UNITED STATES: DIFFICULT PROCESS OF DECIDING WHAT TO DO WITH THE WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE NOW UNDERWAY IN NEW YORK

Record ID: 836572

  • Title: UNITED STATES: DIFFICULT PROCESS OF DECIDING WHAT TO DO WITH THE WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE NOW UNDERWAY IN NEW YORK
  • Date: 26th December 2001
  • Summary: VARIOUS PHOTOS OF MONICA AND MICHAEL IKEN (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 10th January 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK AND OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA888JZPDKE1EMREJ20MKSUR1HV
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  • Story Text: The difficult process of deciding what to do with the World Trade Center site in New York is now underway, a process that won't be easy as various groups of politicians, business leaders and relatives of the victims lost in the collapse all have different views of what form a final memorial to those that died on September 11th should have.
    The destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11 was an unprecedented event in American History, the worse act of terrorism to ever have occurred on U.S. soil.
    Now, with the last of the standing structures all taken down at Ground Zero, the search for the remains of many of the victims continues. But another process has begun in earnest is the search for a consensus on what to do with the site of the former World Trade Center complex.
    Shortly prior to the events of September 11, developer Larry Silverstein signed a 99 year lease on the land with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owners of the land. But in the aftermath of such a devastating event, city and state officials, as well as victims groups are all demanding a say in the development of the site.
    Last week the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation met for the first time to begin the process of coming up with a plan to redevelop the site. The group, a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation, has said their mission is to listen to all ideas, keep an open mind, and come up with a plan for redeveloping the WTC site that would be agreeable to many of the varied constituencies.
    In the immediate aftermath of September 11, some people in New York called for a rebuilding of the original World Trade Center structure, but John C. Whitehead, the Chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., who presides over the 11 person board, said this was not practical.
    "There is not much of a constituency for rebuilding what was there before and it's going to be very hard to get people to be willing to work everyday in a 100 story building and that will last for quite a while. So I would guess that the buildings, although I don't know we're open minded on things like this, I guess the buildings that will be built will be in the 50 or 60 story height maximum. There are a number of buildings that are in that height already in Wall Street, and so they will fit in to the general structure of the city and not stand out as potential targets again," said Whitehead.
    The city is building viewing platforms on the edge of Ground Zero for the public. The 30 by 50 foot platform will be located on the very edge of the huge pit, giving the public for the first time a close up view of the devastation.
    Outgoing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani marked the end of his eight years in office on Thursday with a speech before 400 supporters and staff. Giuliani urged construction of a soaring memorial at the World Trade Center site.
    "We have to be able to create something here that enshrines this forever and allows people to build on it and grow from it and it's not going to happen if we just think about it in a very narrow way, how do you replace the offices and how do you replace the jobs, we can do all that. We've got to think about it from the point of view of a soaring, beautiful memorial and if we do that right, if we do that part right then the economical development will just happen," said Giuliani.
    What is shaping up to be a major cause of disagreement is the future memorial at the site. Just how big it should be and what form it should take. In the aftermath of September 11, there was an outpouring of grief for those who lost loved ones in the collapse, and this level of concern and deep feelings are still felt today.
    Monica Iken is one of those who lost a loved one on September 11th. Her husband Michael worked on the 84th floor of Tower Two of the World Trade Center and died in the collapse. Iken has formed a group called September's Mission, an advocacy group for relatives of WTC victims. She said a large memorial should be the centrepiece of the site, not a lot of large office buildings.
    "You can't build over people. And a lot of people feel that way, even a lot of people who didn't work down there, people that hadn't lost someone, they see it as the same thing, it's like a war zone and you don't build in a war zone, and you don't build over dead people, and they might not feel comfortable having office space there in that area where you're kind of feeling like all those people lost their lives because they went to work," said Iken.
    Rescue workers combing the debris continue to pull bodies from the wreckage.
    To commemorate the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City, officials there tore down the damaged building and the entire site is now a memorial to the victims of truck bomber Timothy McVeigh's attack. But most city officials acknowledge the entire World Trade Center site becoming a memorial is not a practical solution for New York.
    Especially for a part of Manhattan that is trying to recover from the financial decline felt because of the attack.
    Ken Patton, a real estate expert and the dean of New York University's Real Estate Institute, feels that a revitalized Lower Manhattan would be the best way to honour those that perished in the collapse.
    "You should count the active elements of the economy, the city, the things that attracted people to New York for opportunity for employment, that brought us all here in the first place, should be counted as part of the memorial. I think to have a quiet place in a busy city and not have some of the previous activities restored would contradict the basic instinct that we have about what Manhattan is," said Patton.
    Before any rebuilding can start, Patton said the infrastructure underground, the subways, Path trains, water, electricity and sewage all have to be dealt with.
    But for Monica Iken, whatever the city erects as a memorial on the site, she said it is important to the healing process for her to feel she is near the site where her husband Michael perished.
    "It's something you can't explain, the way that you connect with your loved one whoever you are. You can maybe go to a particular spot and say, he was here, tower two and maybe that area and say, let me find a space for myself that I can always feel closure and I'll come to that particular space, and Michael will meet me there and I'm convinced I'll get closure every time I go there if I have the right space to do that in," said Iken.
    Iken is still hoping for a call from Ground Zero that they have found her husbands remains.
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