed new failings by the Clinton and Bush administrations to take the fight effectively to Osama Bin Laden. The need for national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify also became screamingly urgent," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Ex Anti-Terror Chief's Story Doesn't Hold Up - Mar 25, 2004
"Basically, [ex anti-terror chief Richard] Clarke's appearance was little more than another stop on his publicity tour to flog his (coincidentally?) well-timed new book - 'Against All Enemies' - which basically hangs 9/11 on the Bush administration," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "From his very opening - a saccharine apology to the 9/11 families for having 'failed' them - Clarke played his testimony for all it was worth." (New York Post )

Who's To Blame For 9/11 Intelligence Failures? - Mar 25, 2004
"The two days of hearings by the commission investigating the [9/11] attacks have been invaluable in helping the American people better understand the chain of miscommunications, wrong guesses and misplaced priorities that left the nation so poorly defended against the terrorists," writes the New York Times editorial page. "[Former antiterrorism chief Richard] Clarke, by accepting responsibility, offered the American people the freedom to hold their leaders accountable for an event most had come to see as an unstoppable bolt from the blue." (New York Times)

On Failure to Prevent 9/11, There's Enough Blame to Go Around - Mar 24, 2004
Testimony before the 9/11 Commission yesterday and early findings from that panel make one thing painfully clear: America was alarmingly unprepared in the face of repeated provocations by militant Islamist groups," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "And both the Clinton folks and the Bush folks share the blame." (New York Post)

Clinton, Bush Administration Both Failed On Pre 9/11 Anti-Terror Efforts - Mar 24, 2004
"Actionable intelligence was the oft-heard operative phrase on Capitol Hill yesterday as former and present secretaries of state and defense testified under oath before the independent 9/11 commission. What did U.S. officials know, when did they know it - and was there any realistic way to prevent the terrorist attacks?" writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "The historic hearings were the first public airing of how key Clinton and Bush administration officials attempted to blunt Al Qaeda's threat, diplomatically and militarily, over a decade. On both fronts, both administrations proved ineffectual in finding a way to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden or large numbers of his henchmen." (New York Daily News)

Politics and the 9/11 Commission - Mar 23, 2004
"The 9/11 Commission hearings that begin today will feature key veterans of the Clinton administration testifying as to how the former president's team dealt with the terrorist threat," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Clearly, these players don't want to be remembered for all eternity as the officials whose blindness and failure to respond to threats led to the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. So expect big-time blame-shifting." (New York Post)

Silverstein's Shaky Math - Mar 23, 2004
"A lawyer named Wachtell is saying in court yesterday, "The World Trade Center attacks," writes Jimmy Breslin in Newsday. "I am wondering where he got the 'attacks' from. Did he mean the first attack on the World Trade Center back in 1993 and this attack on 9/11?" (Newsday)

Rebuilding Lessons From London - Mar 23, 2004
"[After a fire in 1666 destroyed London], it seemed that every educated gentleman in England had his own plan for the capital. Some were pathetically simple: checkerboard grids stamped out on the old site with no feeling for tradition or topography. Others were inspired," writes Adrian Tinniswood in the New York Times. "But none of these grand plans took any account of what ordinary Londoners wanted. So ordinary Londoners took matters into their own hands. They made London rise like a phoenix from the ashes." (New York Times)

The 1,776 Foot Target - Mar 23, 2004
"The architects and engineers of Freedom Tower are working to devise ways to increase the security of the building's future occupants, pondering additional stairwells for escape, new supports that would prevent structural failure and better flame retardants," writes Daniel Benjamin in the New York Times. "But when one compares these engineering revisions to the continued proof of radical Islamists' determination to carry out high-casualty attacks, it's hard not to reach the conclusion that the plans for ground zero are profoundly irresponsible." (New York Times)

Debate Over 9/11 Needed, Even if it is Partisan - Mar 23, 2004
"Since the 9/11 Commission's hearing is taking place during a presidential campaign, it's unlikely that a spirit of bipartisan decorum will prevail," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. Nevertheless, it's good to bring this debate out in the open. The memories of Sept. 11, 2001, are still so raw that it has been hard to regard anything about that terrible day as a subject for political debate. But now President Bush is running for re-election on his record in responding to the terrorist attack, and that transition needs to take place." (New York Times)

Don't Run More Streets Through Ground Zero - Mar 22, 2004
"In an official response to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. regarding the W.T.C. Amended General Project Plan, the City Planning Commission recommends extending Cortlandt and Dey Sts. an additional block into W.T.C," writes David Stanke in Downtown Express. "The objective is to create the street life typical of other successful Manhattan neighborhoods. It is appropriate for Mayor Bloomberg to represent the city’s needs at the W.TC., but unfortunately, this suggestion would create a standard Midtown block with pedestrians and autos competing for space instead of creating a new vision for an urban pedestrian center supported by convenient public transportation." (Downtown Express)

From Kansas To The Bronx, A Big-Hearted 9/11 Tale - Mar 21, 2004
"This is a story about a small town in Kansas, a sprawling borough called the Bronx, a dead New York City firefighter and a long-distance love that represents the huge heart of America. The tale begins tragically on 9/11 when a handsome young firefighter named Joe Spor, assigned to Ladder 38, Rescue 3 in the Bronx, dies, leaving a wife, Colleen, and four children, the oldest 9, the youngest merely 9 months," writes Mike Barnicle in the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Kudos To Judge For Rejecting '9/11 Syndrome' As Excuse For Crimes - Mar 20, 2004
"Kudos to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge John Gleeson for having the common sense to reject a criminal's pathetic attempt to avoid prison by claiming he suffered from '9/11 syndrome," writes the editorial page of the New York Post (New York Post)

New York Police Get Cold Shoulder In Spain - Mar 19, 2004
"Now that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has given the Intelligence Division a national and international mandate, its detectives are discovering that life outside New York City is no bowl of cherries," writes Leonard Levitt in Newsday. "The detectives have received sour receptions in New Jersey, Boston and now Spain." (Newsday )

New Yorkers Not Prepared For Another Attack - Mar 19, 2004
"The unexpected and horrific bombing of commuter trains in Madrid last week underscored how important it is to be prepared for the unexpected on your commute, in your home and in your office," writes Therese Bischoff in the New York Daily News. "Yet 2-1/2 years after Sept. 11, a new survey shows that most New Yorkers are still not fully prepared for an emergency and need more training." (New York Daily News)

9/11 Ads Are Appropriate - Mar 16, 2004
"In military lingo, 9/11 was 'our wake-up call' to the fact that the world had changed and that we must change with it," writes Charles Coughlin in the New York Post. "I think the ads are a subtle yet strong reminder that we must be vigilant and truly appreciate the freedoms those who have sacrificed their lives have provided for us." (New York Post)

Don't Use 9/11 Images For Politics - Mar 16, 2004
"Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie has described those who complained of the use of 9/11 images in political ads as a 'small segment ... who are very anti-war,'" writes Jack Lynch in the New York Daily News. "I support America's war on terrorism, the effort to rebuild our intelligence agencies and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, but deplore the use of 9/11 images in political ads." (New York Daily News)

At Terror Drill, No Talk Of Threat To Mass Transit - Mar 15, 2004
"It was striking to see no one from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority or New York City Transit [At Shea Stadium's mock terror drill] to address questions about safety on a subway system that carries more than 4 million people a day," writes Ray Sanchez in Newsday. (Newsday)

The Health Of Kids Downtown Isn't Suffering From 9/11 - Mar 14, 2004
"Since we care for the neighborhood’s kids (4,000 patients) from our office here in the heart of Tribeca, I thought I’d share my perspective on the physical health consequences of September 11, especially on Downtown’s littlest residents," writes Michael Cohen in Downtown Express. "So far, I have not seen any physical conditions affecting those kids who were living in the area on September 11, or those who were born to Downtowners a few months later. In the end, my little patient’s cough may be the same lingering, frustrating cough that we see every winter following a string of viral infections…the kind for which time and warmer weather are the best medicines." (Downtown Express)

President Is Right To Visit Long Island 9/11 Memorial - Mar 11, 2004
"It's not fair to berate President George W. Bush for attending a fund-raiser today in the same park where he will headline a ground-breaking ceremony, a few hours earlier, for the memorial to Nassau County residents who died in the 9/11 terror attacks," writes Newsday's editorial page. (Newsday)

Firefighters Suffer Under Post 9/11 Spotlight - Mar 9, 2004
"Whatever the reason, it is disturbing to watch the firefighters self-destruct. Some of them say it's due to the trauma many of them suffered and still suffer two-and-a-half years after 9/11," writes Dennis Duggan in Newsday. "Or maybe the public pressure since then has helped to make them crack. After all, everyone seems to expect a piece of their glory." (Newsday)

Ground Zero Ads Show Political Explosiveness Of 9/11 - Mar 9, 2004
"That President Bush would use the issue and imagery of 9/11 is a no-brainer. It was the defining event of his presidency. In its aftermath, he did respond to the challenge. His office continues to be dominated by its reverberations. He is, as he said to Tim Russert on Meet the Press, a war president," writes Norman Ornstein in Newsday. "But the reaction to these ads shows how fine the line is between highlighting an issue and exploiting it. Public consciousness about that line is now much higher than it was a month ago." (Newsday)

Bush Is Right To Come To Nassau's 9/11 Memorial - Mar 9, 2004
"President Bush's decision to come to [Nassau County's] 9/11 memorial is no different from Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi's decision to create one. Both are fitting, appropriate and subject to political second-guessing," writes Joseph Mondello in Newsday. "Yet no one who watched funeral processions shut down virtually every Long Island Main Street after Sept. 11, 2001, can suggest that a memorial on behalf of our hallowed dead is not deserving of presidential participation." (Newsday)

Bush's Cheap 9/11 Policking - Mar 7, 2004
"In his first campaign commercial. George Bush reached down and molested the dead," writes Jimmy Breslin in Newsday. (Newsday)

For 9/11 Families, Pain Trumps Politics - Mar 7, 2004
"Clearly, some [who lost loved ones on 9/11] are angry about the spots, upset that one of them shows the flag-draped remains of a victim being carried out of the smoking rubble by firefighters. Others are bothered by the use of the crushed towers for politics, thinking it's poor taste, exploiting a national tragedy to evoke an emotional, electoral response," writes Mike Barnicle in the New York Daily News. "But for too long, nearly all politics has been in poor taste. Especially at the national level." (New York Daily News)

Bush Ad Gets Campaign Off To Tasteless Start - Mar 5, 2004
"Some politicians wrap themselves in the American flag. George W. Bush is taking that trick to a whole new level. He's wrapping his re-election hopes in the tattered stars-and-stripes of the World Trade Center terror attack," writes Ellis Henican in Newsday. "This is one president who will never be out-pandered by the gratuitous exploitation of the red-white-and-blue!" (Newsday)

Bush Is Right To Use 9/11 In Ads - Mar 5, 2004
"Is it fair for President Bush to use images from Ground Zero in his reelection campaign?" writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Damned right it is." (New York Post)

Bush's 9/11 Ads Are Not In Bad Taste - Mar 5, 2004
"It is the most solemn of truths that Ground Zero is and forevermore will be sacred American ground. But it is also true that Bush's response to the attack and his conduct of the war on terrorism will be of primary concern to Republicans and Democrats alike in the presidential election," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "Presenting images of those terrible events with a modicum of taste and restraint does not profane them." (New York Daily News)

9/11 Will Be An Election Issue, But Candidates Should Be Careful In Using It During Campaign - Mar 5, 2004
"It is inevitable that such a pivotal event as the 9/11 attacks should surface in the presidential campaign. The fact that President Bush did not hesitate to underline the tragedy in his new wave of campaign commercials puts voters on early notice that they must bring their considered judgment to the bounds of the debate," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "The mix of painful, familiar graphics and pared-down electioneering slogans will be a test of a candidate's good taste as much as the electorate's political leanings." (New York Times)

For Downtown, A Residential Stairway To The Sky - Mar 3, 2004
"Santiago Calatrava has designed a skyscraper with the buoyancy of a child's balloon. The design takes me back to 1966 and the helium-filled Mylar "Silver Cloud" sculptures that Andy Warhol presented that year at Leo Castelli's gallery. The tower is effervescent, lighter than air," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times. "Yet its impact on the skyline is likely to be profound, not merely as an individual work of genius but as an example of what can be achieved when a city rediscovers the quality of delight." (New York Times)

We Need To Prepare For Attacks Much Worse Than 9/11 - Mar 2, 2004
"It is hard to imagine a worse day than 9/11. But, hard as it may be to imagine, we need to plan for a much worse day, a day in which casualties would number not in the thousands but in the hundreds of thousands," writes Tom Daniel in the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Bush Still Obstructing 9/11 Panel - Mar 1, 2004
"This week marks the 11th anniversary of the first terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. The six people killed by Islamic extremists Feb. 26, 1993, quite appropriately will be included in the World Trade Center memorial that will also honor the thousands killed on Sept. 11, 2001. But the investigation into our intelligence before those two attacks and other terrorist incidents continues to be stymied by the Bush administration," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "It is of course essential to honor those who died. It is more important to make sure they did not die in vain and to do as much as we can to prevent future deaths of innocent people." (Downtown Express)

Republicans Continue To Stand In 9/11 Commission's Way - Feb 28, 2004
"Who was most scared of the truth?" asked Ellis Henican. "Was it House Speaker Dennis Hastert? He was the latest Republican standing in the way of the bipartisan commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks." (Newsday)

9/11 Commission Must Stop Leaks Before It Issues Report - Feb 25, 2004
"A hard-hitting, down-the-middle impartial review of what went wrong can lead to steps that prevent the next big attack. Too bad the commission isn't treating its work that way," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Instead, some of its members insist on divulging bits of information from their probe, even before it's complete - reinforcing suspicions of political jockeying and undermining the panel's credibility. It must stop - immediately - if the Kean probe is to be taken seriously." (New York Post)

9/11 Panel Should Get Time It Needs - Feb 24, 2004
"After being stonewalled for more than a year, the independent 9/11 commission finally is making progress," write Bill Harvey and Kristen Breitweiser in the New York Daily News. "But it must have adequate time to fulfill its congressional mandate - to make 'a full and complete accounting' of the circumstances surrounding Sept. 11." (New York Daily News)

Edwards' 9/11 Comment Was Wrong - Feb 21, 2004
"In a none-too-subtle blast - actually, there was nothing at all subtle about it - presidential hopeful John Edwards accused President Bush of scheduling this summer's Republican convention in New York for no other reason than to 'take political advantage' of the 9/11 attacks," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "That's pretty low stuff, even for a trial lawyer." (New York Post)

Homeland Security Fund Has Become A Park-Barrel - Feb 19, 2004
"When the president released his budget for Fiscal Year 2005, it seemed to finally have good news for New York - the doubling of the special anti-terror fund for 'high threat, high density' areas," writes Anthony Weiner in the New York Post. "It was good news in Fresno, Louisville and Charlotte. But New Yorkers are losers again." (New York Post)

At Ground Zero, Be Careful What You Preserve - Feb 16, 2004
"The environmental reviews for World Trade Center redevelopment include historic preservation studies that are more focused on saving the site as it was months after 9/11 than restoring meaningful visual reminders of the Trade Center itself," writes David Stanke in Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Unintended Consequences Of Liberty Bonds - Feb 8, 2004
"File it under the law of unintended consequences. When the federal Liberty Bond program was approved early in 2002 it appeared to be one of the shots in the arm Lower Manhattan needed to help it recover economically," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "In the necessary rush to pass legislation to help Downtown, Congress unwittingly passed incentives to build less housing for middle and low-income people." (Downtown Express)

Criminals Should Not Be Allowed To Use 9/11 Stress As An Excuse - Feb 7, 2004
"Now a federal judge is calling 9/11 trauma an excuse for violent criminal behavior. That message came from senior U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Bree Burns' New Haven courtroom the other day, when she handed down a lenient four-year prison sentence for the serial bank robber dubbed the 'Blonde Bandit,'" writes the New York Post's editorial page. "Legitimizing a '9/11 Syndrome' to excuse crime is yet another strike against an increasingly discredited judiciary." (New York Post)

Partial Progress On 9/11 Commission - Feb 6, 2004
"The White House has wisely reversed its opposition to granting an extra two months of investigation time to the independent commission delving into the 9/11 terrorist attacks," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "Now President Bush should take the next step and order better cooperation with the investigators, who complain of being stymied in gaining full access to vital intelligence information related to the attacks." (New York Times)

Rail Link Is A Grand Plan, Now Find A Way To Do It - Feb 5, 2004
"Our hope is that the rail connection between Lower Manhattan and Long Island and JFK will not only happen, but will happen relatively fast," writes Newsday's editorial page. "The reason is simple: Without easy access to Long Island and JFK, even a rebuilt lower Manhattan will languish. That was the story of the area long before 9/11. With all the public and private money going into the district now, no one wants to see those problems resume." (Newsday)

Administration Should Stop Playing Politics With 9/11 Commission - Feb 2, 2004
"Ordinary Americans may find it hard to imagine even a wisp of resistance to accomplishing the most thorough and independent investigation possible into the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Yet that is the sorry state of affairs in politically charged Washington," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. (New York Times)

9/11 Report Cannot Be Political Rush Job - Jan 31, 2004
"We never imagined anyone would ever have to say this: A report explaining if there were any security lapses that allowed the deadliest attack on civilians in America to occur, and outlining any preventive measures that can be taken in the future, is too important to be rushed or delayed for partisan reasons," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Why Won't Bush Cooperate With Investiagators? - Jan 29, 2004
"The White House doesn't want to give the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks the 60 more days that it says it needs to finish its report. Republicans are worried that a two-month extension would inject - shudder - politics into the Sept. 11 tragedy. The report would be released in July, in the middle of the presidential campaign," write the editorial page of the Philadelphia News. "Excuse us? Where is the Republican convention scheduled? And when?" (Philadelphia Daily News)

PATH Station, Of All Things Will Enrich Ground Zero - Jan 26, 2004
"Santiago Calatrava has designed far more than a station for the underground rail link between New York and New Jersey. He has designed a structure that will use air and light to create a feeling of transcendent hope on a place where 2,749 people lost their lives," writes Newsday's editorial page. "No one expected a structure that could leaven so effortlessly the heavy symbolism found elsewhere on the site - especially in the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower and in the 9/11 memorial called Reflecting Absence." (Newsday)

Give The City A Transit Hub It Deserves - Jan 26, 2004
"Many have misconstrued the transportation hub — which is being designed by world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava — as nothing more than a $2 billion train station. Nothing could be further from the truth," writes Joseph Seymour in the New York Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Memorial Revisions Go Too Far - Jan 26, 2004
"The original design selected by the memorial committee was a minimalist expression of grief via a symbolic recreation of absence, a negative space around the footprints of the trade center. It did not attempt to recreate 9/11 in a futile attempt to re-ignite the feelings of that day: fear, hatred and shock. It simply displayed the emptiness that we were left with and challenged us to find a way of filling it," writes David Stanke in Downtown Express. "The jury should have proceeded with more modest alterations to this original design." (Downtown Express)

Station Is a Lovely Building, But Useless - Jan 23, 2004
"The new station for Ground Zero - a 'transportation hub,' in hyped development-speak - would be stunning," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "Designed by world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, it would take up a city block and soar to a winged glass roof resembling a vaulted cathedral. It's lovely, and almost as useless as the burial monument Cheops planted for himself in the desert." (New York Daily News)

In New Station, A Soaring Icon - Jan 23, 2004
"Of all the buildings that are being fitted into what was once called Ground Zero, the new PATH station will be the most spectacularly alien," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. "Yet somehow it seems perfect in its place, beautifully conceived in relation to every direction, including up and down." (Newsday)

PATH Station Is a Winner - Jan 23, 2004
"The Calatrava design is full of good things, even though he was forced to orient it along the path of sunlight that's supposed to fall every Sept. 11 at 10:28 a.m. — a token accommodation to Governor Pataki's infatuation with site planner Daniel Libeskind's vision," writes Steve Cuozzo in New York Post. (New York Post)

New Station Is Civic Architecture Of The Highest Kind - Jan 23, 2004
"An exorcism was held yesterday at the World Financial Center Winter Garden at Battery Park City," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times. "The spirit of diminished expectations that produced the Winter Garden and buildings like it was severed from the soul of New York. In place of suburban shopping-mall atrium design, there emerged civic architecture of the highest order." (New York Times)

Port Authority's Downtown Mall Is No Good - Jan 22, 2004
"The Port Authority is afraid of the rain," writes Richard Schwartz in the New York Daily News. "And the cold. And the heat. Indeed, it seems to abhor any climate that cannot be controlled. Don't believe it? Then you haven't heard about the PA's plans for a vast, underground shopping mall in lower Manhattan." (New York Daily News)

