Friday, September 16, 2005
About the Primary, 9/11 Anniversary, WTC and New Orleans
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Let me say this about the Democratic primary, which will be history by the time you read these lines. I have been truly impartial. I hung up on the irritating recorded telephone messages even before establishing the identities of the callers - some vaguely sounding like Senator Clinton and ex-Governor Cuomo -and their favored candidates, before letting the intrusive calls prejudice me against the politicos they touted. That's fair, isn't it? I have also carefully refrained from counting the television commercials of each candidate, to avoid feeling resentful about the wasting of the taxpayers' money in simplistic messages aimed to influence my vote. The mailing pieces were fine, much more substantial and descriptive of the programs than the TV sound bites, and the photography was more meaningful, particularly the Moskowitz family photographs. One also applauds the relative scarcity of posters decorating neighborhood lampposts, although this might be due to the candidates' realization of the short street -life of this form of campaign literature, neither cost-effective nor neighborhood -friendly. As to the results, may we all win.
The other significant scheduled event was the fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 outrage. I postponed my annual visit to the site; no major changes there, and I can pray for the deceased and for the survivors whose lungs were impaired by the fumes from other venues.
The lack of physical activity in bringing the former World Trade center back to life can be traced to a labyrinth of factors. First, the owners' interest in restoring the property and cash flow has been impacted by the insurance squabble, still unresolved, to determine whether the payout should be for one or two events (there are two insurers for the site, each with documentation at a different state of completeness, each producing a different interpretation of intent). Next, the contest between the governmental authorities, the victims' families and owners to determine the scope of honoring the dead of 9/11 with a memorial and one or more museums; and whether there will be a shopping center and what about the Freedom Tower, and how the office center will be laid out. The demolishing of the damaged Deutsche Bank skyscraper at 130 Liberty, site of the future fifth tower, has yet to begin.
Alas, the security aspect. Will a 1776 ft. tower be an invitation for terrorists? Will people be willing to work there, will companies rent, or will the property be dependent on government offices filling the space with civil servants who have no choice, and must work wherever, to protect their pensions. How high will be the insurance costs, and will commercial tenants be able to afford the coverage?
Finally, the design. The Libesknecht winner was a general, non-detailed concept, and needed to be filled in. For that, owner-chosen David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill took over. Lawsuits followed. Then NYPD chimed in with security concerns. A redesign turning the ground floors into a fortress came forth, ugly as sin and not a tourist attraction, but maybe somewhat secure. I still wonder whether the Donald Trump idea (I have no admiration for the showboat, but he is a quick problem-solver) might not suit the best - replicate the original towers, with modern security, not making any chutzpah waves but giving the world the understanding that we will not be beaten.
The future aspects of whether we can be beaten, by terrorists, Iraqi insurgents or nature, look a bit brighter. The New Orleans catastrophe, thanks be, has been less deadly than feared. This still means that the US must invest a huge amount of our national fortune in defending our coasts against nature. It may be doable budget-wise, unless the GOP tax cutters, intent on securing the PAC donations of get-rich-quick plutocrats by inheritance tax and top-bracket income tax cuts, manage to get their way of pushing the government into inactivity by plunging the country to bankruptcy.
A reader has twitted me about misquoting Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, top GOP tax manipulator, about cutting taxes, driving up deficit and choking government to death; His actual words were "I don't want to abolish government, I simply want to reduce it to size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Norquist, a former Philip Morris lobbyist, was a Bush fund raiser and outreach man to the Muslim community, founder of an Islam Institute that shared quarters with ATR (its website has not a word about condemning terrorism), and has been close to American Muslim Council and Council on American-Islam Relations, supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah "except when they attack civilians." Now he has steered the president into suspending the law paying union wages to federally funded rescue workers. This person gives the creeps even to some Conservative commentators.
Let me say this about the Democratic primary, which will be history by the time you read these lines. I have been truly impartial. I hung up on the irritating recorded telephone messages even before establishing the identities of the callers - some vaguely sounding like Senator Clinton and ex-Governor Cuomo -and their favored candidates, before letting the intrusive calls prejudice me against the politicos they touted. That's fair, isn't it? I have also carefully refrained from counting the television commercials of each candidate, to avoid feeling resentful about the wasting of the taxpayers' money in simplistic messages aimed to influence my vote. The mailing pieces were fine, much more substantial and descriptive of the programs than the TV sound bites, and the photography was more meaningful, particularly the Moskowitz family photographs. One also applauds the relative scarcity of posters decorating neighborhood lampposts, although this might be due to the candidates' realization of the short street -life of this form of campaign literature, neither cost-effective nor neighborhood -friendly. As to the results, may we all win.
The other significant scheduled event was the fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 outrage. I postponed my annual visit to the site; no major changes there, and I can pray for the deceased and for the survivors whose lungs were impaired by the fumes from other venues.
The lack of physical activity in bringing the former World Trade center back to life can be traced to a labyrinth of factors. First, the owners' interest in restoring the property and cash flow has been impacted by the insurance squabble, still unresolved, to determine whether the payout should be for one or two events (there are two insurers for the site, each with documentation at a different state of completeness, each producing a different interpretation of intent). Next, the contest between the governmental authorities, the victims' families and owners to determine the scope of honoring the dead of 9/11 with a memorial and one or more museums; and whether there will be a shopping center and what about the Freedom Tower, and how the office center will be laid out. The demolishing of the damaged Deutsche Bank skyscraper at 130 Liberty, site of the future fifth tower, has yet to begin.
Alas, the security aspect. Will a 1776 ft. tower be an invitation for terrorists? Will people be willing to work there, will companies rent, or will the property be dependent on government offices filling the space with civil servants who have no choice, and must work wherever, to protect their pensions. How high will be the insurance costs, and will commercial tenants be able to afford the coverage?
Finally, the design. The Libesknecht winner was a general, non-detailed concept, and needed to be filled in. For that, owner-chosen David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill took over. Lawsuits followed. Then NYPD chimed in with security concerns. A redesign turning the ground floors into a fortress came forth, ugly as sin and not a tourist attraction, but maybe somewhat secure. I still wonder whether the Donald Trump idea (I have no admiration for the showboat, but he is a quick problem-solver) might not suit the best - replicate the original towers, with modern security, not making any chutzpah waves but giving the world the understanding that we will not be beaten.
The future aspects of whether we can be beaten, by terrorists, Iraqi insurgents or nature, look a bit brighter. The New Orleans catastrophe, thanks be, has been less deadly than feared. This still means that the US must invest a huge amount of our national fortune in defending our coasts against nature. It may be doable budget-wise, unless the GOP tax cutters, intent on securing the PAC donations of get-rich-quick plutocrats by inheritance tax and top-bracket income tax cuts, manage to get their way of pushing the government into inactivity by plunging the country to bankruptcy.
A reader has twitted me about misquoting Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, top GOP tax manipulator, about cutting taxes, driving up deficit and choking government to death; His actual words were "I don't want to abolish government, I simply want to reduce it to size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Norquist, a former Philip Morris lobbyist, was a Bush fund raiser and outreach man to the Muslim community, founder of an Islam Institute that shared quarters with ATR (its website has not a word about condemning terrorism), and has been close to American Muslim Council and Council on American-Islam Relations, supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah "except when they attack civilians." Now he has steered the president into suspending the law paying union wages to federally funded rescue workers. This person gives the creeps even to some Conservative commentators.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 10:41 AM 
