Community Has Its Say on World Trade Site's Future

By Leonard Post

Thoughtful, passionately held, calmly stated and radically diverse were the views expressed by local residents on Jan. 29 concerning one of the biggest questions ever to face New Yorkers: How should Lower Manhattan be rebuilt?

People from the neighborhood packed the Stuyvesant High School auditorium at the town hall meeting, hosted by Community Board 1 and Borough President C. Virginia Fields, for a chance to state their opinions on a subject that has been consuming hundreds of architects, planners, academics and politicians almost from the day of the disaster.

Now it was the professionals’ turn to listen, as a panel of 16 leaders of coalitions and organizations involved with the planning heard from ordinary people. And what did they envision? There were the oft-heard calls for routing the West Side Highway below ground level to better connect Battery Park City with the rest of Lower Manhattan. Many wanted to see a park, open space, and restoration of the street grid that the Trade Center had blocked. Some wished to see all 16 acres devoted to a memorial; others four acres, others less. Some wanted what was there before, rebuilt better and even bigger. Many favored mixed uses—low-rise to mid-size office complexes, a small memorial, shops, cultural institutions, pedestrian malls. Some added schools and a hospital to the mix—"all those things that make a neighborhood," as one woman said.

Deborah Weiss, formerly of Gateway Plaza, said that anything but a memorial would be disrespectful. "If you do the right thing, business will follow," she said.


John Thomas of Battery Park City said, "Build it taller than the World Trade Center; otherwise there will be no closure."

"The world is watching," said Monica Iken, widow of a Trade Center victim. "How are we going to honor those like my husband who died? How can we build on top of their souls that are crying? We have to send a strong message that this is not about money."

Jack Lynch, the father of a missing firefighter, asked that people stop speaking of a cleanup. "It is a recovery site. First things first."

Restaurateur Albert Capsouto suggested that debris be spread throughout the city: "Decentralizing it will make it more personal and so we know we are all interconnected."

Laurence Lacoste Brodsky, who is from France, said the name of the site should express caring and peace. She recalled the Place de la Concorde in Paris, formerly known as the Place de la Révolution. "It changes how you see and feel about a place," she said.

"Chinatown has really suffered," said Thomas Tam, executive director of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of the City University of New York. "I really need to see something back there now, a beacon, not just for New Jersey, but for the entire world. We need business to be brought back. Big, small, it doesn’t matter, even an Eiffel Tower, anything that will bring people back."

Peter Shakur, who moved to Chambers Street last July, wanted a memorial listing the names of all who died. Others wanted to include the names of the rescuers and survivors. Kathleen Britton of Battery Park City wanted to add to the list the names of those killed in the 1993 Trade Center bombing.

One speaker wanted a memorial dedicated to peace, another to education and spirituality. Ann Teemeyer, a Lutheran minister, suggested "a memorial for those who are still alive."

Bill Valerio, who lives on Franklin Street, called for "more green space. Any memorial should have large areas of open land where we can reflect."

But Ronnie Rosenberg, who lives on Franklin Street at Broadway and has a son in P.S. 234, wanted "shopping and office buildings to restore normality and make things more enjoyable for my kids." She and others wanted to know when Borders bookstore would be rebuilt. "Without commercial space, small businesses will die. I am in favor of a memorial—who would not be? But we don’t have to go crazy and have an eight-acre memorial."

Bernard D’Orazio of Greenwich Street wanted to "bury the highway. Restore the grid. Integrate Battery Park City into the neighborhood. Integrate PATH and the subway system. Why not take a ride on the subway to Hoboken? We have a blank slate, why not make it better?"

"The great plazas of the world are full of life," said Ron Ryan, who moved to Battery Park City in 1982. He wants to see a plaza at the site and a transportation hub rivaling Grand Central Station.

CB1 plans to continue listening, with smaller forums, focus groups, surveys and ultimately a proposal to the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp., the city–state agency planning the site’s future.

"I was proud of the community. They handled themselves well," said the forum’s moderator, CB1 Chair Madelyn Wils, who has presided over several emotional community meetings in the wake of Sept. 11. "I’m just pleased so many people were there to listen and to understand the importance of the community’s input. Hopefully they’ll continue to see it throughout the process."