Memorial Is New York's Triumph - Jan 20, 2004
"The process for deciding what will be built on the site of the Twin Towers has been unseemly at times, but it has triumphed with the winning design for the memorial," writes the editorial page of the Chicago Tribune. (Chicago Tribune)

Give 9/11 Commission The Time It Needs - Jan 20, 2004
The White House and the House speaker have decided not to give the commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks extra time to complete its final report. In light of the administration's glacial response to requests for information, which slowed the commission's work, this no-delay posture is unreasonable. (Newsday)

Minimalism Of Memorial Fails Test - Jan 20, 2004
"We are in the middle of a culture war in America, and the memorial design must be seen in this context. It's a culture war that separates the design committee from most New Yorkers," writes Dennis Smith in the New York Daily News. "The post-modern minimalists have won for the moment. And although my mother taught me not to cry in my soup, I feel a responsibility to weigh in on this subject before the construction begins, for this memorial will be a structural wall of our civilization as it builds for the future." (New York Daily News)

Clarity Of Memorial Vision Must Be Protected - Jan 19, 2004
"Protecting the footprints of the Twin Towers was a remarkable achievement, the result of true aesthetic vision and popular will," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "Now, Gov. George Pataki and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation must continue their success in helping to create a worthy memorial. They must vigorously stop even well-meaning attempts to dilute or clutter this powerful space." (New York Times)

Focused On Private Grief, Memorial Doesn't Address National Tragedy - Jan 18, 2004
"The design has two basic flaws: It relies on a minimalist, abstract aesthetic, and it allows itself to be held hostage to the enormous, unwieldy scale of the original towers. These two flaws interact to magnify their limitations," writes Alan Hess in the San Jose Mercury News. (San Jose Mercury News)

Memorial Incorporates Our Different Memories Of 9/11 - Jan 17, 2004
"When it comes to Sept. 11, there are three groups of people, those who lost a loved one; those who witnessed and survived; and those who saw it on TV. These groups are hardly monolithic in their views of what Sept. 11 means, much less in their views of what the memorial should look like or speak to. But these groups, at the gross level, clearly will have different 'personal remembrances' of that day and its aftermath," writes Jeff Galloway in Downtown Express. "The power of Michael Arad’s and Peter Walker’s Memorial design is that it has the potential to speak to a range of memories and aspirations." (Downtown Express)

In Memorial, A Collaboration That Worked - Jan 16, 2004
"So far, the discussion we've paid most attention to has been one between David Childs and Daniel Libeskind as they worked to produce a design for the Freedom Tower, a skyscraper at once elegant and ham-fisted," writes Christopher Hawthorne in Slate. "We can now see evidence of a less shrill and more productive dialogue in the updated Ground Zero memorial design, for which Michael Arad, a 34-year-old architect for the city of New York, has teamed up with Peter Walker, a 71-year-old landscape designer who lives in San Francisco and keeps his office in Berkeley." (Slate)

The Absence Of Eloquence: Public Speaking After 9/11 - Jan 16, 2004
"Now that the World Trade Center memorial has assumed clear form, subject to change though it still may be, perhaps it is not out of order to reflect on absence of another kind," writes Clyde Haberman in the New York Times. "This is the prolonged absence of memorable words from our leaders articulating where we are as a city and as a people more than two years after the evil." (New York Times)

Memorial Improved, But Still Incomplete - Jan 15, 2004
"In what has become a ritual of partial unveilings, Gov. George Pataki yesterday presided over the presentation of a memorial design that, far from being final, is really only two-thirds baked," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. "Though Reflecting Absence is infinitely better than the bleak version that architect Michael Arad presented in November, it is not thoroughly enough imagined to inspire much comfort or awe." (Newsday)

Powerful Simplicity - Jan 15, 2004
The revised memorial "is an elegant piece of work," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "The memorial will retain the powerful simplicity and crisp lines that architect Michael Arad originally had in mind." (Newsday)

Memorial Is Testament To Process - Jan 15, 2004
"The design is out there for all to see," writes Peter Slatin in the Slatin Report. "What is not out there, what remains hidden, is the strength and diversity of the global community of architecture and design that produced not only the winning design but also all of the designs submitted. " (Slatin Report)

Revised Plan Works - Jan 15, 2004
"It goes without saying that 'Reflecting Absence' provides private meditative space for the families of 9/11 victims and that it names each of the nearly 3,000 people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing," writes the New York Times. "This design succeeds by making those requirements look natural and necessary. But it also succeeds, on a much broader scale, by invoking the presence of water, trees and rock." (New York Times)

Once Stark, Memorial Now Too Soft - Jan 15, 2004
"Most of the changes are to the good, but the plan as a whole remains unpersuasive," writes Blair Kamin in the Chicago Tribune. "While the plaza that would surround the footprints of the twin towers used to be too stark and off-putting, now it is too soft and too green, as if a patch of the National Mall in Washington had been airlifted into lower Manhattan." (Chicago Tribune)

A Fitting Memorial, Finally - Jan 15, 2004
"The World Trade Center memorial, unveiled yesterday, bears a heavy burden. It must honor the thousands who perished on 9/11 and illustrate for future generations the magnitude of what happened that day - long after those who lived through the horror are gone," writes the editorial page of the New York Daily News. "The design that has been chosen, after much Sturm und Drang, accomplishes those goals." (New York Daily News)

Memorial Doesn't Convey Strength Of US - Jan 15, 2004
"New York has enough parks," writes the New York Post editorial page. "At Ground Zero, it needs a large measure of righteous bellicosity." (New York Post)

Memorial Still Stinks - Jan 15, 2004
"A frenzied week of sketching in a 'forest' and adding color to computer images can't save 'Reflecting Absence' from its obsessive morbidity," writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post. "Nor can the last-minute scramble to inter 9/11 'artifacts' deep under the Ground Zero earth; they belong at street level, not in a subterranean crypt." (New York Post)

Strong Emotion In Pools - Jan 15, 2004
"Reflecting Absence is a plea for calm. Tranquillity has been in short supply in Lower Manhattan. Perhaps the city is ready to let this quality rise to the surface for a time," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times. (New York Times)

On Memorial, Pataki Must Push For Recognition For Rescue Workers - Jan 13, 2004
"The battle over the names (some 2,800) may sound petty - a parochial fight between friends and families of firefighters, cops and other emergency workers, on one hand, and those of civilian victims, on the other," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "It's not." (New York Post)

Rush To Build Memorial May Compromise Design - Jan 12, 2004
"One of the most significant public art projects of this generation -- the memorial to commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center -- is in danger of being compromised by political favoritism and economic expediency," writes Mary Thomas in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The Power Of Simplicity - Jan 12, 2004
"Michael Arad's design, like other contemporary memorials, reveals a certain psychology necessary in architecture. This ghost in the machinery must help the design appeal not merely to the bereft individual but to a grieving nation as well," write Rhonda Chriss Lokeman in the Kansas City Star. (Kansas City Star)

Bold Landscape Architect Helps Memorial Plan - Jan 12, 2004
"It can be said that the designer of the winning plan, 31-year-old Michael Arad, an architect with the New York City Housing Authority, was blessed with the equivalent of a ringer joining a struggling basketball club when the veteran landscape architect Peter Walker came aboard his team," writes Blair Kamin in the Chicago Tribune. (Chicago Tribune)

Reflecting Absence Designer Comes From A Place Where Mourning Is Second Nature -- Israel - Jan 11, 2004
"Some of the world's greatest architects submitted proposals. Arad, until this week, was an anonymous employee of the Housing Authority, a designer of police stations, a young guy with no major projects to his credit. How, I wondered, did he come up with an idea worthy of first place?" writes Zev Chafets in the New York Daily News. "Later, I learned that Arad is an Israeli, and suddenly I got it. Israelis understand how to commemorate mass murder the way Eskimos know how to deal with snowstorms. They are experts the hard way." (New York Daily News)

With Revisions, Reflecting Absence Can Work - Jan 10, 2004
"There were good ideas in the eight plans and had the jury or the L.M.D.C. succumbed to the pressure to go back and start again, it would have been a terrible setback to the process," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "We are pleased that the jury has picked a design and has asked for the right adjustments." (Downtown Express)

Memorial Needs More For Body and Soul - Jan 9, 2004
"Reflecting Absence was the long shot among the eight finalists," writes Marc Spector in Newsday. "The design does little to single out any of the rescue workers. It fails to relate to what actually happened on Sept. 11, 2001. It does not resonate with the power of the events being commemorated." (Newsday)

Reflecting Absence: Clean, Crisp, Bland - Jan 8, 2004
"Of the eight finalist choices the memorial jury was considering, Reflecting Absence was probably the best," writes the editorial page of Newsday. "But still, it doesn't make our pulses race. It's bland." (Newsday)

Revisions Will Make Or Break Surprise Memorial Choice - Jan 8, 2004
"The jury's choice came as something of a surprise, even though Reflecting Absence had been among three plans — out of eight finalists — that the jury was re-examining most seriously," writes the editorial page of the New York Times. "Our initial reaction to Reflecting Absence was discomfort with its starkness. But initial reactions do not matter at this point. The design has evolved significantly, with guidance from the jury, since it was first presented." (New York Times)

Reflecting Absence: Offending Osama - Jan 8, 2004
"While we have serious qualms about the Ground Zero memorial design announced this week - and even greater reservations about the entire competition - there was some welcome, if unintended, significance to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s selection of Michael Arad's proposal," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. (New York Post)

'Reflecting Absence' Is Oppressive, Generic - Jan 7, 2004
"Welcome to nowhere," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. "Of the eight finalists in the memorial competition, 'Reflecting Absence,' by Michael Arad, was the blankest, the most forbidding, the most oppressively generic — and, in a way, the most faithful to the modernist spirit of the World Trade Center." (Newsday)

Bland Memorial is Just Depressing - Jan 7, 2004
"The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation won't let us see the revised version of Reflecting Absence, supposedly with 'significant' changes from the original, until next week," writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post. "But the most helpful change would be its instant, irrevocable demise." (New York Post)

Final Pick Shows Flaws In Memorial Process - Jan 7, 2004
"From the start, the efforts to memorialize the dead and commemorate the attack - and the War on Terror it triggered - have been problematic," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "For another, the competing demands leveled by various interested parties - from neighborhood residents, to businesses near the site, to the families of the 9/11 victims - made for a slightly unseemly environment." (New York Post)

New Study Of Ground Zero Will Add Legitimacy -- If Done Right - Jan 6, 2004
"Preliminary discussions are being held today on a federal review of plans to develop the World Trade Center site. The review requires that the site's historical significance be officially evaluated before federal money can be used to rebuild it," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times. "For the first time, in other words, independent scholars will have the opportunity to address publicly the historical meaning of ground zero and its value to future generations. This is welcome news indeed." (New York Times)

Lawsuits Seeking To Profit From 9/11 Are Wrong - Jan 4, 2004
"Congress established the victims compensation fund shortly after the terror attacks, for the express purpose of giving the families an option to avoid lengthy lawsuits. Those accepting payouts from the fund agreed not to sue airlines, aircraft makers or the Port Authority for wrongful death," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "Even so, liability claims from the few who chose not to take the government's generous (average award: $1.78 million) offer could still run well into the hundreds of millions." (New York Post)

Libeskind's Vision Lost in Freedom Tower Design - Jan 2, 2004
"In the Freedom Tower, we’ve seen our nightmares: one more dumb block of stone, one more rectangle, one more proof that big American money is scared of its shadow," writes Doug Davis in the New York Press. "Never would big oil or big realtors or the big brokers dare give us our prizewinner, Libeskind’s glistening evocation of the Lady, soaring above the spot where the old WTC stood." (New York Press)

1,776 Feet: Not As Simple As It Sounds - Jan 1, 2004
"Though the Freedom Tower, the first and tallest of the planned trade center skyscrapers, is routinely described as a 1,776-foot design, it will be, in the eyes of most of the world, a 541-meter building. That suggests a reference not to the year of American independence but to the year that Totila became king and the emperor Justinian extinguished the Roman consulship," writes David Dunlap in the New York Times. "And it gets trickier." (New York Times)

Freedom Tower Exceeds Expectations - Dec 31, 2003
"The Freedom Tower is the product of a dogfight of egos, politics and business. There was neither an overwhelming mandate of principle nor straightforward hierarchy of authority," writes David Stanke in Downtown Express. "The result is a pragmatic building with a unique form, a corner stone of restoration holding aloft a symbolic representation of the most important issue of our age: energy. And floating above all of this, the opportunity for a public place with contemplative potential far beyond that offered by the memorial being designed on 4.5 adjacent acres to the south." (Downtown Express)

Pataki's Speedy Timetable is Good and Bad - Dec 29, 2003
"While Democrats gripe that the Governor George Pataki is adhering to an overly political timetable, his just-get-it-done attitude has so far served the public nicely," writes the Newsday editorial page. "But while the accelerated drive for a restored downtown skyline has worked surprisingly well, the forced march to produce a Ground Zero memorial design looks a little more troubled." (Newsday)

Memorial Designs Add Insult to Injury - Dec 28, 2003
"Because it is so heartbreakingly bad, the worst show of the year by far is the display currently on view at the Winter Garden of eight models for memorials to those killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center," writes Jerry Saltz in the Village Voice. "Unless the jurors halt the process, or public outcry overwhelms it, one of these models - all of which resemble waiting rooms, food courts, corporate parks, underground malls, or airport architecture -- will be built. The day that happens will be a sad one." (Village Voice)

Memorial Is Worth The Wait - Dec 24, 2003
"Lower Manhattan Development Corp. officials said privately last week that a design for the World Trade Center memorial is likely to be selected in January rather than by the end of this month, as had been previously planned," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "While it would have been better if the L.M.D.C. had publicly acknowledged that there is going to be a delay, the more important thing is there should not be a rushed decision." (Downtown Express)

Start Over On Memorials - Dec 24, 2003
"Add my voice to the rising chorus," writes Joseph Dolman in Newsday. "The 13 jurors charged with choosing a memorial for Ground Zero should slide a big wastebasket up to their table. And with a sweep of the arm, they should dispatch all eight of the proposals before them right into the can." (Newsday)

Federal Money Needed for Recent Security Measures - Dec 23, 2003
"New York remains the prime target for attack while finding itself on the short end of counterterrorism funding," writes the editorial page of the Daily News. "As had been said countless times, this city took a hit for the nation. We'll say it again, and again, until the federal government gets the message and does something about it. (New York Daily News)

Libeskind's Vision Makes Freedom Tower a Success - Dec 21, 2003
"Look at the image again, friends," writes Douglas Davis in Newsday. "It isn't the provocative line we hoped to see, yet it's still without a doubt the most imaginative tall building in the world. Not even Singapore or Malaysia can match it. Further, it will be the tallest, at precisely 1,776 feet, several hundred feet above all its competitors as well as the bland, destroyed World Trade Center it replaces." (Newsday)

Freedom Tower Is a Welcome Addition - Dec 21, 2003
"Lower Manhattan Development Corp. made a choice. It went with a blend of the two men's architectural styles - a collaborative work by Daniel Libeskind and David Childs," writes Newsday's editorial page. "It is better than anyone might have expected." (Newsday)

Scrap The Memorial Designs - Dec 21, 2003
"There is now overwhelming agreement that the eight designs being considered for the World Trade Center memorial just don't cut it. While the plans honor those lost, they fail to capture the horror and outrage, courage and grief of Sept. 11, 2001," writes the editorial page of the Daily News. "There is also a growing consensus that a wellspring of inspiration sits at hand in Kennedy Airport's Hangar 17, the neglected resting spot for artifacts rescued from the fallen buildings." (New York Daily News)

A Chance For Something Noble - Dec 20, 2003
“The surprise of yesterday's unveiling is that in its present form Freedom Tower is much closer to being a piece of architecture than the public had any right to expect,” writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times. “The forced collaboration between David M. Childs, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Daniel Libeskind might have brought out the worst instincts of each, resulting in a corporate gloss on the apocalypse. Instead, the architects have come close to transcending what's left of their battered selves. With some shrewd editing, the design could become one of the noblest skyscrapers ever realized in New York.” (Newsday)

Freedom Tower Is Far From A Finished Work - Dec 20, 2003
“The model presented yesterday is a start — closer to the hundredth draft than to the first, but still far from a finished work,” writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. “It represents a hurried compromise between architects with radically different sources of inspiration. Libeskind, whose master plan called for the world's tallest building in the first place, begins with metaphors and then finds a way to incarnate them. Childs, who is the tower's architect of record, works logically from the specifics of the site — the layout of the streets, the proximity of water, the intensity of wind.” (Newsday)

A Practical And Inspired Beauty - Dec 20, 2003
“Freedom Tower is the product of the dueling visions of architects Daniel Libeskind, who spun a captivating concept for Ground Zero, and David Childs, who reworked the project into more practical but inspired beauty. May construction soon begin,” writes the editorial page of the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Tower Design: A Big Step Forward - Dec 20, 2003
“Yesterday's unveiling of the final design of the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower on the World Trade Center site was a critical event in the long-delayed restoration of Lower Manhattan,” writes the New York Post editorial page. “We'll leave it to the critics to evaluate the spire's architecture, though a building topped off with moving parts - huge windmills - strikes us as asking for unnecessary trouble.” (New York Post)

Child's Freedom Tower Design Achieves the Impossible - Dec 20, 2003
“With the Freedom Tower unveiled yesterday, David Childs and his Skidmore, Owings & Merrill team have done the impossible: They transfigured the conflicting demands of Gov. Pataki, Larry Silverstein, Daniel Libeskind and an impatient public into something original and brilliant at Ground Zero,” writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post. “Make no mistake: The Freedom Tower is a David Childs building. Only superficially, if at all, does it resemble Libeskind's doodlings.” (New York Post)

Never Forget, Move On - Dec 19, 2003
"Unless we have visitors from out of town or I'm going to the movies in Battery Park City or shopping at Century 21 - well, put it like this: Those 16 acres are really just a giant hole in the ground, where a lot of precious life had once been," writes Ellis Henican in Newsday. "Put apartments there. And jobs. And schools. And places to eat and shop. And get on with it." (Newsday)

If We Cannot Face 9/11, How Can We Memorialize It? - Dec 19, 2003
"Like many people touched by 9/11, I'm still mourning the loss of a dear friend who worked on the 106th floor of one of the twin towers. Last year, to honor my friend's memory and those of the thousands of others who died, I created a sculpture titled 'Tumbling Woman,' a bronze statue of a naked woman in perpetual free fall," writes Eric Fischl in the New York Times. "About a week after it was installed at Rockefeller Center, the sculpture was removed. 'Too soon to be seen' is what I was told as the piece was being draped with a cloth and taken away. Perhaps. As you can imagine, the experience led me to think about what constitutes an appropriate expression for tragedy. As an artist and an American, one question still preoccupies me: if we cannot face what happened, how can we move past it?" (New York Times)

South Ferry Subway Station is a Good Idea -- Using 9/11 Money to Fund It Is Not - Dec 18, 2003
Redesigning the South Ferry subway station "is a worthy project," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "A nicer subway station will no doubt benefit Staten Island passengers in their rush to Midtown. They deserve a modern station just like all straphangers, but not out of 9/11 money. Let the M.T.A. find the money for its upgrading in its own capital budget." (Downtown Express)

An Uproar is All that Rises from Ground Zero - Dec 15, 2003
"It's all starting to sound a little crazy," writes Sheryl McCarthy in Newsday. "The more one hears from the players who're involved in planning the rebuilding of Ground Zero, the more they sound like a bunch of 3-year-olds who're fighting over Lego bricks." (Newsday)

Memorials on the Right Track if One Looks at the Bigger Picture - Dec 14, 2003
"There is no question that the finalists' designs are less than perfect. But that is not surprising, considering the mandate the memorial must fulfill," writes Kevin Rampe in the Daily News. "That is why the effort to memorialize is not confined to the space reserved for the memorial. To fully appreciate the eight designs, we must look beyond them, to the context within which they would be created." (New York Daily News)

Potential in Memorial Designs - Dec 13, 2003
"Public response has been generally tepid since the eight finalists in the design competition for the 9/11 memorial at ground zero were announced three weeks ago. To a great degree, that may simply be due to scale," writes the New York Times editorial page. "The models and renderings of the plans simply do not convey how big the memorial really is or what it would be like to stand in its midst. As the designers refine their ideas and reveal more detail, however, the plans' potential has become more apparent. Some of them could do a masterly job of performing the many services the public has a right to expect from the 9/11 memorial." (New York Times)

