Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2002 23:18:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein
Subject: WTC Rebuilding:Table Work in Rain!


As is frequent,my emails on the struggle to bring about full-scale
reconstruction on the World Trade Center site have (to borrow a
phrase from the Popes) an element of "Urbi et Orbi",to the city
and the world...there are things that those in the city are able
to do,and there are things people around the world can do to help.
(As ever,I urge EVERYONE to send in site plan comments,to the
addresses given on http://www.put.com/wtc/ if they have not done
so...I am preparing mine,and will distribute the text to the list
when I am done).

Today,as I mentioned a few times that I would,I went into lower
Manhattan for work with our petition/literature table volunteers.
Marcella Mellos,who recently purchased the table being used,was
there from 9 AM onwards,a couple of hours before I got there...
Joe Wright arrived about when I did,Gary Taustine was already there.
I met him,and got to see his REBUILD shirts and pins,but didn't
have a chance to get a shirt of my own (Marcella,Joe,and Jeff
Lowell,who we met later,were wearing them,as was Gary)...while I
went into the Federal Hall exhibit Gary left to distribute pins
to merchants on Broadway,and didn't come back.

Andrew Oliff had intended to join us but had to work,
and Jen Thorpe was busy packing for her move back to
Columbia,where more table work may be happening soon;
we hope to hear from Chris Tessitore again when her
availability clears up...if you're in New York and
have some time,why not join the petition/literature crew?

A word about the exhibit at Federal Hall (which is not THE original
building in which the colonial court tried John Peter Zenger,and
Goerge Washington took the oath as president,and was the first seat
of the government of the USA under the Constitution...it's a rebuilding).
There is a circular display,the outside bearing introductory material
and aerial shots of lower Manhattan from 1940 to the 1970s [before it
had the Twins,it needed them!],the inside the presentations of the
six site plan concepts and various illustrations of how elements of
rebuilding are dealt with,the center a model of Manhattan crowned by
the Twins and some leaflets people can fill out and deposit in slots.
There's also a video of renderings of the plans,and some 18th-19th
century maps of the area.

I was surprised by how tiny the plastic models of the site plans were.
I filled out the leaflet,saying how essential it was for the new
buildings to be at least as tall as the Twins,and left four copies
of the leaflets we were distributing flanking the official feedback ones.
However,when Marcella went in later to drop off more,she was told she
was not allowed to,and that the ones I had left had been thrown away.
Likewise,we were not permitted to place the table on the Federal Hall
side of Wall Street,so we took up a position outside the old Morgan
Bank across the street.

Generally things went rather well,despite the place (the NYSE is
also at the same intersection) being much less busy than on weekdays.
Many of those who signed were tourists...we logged support for building
no shorter than the Twins from people from Nebraska,Utah,Maine,and
Britain,Belgium,France,Germany(even Hamburg,Alex!...did you send them?),
Australia,India,and other countries from Scandinavia to Africa.
There were certainly Manhattan residents as well,to be clear.
The WORLD wants its trade center back!

Intermittent rain showers dampened our bodies and papers at times,
but never our spirits.I brought a raincoat,there were umbrellas
and waterproof bags.

Around 1:30-2 PM we headed west and uptown and moved the table to
outside One Liberty Plaza,where the traffic was thicker.(We were
on the Broadway corner,not the Church Street side).Things proved
so brisk that all the petitions Marcella had ready were filled,
and she had to find a place that could print more.While she was
gone One Liberty's security asked us to move,but once Joe got
them to understand we weren't selling anything we were OK.It
was at this site that Jeff Lowell joined us for a while.

Also during this period I went over to the site where the new
towers have to be built...crowds continue to gather there and
look through the fences...I noticed rememberwtc.org "I WANT THEM
BACK" stickers pasted to a couple of Port Authority no-tresspassing
signs,and handed out some leaflets there.I note that there was no
sign on the site bottom of the bedrock-anchor footprints of the
old towers,not sure if this is because they're filled in to some
extent.Some boarding-up around One Liberty's plaza walls was being
dismantled as I passed by,apparently a completed renovation.

Around 4 PM the rain grew more intense than it had been,
and we called it a day...weather will be better tomorrow.

We gave out hundreds of leaflets and gathered hundreds of
signatures.At 11:30 AM tomorrow Joe and Jeff,at least,will be
back at the Broadway & Liberty corner by One Liberty to continue,
and as noted above we're looking for more help.

Among those who signed for us today were two people who asked to
be added to this email list...one worked in the WTC Marriott,lost
his brother-in-law on 9/11,and took extra leaflets to give friends.
If we all mobilize our friends there's no way the Whitehead clique
can stop us!

Meanwhile,they continue to try.Bloomberg is reported by the NY Post
to be getting together his own "vision" for Lower Manhattan,forcing
it to become much more residential,etc...Doctoroff as ever his point
man...and presenting it to Whitehead et al.

And the Port Authority is reported to be accepting guidelines that
call for less office space on the site,which would seriously harm
the cause of getting office buildings of properly awe-inspiring
scale constructed.I think site plan comments need to push the
case for FEWER,TALLER buildings that would retain the full amount
of income-producing space in a less crowded fashion.The "false
negative" on the office space issue has arisen from a certain
connivance...the Port Authority has chosen to be timidly market-
driven in the replacement of its awesome speculative construction,
opening up the way to plans with so many buildings the site looks
too crowded,while Whitehead's people,who want something downsized,
are using this reaction to push for the downsizing.

If these lower-capacity guidelines are given to the Phase II
planners,we won't see Phase II plans that address our concerns
better than the already-wretched Phase I plans...let's make sure
the September 5 Manhattan hearing has a BIG turnout demanding BIG
buildings!!!!

(The August 29th events,mentioned on the website,remain on track...
who's going to Queens and who's going to BPC?)

Something I should have mentioned before...the National Institute
of Standards & Technology is launching a comprehensive probe into the
WTC collapse,more far-reaching than the FEMA investigation.Naturally
its findings should inform the design of impressive new Towers,not
be used as a pretext for opposing them!

See you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11!

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.