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New Yorkers sound off on WTC plans'The goal of the process is not to please everybody'
From Phil Hirschkorn
NEW YORK (CNN) -- New Yorkers will get a chance Tuesday night to sound off about what kind of memorial should be built at the World Trade Center site. But judging from a similar town meeting Monday night on what commercial development should replace the twin towers, no consensus should be expected. Designs to redevelop the 16-acre Ground Zero site played to mixed reviews at the four-hour meeting attended by 800 people who packed an auditorium at Pace University in Manhattan. Some 100 others attended simultaneous meetings around the city and on Long Island, but remote videoconferencing hookups didn't connect those attendees to the Manhattan session as planned. While no plan emerged as the people's favorite, the seven teams of architects were praised for offering visions vastly better than the first six plans unveiled last July. One concern was how tall the buildings should be. Four of the seven plans presented propose to replace the 110-story twin towers with buildings at least as tall. Peter Gadiel, whose 23-year-old son, James, perished on the 103rd floor of the North Tower, said such height was unsafe. "You can't fight a fire above 50 stories," Gadiel said. "You should have learned your lesson." Bill Hough, a Manhattan resident, said height was the point. "The terrorists suddenly killed almost 3,000 people and wiped an American landmark totally off the map," Hough said. "Not replacing the towers confirms that crime." Some wondered whether anyone would occupy 110-story buildings or if the real estate market could sustain such development. Safety was again raised as an issue regarding restoring the grid of streets that historically ran through the Trade Center plaza. Some feared vehicular traffic would increase noise and air pollution, and possibly might invite truck bombs. The meeting was held by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., a city-state agency planning a memorial and commercial construction on the site. Many questioned the speed of the decision-making process and the LMDC's goal of ending the debate by choosing a land use plan in February. "I don't understand this arbitrary deadline," said Kurt Horning, who lost his son, Matthew, in the attacks. "What is the rush?" Other critics asked why the memorial design process seems to be second on the agenda to buildings and open space. An international memorial competition will begin in April after the site layout is decided. 'From bedrock up'"The goal of the process is not to please everybody. That would be impossible," said LMDC spokesman Matthew Higgins. "Our job is to go out to the public, listen to divergent views about what should happen at Ground Zero, and try to reconcile all those different view points," Higgins said. Unlike the electronic "Listening to the City" town meeting that followed the unveiling last summer, the LMDC did not solicit votes on the plans. The advice Monday ran from naming a single building on the site "Unity Tower" to adhering to the principles of feng shui, an ancient Asian concept of harmonious design. The LMDC and the site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, are analyzing the plans for their quality, cost, engineering, and impact on surrounding neighborhoods. "It might very well one or two schemes that we go forward with to develop. It may be that we combine things. We don't know," said Alex Garvin, LMDC's vice president for planning and design. "You have to do the memorial first, along with the streets, along the railroad station," Garvin said. "You have to build from bedrock up. You have to have that infrastructure." In addition to the town meeting, public comments are being received at an exhibit of the proposals at World Financial Center, adjacent to the WTC site and on the LMDC's Web site, where the plans also may be viewed. Tuesday night's citywide meeting will hear responses on plans for the memorial to the nearly 2,800 people killed September 11, 2001.
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