Clarification Of The Term 'Master Plan' Would Help Ground Zero - Dec 12, 2003
"As Gov. George E. Pataki prepares to unveil the latest design of the 'Freedom Tower' at ground zero, the long-simmering dispute between Daniel Libeskind, the master planner for the site, and David M. Childs, the architect chosen by Larry Silverstein, the commercial leaseholder at the site, to design the tower has come to a boil," writes Rafael Vińoly in the New York Times. "Although this is unfortunate and unprofessional, it will probably pale in comparison to the struggle for symbolic control of the rebuilding after the designer of the World Trade Center memorial is chosen next week. That is the way things will go if certain crucial points are not clarified now." (New York Times)

Garden of Lights is Memorial With Most Potential, But it Still Falls Short - Dec 11, 2003
"We are not going to recommend a particular design although we do see a lot of promise in one, Garden of Lights," writes the editorial page of Downtown Express. "Because we think the plan needs such significant changes, we are not prepared to recommend it at this time. The designs with the most potential are the ones that offer plaza or park space near the street level with space for powerful memorial qualities underground. This doubles the open space on the site. It also allows the possibility of recognizing the significance of the site at street level without being overly morbid, while leaving space underground to pay fitting honor and recognition to what happened." (Downtown Express)

New Book Presents Best History Yet of World Trade Center - Dec 10, 2003
"James Glanz and Eric Lipton's brilliantly reported and profoundly moving but admirably clear-eyed account of the accidental conception, long gestation, difficult birth, brief life and tragic death of the World Trade Center is likely to remain a classic in the already extensive literature on the subject," writes Martin Filler in the New York Times. "Without unduly pressing the point or resorting to forced metaphors, Mr. Glanz, a science reporter for The New York Times, and Mr. Lipton, a metropolitan reporter for it, make this history a sobering parable about America's might and its limits over the six decades of their panoramic enterprise." (New York Times)

Play About the Kennedy Assasination Accomplishes Something That Memorials Cannot Yet Do for 9/11 - Dec 8, 2003
"I was unexpectedly punged back into Nov 22, 1963 -- and inevitably back into Sep 11, 2001 -- by the power of an artist who has an innate grasp of his time that many of us, journalists and the memorial industry included, do not," writes Frank Rich about Tony Kushner's musical 'Caroline, or Change,' in the New York Times. But he thinks we are not yet ready to make sure reflections about 9/11. "We are in a second war that we didn't anticipate right after 9/11 and whose aftershocks in 2004 are no more knowable to us than the events of 1964 were to the traumatized Americans of 1963. Given this reality, it's ludicrous to ask any artist to create a memorial for ground zero that is going to speak to us give years from now, let alone 40." (New York Times)

There Needs To Be a New Memorial Process -- Without the Public - Dec 7, 2003
"Forget vapid populism," writes Michael Kimmelman in the New York Times. "Limit the competition to participants of the jury's expert choosing. Then let the jury select the best plan, if and when there is one. If that's elitism, so be it." (New York Times)

Despite Post 9/11 Talk, Pataki Has Done Little To Help Subways - Dec 4, 2003
"George Pataki decided in 2000 to cut the state's contribution to the MTA's capital program from about $800 million a year to zilch, undermining the millions of people who rely on the world's greatest subway. But yesterday Pataki stood at Ground Zero praising the delivery of nearly $3 billion in federal money to help build a permanent PATH station and two subway hubs at Fulton Street and the South Ferry Terminal," writes Ray Sanchez in Newsday. "You have to question the governor's resolve." (Newsday)

Grief May Destroy Memorials - Dec 2, 2003
"For most of the 3,000 killed on 9/11, their deaths had nothing to do with their lives," writes Mark Cunningham in the New York Post. "The only major link is the one the terrorists made. To make that the core of a permanent memorial is to choose to focus our memories on something that had nothing important to do with them." (New York Post)

New York is Getting Stiffed on Security - Dec 2, 2003
New York, long treated like an ugly stepchild by Washington, was assured after 9/11 that things would be different. This time, we'd get our fair share. But when it came to homeland security funding, New York State ended up 49th on the list. To its credit, Congress tried to address this inequity by creating a discretionary fund to provide extra money for big, vulnerable cities, New York City being the biggest and most vulnerable. But even that pot of money has been corrupted. (New York Daily News)

Memorial Must Inspire on Many Levels - Dec 1, 2003
"Whatever gets erected on the foundations of the lost Twin Towers must acknowledge that a memorial will outlast memory," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. "Remember the General Slocum? When the ferry by that name burned and sank in the East River in 1904, it killed more than 1,000 New Yorkers, whose deaths are memorialized by an uninspiring fountain at the northern end of Tompkins Square Park, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan." (Newsday)

Memorial Process Was an Impossible Burden for Designers - Dec 1, 2003
"The more I studied the designs, the less promising I found them," writes Martin Pederson in Metropolis Magazine. "None are fully realized. They all feel provisional, like ambitious first drafts. Still I am reluctant to condemn them, because the designers were handed a near-impossible brief." (Metropolis Magazine)

There Should Be Evil in 9/11 Memorials - Nov 30, 2003
"The ugliness of Al Qaeda's vicious blow to America is obscured by these prettified designs, which look oddly like spas or fancy malls or aromatherapy centers. It's easy to visualize toned women with yoga mats strolling through these New Age pavilions filled with waterfalls and floating trees and sunken gardens and suspended votives. Mass murder dulled by architectural Musak," writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. (New York Times)

Politics Are Poisoning Design at Ground Zero - Nov 29, 2003
“With its symbolic height of 1,776 feet and its upraised arm, the Freedom Tower is a piece of bombast,” writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times. “It responds in a particular way to a particular event. It is being forced upon us, by public officials whose political agendas are hardly obscure. And it does not speak for those of us who believe it is wrong to nationalize ground zero symbolically.” (New York Times)

Maya Lin’s Success is Today’s Failure - Nov 27, 2003
“As successful as Ms. Lin’s Vietnam memorial was, the eight finalists prove that it has become a crutch, rather than an inspiration, for American memorial architecture,” writes Clay Risen in the New York Observer. (New York Observer)

Where is The Volunteer Spirit That 9/11 Inspired? - Nov 27, 2003
“New York experienced a surge in volunteerism after Sept. 11, 2001, as city dwellers, many of whom were personally affected by the tragedy, sought ways to help others,” writes Sheryl McCarthy in Newsday. “What happened to that flood of civic-mindedness that we saw two years ago?” (Newsday)

Remember 9/11’s Children - Nov 27, 2003
“In all the debate about how best to honor our dead, I fear we are leaving the living behind,” writes Chris Burke in the Daily News. “These children deserve the same attention and care that we now give the designers, the architects and the builders.” (New York Daily News)

Open the Statue of Liberty, Or Take it Down - Nov 27, 2003
“Even with the infusion of another $5 million into security efforts, there can be no foolproof, surefire, 100% guarantee that the statue will be secure. The people know that. By her very existence, she invites attack,” writes the editorial page of the Daily News. “And that is why she must be reopened. Completely. Otherwise, the terrorists win.” (New York Daily News)

A Textbook Process For The Memorial Has Produced Textbook Results - Nov 27, 2003
“Can a transcendent memorial actually be planned? Or are planners and the public trying to make more of a single memorial than it can possibly be?” asks David Dunlop of the New York Times. “Conventional wisdom says that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation followed a textbook process. Perhaps that is why it got textbook results.” (New York Times)

Trip on PATH Is Its Own, Moving Memorial - Nov 26, 2003
"Yesterday on the PATH Train, no one said a word about grand artistic plans with names like 'Lower Waters' or 'Votives in Suspension' or 'Garden of Lights'. No one mentioned the raging dispute over how the names of the dead would be listed on the walls," writes Joseph Dolman in Newsday. "And, as the train rolled up from under the Hudson and into the strange daylight of Ground Zero, no one protested that we were trespassing on sacred ground. For one stunning moment, all that stuff seemed silly and beside the point." (Newsday )

Busybodies at Ground Zero - Nov 26, 2003
"The biggest obstacle tripping up the artists, designers and architects is that we are in a rush to 'solve' the complicated problem of what to build at the World Trade Center site," writes Susan Cheever in Newsday. "We are always in a hurry. We live in a culture of busyness. We measure our importance by how much we get done." (Newsday)

People, Not Nature, Should Be Focus of Memorial - Nov 26, 2003
"The finalist designs in the 9/11 memorial design competition have to do with light, hanging light, falling light, diluted light, drowning light. And also with stones that are crying, sky-reflecting water pools, floating gardens, bridges placed like bandages, cut fields and an apple orchard," writes Dennis Smith in the New York Times. "The universal elements — air, water, earth and light — are celebrated. Nature is celebrated. Nowhere is there a representation of a human being." (New York Times)

For Memorial, Eight Elegant Ideas - Nov 25, 2003
"The quality of the results of the memorial competition suggests that the process proceeded with much greater integrity than the related architectural competition," writes Joseph Giovannini in New York magazine. "All the entries are serious, and some are inspired. Each is a vehicle of memory and contemplation." (New York Magazine)

The PATH to Rebuilding - Nov 23, 2003
"Anyone trying to measure 9/11's impact on New York's economy - and, particularly, its transportation infrastructure - should take a trip to Ground Zero and witness a truly historic event: the resumption of PATH train service to New Jersey," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. (New York Post)

In Memorials, No New York - Nov 24, 2003
"They have light, air, water and greenery," writes Joyce Purnick in the New York Times. "What the eight designs for the World Trade Center memorial do not have is a feeling of New York." (New York Times)

Let the People Decide on Memorial - Nov 20, 2003
"To avoid making artistic choices by public referendum, the LMDC says its jury will deliberate in private. This is a mistake," writes the editorial page of the Daily News. "New Yorkers should examine the memorials and make their voices heard. Do the designs, for example, capture the resolve and courage with which America faced the world after the attacks? We must be sure they do." (New York Daily News)

The Best Memorials Evoke Simplicity of Maya Lin - Nov 20, 2003
"The best of the memorial finalists call for simple, calming memorials that look as if they would make people stop, remember and reflect," writes Sheryl McCarthy in Newsday. "In many ways Maya Lin's Vietnam War Veterans Memorial in Washington has transformed the way we look at such monuments." (Newsday)

Use the City in the Memorial - Nov 20, 2003
"The proposals are crammed with symbolism, but few of them acknowledge - much less take advantage of - the memorial's placement amid office buildings, streets and traffic," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. "Most would replace the World Trade Center's original barren plaza with an equally arid public space. Rather than somehow stitch a new sanctum into the city's profane bustle, the designers have gone out of their way to separate life from the contemplation of death. They would build 10-story barriers and buried bunkers, they would flood the site and create islands - anything to carve a massive mausoleum out of a vital city." (Newsday)

List Rescue Workers Together; Don't Cut off Commerce - Nov 20, 2003
"The ultimate memorial must be modest in size and must not create any barriers to the businesses and office buildings that need to rise at the site," writes the editorial page of the New York Post. "The exhibit must also recognize and identify the rescue workers - firefighters, cops, medical personnel and others - who died there as the heroes they were." (New York Post)

Bring Light and Renewal to Memorial - Nov 20, 2003
"Coming to terms with the eight memorial designs unveiled at the Winter Garden yesterday will take a little time," writes the New York Times' editorial page. "They inevitably make an overt appeal to our emotions, but they must also be judged by how well they will stand up many years from now. The winning design will belong to the cityscape as surely as the buildings that are eventually constructed around it. (New York Times)

On Memorial, A Voice of Simplicity Cries to be Heard - Nov 20, 2003
"Keep it simple. Eliminate inessentials. Cut the rhetoric. These are the principles that should be adhered to when considering ground zero," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times. "But for better or worse, we are living in baroque if not byzantine times. Some of our most impressive contemporary architecture reflects this. All eight designs chosen as finalists for a memorial of the World Trade Center disaster bear strong traces of it, to a greater or lesser degree. Each of them suffers as a result." (New York Times)

Maloney Bill Should Be Scrapped - Nov 18, 2003
"With just a week to go before the designs for a Ground Zero memorial are unveiled, Rep. Carolyn Maloney is trying to block the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan," writes the New York Post. (New York Post)

The Principles of the New Memorial - Nov 18, 2003
"The designs for a World Trade Center memorial cannot satisfy everyone. They will almost surely not satisfy anyone who believes in the inviolability of the twin towers' structural outlines," writes David Dunlop in the New York Times. "But the eight proposals to be unveiled tomorrow must satisfy a carefully worded mission and five key principles. (New York Times)

What Will Happen to Ground Zero's Zipcode? - Nov 17, 2003
"From the beginning, the collapse of the World Trade Center has been a tale told in numbers as well as words," writes Clyde Haberman in the New York Times. "One number gets little attention, but it should not be ignored in contemplating Lower Manhattan's future. It is 10048." (New York Times)

Libeskind and Childs' Forced Marriage - Nov 17, 2003
"The roily architectural union of Daniel Libeskind and David M. Childs — officials describe it wishfully as a collaboration but Mr. Libeskind likens it to a forced marriage — has already secured a place in the annals of contentious architectural alliances. Tables have been pounded, disparaging innuendoes whispered," writes David Dunlop in the New York Times. "But in historical terms, Mr. Childs and Mr. Libeskind have been acting like perfect gentlemen." (New York Times)

City in the Sky; New Book on History of WTC - Nov 17, 2003
In their account of the rise and fall of the World Trade Center, James Glanz and Eric Lipton evoke the romance of skyscraper construction in New York even as they tell a version of it that ended in unimaginable tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001. The book centers on the power of an unaccountable public agency, cunning legal and political maneuvers and brilliant engineering innovations devised to address extraordinary structural challenges. It also registers the dignity and determination of Oscar Nadel and other proprietors in Radio Row, the consumer electronics district, who fought a smart, tough and losing battle against the hugely more powerful Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. (New York Times)

Imagining a Sixteen Acre Memorial, One Last Time - Nov 13, 2003
"Take a breath now," writes David Dunlop in the New York Times, "because this may be the last opportunity to contemplate quietly the entire 16-acre World Trade Center site as a memorial." (New York Times)

Pataki Should Use LMDC Money to Pay for Hudson River Park - Nov 12, 2003
"There are many worthy projects the L.M.D.C. is considering below Houston St., but the $70 million needed to build the downtown section of Hudson River Park is one of the worthiest," writes the Downtown Express on its editorial page. "It was quite disappointing that Governor George Pataki left out any mention of the park two weeks ago in what was a largely praiseworthy speech on Lower Manhattan’s progress." (Downtown Express)

First WTC Center Provided Good Retail Atmosphere - Nov 12, 2003
"Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff’s fundamental assumptions about increasing the amount of retail space at Ground Zero are misguided and some of the proposed changes could reduce the vitality of the site," writes David Stanke in the Downtown Express. "The Port Authority, which owns the land, should move forward with its own plan that has already been handicapped too much by political considerations." (Downtown Express)

Ground Zero Design Looks More Like Houston than New York - Nov 8, 2003
"How did we end up in Houston?" asks Herbert Muschamp, the architecture critic for the New York Times. "That is the burning question raised by a new set of design guidelines for the office towers at ground zero. True, we've got a hole the size of Texas sitting down there in Lower Manhattan. But how did ground zero come to inherit a vision of glitzy, structurally inept towers that would look more at home in an office park for energy companies in Space City U.S.A.?" (New York Times)

Bring Retail and Life up to the Street - Nov 6, 2003
"Currently, the most important unresolved issue for the rest of the site is the plan for the ground level: how retail, streets, open spaces, and sidewalks will work together to ensure that the site is full of people walking the streets, shopping in the stores, and spilling over to the rest of Lower Manhattan," writes deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding Daniel Doctoroff in the Downtown Express. "To make this happen, we must create the right public realm with the right kind of retail - a destination for people around the entire region. The right kind of retail is not decided by the number of square feet, but by where that retail is located, and how it connects to the area’s public spaces and streets." (Downtown Express)

9/11 Pension Plan is Too Generous - Nov 4, 2003
"State Sen. Guy Velella of the Bronx and Assemblyman Peter Abbate of Brooklyn are trying to scrape the innards of the city's treasury with a bill that lives up to the Legislature's grand tradition of awarding stub-your-toe disability pensions," writes the editorial page of the Daily News. The News says that the legislation is so broadly written that city workers don't even have to prove that their disabilities are related to 9/11. It suggests that we "rewrite the legislation to cover only truly disabling maladies and require claimants to show that their illnesses were a direct result of their heroic labors." (New York Daily News)

WTC Won't Be Complete Until 2015 - Oct 31, 2003
"Gov. Pataki slipped a bitter bombshell into yesterday's speech about the alleged progress being made at Ground Zero and in lower Manhattan - not that anyone in the room seemed to notice," Steve Cuozzo wrote in the Post. "The World Trade Center site won't be completely rebuilt until 2015 - not until seven years after the Freedom Tower is finished, and at least two years later than WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein has ever predicted." (New York Post)

Top Scientist Warned About 9/11 Air - Oct 28, 2003
"The day after the World Trade Center collapse, a top federal scientist warned in a strongly worded memo against the quick reoccupation of buildings in lower Manhattan because of possible dangers from asbestos and other toxic materials," writes Juan Gonzalez in a Daily News column. (New York Daily News)

Tall Order to Keep Libeskind - Oct 23, 2003
"Personality quirks aside, the public will feel cheated and abused if Libeskind's plan -- the one so many had embraced, the one they expected would rise on the site of the twin towers -- is cast aside," writes Richard Schwartz in the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Getting Ready to Evaluate Memorial Designs - Oct 22, 2003
"We hope and expect the jurors will release designs that bridge rather than exacerbate the tensions between the various factions," wrote the Downtown Express about the memorial design competition. (Downtown Express)

Time to Rethink the Mix of Uses at WTC Site - Oct 19, 2003
"Is there enough money to rebuild the World Trade Center site as envisioned in a broad master plan that the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and Port Authority released a month ago?" asked Newsday's editorial page. " And if there isn't enough money to make this dream come true, could the plan be redrawn to thin out some of the office space that threatens to dominate the site?" (Newsday)

Unheard Voices on Planning New Trade Center - Oct 16, 2003
"What may have been lost in the transition are voices; voices that might have questioned basic assumptions about a program in which skyscraping commercial development is to accompany the memorial, cultural and open spaces; voices that might have asked whether a public domain under tight control is truly public," wrote David Dunlap in the Times. (New York Times)

Put the Bus Garage Under the W.T.C. Memorial - Oct 15, 2003
"It has become clear that the driving concerns for location of the bus parking facility should be cost, speed of implementation, and impact on W.T.C. memorial and surrounding business and residential communities. On each of these measures, the W.T.C. is the logical site for the terminal," wrote David Stanke in the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Inexcusable Delays and Indifference at the E.P.A. - Oct 15, 2003
"The E.P.A., over the last year, has never given us the slightest hint that they care much about people who could be exposing themselves to 9/11-related health risks without knowing it," wrote the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Overreacting to Whitman's Deceit on Air Quality - Oct 9, 2003
"Christie Whitman’s big lie" about air quality after September 11 "destroyed at a stroke the credibility of her agency, and opened the door to hysterical and exaggerated fear among the public," wrote Charles Komanoff in the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Money Troubles at Ground Zero - Oct 8, 2003
"Several of the large pools of cash or bonds that once looked easily available for Lower Manhattan's revival now seem in danger of disappearing," writes the Times editorial page. "At the top of that list is the insurance payment to Larry Silverstein, who holds the World Trade Center lease." (New York Times)

Liberty Bond Problems Continue - Oct 1, 2003
"Is it too much to ask that $8 billion in tax-free bonds funded by the American public be well spent?" asks Downtown Express this week. "Far from it. It is the obligation of Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki to see that the Liberty Bonds are properly used." (Downtown Express)

The New Plans for the WTC Site - Sep 25, 2003
"The adjustments architect Daniel Libeskind released for his World Trade Center site plan last week are undoubtedly an improvement over the proposal announced in February. By seeking to expand the site to include the Deutsche Bank building and the Milstein Properties sites across the street, several of the problems with the original design can be solved," writes Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

A Design Rethought, With Judgment Deferred - Sep 18, 2003
The problem with rebuilding, writes Herbert Muschamp in the Times, "is that history and architecture are both being made to move at the pace of politics. And the strain shows." (New York Times)

Two Years Later, Families Need More Answers - Sep 11, 2003
"The L.M.D.C. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are unfortunately not doing a good job of managing expectations. Information is parceled out on a need to know basis, we lack an understanding of the big picture and timeline of decisions, or the reasoning behind those decisions. We ask questions, and many times we never get answers. Not because answers don’t exist, but because some bureaucrat has decided that it is not in their best interests to share or doesn’t know how to explain it in layman’s terms," writes Monica Iken in the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

