The World Trade Center Site

elaine: 10th Jun 2005 - 18:07 GMT

but when they wrote the signs they must have known what was going to happen, if they are part of the surviving structure. how very time machine

elaine: 10th Jun 2005 - 18:09 GMT

but amazing it is still work in progress in such a dense city area this long afterwards, even though it was so big, no?

Peter: 10th Jun 2005 - 18:17 GMT

theres such a lengthy backstory that it would take me hours to type, but siffice to say that they are coming along VERY SLOWLY with any sort of construction there. hell, they havent even completely decided on a final design for a memorial or a new building(s) yet. our mayor is a farce. he is too concerned about pleasing everyone enough to get reelected that he has become effectively unopinionated on every proposal there, to avoid stepping on any toes.

oddly, he did voraciously champion the ill-fated idea to build a stadium in midtown manhattan (wtf!!) in order to "attract" the 2012 olympics. thanks to a shady secretive sweetheart deal with the landowners (who happen to be the MTA, the authority that runs nyc's subway system... hmm) public outcry grew so strong that the years-long plan was just shot down this week.

and for that matter, screw the olympics. we dont need that mess in nyc, either.

(end of rant!)

elaine: 10th Jun 2005 - 18:32 GMT

well, he certainly sounds like a bit of a toss pot. our own olympic bid seems to have hit a hysterical pitch. i have never heard of any dissent on the news. so much for balanced reporting. bah
here there are still bomb sites from WW2 and the evidence thereof (odd buildings in strange places, totally new areas in places which are quite central, but of course that took years to metabolise, and in any case is characteristic of london, but the coupla bombs we took a while ago from the IRA were more like a firm of glaziers planted them in terms of rebuilding. still, i would have thought it psychologically dark of them to hang on to the scar for so long. personally, having been to your fair city, i would have thought that a memorial park would have been a useful lung for the area, and a fitting way to commemorate the dead

Peter: 10th Jun 2005 - 18:44 GMT

i would have thought so too. things never tend to work out as the yshould in a place like nyc. heres to y'all getting hte olympics though! :D we definitely odnt need it here, heh!

elaine: 10th Jun 2005 - 19:01 GMT

lissen, i didn't wish it on you can't we concentrate the voodoo on paris?

Peter: 10th Jun 2005 - 19:11 GMT

hmm, i thought you guys wanted it too. well, paris it is then! sacre bleu!!

elaine: 10th Jun 2005 - 19:20 GMT

may i refer my learned friend to our previous discussion here re 'bugger off olympics, go paris' ?

Anonymous (user-12lcl9r.cable.mindspring.com): 10th Jun 2005 - 19:45 GMT

"See the great white scar
over Battery Park
then a flair glides over,
but I won't look at that scar..."

"All the corners of the buildings
Who but we remember these?
The sidewalks and trees..."

--David Bowie, "New Killer Star" (Reality)

jeeff: 10th Jun 2005 - 21:15 GMT

i was never so happy as when toronto lost the '08 olympics. our city is safe!

Peter: 13th Jun 2005 - 13:38 GMT

jeeff: as construction/clean-up at the site progresses (albeit verrrrry slowly), things get shuffled around a bit... barriers are moved temporarily, walls and netting that purposefully obfuscate the site from prying eyes are momentarily loosed for moving, etc... and as chance would have it, i pass through there twice a day, and was happy to have the chance to grab some photos.

i will continue to do so as things develop there... and maybe one day take a real camera as opposed to the lofi camphone, so stay tuned.

Peter: 16th Jun 2005 - 14:04 GMT

more from the WTC site, this morning, looking into it from the PATH platform:

Peter: 20th Jun 2005 - 14:54 GMT

yup, theyre taking their time. there are so many reasons/excuses/bureaucracy/hidden-agendas that i cant even begin to list them here, but im sure you can imagine.

heres another shot from this morning:

Anonymous (cpe-68-173-202-245.nyc.res.rr.com): 15th Jul 2005 - 00:30 GMT

theres still totally visible bomb damage on the facade of the JPMorgan Building on Wall St from the anarchist bombing in like, 1922.

Peter: 15th Jul 2005 - 13:58 GMT

elaine: web.honorscollege.cuny.edu/student-projects/2005/neighborhoods/10/terrorism.htm

jack: 3rd Aug 2005 - 15:21 GMT

i was 17 when i stepped out of the subway at rector street in june of 1960. i walked down to washington street and cedar street and started working in a printing shop which i would eventually leave in 1978. i watched them tear down the old new york, the old buildings that bohemian new yorkers dwelt in for a century prior. i watched edgar allen poe's apartment come tumbling down to make way for the future. there was a public school on washington and albany streets, a bar owned by an old boxer who fought max schmelling in the 30's and the apartments over the old 5 cent a glass beer bar, where i saw my first naked adult female come to the window and opened it for some city air and she spotted me across the street as i was looking out my factory window. she smiled and i dreamed. then they started digging this giant hole. buildings were torn down. and the trade center started to rise from the hole. rats were everywhere. they took all the old building and the earth and dumped it into the waters off west side highway where i used to go fishing. eventually a new city arose. i grew up there in old new york. thx for the photos.

corporal tanis: 19th Nov 2006 - 12:39 GMT

as usual to much talk no action new york should be ashamed