Posted on 07/16/2002 9:35:53 AM PDT by finnman69
Edited on 04/29/2004 2:00:51 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
And who's going to pay for all that? We already have a budget deficit and I'd rather not have my taxes jacked up to pay for security at a *park*.
I don't think building anything lower is waving the white flag, and I think it's sort of insulting to say that we can just replace the buildings. We can't, anymore than we can replace the people who died there.
I think it's insulting when people who don't live in this neighborhood pontificate and hector those of us who do live here. So since we can't "just replace the buildings" because of your delicate sensibilities, we should just let it go to rot and lose all that money?
People are going to come to the WTC site anyway, simply because it is now a very important site; and the Battery, while theoretically important, is too small as it is to accomodate all the people who already come there. So the WTC could certainly be part of a chain of sites, from the tourist point of view.
You've never been down here, have you? Those who come to stare at the hole in the ground congregate on Broadway, Church Street and up and down Fulton Street (between the viewing platform at one end and the ticket booth at the other).
Anyway, there's nothing to see there these days -- IT'S A FREAKING HOLE IN THE GROUND RIGHT NOW. That's it. And the tourists who come here to gawk at it spend little or nothing at the local businesses. Sure, they buy those godawful "Ground Zero" hats from the illegal street vendors, but not from the legitimate businesses that *need* steady, regular customers -- the kind that commercial rebuilding would provide.
I think a high tower would be nice, but not necessarily an office building. One of the plans had a building that looks exactly like the Transamerica Tower in SF - we don't want that. It's got to be something distinctive. Perhaps a communications tower (that does NOT look like the Seattle Space Needle) with a fantastic view and tourist access?
And how would you like us to replace the lost income and business down here? The cheap bastard tourists aren't going to get it done.
The old buildings now have enormous symbolic significance. However, having worked in them and near them - and having known NY before they were even built - I will admit that I wasn't that fond of them.
Neither was I, but I don't think that the small businesses in the neighborhood should have to suffer for your aesthetics. How about we go and wreck YOUR neighborhood -- both literally and financially -- and then lecture you on how *I* think it should be rebuilt?
The plaza was an icy, windswept nightmare in the winter, and was stuffy and gloomy in the summer (with the exception of a few blazingly hot spots where the sun actually did shine). From an architectural point of view, I think we should avoid repeating this. From an emotional and symbolic point of view, I don't think we should try to repeat the towers, either. Americans don't look back, we always move ahead.
Almost nobody is saying that they should rebuild the exact same towers in the exact same layout, just that there should be soaring towers once again. As for the "emotional point of view," speak for yourself. "Moving ahead" doesn't mean caving in and letting Mohammed Atta become our urban planner. He hated towers, and you want to build a permanent memorial to him.
But I agree that we should build something exciting there, perhaps perking up some of the plans that we've had a chance to look at here. They're nice, but not exciting.
They suck.
I would.
You're on the Chamber's hospitality committee?
They come to gawk and take pictures (sometimes climbing on fences that are covered with tarp just to photograph and film what they weren't supposed to see) and buy tacky souvenirs from the illegal street vendors, but when it comes time to have lunch or dinner or do any serious shopping, they head uptown.
They contribute little or nothing to the local economy, and businesses are closing down here.
A big ol' !!!BUMP!!! to what you said!
I'm sure that any new buildings will have enhanced security measures and will benefit from things learned from the 9/11 atrocities. But that said, I refuse to live in fear and cower in the corner of a cave.
I can understand your frustration and I don't have an answer to the new threat to local businesses. Living in a tourist community myself it my cause short-term devastation here as well if any of our hotels are targeted. But as the old saying goes, "necessity is the mother of inventions", something will break and jumpstart a new direction.
I think that the answer is to rebuild the international center of commerce that was there (not rebuild exactly as it looked) and let the people who live and work there keep the local businesses alive. It worked before, and the neighborhood was really beginning to thrive as a residential area as well.
Oh, man, you read my mind ! I've only had the misfortune to visit "the complex" in Albany once (about a dozen years ago). I got there on a late weekday afternoon when it was practically deserted, and it was quite an experience. While I actually like the Erastus Corning Tower (the big sucker), it's still woefully out of place in the Albany skyline. The plaza itself is SO fascistic, I can't find the words. And what the f$$k were they thinking with that auditorium building that looks like some rotten egg standing on a rest ?!? However, what pales in comparison is what isn't seen outside -- that ubercreepy concourse underneath the plaza. Holy crap ! I swore the thing was inspired by George Lucas with this early 1970s Stalinist Sci-Fi motif. I asked my father if this was where they filmed "THX 1138," because it sure looked like it ! It's definitely a monument to the failures of Rockefeller Republican Liberalism. To think they're going to make "Empire State Plaza Sur" (South for our non-Spanish speakers) on the site of the WTC... what an outrage ! I hope they toss those designs in the toilet and come up with something truly inspiring for a change. If the people they hired can't do it, why not have a nationwide contest to have others hatch a design ? I'm not an architect, but I'm sure even I could make a little doodle that would be better than those plans.
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