One Vision: A Hill of Green at Ground Zero - Sep 11, 2003
Herbert Muschamp writes about a collage of Ground Zero, with a mound of green covering the Trade Center site, that the artist Ellsworth Kelly mailed to him. "It is virtually a foregone conclusion that Mr. Kelly's idea will not be warmly welcomed by public officials. Their social nature will take its course. Mr. Kelly's vision thus represents the unattainable. From the perspective of the reality experts, the concept is doomed. This only adds to the sublimity it projects." (New York Times)

Two Years Ago Feels Like Yesterday - Sep 11, 2003
"At dusk, when the Tribute in Light once again rises over Ground Zero like a benediction, look heavenward. Not only in remembrance of those we have lost, but in gratitude for the courage and compassion and renewed patriotism that we have found," writes the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Still in the Dark over WTC Dust - Sep 11, 2003
"Two years after the collapse of the World Trade Center, health officials still have no idea whether most of lower Manhattan's commercial buildings have been properly cleaned," writes Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Public Building - Sep 9, 2003
"The debate that has unfolded over the rebuilding of the World Trade Center for the last year has brought New Yorkers as close as they have ever come to the ancient Florentine conviction that the most profound questions of urban design demand a public voice," writes James Traub in the New York Times. (New York Times)

A 9/11 Widow Reviews the Movie 'DC 9/11' - Sep 8, 2003
"The film 'DC 9/11: Time of Crisis,' which premiered Sunday night on Showtime, is a mind-numbingly boring, revisionist, two-hour-long wish list of how 9/11 might have gone if we had real leaders in the current administration. This film is rated half of a fighter jet -- since that is about what we got for our nation's defense on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001," writes 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser. (Salon)

Who Won?: The Attacks, 2 Years Later - Sep 7, 2003
"Like the worst kind of personal tragedy - the death of a loved one, a divorce, a devastating financial failure- the Sept. 11 attacks are hardly forgotten, and never will be to any American alive that day. Rather, they have become a part of who we are, absorbed into individual lives and the nation's collective psyche in ways both subtle and jarring," writes Elisabeth Bumiller in the Times. (New York Times)

Faults In Plans For Bedrock - Sep 4, 2003
Jimmy Breslin writes in Newsday today that 140,000 New Yorkers have died since the 9/11 attack, and "If we have a memorial for some people, then we should have one for all." He writes about victims' family members calls to preserve the footprints of the World Trade Center down to bedrock, and adds that "the only way to give these victims' families their holy bedrock forever is to drill right through the bedrock and on through the rest of the earth - if we can get to the moon, we can do this - and make all 143,000 bereaved families supremely happy by posting their names on the new sacred grounds of Wei Hai Road in Shanghai." (Newsday)

Gabrielle: I Want Answers, And That Won't Happen In the Fund - Sep 3, 2003
"I want answers and I want accountability and that's not going to happen in the fund," said Monica Gabrielle, whose husband died on 9/11, in the New York Post. "The only way that's going to happen is if we go to court and we have discovery and we get everybody deposed and up on the stand." (New York Post)

Chiarchiaro: Victims' Compensation Fund is a Way to Help My Kids - Sep 3, 2003
"If I go into a lawsuit, there's no way I'm going to win -- and if I do win, the airlines will only countersue and we'll be in court for a number of years. By accepting the [fund compensation] that was offered, I am able to help my children today," said Nick Chiarochiaro, who lost his wife on 9/11. (New York Post)

The New Ground Zero: A Dubious Idea of 'Freedom' - Aug 31, 2003
Ground Zero's "vast emptiness has stimulated the public to create its own self-portrait in the incessant stream of fantasies that people have been sketching around this site since Sept. 11," writes Herbert Muschamp in the Times. "The most recent of these fantasies has just arrived in the form of a small brochure titled 'The Campaign for a Museum of Freedom." Muschamp says that he has "a much simpler and cheaper idea in mind," reconstructing the Freedom of Expression National Monument that stood near ground zero in 1984. (New York Times)

Time to Come Clean on Mess Downtown - Aug 28, 2003
"Last week's bombshell report by agency Inspector General Nikki Tinsley - the one that exposed how the White House ordered the EPA to minimize health dangers near Ground Zero - also concluded that the current EPA cleanup is inadequate," writes Juan Gonzalez. (New York Daily News)

Foreign Projects Offer Visions for NYC Memorial - Aug 26, 2003
"What we need at the center of the site is not a somber void, even a gracefully landscaped one, but a true piazza, a junction where memory and mundanity can meet, where people will throng, drawn by a sense of pilgrimage and by the magnetic appeal of a magnificent outdoor urban space. Dignity can be compatible with bustle," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. (Newsday)

It's Public Be Damned at the EPA - Aug 26, 2003
"The news that White House staff ordered the EPA to minimize potential health dangers near Ground Zero was bad enough. But the details in the 165-page report about how the EPA lied to the public - and even subverted its own safety standards in the process - are chilling," writes Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Will Santiago Calatrava's High-design Style Work at Ground Zero? - Aug 25, 2003
"Santiago Calatrava, the 52-year-old Spaniard picked earlier this month to design a big new train and subway station at the World Trade Center site, is a singular figure in the design world: a remarkably inventive architect who's also a civil engineer and a sculptor. But is he a good fit for Ground Zero?" writes Christopher Hawthorne in Slate. (Slate)

9/11 Remains Don't Belong at Fresh Kills - Aug 18, 2003
"Most discussions about the World Trade Center memorial neglect one fact. Ground Zero has been called hallowed and those murdered have been called heroes and casualties of war. More personally, they are loved ones and friends. But now they are being treated as debris," writes Diane Horning in the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

9/11's Compassion & Grit Live - Aug 17, 2003
"When we New Yorkers are not being full of ourselves, we are remarkably great at defying the odds. Who woulda thunk that we could survive the greatest power outage in recorded history with relatively few instances of thuggery?" wrote E.R. Shipp in the Daily News, adding that the 2003 blackout was very different from the violent and destructive 1977 blackout. "We are a different city. We've not only been through those bouts of self-destruction - the rioting, the looting. We've also been through Sept. 11, 2001." (New York Daily News)

When Will the Bush Administration Tell the Truth About 9/11? - Aug 14, 2003
"This week should mark my second anniversary, but my wife died in the Sept. 11 attacks," writes R. William Harvey in Salon.com. "When will the Bush administration tell the truth about what happened?" (Salon.com)

Remembering What a City Can't Forget - Aug 13, 2003
"In truth, every day in New York is the anniversary. The people of the city say so, in the subtlest ways," writes Dan Barry in the New York Times."You hear them as you travel the city streets. You visit the Our Lady of Mount Carmel shrine on Staten Island, where tucked into the intricate stonework is a Mass card for a woman named Peggy; 'She was in the restaurant on top' is all that the caretaker needs to say." (New York Times)

Chinatown In Need of More Attention - Aug 7, 2003
"The entirety of the problems in Chinatown cannot be blamed on 9/11 or Park Row, but given that the L.M.D.C. has about $1 billion and was formed specifically to help Downtown neighborhoods like Chinatown, it is not unreasonable for neighborhood leaders to expect more to be done quicker. The terror attack was two years ago," wrote the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Helping Downtown, Not Downtrodden - Aug 7, 2003
"For the past year, people from all over have moved into Battery Park City, SoHo or other areas west of Broadway and qualified for Lower Manhattan Development Corp. rent subsidies of up to $12,000 over two years. Meanwhile, the low-income longtime Chinese, Hispanic and black residents east of Broadway are consistently rejected," writes Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

At Ground Zero, Finding Harmony In Design? - Aug 5, 2003
"Having appointed Libeskind the composer and conductor of downtown's rebirth, the managers are gradually hiring an orchestra," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday about the decisions to hire David Childs to work on the 1776-foot tower and Santiago Calatrava to design the transit station. "There is enough work at the World Trade Center to keep many of the world's most celebrated architects employed for years. The challenge is not to locate talent, but to ensure that the site does not become a permanent design exhibit, a neighborhood glutted with bold buildings vying for the public's attention." (Newsday)

The 9/11 Investigation - Jul 25, 2003
The attacks of September 11 might have been prevented had the US intelligence community been more competent," writes David Corn in the Nation. "And the Bush Administration is refusing to tell the public what intelligence the President saw before 9/11 about the threat posed by Al Quaeda." (The Nation)

Attacks Could Have Been Prevented - Jul 25, 2003
"The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks might have been disrupted if America's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies had done a better job sharing information they already possessed about the activities of Al Qaeda members. That is the most chilling finding of an unflinching Congressional inquiry into the performance of the country's spy agencies in the years leading up to the attacks. It would be nice to believe that all the problems had been fixed. Unfortunately, much work remains to be done, and it is not at all clear in some important areas, like reform of the F.B.I., that change is coming fast enough to prevent another terror strike," writes the Times. (New York Times)

David Childs' Skills Are Needed - Jul 24, 2003
"Daniel Libeskind is an artist, whose projects set the tone for museums, which have simple use patterns. David Childs designs functioning skyscrapers that must support a wide range of activity. Who would you have take the lead on this project? If you answered Daniel Libeskind, please answer again if it were your $2 billion or so for the Freedom Tower," writes David Stanke in the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Silverstein Should Listen to Libeskind - Jul 24, 2003
"Silverstein, as a developer, has a right to a commercially successful development. But he needs to be creative. New York has more than its share of mediocre development. He should not rely on old-fashioned ideas that infringe upon the rights of the citizens of New York to a creative, world-class design. In the last 10-15 years, creative developers have achieved commercial success by attracting worldwide customers through creative design," writes Beverly Willis in the Downtown Express. "Libeskind brings this type of creativity to his buildings and Silverstein should listen." (Downtown Express)

Daniel Libeskind's Tower - Jul 18, 2003
One central question in the future of Lower Manhattan was answered this week when Daniel Libeskind, the architect of the winning master plan for ground zero, and David Childs, a consulting partner of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, agreed to work together on the design of the 1,776-foot tower at the heart of Mr. Libeskind's plan," writes the Times. "There will be lots of second-guessing about this forced collaboration, in which Mr. Libeskind has taken a lesser role than Mr. Childs. But it could very well mark a promising beginning of serious design work downtown." (New York Times)

- Jul 18, 2003
"One central question in the future of Lower Manhattan was answered this week when Daniel Libeskind, the architect of the winning master plan for ground zero, and David Childs, a consulting partner of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, agreed to work together on the design of the 1,776-foot tower at the heart of Mr. Libeskind's plan," writes the Times. "There will be lots of second-guessing about this forced collaboration, in which Mr. Libeskind has taken a lesser role than Mr. Childs. But it could very well mark a promising beginning of serious design work downtown." (New York Times)

Ground Zero Developments - Jul 14, 2003
"Libeskind's original plan, which was executed rapidly for a competition, was inevitably going to be changed before it could be carried out on this complex site. But we worry that the entire vision is in danger of being hijacked, "refined" into something that falls far short of its original promise. Mr. Silverstein talks publicly about how his buildings at ground zero will "reflect" Mr. Libeskind's ideas, but he seems to be contemplating major changes," writes the Times. (New York Times)

Things Are Finally Looking Up - Jul 17, 2003
"The designation of leaseholder Larry Silverstein's architect David Childs as lead designer of the 1,776-foot tall Freedom Tower, and the shrinkage of Libeskind's role to "collaborating architect," means Silverstein might actually be able to get the tower out of the ground next summer," writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post. (New York Post)

Ground Zero or Bust - Jul 13, 2003
Frank Rich asks in the New York Times, "can architecture, commerce and artistic entrepreneurship (a new City Opera? a Museum of Freedom sponsored by American Express?) so quickly bind the gravest wound in New York's modern memory?" (New York Times)

Meeting the Needs of Downtown’s Growing Population - Jul 1, 2003
"We wish we could say downtown is the only place with crowded schools. It is a problem all over the city, but it is important for slow moving bureaucrats running the schools to recognize the fast growing population in lower Manhattan and evaluate its needs when making the difficult decisions of determining where to build the city’s next schools," writes the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Judgment Needed On Remaining Liberty Bond Projects - Jul 10, 2003
"The $8 billion Liberty Bond program is in danger of becoming synonymous with the phrase “9/11 boondoggle” unless state and city officials start giving more thought to the projects it allows the bonds to be used for," writes the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Oh Libeskind, My Libeskind - Jun 28, 2003
There’s a special purgatory reserved for those who would be New York’s master builders. For those who succeed, a measure of immortality is the reward. Those who fail are condemned to the margins of arcane Gotham monographs—the might-have-beens of the city’s developed environment. Daniel and Nina Libeskind are fighting tooth and nail to escape the latter fate. (New York Observer)

Brooklyn Bridge Plot Shouldn't Justify Park Row Closing - Jun 25, 2003
"Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and his anti-terrorist team deserve a good deal of credit for protecting the venerable and beautiful bridge, which serves as a means of transport for thousands of motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists a day," wrote the Downtown Express. "However, this credit should not be used — as we fear it might — as a reason to justify every single security measure Commissioner Kelly has ordered – particularly the closing of Park Row near police headquarters and the closing of part of City Hall Park." (Downtown Express)

Open Message for Memorial Jury And Designers - Jun 18, 2003
"We urge these designers not to be bound by any limits they have been told exist on the site. We urge the jury -- which is made up of accomplished people in a variety of fields -- to be open to all of the possibilities and to pick a design that lets all of us remember and heal and understand." writes the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Why Not to Build a Monument at the WTC - Jun 17, 2003
In Slate, Christopher Benfey writes that his own proposal for a memorial at Ground Zero is that "we put nothing at all in that space—that it be left as a hollowed-out void. There are powerful precedents for such a thing." (Slate)

Libeskind’s W.T.C. Design Needs to be Fixed - Jun 11, 2003
"Unfortunately, in designing a plan to push every hot button and to avoid criticism on any front, Libeskind also created a Trojan horse. In the belly of the landuse plan lays the pit, an empty six-acre hole specified to have no use except for mourning," writes David Stanke in the Daily News. (Downtown Express)

Creating the Best Memorial for Everyone - Jun 4, 2003
September 11's "simple and amazing story of bravery and sacrifice must be told in some unimaginably creative way at the public memorial at the World Trade Center site. It won?t be enough to say that people must pay admission to an adjacent 9/11 museum in order to understand what happened," writes the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Poll Brings Focus to West St. Questions - May 28, 2003
"The question of whether or not to build a tunnel to bury the portion of West St. near the World Trade Center site has been consumed by too much emotion and too few facts for about 20 months now," writes the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Something Unclean About E.P.A. Cleanup Process - May 7, 2003
"Well over a year after the collapse of the World Trade Center unleashed dangerous chemicals into the air and potentially dangerous amounts of dust swirled into thousands of downtown apartments, the federal Environmental Protection Agency finally agreed to live up to its responsibilities and make sure Lower Manhattan homes were safe," writes the Downtown Express. "The E.P.A. had to be dragged kicking and screaming to administer this program and now after it has agreed to do so, it is doing far less than the minimum a reasonable person would expect from it." (Downtown Express)

Digging for Treasure at the Pit - May 7, 2003
"During the last election, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo charged Pataki had done little more after Sept. 11 than hold Mayor Rudy Giuliani's coat. The full truth is Pataki also went through the pockets," writes Michael Daly in the Daily News. "When Bloomberg sought the state's help in grappling with the fiscal aftermath of the attack, Pataki answered with not so much as a shrug." (New York Daily News)

Toward A Memorial Design - Apr 30, 2003
"On Monday, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation kicked off the competition that will lead to a final design. Corporation officials and members of the memorial design jury made it clear that the contest is wide open," wrote the New York Times. "Even as they announced the competition guidelines, they seemed to downplay their importance. The implication is that what matters most, at the moment, is resonance, memory and the almost uncanny power that great memorials have." (New York Times)

Pataki Timeline a Welcome Step - Apr 30, 2003
"Gov. George Pataki last week began to do what we and others have been calling on him to do: start making decisions about Downtown’s future," wrote the Downtown Express. (Downtown Express)

Looking Into The Pit - Apr 20, 2003
Michael Daly writes in the Daily News about the call for a separate memorial for the rescue workers who died on September 11. "Nobody doubts that many civilians were uncommonly brave that day in ways that will never be known. These courageous souls would rightly be honored in a memorial to the unknown heroes," he writes. "But no civilian victim rushed from perfect safety into the most mortal danger as hundreds of rescue workers did." (New York Daily News)

Choosing a Memorial for the 2,800 Lives - Apr 16, 2003
"The correct balance between having an elite jury select a design in a vacuum and having a completely open democratic process is a difficult one," writes the Downtown Express. "There is not an easy answer to finding the right balance but some form of public scrutiny and input needs to be built into the process." (Downtown Express)

Downtown Progress Report - Apr 10, 2003
A roundup of opinions by lower Manhattan's key players, including Madelyn Wils, Carl Weisbrod, Tim Carey, Kathryn Wylde, Chris Kui, resident David Stanke, Trinity Church vicar Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, and Charles Wolf, whose wife died on 9/11. (Downtown Express)

Would You Go to Work in a New Skyscraper at Ground Zero? - Apr 7, 2003
"In the quest to rebuild the World Trade Center site, planning has focused from the start on moving forward, on 'not letting the terrorists win.'" Jessica Bruder in the Washington Post. "Almost lost amid the fanfare, however, was an unsettling question: Will anyone want to work at the site of such an obvious target? Libeskind's winning design represents both a feat of aesthetic imagination and a powerful gesture of defiance. But it ignores what New York has become: a jittery city already glutted with affordable office space." (Washington Post)

Rethink the Liberty Bond Program - Apr 2, 2003
"Any future Liberty Bond projects should have an added benefit than just more development. Future residential projects should have a higher percentage of affordable apartments - something closer to 20 percent as are required in other incentive programs - or satisfy some other important goal such as historic preservation," wrote the Downtown Express this week. (Downtown Express)

Undercutting the 9/11 Inquiry - Mar 31, 2003
"It's hard to believe that everything related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will not get the most thorough public scrutiny possible," writes the Times today. "But the federal investigative committee so reluctantly supported by the White House now seems in danger of being undermined." (New York Times)

Madelyn Wils: A Necessary Voice for Lower Manhattan - Mar 18, 2003
"It seems unlikely that Madelyn Wils will resign or be forced to leave the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., so we were tempted not to react to the online petition calling for her resignation," writes the Downtown Express. "But the implications of the petition and the disturbing way it has been used over the last week have prompted us to respond." (Downtown Express)

Tough Angles - Mar 9, 2003
The winning scheme is a triumph, not of design but of Libeskind's nose for politics," Patrick Pinnell writes in the Hartford Courant. "Looking at the winning design, one wonders how much was a search for memory and hope and how much was adroit calculation for the sake of getting to the finish line first." (Hartford Courant)

Aspirations Bump Into Practicalities at Ground Zero - Mar 6, 2003
Daniel Libeskind's plan has "striking" similarities to one of the other nine proposals for Ground Zero, David Dunlap writes in the Times today. The parts of the plans that are similar "are likely to grow more so, as distinctive edges are shaved off the winning plan. And that gets back to the limits imposed by the program, which is meant to accommodate the long-term lease held by Silverstein Properties and a general desire to preserve as sacrosanct the acreage on which the towers stood." (New York Times)

Eyes On The Prize - Mar 5, 2003
It is possible -- although unlikely, given the public's passion about the site -- that Libeskind's plan for a sunken memorial in the exposed bathtub will be built and that much of the rest of his design will be abandoned," writes Paul Goldberger in the New Yorker. "The architectural bar has been raised in New York. Ten months ago, it was hard to imagine that the official plan for Ground Zero would be produced by one of the most innovative architects in the world. But what finally gets built will be to a large extent decided in a byzantine political process, accompanied by spin control."Ę (New Yorker)

A New Dream Rises From Ground Zero - Mar 4, 2003
The key to Libeskind's success is not merely that he can speak brilliantly to the public but that his buildings do as well," writes Mark Lawson in the Guardian. "Crucially, his successful designs all tell a story. In the past, theatre, cinema and literature have saved themselves from periods of public neglect or disdain by a return to compelling narrative. Libeskind has popularised modern building through narrative architecture." (Guardian (UK))

Cuozzo: Chosen Design Gets a Grade of Zero - Mar 3, 2003
Governor Pataki backed the wrong plan, and it will be "for future governors, and for all New Yorkers, to live with its consequences," writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post today. "Perhaps one day, we will look back upon Libeskind's abomination as we do upon Robert Moses' scheme for a cross-Manhattan expressway - as one of the city's mercifully unrealized follies." (New York Post)

An Architect With the Drive to Get It Done - Mar 3, 2003
How will it ever happen?" writes Joyce Purnick in the New York Times today, listing all of the challenges and uncertainties ahead. "Maybe Mr. Libeskind and his plan will ultimately be squelched by the defeating politics of New York. Or maybe, just as New Yorkers stumbled into electing a nonpolitical mayor who happened to have the right skills for a recessionary era, the city may just as improbably luck out with Daniel Libeskind. He may, through the force of his personality, be able to get something distinctive built on the 16 devastated acres of Lower Manhattan." (New York Times)

