WTC construction to begin Monday

[DoYouEverWonder]

March 12, 2006

It takes a little imagination to tour Ground Zero.

The 16-acre site, wreathed in fencing and surrounded by scaffold-cloaked buildings in various stages of repair, doesn't look like much. It's difficult to visualize how it looked before Sept. 11, 2001, or the way planners hope it will look after 2010 -- bustling yet contemplative, respectful, vibrant.

"People will come here and they'll stare at a hole in the ground," said John Henderson, a docent with the Tribute Center, a September 11th Families Association project that gives daily tours of the site. "There's nothing there to see."

That, city and state officials hope, is about to change, though nagging obstacles remain.

Starting Monday, preliminary work is to begin on the memorial, and demolition will start on the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St. after it is decontaminated floor by floor. Meanwhile, preparations for subway tunnels, utilities, gas lines and sewers have been proceeding behind the scenes.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-wtc0311,0,7853916.story?coll=ny-nycnews-headlines

[bemildred]

1. I hear the theme from "Rocky" in the background. nt

[simonm]

2. I will never go there

The WTC collapse on 9/11 poisoned the area with microscopic asbestos fibers. All you need is one to inhale and cause cancer.

Not interested.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Jeez, where do you live

in a bubble?

[Skink]

4. a 900 foot statue of W should go there.

[Virginia Dare]

7. LOL!!!!!! eom

[saigon68]

11. Here is the rendering of the face on the statue

CHOICE # 1





CHOICE # 2


VOTE TO SELECT THE WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TO VOTE send a letter to President R. Cheney

@ project "EAT SHIT OR DIE"

C/O The Halliburton White House
Washington DC

[simonm]

8. Toxic soup

My concerns are valid. I would like to visit there someday again but the risk is too great.

http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=1560

[jseankil]

13. Care to provide any proof?

That the area after almost 5 years is still dangerous?

[simonm]

18. sure

"If people continue living and working in places that still have dust in the carpets, furniture, drapes and heating and cooling system, these fibers will continue to be resuspended," Jenkins explained. "The elevated risk could be from around one in a thousand extra cancers to maybe as high as one in 10."

The EPA says it can't test apartments and offices. None of the thousands of tests that the EPA cites as showing the asbestos risk is minimal were taken inside the buildings and rooms where people live, study and work.

"That's just not our job, and we have no policies or procedures for doing that type of testing," said Bonnie Bellow, spokeswoman for the EPA's region II office in New York. "We've never had to worry about asbestos in houses before."

But Granger, of the Virginia company HP Environmental, said, "To ignore testing the indoor environment for asbestos defies logic.

"Outside, the normal air movement dilutes and dissipates asbestos concentration. Inside, the fibers are trapped by four walls. They constantly get resuspended just by occupants walking on carpets, closing the drapes or having the air conditioner or heat go on or off."

http://www.asbestos.org/news/wtc_02_newfinding.html

Just entering a building in the area is a risk. You would have to trust that it was cleaned professionally. - Not worth it.

[northzax]

24. well, all the buildings all that close

have either been destroyed or will be. and your own article says that the outside air movement has dissipated the asbestos, so visiting the site wouldn't be a problem, would it?

[simonm]

28. Should be no problem

As long as the cleanup was done by a professional.

[northzax]

30. it's outside

nature is the professional cleaner of choice in this regard. The area has had 4 and a half years of exposure to weather, there isn't any asbestos left in the local environment (save that in any other city)

[Karenca]

31. That's what I figured.

All the rain, high winds and snow.

[meow2u3]

10. Let all the lunchbucket conservatives work there

Then there'll be fewer repukes around to vote the next fascist pig in office. :evilgrin:

[Karenca]

12. No, not now. n/t

[NYC]

17. In that case, I'm a goner.

On the other hand, some pollutant is probably going to kill me anyway. A lot of us breathed World Trade air the first day (and quite some time after).

[Karenca]

21. Me too..............nt

[simonm]

22. Sorry

I am sorry for such a negative post.

The body is always fighting against pollutants, just keep it healthy. We all live on borrowed time.

[NYC]

27. Don't worry about the negativity.

We don't have clean food, air, or water, thanks to corporations. Something will kill me eventually. I'm not worried about it.

[Karenca]

29. no, it's ok..I'm not worried either. I'm much more

worried about the Polar Ice Caps melting at both ends.