Garvin: What Lower Manhattan Can Learn From Robert Moses - Mar 3, 2003
In Topic Magazine, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation planner Alex Garvin praises building czar Robert Moses and says that planning for Ground Zero should follow Moses' example. "There is much to learn from the success and failures of the Moses Method, particularly when it comes to redeveloping lower Manhattan. With so many stakeholders, with the entire city (and indeed the world) in some way involved, Moses' emphasis on implementing agreed-upon agendas becomes a necessity," he writes. (Topic Magazine)

The Very Image of Loss at Ground Zero - Mar 2, 2003
The New York Times's Kirk Johnson comments on how the pit in Daniel Libeskind's winning design for Ground Zero will be unlike any other memorial. "The fact that the visitors will walk down instead of up will be only the start of what promises to be a very different experience, " writes Johnson. "An even more crucial distinction, historians, architects and psychologists say, is that the pit will challenge the idea that the past is really even past...Where the wall was, it still is, and in such a place memory is a live event. History plays out in real time. " (New York Times)

Will Next Steps Water Down WTC Plan? - Mar 2, 2003
Daniel Libeskind's plan "inevitably will be changed," writes Blair Kamin for the Chicago Tribune. "The questions are: Will the change be for good or ill? Will LibeskindÍs noble, logical diagram grow in intensity or become fainter and less forceful?" Kamin goes on to describe how real-estate developers may still influence what gets built. "These barons of the bottom line could wreak havoc on LibeskindÍs plan in any number of ways, from cut-rate office buildings that could erode the power of its shard-like ensemble to insensitively-placed buildings that would disturb the meaning of its urban spaces. " (New York Times)

At Ground Zero, a Plan Worth Building On - Feb 28, 2003
The Washington Post's Benjamin Forgey champions the choice of Libeskind's plan, but cautions, "when real estate developers approach with formulaic concerns -- square an angle here, use a cheap material there -- Daniel Libeskind is going to need some protection. This presumes, of course, that a plan along these lines has more than a snowball's chance in the Sahara of actually being built." (Washington Post)

No Finest Hour - Feb 28, 2003
Now we must live with the consequences of Libeskind's vision," Steve Cuozzo writes in the Post today. "The selection was less than the finest hour for Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, who overrode the recommendation of the governor's design panel - which favored the rival Think team's twin latticework structures." (New York Post)

The Winning Vision - Feb 28, 2003
If there's a risk, about the selection of Daniel Libeskind's "intuitive" design for Ground Zero, the Times writes today, "it's that the symbolism of his plan at times edges toward a worrying literalism, a crowding of the site with icons of memory and meaning. Still, he has left the center of the site as blank a canvas as possible for the future memorial." (New York Times)

People Win at Ground Zero - Feb 28, 2003
Something historic happened to the architectural profession in the selection of a design for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site," writes the Christian Science Monitor today. "New York City's citizens, along with the families of Sept. 11 victims, made sure their concerns were heard." (Christian Science Monitor)

Designer's Next Test: Keeping Vision Intact - Feb 28, 2003
The choice of Studio Daniel Libeskind's design as the basis for future development of the World Trade Center site is not only a popular decision but a practical one, because it stands a chance of actually being built," writes Dan Bischoff in the NJ Star Ledger today. (NJ Star Ledger)

Grand Plan for Ground Zero - Feb 28, 2003
The Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. made a splendid choice this week as they selected architect Daniel Libeskind for the redesign of Ground Zero," writes Newsday today. "But today, as Phase One ends and planners move from generalities to specifics, a profound question remains: How can we make sure that Libeskind's wrenching-yet-ennobling design becomes a reality?" (Newsday)

Not Solely Blueprints, but Cultural Insight, Too - Feb 28, 2003
Now that a design has been chosen, writes Herbert Muschamp in the Times today, the public needs to carefully watch how it is interpreted. "The Libeskind plan creates a rhetorical context in which it is all too easy to imagine the "freedom museum" that city and state planners have been talking about as part of the site for the past year. Potentially a repackaged version of the cold war, with Al Qaeda taking the place of the Soviet Union, the museum evokes a vision contrary to the idealistic concept its planners may intend. Instead of upholding liberty as a principle of daily life, are we not at risk of relegating it to the walls of a museum?" (New York Times)

The Libeskind Illusion - Feb 28, 2003
The design officials chose yesterday for Ground Zero is a "graveyard, first and foremost," writes the Post today. "And while no one suggests that respectful attention not be paid to those who died at the site on 9/11, the sort of ghoulish homage embedded in the Libeskind scheme seems likely to ensure that there'll be no meaningful commercial redevelopment at all." But, the Post continues, "this much seems clear, anyway: Libeskind's phantasmagoria will by no means be the last word." (New York Post)

Is New York About to Choose the Wrong Proposal for Rebuilding the World Trade Center? - Feb 26, 2003
The ruling above-ground gesture of Libeskind's plan, seen especially in the towers that would ring the site, is that of the shard, the sharp fragment unleashed by shattering or explosion. Combined with the idea of keeping the pit as open as a fresh wound, the shards seem to aestheticize the violence of Sept. 11. And the further we get from that day, the more misguided it seems to fix the site's violent history in glass and steel," writes Christopher Hawthorne in Slate today. (Slate)

Designers' Dreams, Tempered by Reality - Feb 26, 2003
The public has already taken the lead in shaping the program for ground zero. With little guidance from public officials or the media, the public has been educating itself about the meaning of 9/11 and its place in the broader context of world affairs," writes Herbert Muschamp in the Times today. "I base my strong preference for the Think team's proposal on its capacity to give this process of public education both a symbolic and a practical form. No other design elicited by the official planning process has risen to the cultural occasion that the public itself has defined." (New York Times)

Honor the Lives, not the 'Footprints' - Feb 26, 2003
We do not doubt for a second that some people will draw comfort if there is absolutely no construction over the footprints or anywhere near the "bathtub" slurry wall," writes the Downtown Express this week. "But we can't let these feelings, which perhaps might change with time, force us to make planning mistakes that are not based on reason. We deserve an inspirational memorial at the site that honors and remembers those who were lost. Period." (Downtown Express)

A New Vision for Ground Zero Beyond Mainstream Modernism - Feb 23, 2003
The Libeskind project for Lower Manhattan is a miracle of creativity, intelligence, skill and cutting-edge architectural thought; it looks to the future of architecture, just as Think remains mired in its past," writes Marvin Trachtenberg in the New York Times. "It is the work of a great architect at the height of his powers, for a city at the height -- or depth -- of its architectural need." (New York Times)

Newsday's Critic Backs Libeskind - Feb 22, 2003
Ultimately, what makes Libeskind's design regenerative is not the poetry of its conception or the facile numerological significance of building a tower 1,776 feet high, but the fact that his buildings can be exciting to live with," writes Justin Davidson in Newsday. "All around this neighborhood, ostensibly parallel streets converge, creating triangular parks, wedge-shaped blocks and trapezoidal buildings." (Newsday)

Putting Some Pizazz Back in the Skyline - Feb 15, 2003
The confusing -- and to many, disheartening -- course of the trade center redevelopment process has highlighted a widespread problem in the way architecture and urbanism are conceived and practiced in America," writes Sarah Williams Goldhagen in the Times. "For the last few decades, our new buildings and public works have become ever less inspiring and ever less functional." (New York Times)

Duplicating the WTC Would Be a Towering Mistake - Feb 13, 2003
It doesn't make sense to rebuild the Twin Towers as they were, Newsday writes today. "In truth, the Twin Towers never worked very well as an urban amenity. They were best enjoyed from many miles away - as skyline sculpture - and not from a closer perspective. Indeed, the whole World Trade Center - built on a 16-acre superblock - was a fortress that sealed off and isolated key parts of the lower Manhattan neighborhood." (Newsday)

Plans a Triumph for Developers - Feb 11, 2003
Instead of chosing plans that "properly interpret the entire site as a memorial, office buildings and all," the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation chose as finalists plans that "focus on a dramatic 9/11 memorial while consigning everything else at the site to an uncertain fate. Imagine these plans as Trojan horses, concealing the prospective developers who actually control the site," Joseph Giovannini writes in New York Magazine. (New York Magazine)

Libeskind Design Stands Out - Feb 10, 2003
The great strength of Libeskind's plan remains the way it integrates the memorial with the structures around it," writes architecture critic Blair Kamen. "All are of a piece, with the slice-topped office buildings intensifying the meaning of the void at Ground Zero rather than standing mutely along the memorial." (Chicago Tribune)

Finalists Are Cutting Edge But Not Controversial - Feb 6, 2003
Finally, for once the idea of the 'cutting edge' has uncoupled itself from the notion that it must be 'challenging,'" writes Eric Gibson in the Wall Street Journal today. "Contemporary visual art has come to grief with the public when artists have adopted a confrontational, in-your-face stance toward their audience. The forms of Mr. Libeskind's and THINK's architecture are indeed unusual, even radical. But their intent as artists is reconciliation, not alienation, and the public has intuitively grasped--and embraced--this now radical concept." (Wall Street Journal)

Balancing Reason and Emotion in Twin Towers Void - Feb 6, 2003
Herbert Muschamp writes in the Times today that choosing between the two finalists is like choosing between the "impulses of war and peace. Daniel Libeskind's project for the World Trade Center site is a startlingly aggressive tour de force, a war memorial to a looming conflict that has scarcely begun. The Think team's proposal, on the other hand, offers an image of peacetime aspirations so idealistic as to seem nearly unrealizable." (New York Times)

Two Well-Chosen Finalists for Designing WTC Site - Feb 5, 2003
As every concert-goer knows, it's gauche to applaud between movements of a major opus. But we'd like to break that rule just this once," writes Newsday today. "The problematic agglomeration of agencies that is guiding the rebirth of Ground Zero chose well yesterday as it settled on two finalists in its design competition." (Newsday)

A step forward at Ground Zero - Feb 5, 2003
Either of the World Trade Center site redevelopment plans selected yesterday by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. would be an outstanding addition to the New York skyline," writes the Daily News today. (Daily News)

Political Cracks Showing In Rebuild Plan - Feb 5, 2003
The stresses that could send the whole, rudderless process back to square one were on more vivid display than the architectural models" as officials announced finalists yesterday, Steve Cuozzo writes in the Post. (New York Post)

Amid Unsettling and Macabre Plans, Think's Stands Tall - Feb 2, 2003
The Think team's open lattice work towers do what replacement structures need to do on the World Trade Center site," writes Edward Gunts in the Baltimore Sun. "They add memorable features to the street and skyline without creating a glut of office space. They bring the World Trade Center to mind without being gruesome or macabre. Their imagery is unlike anything else in the city -- buildings for the 21st century." (Baltimore Sun)

What History Can Teach The Architects at Ground Zero - Jan 31, 2003
Andrew Butterfield writes in the New Republic that although he does not doubt that all of the architects who created designs for Ground Zero want to build something that will honor the dead, a "combination of arrogance and ignorance leads most of them to assume that buildings, the more spectacular the better, can do all the spiritual and cultural work." (The New Republic)

The Disappointing Pageant of Architects - Jan 30, 2003
The New Republic architecture critic Martin Fuller writes that building the tall buildings that many of the new plans call for would be recreating a terrorist target. "For all the skilled professionalism on display in the new proposals, one's gut reaction was "What are these people thinking?" (The New Republic)

9/11's Forgotten Heroes - Jan 28, 2003
When he speaks to the nation tonight, Bush has a chance to prove that all his hero talk at Ground Zero wasn't just talk," and provide additional federal funds for screening and long-term treatment for sick 9/11 rescue workers, writes Juan Gonzales in the Daily News today. (Daily News)

THINK Team: Finding an Urban Poetry - Jan 28, 2003
Public officials will be criticized no matter what they decide" about the new plans for Ground Zero, writes Herbert Muschamp in the Times today, "People protested the Eiffel Tower, too. If it were up to me, I would pick the pair of latticework towers proposed by the Think group. It is a work of genius, a towering affirmation of humanism in modern times." (New York Times)

Time To Get Rid of the LMDC - Jan 27, 2003
The time has come for the corporation to step aside and put the control where it belongs: with the elected government of New York City," writes David Dyssegaard Kallick, a coordinator of the Labor Community Action Network to Rebuild New York, in the Daily News today. (Daily News)

How Downtown Can Stand Tall and Step Lively Again - Jan 26, 2003
Lower Manhattan is already onto its next set of economic histories," writes Saskia Sassen in the Times today. "Confronted with this energy and anarchy, its architecture cannot fall back to evoking older, calmer sites in the city that continue to work well as design and as civic spaces, like Rockefeller Center." (New York Times)

Next Steps for Ground Zero - Jan 21, 2003
The closer the time for real, final decisions comes, the more pressure will be brought on the decision makers to think small or bow to the desires of commercial and political interests," writes the New York Times today. "Whatever gets built must be feasible, but it must also be memorable. One of the two design finalists should certainly be Daniel Libeskind's soaring garden tower and ground-level memorial that uses the slurry wall holding back the Hudson River as a backdrop. Neither should hark to the past to recreate the twin office towers." (New York Times)

Libeskind Is Now At The Front of the Pack - Jan 20, 2003
In the New York Observer, Tom McGeveran writes that architect Daniel Libeskind has "slowly maneuvered his way to the front of the pack, by making a series of subtle political alliances, working to make his plan accessible to everyone who will listen, and making constant efforts to deepen his emotional connection to the families." (New York Observer)

In Search of Democracy at Ground Zero - Jan 15, 2003
Deliberations over the future of Ground Zero have become progressively less democratic as layer after layer of bureaucracy has been inserted between the citizens of New York and the final decision about the site," writes Michael Sorkin in Slate. "The LMDC listens without obligation -- a style of decision-making that asks people to place their faith in its own finesse." (Slate)

No Room For Ego At Ground Zero - Jan 13, 2003
The Daily News criticizes Alex Garvin, lead planner for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, for playing "insider games" and having an "outsize ego," citing several of Garvin's foibles over the past year. "Garvin's lapses have disqualified him from any further involvement in this critical project. His big ego alone could stall things and give the feds an opportunity to reconsider billions in pledges. Better that people like Tomson and key board member Roland Betts listen to the public and set the process straight. " (New York Daily News)

Don't Blame the Architects - Nov 30, 1999
Wall Street Journal (2003-01-07)

Soaring Plans, Somewhere Over Rainbow - Jan 6, 2003
In a New York Times column today, Joyce Purnick compares the new plans for downtown to nine emperors with no clothes. "Presumably, the market will decide the timing and shape of both office and residential development, and developers and their architects will begin anew to determine the aesthetics for everything but gardens and public buildings." (New York Times)

Gehry on Ground Zero - Jan 5, 2003
I have a fantasy of a space that is so magnificent it would engage the world," said architect Frank Gehry, who did not participate in the recent competition to design plans for the site. "At least five or six acres could consist of a covered space, a covered piece of grass. It could be an indoor park with a lake in it and a place where you could picnic. Imagine Central Park with a roof over it." (New York Times)

Group Therapy at Ground Zero - Jan 4, 2003
You can't build the tallest building in the world downtown when Lower Manhattan already has 17 million square feet of vacant office space," writes Frank Rich in the New York Times. "The plans on view at the Winter Garden are placebos. They're more compelling as an exercise in group therapy than as a window into the future." (New York Times)

Port Authority's Goal Appears to Exclude the Public - Dec 31, 2002
The Port Authority should open their own planning process to the public, writes the Downtown Express this week. "One can't help but feel that the public, which has been admirably involved at key moments in the decision making, has been dumped from the process. Will the resulting plan be presented as a fait accompli, and the public essentially powerless to make changes?" (Downtown Express)

Visions for Ground Zero, but Maybe Not New York's - Dec 26, 2002
Trying to reconcile the trade center site with its surroundings is not a new planning challenge," writes David Dunlap in the Times today. "This time, officials say, what emerges from the 16-acre trade center site will bear the city's mark." (New York Times)

Ground Zero Designs Show We'rck, Better - Dec 23, 2002
The thing about rebuilding on Ground Zero is that New Yorkers will get to choose what image of ourselves we want to project to the rest of the world. The choice seems to be between "We're big, we're bad, and we're back," and something more thoughtful," writes Sheryl McCarthy in Newsday today. She adds that designs by Daniel Libeskind, Norman Foster and Peterson Littenberg look "like the kind of Ground Zero I would like: not something that says we're bigger and badder, but that says we're back and we're better." ( (Newsday)

Ground Zero Designs: Reality vs. Renaissance - Dec 23, 2002
In the Times today, Herbert Muschamp writes that those who criticize the new plans for being unfeasible are missing the point. "Forget about checking designs against reality. The challenge now is to test reality against designs," he writes. "If reality turns out to be wanting, we must go about learning how to change it." (New York Times)

Capitalism and the Architects - Dec 20, 2002
This time, the process has been hijacked by architects," writes the New York Sun today. "Only an architect, after all, would be so disconnected from reality as to propose to build -- as four of the seven teams of architects have -- the world's tallest building at the World Trade Center site. May they and any bureaucrat who approves such a monstrosity be sentenced to an office on the top floor." (New York Sun)

Rediscovering and Celebrating the Vertical Life - Dec 19, 2002
The architects have risen to the occasion," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times today. "So should we...Unlike the initial group of proposals released by the agency last July, these plans throb with energy, imagination, intelligence and the sheer thrill of contributing to a battered city's rebirth." (New York Times)

Architects' Proposals Have Little to Do With Reality - Dec 19, 2002
In the Times today, Charles Bagli asks how the new plans will be translated into a master plan for Ground Zero, saying it is "likely that whatever is built there will not resemble what was unveiled yesterday in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center: a bewildering array of crystalline towers, gardens in the sky, bedrock memorial parks 70 feet below street level, and the tallest and largest building in the world." The developers who build on the site may not be bound to build the specific buildings shown yesterday, Bagli writes. (New York Times)

LMDC Did It Right This Time - Dec 19, 2002
We are pleased to report that -- this time around -- not one of the prototypes trotted out for public comment resembles a sterile urban office complex with a memorial tossed in," writes Newsday today. (Newsday )

Grand Designs for Ground Zero - Dec 19, 2002
Now it will be a debate about ideas that are overflowing with creativity and vision and raw emotion," wrote the Daily News today. "It will take some refining before a final plan emerges, but in the end, lower Manhattan and New York's iconic skyline should be restored to their former grandeur. These designs are bold." (Daily News )

At Ground Zero, the Freshest Architecture May Be the Answer - Dec 18, 2002
This is the first time a public agency has stepped right up to it in architecture on a historically signicant scale," writes Herbert Muschamp in a New York Times column. "Frank Lloyd Wright said a modern society had to get buildings and cities "thought built" before they could be physically realized...There is no need to pick a winner, no need to fear whatever design strikes you as the worst thing thauld ever happen to New York. For now, this is all in the mind. (New York Times)

Mayor Bloomberg's Downtown - Dec 13, 2002
The Times editorial page calls Bloomberg's new plan for lower Manhattan a "bracing tonic for anyone dispirited about the future of downtown New York City." The mayor's plan to create tree-lined streets and make the waterfront a place to visit will crate a downtown "that invites people to come -- a perfect response to the terrorist attack that tried to scare humanity away." (New York Times)

Mayor's Plan No Magic, But It's a Healthy Start - Dec 13, 2002
With the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. due to unveil new Ground Zero design proposals next week, the mayosiduously avoided stepping on the agency's lines," writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post today. Cuozzo praises the mayor's "commitment to downtown's historic destiny - as a commercial district and financial capital." (New York Post)

The Grief Payout - Dec 8, 2002
Tragedy, particularly American tragedy, is always and inevitably about the money," writes Lisa Belkin in the Times Magazine cover story this week about the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks. The article focuses on the questions surrounding the federal government's decision to compensate the victims' families for their losses, an unprecedented and controversial effort. Many issues have been raised by the creation of the Federal Victims Compensation Fund, including why families of the September 11 victims are "more deserving" than others who have suffered similar fates, and why some are worth more after dying than others. (New York Times)

A Half Full Glass - Nov 30, 1999
Downtown Express (Today's Downtown Express editorial calls the progress being made with rebuilding and the improvement of relations between the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Deveolpment Corporation "good news." While the column expresses wariness about where Governor Pataki currently stands in regards to the different agencies involved, the authors write, "we're better off than we were before Thanksgiving. We'll take the progress. Downtown won't be rebuilt in a week." )

Schedule for a Downtown Renaissance - Dec 3, 2002
New York Times (People who have been getting anxious about the slow progress in rebuilding Lower Manhattan should be heartened by new signs of energy," says the New York Times in an editorial today reacting to news of the new timeline for the release of the plans for the World Trade Center site. The editorial goes on to say that the "seven new plans should be vastly better than the six that were presented last July, when public opposition saved the city from the ordinary." It also lauds the "sensible division" between the practical matters of building infrastructure and the creation of a memorial. )

Under the Surface of Downtown - Nov 26, 2002
It is time for Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to get cracking on plans for Lower Manhattan," writes the New York Times today. "The debate over how a revived Lower Manhattan would work has been deadened by the benign neglect provided by election-year politics. But a new proposal by a private developer, John Zuccotti, ought to excite anyone who cares about the neighborhood." The transportation plan Zuccotti developed is both "cohesive and thoughtful," the type of plan many have wanted to see from the beginning, writes the Times. (New York Times)

Looting by Firefighters an "Ugly Rumor" - Nov 23, 2002
Daily News columnist Michael Daly disputes a passage in William Langewiesche's book "American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center," that suggests firefighters looted during rescue efforts. Daly calls the account an "ugly rumor," writing that Langewiesche "would have us believe these firefighters parked their rig as close as possible to the command post, walked to a Gap store 300 yards away, trudged back with armloads of jeans past hundreds of injured civilians, and risked death from falling debris to stash their loot within clear view of their supervisors." (Daily News)

Power Struggle At The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation - Nov 21, 2002
With the election now behind them, Charles Gargano, head of the Empire State Development Corporation, which is the parent organization of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, appears to be making moves towards restructuring the rebuilding agency without the current chairman of the board, John Whitehead. Whitehead's penchant for speaking independently of Governor George Pataki and Gargano about the progress of the rebuilding effort has drawn concern from some within Gargano's camp. While Whitehead and Pataki, who appointed Whitehead, publicly dismiss the possibility of Whitehead's ousting, there are grumbles from staffers of Gargano suggesting that there may be change coming in the near future. (NY Observer)

Pataki Must Start Settling Some W.T.C. Questions - Nov 13, 2002
The governor has deferred some of the tough questions this election year, being careful not to alienate the families of Sept. 11 victims or any of his powerful friends leading the competing agencies with a hand in downtown," writes Downtown Express this week. "The time to begin settling these questions and bureaucratic disputes was several months ago, but now will do since no one is going to turn back the clock." (Downtown Express)

What Makes a Memorial - Nov 6, 2002
When it comes to Ground Zero, just about the only thing that everyone agrees on is that there ought to be a memorial to the people who died there," writes Paul Goldberger in the New Yorker. "No one, though, seems to have the slightest idea what this memorial should be, or whether it should be a physical structure at all." (New Yorker)

EPA's 9/11 Cleanup Needs a Fresh Look - Oct 29, 2002
On the very day that the Environmental Protection Agency announced that only three out of 255 homes tested in lower Manhattan were contaminated with asbestos, "an independent panel of environmental scientists raised serious questions about the standards the agency is using for its indoor cleanup program," writes Juan Gonzales in the Daily News today. Gonzales adds that the panel suggests the agency test for 17 different chemicals, instead of just six. (Daily News)

Port Authority Longs to Lead Effort to Rebuild Trade Center - Nov 30, 1999
Wall Street Journal (2002-10-23)

The Ground Zero Train Wreck - Oct 17, 2002
The debate over Downtown's destiny has gone off the rails, captive to multibillion-dollar mass-transit proposals that turn zanier by the day," writes Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post. Cuozzo criticizes some of the more expensive ideas for rebuilding downtown, including the idea of extending the Long Island Rail Road to Lower Manhattan. "Practically all the transit schemes on the table guarantee street blockages, rerouted trains and platform closings for years -- exactly what wounded Downtown doesn't need. " (New York Post)

Snubbing New York - Oct 16, 2002
If Osama bin Laden's goal was to end New York's reign as America's World Trade Center, he's just gotten a big boost from the U.S. Customs Service," writes William Tucker of the Post. This is in response to news that the U.S. Customs Service, which has been in Manhattan for 212 years, is now seriously thinking of relocating to Newark, New Jersey. (New York Post)

Disaster In Waiting - Oct 14, 2002
The Post argues that, contrary to the opinions of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, there should be a unified command for managing disasters in the city. "The confusion of 9/11 was exacerbated by the lack of a central command. True, there were many other problems, including inadequate radio systems, poor disaster training and a willful refusal by many firefighters to obey orders to evacuate the Twin Towers...But too many inter-agency conflicts remain - and the scene of a major disaster, with thousands of lives at stake, is no place to begin negotiations. " (New York Post)

Visions of Ground Zero - Oct 8, 2002
A letter to the editor at the Times suggests apprehension about the ability of the selected planners and designers to step up to the task ahead of them in designing lower Manhattan. "Redevelopment must start with a memorial vision, incorporate planning to rekindle and integrate the area into downtown life, resolve longstanding transportation issues, and address the legitimate rights of property owners. I do not see how the proposed architects, mostly renowned for museums and beach houses, can hope to pull off a project of this scale and complexity." (New York Times)

Don't Bury West Street - Oct 5, 2002
Burying a 20-block stretch of West Street as part of the plan to rebuild the World Trade Center site would be "a colossal mistake," Gene Russianoff writes in the New York Times today. "It would divert money from more important transportation priorities and delay downtown's revival by more than a decade." (New York Times)

Feds Must Close Terror Deficit - Oct 3, 2002
The General Accounting Office estimates the tax loss for city and state to be $8.8 billion over this fiscal year and next. Call it the terror deficit." An editorial from the Daily News lauds the proposal by the Congressional delegation to reimburse tax revenues unrealized by the city because of the attack. "At present, the New York lawmakers aren't seeking new funds. They just want Uncle Sam to take some of the $20 billion set aside for New York's recovery and use it to help close the local and state budget gaps. That would fall under the definition of 'recovery,' wouldn't it?" (NY Daily News)

How Might The Six Teams Redesign The World Trade Center? - Oct 2, 2002
Downtown Express gives an overview of how the process will go for the six teams tapped by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to rebuild the World Trade Center site. The piece focuses on a conflict between Frederic Schwartz, who has designed a plan to bury West Street and place skyscrapers on top of the new tunnel, and the residents of Battery Park City, who would rather see park space on top of the submerged tunnel. (Downtown Express)

Retail Is Key In Restoring Downtown - Oct 2, 2002
Despite mixed earnings reports from the retail sector in the past year, this is a historic opportunity for retailers to locate in lower Manhattan," writes Julie Menin, head of downtown promotional organization Wall Street Rising in the Daily News. Noting that the area is "underserved" in many retail categories, Menin cites the existing base of consumers who work in the area every day and notes that the future looks bright downtown for any retailer, with "a transportation hub created with $4.5 billion in federal money, tens of thousands of employees filling new office buildings, new tenants in new housing, millions of tourists visiting the Ground Zero memorial." (New York Daily News)

6 New Drawing Boards - Oct 1, 2002
New York Times architecture critic Hubert Muschamp celebrates the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's choice of six teams chosen by the to design the World Trade Center site, calling the decision a "giant step toward securing public trust." The six teams "span a broad range of generations, nationalities and architectural points of view," writes Muschamp. "Collectively, they represent the diversity of expression prevalent in architecture today. They cannot be categorized by style." (New York Times)

Rebuilding Ugly - Sep 30, 2002
The design teams picked by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation last week were "atrocious choices," writes Catesby Leigh in the New York Post today. Leigh writes that these firms, known for their modernist works, will create plans for the World Trade Center site that "are bound to seem more like nightmares to the public, which instinctively sees beauty and tradition walking hand-in-hand in the design of great buildings, public spaces and memorials." (New York Post)

Rebuild at Ground Zero - Sep 23, 2002
Larry Silverstein, the real-estate developer who holds the lease to develop on the World Trade Center site, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that all the commercial space destroyed in the September 11 attacks must be rebuilt over the next decade for the "good of the city and the region." "If we do not replace the lost space," wrote Silverstein, "lower Manhattan never will regain the vibrancy it had as the world's financial center." (Wall Street Journal)

The Perils of Valuing Lives - Sep 19, 2002
Despite recent claims by Cantor Fitzgerald, the government's September 11 victims compensation fund is "an attractive, secure and expeditious alternative to the uncertainties of litigation," writes the New York Times today. (New York Times)

Sept. 11 Art Controversial - Sep 18, 2002
A violently disturbing sculpture popped up last week in the middle of Rock Center's busy underground concourse," writes Andrea Peyser in the New York Post today. Sculptor Eric Fischl's work, "Tumbling Woman" depicts a woman falling from the World Trade Center. (New York Post)

New York Takes Back 9/11 - Sep 12, 2002
New York did the impossible on Wednesday -- it reclaimed Sept. 11 from media mawkishness and political opportunism," writes Michelle Goldberg in Salon today. Manhattan "bloomed with art and protest, music and grief," she writes, with punk music concerts, group installations, and free readings at places like the Brooklyn Public Library. (Salon)

TV Anchors Kept Quiet During Ceremony - Sep 12, 2002
Television rarely leaves you alone with your thoughts, but for a couple of shining, solemn hours in yesterday's dawn-to-midnight coverage it did," writes Caryn James in the New York Times today. "Yesterday's blanket coverage was not excessive; the 10 days of overload preceding it were the problem, creating a sense of dread." (New York Times)

New York, One Year Later - Sep 11, 2002
Today, most New Yorkers have returned to the lives we lived before September 11," says Andrew Kirtzman. But the tons of "out-of-towners" paying respects at Ground Zero shows that the "bond between America and the city it loved to hate is still strong. While we'll probably exasperate the country forever, our dirty little secret is out. We're part of America after all." (NY1)

Vanishing Liberties - Sep 11, 2002
One year later, many of our civil liberties have been "lost in the fire," Alisa Solomon writes in the Village Voice today. In the name of combatting terrorism, the federal government has "eroded the precious Bill of Rights protections of free speech, assembly, and association and its assurances of privacy, due process, equal protection, legal counsel, and a fair trial -- practically everything but the right to bear arms." (Village Voice)

9/11: After the Flood - Sep 11, 2002
After the deluge of 9/11 we have two choices," writes Thomas Friedman in the Times today. "We can numb ourselves to the world, and plug our ears, or we can try to repair that jagged hole in the wall of civilization by insisting, more firmly and loudly than ever, on rules and norms -- both for ourselves and for others." (New York Times)

Fighting 'Anniversary Fatigue' - Sep 10, 2002
The battle over who owns 9/11 -- what it meant, how it changed the nation, and how it should be remembered -- is still being waged," writes Joan Walsh in Salon. Even though so many of us have "anniversary fatigue," it is important to realize that if we surrender the meaning of 9/11 "to cynics on the right or the left, the bad guys really win," she writes. (Salon)

Enough Already! - Sep 10, 2002
Get a grip, people, before this unholy rapture gets its grip on you." In New Times Los Angeles, Jill Stewart writes about how we have not changed since September 11, criticizing everyone from the victims' relatives who she sees as exploiting the tragedy to the vendors of "Let's Roll" t-shirts to Americans in general for believing that tragedy is something unique to ourselves in the world. As she cites the deaths of thousands in India and Nigeria at the hands of earthquakes and explosions, she calls on Americans to be "better citizens of the world." (New Times Los Angeles)

September 11 Is Only the Beginning - Sep 9, 2002
Let's not look at images of this event for a while," writes Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan in the Toronto Star today. Egoyan chose not to work on "11'09'01," the international film project about September 11, because he did not feel that it is the right time to deal with those powerful images. "Let's give ourselves time to grieve the profound nature of our loss," he writes. (Toronto Star)

Human Spirit Is Triumphant Downtown - Sep 9, 2002
What is happening downtown now is a tribute to the human spirit: the will, the need to overcome the darkness," writes Joyce Purnick in the Times today. "The site that was an obscene pile of rubble, debris and melted steel after Sept. 11 is now almost pristine." (New York Times)

Changing History - Sep 9, 2002
The study of history should transcend boundaries rather than reinforce or reproduce them," writes Eric Foner in The Nation today. "In the wake of September 11, it is all the more imperative that the history we teach be a candid appraisal of our own society's strengths and weaknesses, not simply an exercise in self-celebration--a conversation with the entire world, not a complacent dialogue with ourselves." (The Nation)

Reflections on an America Transformed - Sep 8, 2002
In the New York Times today, Tom Daschle, Muhammad Ali, William J. Bennett and 9 others explain their views in the on the most significant change the country has undergone since Sept. 11. "I am saddened to think that one of the effects of Sept. 11 is the fearful way in which many Americans now look at Muslims," writes Ali. (New York Times)

Thinking Big - A Plan For Ground Zero and Beyond - Sep 8, 2002
The New York Times unveils a plan for lower Manhattan conceived by a team of architects assembled by Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp. Among the contributors are Maya Lin, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman of Eisenman Architects and Frederic Schwartz of Schwartz Architects. Their proposal calls for two towers, one on the 16-acre site and the other just south of the site, with the footprints remaining untouched and a memorial space surrounding them. Also included in the plan are a museum, a school, a building that's part hotel and part residential housing and a transit hub, as well as a promenade extending down a submerged West Street. An interactive feature takes readers through each aspect of the master plan. (New York Times)

Congress Returns to New York - Sep 6, 2002
Congress' session today at Federal Hall on Wall Street "will be a reminder of how much the city has to be grateful for, and how much remains to be done," writes the New York Times editorial page today. Federal aid has had its "glitches," but "with federal help, the World Trade Center site has been cleaned up, and aid in the form of grants and tax credits has been flowing to the neighboring businesses, institutions and residents that need it." (New York Times)

Getting Past 9/11's Economic Impact - Sep 6, 2002
The city comptroller announced that the fiscal damage September 11 caused to New York City is $83 billion. So why don't we feel that much poorer? "It's because we found riches in ourselves and each other," writes John Podhoretz in the New York Post today. "Along with the unimaginable reality of Sept. 11 came an unimaginable response: the strength, determination and grace shown by New Yorkers finding together a strength, determination and grace in the face of terrorist horror." (New York Post)

Government Let Us Down - Sep 5, 2002
A year later, "at whom should our anger be directed?" Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen asks today. "Well, certainly at the murderers and those who helped them," he writes, but "9/11 happened not because the terrorists were so competent, but because the government was so incompetent." (Washington Post)

Healer of the City's 9/11 Wounds - Sep 5, 2002
John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, is "a patient man," and one who "recognizes that what New York finally does with its ruins will shape the future," Pete Hamill writes in the New York Daily News today. (Daily News)

Security Breach - Sep 5, 2002
America's vast aviation infrastructure is still as porous and vulnerable as on that horrible day it was breached by 19 mass murderers," writes the Daily News today, after a special investigative article showed that pepper spray, razor knives, cork screws and box cutters still make it aboard U.S. airplanes. (Daily News)

Hallowing 9/11 Ground - Sep 5, 2002
Historian Garry Wills "calls reading words from the Gettysburg Address inappropriate to last year's tragedy," writes Joyce Purnick in the Times today. "It is an insult to Lincoln, to the soldiers who died there, an insult to the people who died last year because it doesn't address their specific tragedy," Wills told Purnick. (New York Times)

Liberalism's Patriotic Vision - Sep 5, 2002
We could be headed toward a new liberal moment," Todd Gitlin writes in the New York Times today. "One year after, surely many Americans are primed for a patriotism of action, not of pledges," he writes. "The era that began Sept. 11 would be a superb time to crack the jingoists' claim to a monopoly of patriotic virtue." (New York Times)

U.S. Has a Stake in Rebuilding Afghanistan - Sep 5, 2002
If Sept. 11 changed the way Americans look at the world, that fateful day also changed the reality on the ground for the 21 million citizens of Afghanistan," ambassador to Afghanistan Robert P. Finn writes in Newsday today. "The Afghan people need assistance from the international community to rebuild the institutions of their shattered land. " (Newsday)

9/11 Lesson Plan - Sep 4, 2002
Thomas Friedman explains how he would teach students about the events of September 11. "The point, class, is that while evil people hate us for who we are, many good people dislike us for what we do. And if we want to win their respect we need to be the best, most consistent and most principled global citizens we can be," he writes. (New York Times)

Getting it Right at Ground Zero - Sep 2, 2002
In an essay in Time Magazine's September 11 anniversary issue, former mayor Rudolph Giuliani writes that he is still "as shocked, angry and resolute" as he was a year ago, and calls for all 16-acres of the World Trade Center site to be preserved as a memorial. "Ground zero is a cemetery. It is the last resting place for loved ones whose bodies were not recovered and whose remains are still within that hallowed ground. We must respect the role these events play in our history," he writes. (Time)

The Art of Honoring the Dead - Sep 2, 2002
In Newsweek today, Vietnam Veterans Memorial architect Maya Lin writes about what has made other memorials so effective: "My belief has always been to bring people to a place, give them the facts of history, but then you have to give over the piece†it is each visitor who must internalize it and make it personal." (Newsweek)

Looking Past Labor Day - Sep 2, 2002
When the pace of regular life resumes tomorrow we will be looking ahead overwhelmingly to a single thing, the commemoration of Sept. 11, 2001," writes the New York Times today. " There's a lot to dread this coming week, though nothing compared with what happened on Sept. 11." (New York Times)

Decision on 9/11 Victims Is a Crime - Aug 29, 2002
The FBI should not leave out Sept. 11 victims in its Uniform Crime Reports, a "yearly report to the nation on crime and wrongdoing," Paul Leighton in Newsday today. "mass murder is still murder," he writes. (Newsday)

The Vacancy Lie - Aug 29, 2002
Many cite the fact that about one in five office floors downtown is empty. But this statistic is misleading, Steve Cuozzo writes in the New York Post today. The "claim relies on a peculiar premise that regards as 'empty' spaces that are occupied by living, breathing tenants. And the arithmetic was performed on a sample that market specialists say conveys a worst-case scenario, not an accurate picture of Downtown," he writes. (New York Post)

New York City 2.0 - Nov 30, 1999
Wired (Rebuilding New York City should be about more than asking, "Should there be streets running through the former World Trade Center site, or should there be a superblock?" writes Hugo Lindgren in Wired magazine this month. )

Lower Manhattan Needs Housing Fairness - Aug 27, 2002
In using federal rebuilding funds for luxury housing, Gov. George Pataki is "squandering a unique opportunity for residential development of Lower Manhattan that would provide the city with desperately needed affordable housing and enable it to reinvigorate its economy," David R. Jones and Ron Shiffman write in Newsday today. (Newsday)

Do Lower Manhattan Cleanup Right - Aug 23, 2002
Next month, the Environmental Protection Agency will finally begin cleaning hundreds of apartments in lower Manhattan. It's a shame that the agency isn't going to do it right," writes William Henning Jr. in the Daily News today. "The indoor cleanup should have started right after the collapse, at the same time the outdoor cleanup began. It is now too late to prevent the exposures that have already occurred, but it is not too late to prevent future harmful exposures." (New York Daily News)

Don't Forget Residents in Emergency Planning - Aug 23, 2002
The safety of displaced residential communities must be considered when planning for response to future attacks," write Thomas Goodkind and Dennis Gault in Newsday today. It is important for residents to be informed about what is going on during an emergency. The government "needs to create a system that will promote communication and knowledge management to benefit citizens." (Newsday)

Examining How the Towers Collapsed - Aug 23, 2002
The two-year federal investigation announced this week is "a necessary follow-up," the New York Times writes in an editorial today. "The only missing element now is subpoena power for the federal investigators so that they can compel testimony and the production of documents. The House has passed a bill granting that power, and the Senate needs to do likewise." (New York Times)

A Global City Rebuilt - Aug 22, 2002
Rebuilding downtown is not simply a matter of replicating nice old streets and putting up medium-sized office buildings," writes Paul Spencer Byard in the Times today. "Rebuilding downtown is about rebuilding New York as a seat of useful power for action in the world." Bringing the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund downtown could accomplish this, he writes. (New York Times)

Where They Lived - Aug 22, 2002
New ways of analyzing information about the victims keep giving us new pictures of the tragedy that unfolded last Sept. 11," writes the New York Times today, saying that matching victims to the ZIP codes they lived in shows familiar patterns of where members of financial firms and rescue workers live. "Much of this analysis is just what common sense would tell you, and yet it somehow feels like a quiet revelation, as does almost anything that gives us a fresh glimpse into the nature of that terrifying day." (New York Times)

Lessons of 9/11 - Aug 20, 2002
The time for suspicion and mistrust is over," writes Newsday in an editorial about fire and police department response to September 11, saying that the two departments need to "end their ancient rivalry and work together." (Newsday)

9/11 Report Can Only Go So Far - Aug 20, 2002
The leaders of the Fire Department and the Police Department have taken to heart the lessons of 9/11," writes E.R. Shipp in the Daily News today. But despite the answers that yesterday's reports gave, we will never know why so many people died on September 11. "We mortals must hope that the whims of the gods eventually allow us to understand. All the reports of all the investigative agencies can never accomplish that." (New York Daily News)