[DoYouEverWonder]

32. That's why I asked

if you lived in a bubble because all of us have been exposed to god knows what at this point. That doesn't mean I want to rent one of those apartments in the Battery that got covered in dust but certainly a 'visit' to downtown NYC isn't going to make that much of a difference. Besides since we all live on 'borrowed time' might as well do the things you enjoy and not waste too much time worrying about it. Worry will actually make you has sick, if not sicker then the pollution.

[brooklynite]

5. Or, maybe it won't

Anxiety in Albany over WTC

BY PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The growing chorus of dissent about the design of the World Trade Center Memorial has added another voice - this one inside the Pataki administration.

In a letter obtained by the Daily News, Pataki's own State Historic Preservation Office raised serious concerns about the design.

The office found that the memorial's concrete footings and foundation "will potentially contribute to an Adverse Effect" on the so-called footprints of the twin towers.

The state office asked the Port Authority to find ways to "mitigate or minimize" the potentially adverse effect the foundation design may have on the historic footprints.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/399094p-338074c.html

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. When I went there in 2002

in the summer, it was the very "holeness" that shook me. The emptiness. All gone. Nothing and no one. I had imagined I would feel somehow the pain, the fear, the people. It was just emptiness. I watched those things being built all during college. They opened up the year I graduated, the year I got married. You could see them from the mountaini behind my house. I always thought they were singularly ugly, but commanding. I have three cousins who worked there, all escaped safely.

[BITERIGHT]

9. I would love to go there and...

...pay my respects.:patriot: :grouphug:

[TheWatcher]

14. Always Proud Of America, Huh?

Are you Proud Of Your Country RIGHT NOW?

Please feel free to share with us WHY.

You'd be better off paying your respects to the 2300+ Solidiers that have NEEDLESSLY DIED in a War based on lies.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BITERIGHT]

26. I sure as hell AM.

I wouldn't live in a country I was not proud of RIGHT NOW. And you're the LAST person I have to justify my feelings to.:grr:

[alarcojon]

16. Welcome to DU

and ignore some of the haters. I for one admire your wishes to go and pay respects. I will do it myself someday when I have the opportunity.

Most of us can distinguish honoring those who died on 9/11 from our disdain for Bushco.

[BITERIGHT]

25. Thank you.

And you're exactly right. Those people sure as hell didn't ask for what happened to them--they tried to survive as best they could, and they tried to help each other. That's bravery in ANYONE'S book, or it should be. If I had died on 9/11, or one of my loved ones had, it would be SO lousy to read 'Watchers' post.:(

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gulfcoastliberal]

19. $$$$$ > Gravesite

Bottom line.

[Fredda Weinberg]

20. Life goes on

It saddens me every time I pass the Cortlandt Street subway station, where the Broadway line doesn't stop anymore. When I was at the site a couple of months ago, I was shocked to be able to cross against the light - there's so fewer cars.

When I worked on William Street and walked the extra block to the WTC station, I knew that I was approaching a symbol of colonial power - but we are, after all, the Empire State. Its destruction hasn't humbled us, or even taught us a proper lesson.

[lumpy]

33. Ridiculous, I know,

but a more sensitive memorial would be to fill that hole up and develope a green park for meditation and reflection only.

[cal04]

34. WTC memorial construction underway

Construction began Monday on the World Trade Center memorial even as dozens of relatives of Sept. 11 victims vowed to continue battling the project in court. Thirteen workers and several trucks piled down a ramp into the barren pit at 8 a.m. to begin a six-to-eight week job to clear the site of debris, check the twin tower's footprints for damage and install protective wooden coverings over parts of the original foundation.

"They are beginning all the real work that needs to be seen for the laying of the footings and pouring of the concrete," said Gretchen Dykstra, president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, as front end loaders removed gravel fill covering the north tower footprint. In coming weeks, engineers will survey the site and provide estimates for the construction of architect Michael Arad's "Reflecting Absence" design, chosen two years ago out of more than 5,200 entries.

The design - which several groups of victims' families say will destroy the historic footprint and dishonor the dead - marks the fallen towers with two stone reflecting pools at street level. The basins descend 70 feet below ground, and will be surrounded with the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing.

"No underground memorial!" some family members chanted on Church Street Monday as workers continued to rake and dig a block away. Anthony Gardner of the Coalition of 9/11 Families said that rebuilding officials "have now officially dishonored the memory of the 9/11 dead, and they have violated the public trust." Gardner's group filed a suit in Manhattan State Supreme Court last week to halt work on the memorial. The group will present its arguements at a hearing Tuesday.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-wtc0313,0,7984990.story?coll=ny-nyc-bigpix