Pop Culture Takes on Terrorism - Aug 19, 2002
The war on terror has added new themes and concerns to our popular culture, but it couldn't make the old ones go away," Robert Thompson writes in the Times today. Pop culture continues to interpret September 11, "sometimes thoughtfully and sometimes not," he writes. "In the last month, Bruce Springsteen released "The Rising" -- and Anna Nicole Smith got her own TV show." (New York Times)

How to Speak to a Nation's Suffering - Aug 18, 2002
We need to give new meaning to the Gettysburg Address, which will be read aloud on September 11, writes Garry Wills in the New York Times today. The address itself creatively links Civil War deaths to the Declaration of Independence. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "thought the old document into his immediate situation....In this way does creativity give birth to further creativity, Jefferson's to Lincoln's, Lincoln's to King's," he writes. (New York Times)

Measuring Downtown's Future - Aug 16, 2002
Rebuilding the site will call for developing a strong relationship between old and new," architect Denise Scott Brown writes in the Times today. She says that "city physics," a formula combining where people travel and circulate and where the city's activities take place "ought to discipline the replanning of the site, ensuring that its reconstructed streets and transit facilities become the basis for locating and sizing new activities." (New York Times)

Global Search - Aug 16, 2002
Score one for governmental responsiveness to the verdict of the people," writes the Daily News editorial page today, celebrating the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's decision to reopen the planning process. (New York Daily News)

E.P.A. Must Come Clean - Aug 16, 2002
The Downtown Express questions the Environmental Protection Agency's statement that their cleanup plan is largely intended to "reassure the public," when the agency itself admits that there are "remote but real" health risks near Ground Zero. "Either there is no health risk and the cleanup plan will be a multi-million dollar pacifier or the agency should be chastised for not moving a lot quicker," writes the Express. (Downtown Express)

Commerce, and Towers, Belong at Ground Zero - Aug 16, 2002
The Post editorial page says today that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's call for plans with "excitement, creativity, energy," is misguided, and that "obvious" choice is for the World Trade Center to be rebuilt. (New York Post)

Going for Excellence This Time - Aug 15, 2002
There's hope," writes Newsday in today's editorial praising the decision to recruit new teams to design plans for the World Trade Center site. "To their credit, the LMDC and Port Authority have made good on their promises to act on the public's wishes." (Newsday)

New Designs for a New Downtown - Aug 15, 2002
It looks like the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is taking control of the rebuilding process, and that is just fine, even if this is not "entirely welcomed by the Port Authority or by Beyer Blinder Belle, the firm that put together the initial plans" writes the Times editorial page today. "There is no room here for institutional jealousies." (New York Times)

The Name Game - Aug 14, 2002
In the Village Voice today, Chisun Lee celebrates a federal judge's recent decision to give the government 15 days "to release the names of the more than 1000 people it admitted to arresting and secretly detaining in its ongoing September 11 investigation." (Village Voice)

Toxic Pork at Ground Zero - Aug 14, 2002
What a waste of taxpayer money," Steven Milloy writes in the New York Post today about Senator Hilary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson's initiatives to monitor the health of Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in May that worker exposures to air contaminants at Ground Zero generally did not exceed safety standards," he writes. (New York Post)

Connecting the Dots Downtown - Aug 13, 2002
The Times editorial page celebrates the federal government's decision to give $4.55 billion towards a new transportation system in lower Manhattan. Perhaps most important though, is the fact that the funds "came largely without strings," thanks to bargaining between federal officials and "Gov. George Pataki, Louis Tomson, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton. These New Yorkers are to be commended for their perseverance, the Bush administration for its flexibility." (New York Times)

Trade Imbalance - Aug 12, 2002
The land swap with the Port Authority might give the city's "old nemesis" too much power, Robert Kolker writes in New York Magazine today. "This idea isn't about working together at all. It's the same old bad blood between the city and the Port Authority, just manifesting itself differently." (New York Magazine)

9/11 Lawsuits - Aug 10, 2002
Sept. 11 victims' families are wary to give up their right to file suit for damages, but bringing these suits into court is apt to "inflict new wounds," Paul Howard writes in the New York Post today. "Ideally, tort litigation should compensate victims, deter wrongdoing and spur safety innovation. In reality, financial incentives encourage plaintiffs' attorneys to turn America's legal system into a minefield without a map," he writes. (New York Post)

Make it a National Park - Aug 9, 2002
By making the memorial a stunningly low priority in their plans for the World Trade Center site, the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. have lost their opportunity to build it," writes Jack Lynch, vice president of the 9/11 Widows and Victims Families Association, in the Daily News today. The National Park Service, which has much more experience in creating memorials, should take over, he writes. (New York Daily News)

Not a Job for City Hall - Aug 8, 2002
The New York Post comes out against the land swap idea in an editorial today, saying that the plan may have "superficial appeal," but that past projects like Wollman Rink in Central Park show that the private sector, not the public, is much better at getting things done: "No reflection on Mayor Bloomberg, but delivering title to the site to City Hall means that the City Council - which can't be trusted with anything more complicated than re-naming streets - will be in a position to hinder progress." (New York Post)

Anniversary Heavy On Pomp and Circumstance - Aug 7, 2002
The city's plans for commemorating Sept. 11 are too activity-filled, writes Dennis Duggan in Newsday today. "Simple always seems to evoke the right emotion," he writes. "I wonder why it is necessary to have any politicians at the ceremony, one of whom, Gov. George Pataki, is seeking re-election." (Newsday)

Lincoln's Speech - But Not A Lincoln - Aug 7, 2002
In Newsday today, Jimmy Breslin writes that the New York politicians chosen to read famous historical speeches on Sept. 11 don't match up with figures from the past. "On Sept. 11, that famous day of which we are all going to celebrate and mourn and commemorate, Gov. George Pataki will read the Gettysburg Address. He was chosen for that because he is just like Lincoln, tall. Mayor Mike Bloomberg is reading the "Four Freedoms" by Franklin Roosevelt. I have trouble inside my head with this," he writes. But it is the choice to include Rudy Giuliani in the lineup that most bothers Breslin. (Newsday)

Let's Make a Deal? OK, If It's Fair - Aug 7, 2002
Finally, we're getting somewhere," writes the Daily News in an editorial today, supporting the city's proposal to swap land with the Port Authority. But in order for the exchange to be a fair one, the Port Authority will need to compensate the city, the Daily News adds, "the agency would have to cut a $1.75 billion check to even out the deal." (New York Daily News)

Ground Zero Gridlock - Aug 7, 2002
As the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack approaches, is anybody really surprised that the rebuilding plan for Ground Zero has moved back to Square One?" writes Tony Coles in the New York Post today. "With a swirl of overlapping federal, state and local agencies involved in the process and the looming shadow of a gubernatorial election, nobody is willing to bite the bullet and make the hard decisions that are necessary to kick-start the project." (New York Post)

The Port Authority's Role in the World Trade Center - Aug 6, 2002
In the New York Times today, former Port Authority chairman Richard Leone writes that the Port Authority, as it has become, is not independent enough to drive planning for the World Trade Center site. "The architects, engineers and construction firms that will actually rebuild downtown need a client with power, patience, professionalism, political skills and courage. The Port Authority would have to be reformed to fit that profile again -- a scenario not very likely in the current political climate," he writes. (New York Times)

A Good Deal for Lower Manhattan - Aug 6, 2002
The Times editorial section calls the land swap proposed by the city, where it would trade the land at LaGuardia and Kennedy airports to the Port Authority in exchange for the World Trade Center site, "the most creative idea to arise from the Lower Manhattan redevelopment process so far." The piece goes on to praise how the proposal would "clarify lines of authority" and calls it a "win-win-win deal, once you include the public." (New York Times)

Column on Police Response Hits Raw Nerve - Aug 5, 2002
In Newsday today, Leonard Levitt works to answer the questions that Sally Regenhard, who lost her firefighter son Christian on Sept. 11, wrote to the paper after last week's column about how the top police command responded the day of the attack. "It is a raw and angry note, raising issues of concern not only for those who lost loved ones but for all New Yorkers. And as the debate begins over the actions of the city's agencies and leadership that day, it cries out for a response," writes Levitt. (Newsday)

Spirit of Sept. 11 Must not be Crushed - Aug 4, 2002
Since Sept. 11, we have been "scrambling around for some way to respond to 9/11," writes E.R. Shipp in the Daily News today, "We stumbled over each other, duplicating, reinventing wheels several times over. The reality is that a lot of these efforts have been for naught. Some of us have been burned by scoundrels who emerge like buzzards to prey upon Good Samaritans after any disaster and, sadly, have lost faith in established charities that seemed more interested in filling their coffers than in addressing the immediate needs of Sept. 11 victims." (New York Daily News)

The Rebuilding Stall - Aug 2, 2002
New Yorkers' fears of paralysis in the rebuilding at Ground Zero seem to be coming true," writes the New York Post in an editorial today. The article says that the fact that the scheduled next step in the process may be put off for months, combined with recent talk of starting over with plans for the site and using eminent domain to take over parts of the area, suggest that the "hole in the ground may be there for a while." (New York Post)

Solace in the Stars - Aug 1, 2002
The city is now pondering what to build as a memorial to those killed on Sept. 11. Most of the talk is about a monument at the World Trade Center site. But perhaps the families of those who died may also find comfort in something smaller and more personal," writes Gabriella De Ferrari in the Times today. "We could build each family a bench to be placed in a spot of their choosing for their own observatory, a place to meditate and think of those who died." (New York Times)

Downtown Deserves Better - Aug 1, 2002
The fate of downtown Manhattan is too important to be left to the engineers at the Port Authority, who have no interest in New York City, only in their own revenue stream," writes the New York Observer in an editorial this week. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki should work to win our loyalty by making sure "that downtown Manhattan becomes a prime residential neighborhood, and not just an office park for suburbanites." (New York Observer)

Gov. Pataki Weighs In - Jul 31, 2002
Responding to a wave of public dismay over the first designs for rebuilding Lower Manhattan, Gov. George Pataki has sent word that it's time to go back to the drawing board. It is the right message," writes the Times in an editorial today. "Now he needs to follow through with action, to keep demonstrating that his core concern is coming up with the best possible plan, not simply keeping the issue on hold until after this fall's election." (New York Times)

Just Say 'No' to Port Authority - Jul 31, 2002
Gov. Pataki should speed things up and, while he's at it, enlist New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey to get the Port Authority out of the mix altogether," writes the Daily News in an editorial today. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is willing to find new architects and planners for downtown, should not have to answer to the Port Authority, the editorial continues, "Let the corporation go it alone. Be bold!" (Daily News)

9/11 NYPD Report - Jul 29, 2002
Before anyone gets bent out of shape over the upcoming McKinsey report that criticizes the top police command's response to Sept. 11, let's listen to former First Deputy Commissioner Joe Dunne, who was out there on crutches with his ankle in a cast," writes Leonard Levitt in Newsday today. He goes on to describe Dunne's actions during Sept. 11. (Newsday)

Keep the Planning Public - Jul 26, 2002
More information about planning for the World Trade Center site needs to be shared with citizens, writes September's Mission founder Monica Iken in the Daily News today, saying that the constraints for office and retail space weren't mentioned by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in their blueprints, "nor were they mentioned to the corporation's Family Advisory Committee until the evening before plans were released publicly," she writes. (New York Daily News)

People Who Can Rebuild a City - Jul 26, 2002
The fear that Lower Manhattan is losing its status as a center of the financial industry is not new and should not be allowed to drive planning," writes Richard Florida, author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," in the New York Times today. He suggests that planners should help lower Manhattan become a diverse center for creative culture, "rather than to indulge in economic overplanning or try to micromanage the future." (New York Times)

Botching the Rebuild - Jul 26, 2002
The first priority for rebuilding must be to focus on restoring lower Manhattan's status as the world's financial capital, the New York Post writes in an editorial today. "This may or may not require the restoration of all 11 million square feet of commercial space obliterated in the attack. But it does mean that those in charge of the process now must focus on ensuring that Lower Manhattan remains a dynamic place for companies to do business." (New York Post)

Building Castles In the Clouds - Jul 25, 2002
Steven Brill examines Larry Silverstein's insurance case in Newsweek this week, and wonders whether Silverstein will really use the insurance money to rebuild. After the negative reactions to the six plans released last week, "some accommodation involving the insurance proceeds and the rebuilding plans will be necessary--an accommodation that could be hard fought because the various contracts seem to give Silverstein a claim on as much as $1 billion of the insurance proceeds if he refuses to compromise and walks away without rebuilding," Brill writes. (Newsweek)

New Trade Center Idea: Move Bulk to West St. - Jul 25, 2002
In the New York Times today, Herbert Muschamp takes a look at a New York architect's plan to move the commercial office space required by Silverstein's lease to West Street. This would then open up the entire 16-acre site to new possibilities. "The plan offers a conceptual beauty unmatched by the six official proposals. Besides taking economic and urbanistic factors into account, it has set the stage for focused discussion on historical meaning and cultural values," he writes. (New York Times)

Time to Reach For the Stars - Jul 25, 2002
At a time when what we need most is the far-reaching, pioneering vision that gave us great bridges and cloud-tufted skyscrapers, we are asked to look downward and not to the sky," Dennis Duggan writes in Newsday today. "Instead of mountains last week, we got molehills designed by timid souls with mousy imaginations, architects who must have been tuned in to easy-listening radio as they drew up their blueprints." (Newsday)

Bring Back Our Towers - Jul 25, 2002
Nicole Gelinas argues that the towers should be rebuilt as they were before the attack. "The six wan proposals unveiled by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation are evidence that nobody has a better idea. But suggesting the obvious means a fight with a lockstep legion of opponents, armed with well-rehearsed arguments both practical and mystical -- and all wrong," she writes. (New York Post)

Do Memorial First at Ground Zero - Jul 24, 2002
Those in charge of planning shouldn't add to our pain by implying that what happened was some kind of unpleasantness to be avoided or disguised," Beverly Eckert writes in the Daily News today, urging planners to make the memorial the starting point of the planning process. "Consider the effect of a restored street grid, running Greenwich and Fulton Sts. through the site, and ask yourself whether a traffic island would be a proper resting place for those who died that day," she writes. (New York Daily News)

How to Make America Safer Without Trampling on Immigrants - Jul 24, 2002
There are many democratic and more effective methods of making America safe without losing our country's "reverence for constitutional protections, and commitment to civil liberties," writes Alisa Solomon in the Village Voice today. (Village Voice)

The Bottom Line Rules at Ground Zero - Jul 23, 2002
When Larry Silverstein, the developer who leased the World Trade Center from the Port Authority, said that the best thing to do after September 11th would be to rebuild the twin hundred-and-ten-story towers in the form of four fifty-story towers, nobody took him seriously," Paul Goldberger writes in this week's New Yorker. "Silverstein's plan seemed hopelessly banal," he continues, but, "never underestimate the power of banality†at least, not in the world of New York real estate." (New Yorker)

Thrilling Show of People Power - Jul 22, 2002
The energy at Saturday's public hearing was democracy in action, Pete Hamill writes in the Daily News today, "All around the vast room, you heard citizens saying politely to others, 'What do you think?' And then listening -- actually listening -- to the replies. In this room, 'I' had given way to 'we.'" (New York Daily News)

An Array of Opinions - Jul 21, 2002
The New York Times ran a collection of opinions and ideas from Saturday's public forum, where there were, said Renee Nalitt, a participant, "as many opinions as there were people." (New York Times)

Even Here, Profit Isn't a Dirty Word - Jul 21, 2002
Leslie Eaton writes in the New York Times today that the six plans released for downtown may be "too commercial, even greedy." But that may not be so awful, she writes. "New York is, after all, the town that Mammon built. As historians readily point out, commerce -- making money -- underlies the city's history, its allure to immigrants, its best-known icons and some of its best-loved public spaces.But it seems hard to ignore the fact that greed has always been a driving force in the city -- and not always for ill." (New York Times)

For Great Buildings, Get a Great Client - Jul 21, 2002
As we look beyond Sept. 11 and the increasingly cacophonous debate over what should be built on the fraught terrain of Ground Zero," we should look to the Woolworth building, writes Barry Bergdoll in the New York Times today. It is a masterful building not only because Cass Gilbert was a great architect but because Frank Woolworth was a great client. "New York's finest skyscrapers have virtually all been the product of this synergy between an architect hitting his stride and a strong-willed client with a clear program and the ambition to make a mark," Bergdoll writes. (New York Times)

Customs Didn't Look Very Hard - Jul 21, 2002
The Customs Service says it wants to return to lower Manhattan, but its actions indicate otherwise," writes the Daily News in an editorial today. "While other Customs officials have said the agency has no plans to return downtown, spokesman Dennis Murphy has told this page that Commissioner Robert Bonner 'intends' to move those employees back. 'Intends'? You know what they say about good intentions." (New York Daily News)

Talk to the Man in Charge - Jul 20, 2002
The most important test of Mr. Pataki's success as New York's governor will be what happens in the restoration of Lower Manhattan in the wake of Sept. 11," writes the Times in an editorial today. The governer needs to really listen to what happens at today's public hearing, the editorial continues, "to make room for the best use of this site, he will also have to undo the glut of office and retail space that defines these early proposals. That means he must take the lead in negotiating with companies that hold leases to the World Trade Center, while also pushing planners for more inspired visions of how to use the space." (New York Times)

Scapegoats By Design - Jul 19, 2002
John Podhoretz writes in the New York Post today that the six plans were released to "absorb the blows" from many people with different interests at stake. Nobody is happy with the plans, he writes, but he suspects "this is something the planners and the powers-that-be consciously anticipated. Since they knew their first designs wouldn't survive, they used their initial designs to establish a negotiating position. Since they have offered a somewhat extreme set of initial proposals, they can now comfortably negotiate backward." (New York Post)

To Greater Heights - Jul 19, 2002
In the New York Post today, Sherri Tracinski from the Ayn Rand institute writes that we should rebuild bigger than ever. "This is what was attacked on Sept. 11: our wealth, our success, the global reach of our commerce and culture. The best way to commemorate those achievements is through a new skyscraper, bigger, better and more beautiful than the ones we have lost." (New York Post)

Name Game Is Messy, Really Messy - Jul 19, 2002
New Yorkers should prepare for a big debate over what to call the site of the World Trade Center when development is finished, Clyde Haberman writes in the New York Times today. "Obviously, the name game runs a distant second to the actual construction downtown. But the issue is sure to surface sooner or later, and disputes can be expected. Fights over place names--for streets, playgrounds, even entire neighborhoods--are part of New York life," he writes. (New York Times)

The Shopping Complex that Ate the World Trade Center Memorial - Jul 18, 2002
All of the six plans suggest that retail stores will dominate the World Trade Center site, writes Christopher Hawthorne in Slate.com today. The lease with mall developers Westfield America is forcing planners to build about 40 percent more retail than existed before the attacks. "A central question is circulation," he wryly notes. "Whether the 9/11 memorial will blend effortlessly into a gift shop that moves inexorably into a shopping promenade, so that before you realize it you've gone from weeping to deciding if you want fries with that." (Slate)

Lease Limiting Possibilities Downtown - Jul 18, 2002
The 99-year lease with Silverstein Properties and retail company Westfield America, more than anything else, is controlling the future of the World Trade Center site, David Dunlap writes in the New York Times today. "The powerful Port Authority, which managed to clear the whole site in the 60's, is now legally bound to protect the right of two private companies to recover their lost commercial potential. This obligation has momentarily trumped other questions," he writes. (New York Times)

The Downtown We Don't Want - Jul 17, 2002
The New York Times writes in an editorial today that it is a relief to know yesterday's six plans are only a starting point, because "these are dreary, leaden proposals that fall far short of what New York City--and the world--expect to see rise at ground zero." (New York Times)

An Agency's Ideology Is Unsuited to Its Task - Jul 17, 2002
The plans developed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation illustrate how poorly suited the agency is to oversee rebuilding, writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times today. The plans show that the corporation is thinking small, he writes: "Don't come looking for ideas that reflect the historic magnitude of last year's catastrophe. Nor will you find any sign of recognition that ground zero has become a tragic symbol of the troubled relationship between the United States and the rest of the world. What you see, instead, are proposals for real estate development: six ways to slice the pie." (New York Times)

Port Authority Restricting Downtown Plans - Jul 17, 2002
In an editorial today, the Daily News writes that the Port Authority's demands for real estate are hampering design possiblities downtown: "If the PA insists on using New York's Ground Zero merely as an opportunity to re-create a rich real estate deal, New York must get a bigger slice of the PA pie. There are many things the agency should invest in on this side of the Hudson. If it balks, it should change its name to the Port Authority of New Jersey and That Other Place." (New York Daily News)

Inspiring First Drafts Give Hope For Revival - Jul 17, 2002
Steve Cuozzo writes in the New York Post today that, despite their shortcomings, the six plans are an exciting glimpse at what the future holds for Ground Zero. "What a thrill, after months of anguish and mourning, to imagine the leveled 16 acres surging again with life and commerce!" (New York Post)

Legal Aid's Become Post-9/11 Hero - Jul 16, 2002
Many humble people were devastated by what happened on Sept. 11, and many of them have been forgotten," writes E.R Shipp in the Daily News today. "Fortunately, the Legal Aid Society, often thought of as a thorn in the side of government, has stepped up and transformed itself into something almost entirely different in recent months." (New York Daily News)

National Design Competition - Jul 11, 2002
Architect Eli Attia started an online petition calling for a national design competition for the World Trade Center site. "Participation of the country's greatest and most talented architects, unshackled by the ordained restrictions, will ensure that the best design that America can create will prevail for all generations to come. Such a competition should be judged by the American people, after screening the competition entries for feasibility," he writes. As of today, 2,894 people have signed. (Petition Online)

Listening to the City - Jul 10, 2002
Carolyn Lukensmeyer talks about the upcoming Listening to the City event in a Q&A with Newsday today. Lukensmeyer is head organizer of the July 20 meeting at Jacob Javits Convention Center, where up to 5,000 people will discuss plans for rebuilding lower Manhattan. She talks about how the event will be run and explains that she hopes to see people from "all five boroughs, counties in Connecticut and New Jersey, Long Island, and Rockland and Westchester counties. There is special outreach to families of victims, survivors, residents of lower Manhattan, people who own businesses there, and emergency and rescue workers." (Newsday)

Memorial Should Be Measured By Greatness, Not Size - Jul 8, 2002
An assumption has taken root over the past ten months that this memorial, whatever it ends up being, has to be big: A big catastrophe demands a big monument. This isn't so. A big catastrophe has to have a great monument. Greatness is not largeness," writes Michael Tomasky in New York Magazine. He goes on to defend Mayor Michael Bloomberg's suggestion that a memorial should not fill the entire 16-acre site. "Bloomberg is right on this one, and I urge him to stand his ground," Tomasky writes. (New York Magazine)

Promise Pataki Can't Keep - Jul 3, 2002
Gov. George Pataki appears to be taking back his statement that there should never be commercial buildings on the land where the World Trade Center towers stood, Dennis Duggan writes in a Newsday column today. "It now looks as though Pataki was talking off-message, as the pols say," writes Duggan. "By yesterday, his own people were backtracking. No, Pataki wasn't laying down the law for development of the site. He was only offering an opinion." (Newsday)

Pataki's Surprising Limit on Ground Zero Design - Jul 2, 2002
When Gov. George E. Pataki said on Saturday that nothing would be built where the twin towers once stood, he all but took the pencils out of the hands of the urban planners hired to consider options for the site of the World Trade Center," writes Edward Wyatt in a New York Times news analysis today. Wyatt adds that Pataki's announcement seems to prove that the rebuilding process is just as firmly under the governor's control as critics charge. (New York Times)

In Downtown, Let Housing Bloom - Jul 2, 2002
Robert R. Douglas advocates for new housing to be developed in the area immediately south of the World Trade Center site, running along West St. and bounded on the north by Liberty St. and on the south by Battery Place. In his New York Daily News column today, Douglas calls the idea "an opportunity to transform a largely underdeveloped, underused section of lower Manhattan into an exciting and beautiful 21st century residential neighborhood." (New York Daily News)

Waiting for Ground Zero Proposals - Jul 1, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has promised that by mid-July, the public will see a half-dozen options for reclaiming ground zero. The waiting would be easier if we were totally confident that everyone else is waiting, too," writes the New York Times in an editorial today. The editorial goes on to say that rebuilding officials must assure New Yorkers that a public planning process will take place, and that an inside group won't be allowed to make decisions in secret. (New York Times)

Tribeca's Local Voice - Jun 27, 2002
The New York Times features Madeline Wils, Chairwoman of Community Board 1, in the paper's "Public Lives" column today. Wils shares her strong conviction that the World Trade Center site be developed and revitalized. "We cannot live and work here if this is a cemetery," she says. (New York Times)

Don't Look to Oklahoma for Memorial Advice - Jun 26, 2002
In Oklahoma, the memorial planning process was so tipped towards the desires of victims' families that it "turned a memorial that should address issues of national disunity into a site for the bereaved," says Philip Weiss in the New York Observer today. He continues to say that New York City should not look to the Oklahoma Memorial, a field of 168 chairs, as an example. "In 100 years, those chairs will seem meaningless," he says. (New York Observer)

Build a World University Downtown - Jun 23, 2002
In the Daily News today, David Caputo suggests that planners for downtown should consider bringing an international center of education to the area. "What I am advocating for lower Manhattan, however, is not just another school, but a World University that would place New York among the major educational innovators in the 21st century and put the rebuilding effort at the forefront of economic and social change," he writes. (Daily News)

Albany Won't Play Hero for City - Jun 21, 2002
In the New York Times today, Shaila K. Dewan analyzes Albany's response to New York City's financial troubles after Sept. 11. "When local governments complain of financial burdens too heavy to bear, Albany often comes to the rescue, plugging budget holes with millions of dollars in state money. But for New York City, the pumping heart of the state's economy, that has not held true," she says, adding that the state may have in fact helped worsen the city's finances. (New York Times)

PATH Project Unloved in Village - Jun 20, 2002
In his "Blocks" column in the New York Times today, David Dunlap writes about Greenwich Village residents' angry reaction to the Port Authority's plans to expand the Christopher Street and Ninth Street PATH stations. The stations are extremely overcrowded after the destruction of the PATH's World Trade Center hub on Sept. 11. "The introduction of four new stairways used by several thousand commuters a day would at least disrupt, maybe even alter, the neighborhood character," writes Dunlap. (New York Times)

A History Museum for Ground Zero - Jun 17, 2002
Gersh Kuntzman supports a proposal for a history museum at Ground Zero in a New York Post column today. "Now, here's an idea that's about time," he writes. "A group of esteemed New York scholars has proposed that a world-class history museum take its rightful place at the site of the city's most significant historical event: Ground Zero." (New York Post)

Working in Coalition - Jun 10, 2002
Mike Kuo reacted to the loss of his father by joining all five major volunteer rebuilding coalitions. He sums up the recent reports by each coalition for the Gotham Gazette and finds their visions remarkably similar (Gotham Gazette)

Competing Visions - Jun 10, 2002
In her column for the Gotham Gazette, Laura Wolf-Powers gives her own analysis of the recent rebuilding coalition reports, emphasizing the ways that they differ. (Gotham Gazette)

Rebuilding by Consensus? - Jun 10, 2002
Mark Berkey-Gerard looks at the emerging differences of opinion among New Yorkers in general in his Gotham Gazette article today, and points out that many feel the basic questions -- about who makes the decisions, what should be built and even what "rebuilding" means -- have yet to be answered. (Gotham Gazette)

Sept. 11 Aid Seems to Elude the Poor - Jun 6, 2002
In his Daily News column today, Juan Gonzalez says that the health and economic needs of the poor from Chinatown and the Lower East Side need to be met. He describes the conditions that drove hundreds of unemployed workers and downtown residents stage a large protest downtown yesterday. "They hear about federal rent rebates to lure out-of-towners to live near Ground Zero. They figure nine months is enough time to wait for someone to remember they are victims, too," writes Gonzalez. (Daily News)

Ground Zero Diagnosis - Jun 3, 2002
As plans for the reconstruction go forward, city and state officials will have an opportunity to ensure that the risk of cancer and other health problems associated with the pollution that comes from heavy construction vehicles is kept to a minimum," writes Bob Herbert in the New York Times today. Herbert details the threats that diesel particles from construction vehicles pose to the long-term health of workers, residents and visitors in Lower Manhattan, and describes the steps that should be made to make reconstruction more environmentally sound. (New York Times)

The Last Steel Column - May 30, 2002
This is an emotional as well as a physical turning point for the city and for the country," writes the Times in its editorial today. The Times comments on the removal of the last steel column, remarking on how the ruins have served as a constant physical reminder of the terrorist attack for New Yorkers. The article closes by saying, "It marks not only an ending but a beginning - and we have all been looking for meaningful beginnings in the past few months...The site has been cleared. The ground is open." (New York Times)

Marginal Role for Architecture at Ground Zero - May 23, 2002
The selection of the New York architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle to design a master plan for ground zero and the financial district confirms once again that architecture will play no more than a marginal role in the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times today. Muschamp goes on to argue that mediocrity has been the primary accomplishment of the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Muschamp looks to the European cities as an example, where "architecture, planning and urban design are integrated with one another in a systematic approach. They are not handed off to consortiums of entrepreneurs and mid-level manager." (New York Times)

AmEx, Thanks For Coming Back and Better Late Than Never With Air Tests - May 15, 2002
The Downtown Express thanks American Express for returning to Lower Manhattan, particularly for their $1 million sponsorship of the upcoming River To River Festival. They also laud the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to test apartments on demand for air quality. While they are critical of the on-demand service, citing it as "unneccessarily expensive and inefficient," they still feel what is important "is that the E.P.A. is offering Downtowners a chance for piece of mind to those people who are willing to accept that the government can be honest sometimes. " (Downtown Express)

Tradition Holds Sway So Far at Ground Zero - May 10, 2002
Reporter Adam Nagourney writes in a news analysis in the Times that, despite all the talk of a new downtown among everyone involved in the rebuilding process, convservatism has been the primary mode of operation. "For all this language of transformation and opportunity," writes Nagourney, "the contours of a reconfigured downtown that are emerging, as described in conversations with political and civic leaders over the past two weeks, are notable more for their caution and adherence to tradition than for any attempt at innovation or experiment." While some may see this relative conservatism as a missed opportunity, others are characterizing it as a moment of unprecedented unity among New Yorkers. (New York Times)

Let's Rebuild Chinatown, Too - May 4, 2002
Government-led efforts to rebuild the city's financial district would be shortsighted if they ignored the needs of surrounding communities like Chinatown," writes Jacqueline Huey, President of Asian Americans for Equality in a letter to the New York Times. Huey argues that the city needs to make sure it takes note of the needs of devastated communities, including Chinatown, as it rebuilds after September 11. (New York Times)

Slow And Steady With Job Deals - May 1, 2002
$33 million here, $33 million there and pretty soon you're talking about real money!" The Downtown Express cautions for judicious use of the funds earmarked for job-retention downtown, expressing particular concern that handouts to companies may cut into funds for transportation improvements. "Better transportation benefits just about every firm, non-profit, and resident," writes the editorial staff. "Twenty-one billion dollars, even $30 billion, can go pretty quickly and Washington is not going to play our sugar daddy forever." (Downtown Express)

Foundations for Lower Manhattan - Apr 29, 2002
The New York Times writes, "Transportation is the foundation of the revival of Lower Manhattan „ the underpinning of any real renewal." The editorial then goes on to summarize the various transportation projects that need to be considered, including a new PATH terminal, expansion of the South Ferry terminal, and suppressing West Street underground. Getting the funds from the federal government is key to the success of these transportation ideas, and the Times closes by writing, "The construction crews have virtually cleared ground zero, and Mr. Pataki and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation have begun to tackle their task. Congress needs to pitch in to make it work." (New York Times)

Pier 40 Can Help Downtown Survive - Apr 24, 2002
Pier 40, a newly developed outdoor sports area for downtown residents, is key to helping downtown survive after September 11, writes Tobi Bergman of The Villager. "Advancing opportunities for Down-town children to play sports is important - now more than ever," writes Bergman, emphasizing the importance of outdoor sports opportunities for Downtown children. "The park at Pier 40 should be part of the survival strategy for Downtown Manhattan." (The Villager)

Rich Firms, Poor Ideas on Towers Site - Apr 18, 2002
Don't believe what you hear about the emergence of a consensus on the future of Lower Manhattan," writes New York Times arts critic Herbert Muschamp. Muschamp argues that the process of rebuilding has been too centered around the expectations of corporate architecture firms and real-estate developers and only addresses the problems with rebuilding Lower Manhattan in general terms. While the corporate firms have been doing good work lately, Muschamp praises the smaller firms in the city, writing, "None of them subscribe to the myth of the omnicompetent designer." (New York Times)

Have They Given Up On Ground Zero? - Apr 12, 2002
In an editorial from the New York Post, the paper criticizes the absence of commercial redevelopment in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's blueprint for redeveloping downtown. "The goal needs to be the replacement," says the editorial, "so far as it is possible, of the 14 million square feet of office devastated by Osama bin Laden's kamikaze planes." (New York Post)

Downtown on the Way Up - Apr 10, 2002
The Daily News praises the blueprint for renewal released by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, saying that "its preliminary blueprint, released yesterday, deals not only with the needs of the living, but the memory of the dead. Admirably." After detailing the highlights of the plan, the editorial goes on to say "What this plan says to New York, and the world, is that despite immense destruction, lower Manhattan lives, and it will only grow stronger and more vibrant." (New York Daily News)

Debate Makes a Memorial Stronger - Apr 7, 2002
A collection of letters to the editor in the Times center around the need for debate to produce an appropriate memorial. "We need to develop alternative solutions, debate their pros and cons in a public forum and come to a consensus. The process is as important as the result," writes one correspondent. "The heated dialogue that ensued when the design [of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial] was selected was a powerful cathartic for the country. The events of Sept. 11 deserve nothing less," writes another. (New York Times)

Rebuilding Downtown - Apr 3, 2002
The New York Times writes in their editorial section today, "There should be a sense of progress in Lower Manhattan. Instead we have a queasy feeling of slippage and lack of focus." The chief concerns of the editorial are about the pace of the planning, which the Times suggests may be tied to Pataki's reelection strategy for this fall; and the distribution of money. While direct aid is being distributed to businesses and individuals, it would be better to take the federal aid and invest it in developing infrastructure and transportation downtown. "Some company executives admit privately that while they would certainly consider cash offers, they would regard a clear economic development strategy for downtown as a stronger inducement to long-term commitment." (New York Times)

9/11 Reasons to Hold Olympics in N.Y. - Apr 3, 2002
Chairman of the New York City Partnership Robert Catell argues that New York City should be the site for the 2012 Olympics. While the campaign to bring the 2012 Olympics to New York City has been active for a while, Catell writes, "Selection by the U.S. Olympic Committee would hasten the city's recovery from the 9/11 disaster. While development of Olympic facilities would not begin immediately, the promise of the 2012 Games would give the city a tremendous psychological and economic boost." (New York Daily News)

The Old Downtown Economy Won't Return - Mar 29, 2002
Kathryn Wylde writes in this editorial for the Times, "The unprecedented scale of the economic damage is so vast that traditional business retention strategies are not going to restore what was the nation's third largest business district." She calls for diversifying the economy downtown with other industries, such as biotechnology, and she also encourages corporate growth throughout the city. "The truth is that the downtown we knew last autumn will not be coming back. The vitality that the World Trade Center symbolized can, however, be brought back, but in new ways and not only in Lower Manhattan. " (New York Times)

What Does This City Need? O.K., You Asked - Mar 20, 2002
In an interview with Alex Garvin, the city planner hired by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Times reveals some of the thoughts of the man who will most likely directly determine what is rebuilt downtown. "We have a chance to start all over again," says Garvin. "Things are possible at the moment that have not been possible in my lifetime." His ideas include everything from new train lines and connections that would make Lower Manhattan a single-seat train ride from Long Island and Westchester to extending Fulton Street, which now ends at the boundary of the trade center property, all the way across Manhattan, making it a crosstown artery anchored by Battery Park City on one end and the South Street Seaport on the other. (New York Times)

Don't Kick WTC Kin While They're Down - Mar 18, 2002
Dennis McKeon, director of St. Clare's WTC Outreach Program, criticizes the media's focus on the families of the September 11 victims, responding in particular to the recent comics of Ted Rall. "Our new purpose is to sort out all the red tape," writes McKeon. "Champagne, caviar, limousines and opportunists with dollar signs in their eyes, like the characters in one of Rall's cartoons, are nowhere in sight." (New York Daily News)

Art and Tragedy According to the Eye of the Beholder - Mar 13, 2002
Sooner or later, probably sooner, movies will be made about the terrorist attacks of last Sept. 11. What if one interpretation is that not everyone behaved valiantly at the World Trade Center?" Clyde Haberman puts forth these questions in his weekly column and expresses concern about history only being allowed to be interpreted by the victims. "Not every analysis of the Sept. 11 attacks," says Haberman, "can be seen only through the eyes of their victims." (New York Times)

Let There Be Lights - Mar 13, 2002
The Daily News advocates for keeping the Tribute in Light lit longer than a month, the time period for which it is currently scheduled. "The lights, alas, will be extinguished after a month. But why?...It is far from an intolerable intrusion. It is, quite simply, magnificent." (New York Daily News)

Tribute in Light" Explained - Mar 11, 2002
In Slate.com, one of the designers of the Tribute in Light, Gustavo Bonevardi, describes how the idea of the interim memorial came into being and how he and the other designers believe it is "too soon to build a permanent monument." He also writes of his early hopes that, in a show of solidarity for the World Trade Center, cities around the world would erect similar monuments of beams reaching into the sky. (Slate.com)

Six Months Later - Mar 11, 2002
The Times writes about New York City six months after the World Trade Center attacks, saying that "New York has learned more about itself in a shorter time than it ever has before." With ordinary life beginning to come back, the pace of the recovery and cleanup "has allowed New York City to recover psychologically much more swiftly than anyone could have expected." (New York Times)

A Vision For Downtown - Mar 10, 2002
Pete Hamill, columnist for the Daily News, presents his ideas for what should be included in a plan for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. In particular, he calls for a transportation hub on the scale of Grand Central and Penn Station; an underground commercial mall; a mixed-use plan for office and residential buildings; and a memorial. (New York Daily News)

Fine Job, Mr. Feinberg - Mar 9, 2002
The Daily News describes the aid package set up by Kenneth Feinberg, special master of the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund, as "compassionate and fair, worthy and workable." The editorial goes on to say that this means of compensation is better than the idea of suing the airlines, and lauds Feinberg for taking into account the concerns and complaints of families after the first draft of his plan. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Depictions: Cathartic or Exploitative? - Mar 5, 2002
In light of the impending broadcast of the documentary "9/11" by CBS, Christian Science Monitor takes a look at the debate over whether constant depictions of the events of September 11 are insenitive to victims' families or serve as a catharsis. (Christian Science Monitor)

New York Taxi Drivers Need Disaster Relief - Mar 2, 2002
Bhairavi Desai, staff coordinator for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, argues in this editorial for the Times that taxi drivers need disaster relief after September 11. Driver incomes reportedly have fallen 50 percent since September 11, yet relief agencies are turning away taxi drivers because they are allegedly not geographically dependent on Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

Unlocking $100 Million - Feb 22, 2002
The New York Times praises Rudy Giuliani's decision to quickly distribute the $100 million from the Twin Towers Fund. However, they also express concern over Giuliani's appointment of friends and allies. The editorial advocates for insuring that the fund is strictly for charity and set for a modest life span, rather than turning into a cash machine and a long-term appointment for Giuliani cronies. (New York Times)

Breathing the Air Downtown - Feb 22, 2002
In this editorial, the Times criticizes the government's failure to provide leadership concerning the issue of air quality and its health effects downtown. In particular, it cites worries about the air quality of indoor environments. (New York Times)

Twin Towers in the Harbor - One Memorial Plan - Feb 14, 2002
Timothy Noah of Slate.com highlights today a memorial idea proposed by Fred Bernstein. The memorial would consist of two tower-length piers jutting out into the harbor, both piers inscribed with the names of those who died in the towers on September 11. The piers would also serve as docks for boats back and forth between Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. (Slate.com)

Starting at Ground Zero - Feb 2, 2002
The New York Times editorial argues, among other things, for public involvement in the rebuilding process and appeals to Larry Silverstein to keep in mind larger plans for the community before rebuilding 7 World Trade Center. (Newsday)

Downtown, a Necropolis Is Flourishing - Jan 25, 2002
Leave the funerary monuments to the Lycians," writes John Tierney in this edition of his Big City column. Tierney argues against making the entire site of the World Trade Center a memorial and for a memorial based on heroism, not defeat. (New York Times)

Port Can't Flub Downtown Hub - Jan 12, 2002
From the rubble of the World Trade Center arises a rare opportunity to reconfigure mass transit links in lower Manhattan. Done correctly, it would be one of the best ways to spur revival of the Financial District. And in the interests of creating such a project, the Port Authority should withdraw from its rich coffers to help pay for this new megahub. (New York Daily News)