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American Morning

Interview with Robert Yaro

Aired July 22, 2002 - 07:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Time to go back to the drawing board. That is the message from thousands of New Yorkers on six proposed designs for the future of ground zero. That negative feedback came at a public forum on Saturday that organizers dubbed, "Listening to the City," and they got an earful, too. The main criticism: the amount of commercial space allocated in each design.

Here to talk about it, Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, which helped arrange that meeting this past weekend -- good morning to you.

ROBERT YARO, PRESIDENT, REGIONAL PLAN ASSOCIATION: Good morning.

HEMMER: At the outset, your group is concerned with throughout the entire New York area...

YARO: We...

HEMMER: ... New Jersey and Connecticut and regional planning, correct?

YARO: That's right, exactly.

HEMMER: Tell me this: 4,000 people show up, upwards of 5,000 some estimates. Did that surprise you?

YARO: Well, we know that's the feeling about this. This was an attack on -- you know, on every New Yorker. I think every New Yorker, everybody in this region took this seriously. Everyone is taking the rebuilding seriously. You know, rebuilding downtown is something that has been front page news now for months.

HEMMER: Robert, when I heard the numbers that turned out on Saturday, it told me ,once again, that this project is not going to be easy. The No. 1 criticism, one of the requirements for the planning, account for the 11 million square feet of space that the old Trade Center site had in its ownership and its property in the southern end of Manhattan. As you look at this, how much of that is going to have to be scrapped based on the feedback you got?

YARO: Well, I think it's probably too early to say exactly how much is going to have to be taken out of the program. I think what people were saying was that they want to see a range of alternatives, including alternatives that build less commercial space, less retail space, include more cultural activities, more housing activities, those kinds of things.

People want to create a great new space in the city, a great new place in the city, and we think that that will create as much value as just square footage of commercial space.

HEMMER: Don't let me harp on all of the negative. There was some good that came out this, despite the fact that some said it's too dense and too dull and lacked imagination. Apparently plan No 6, I think we have got it queued up here, we can roll it for our viewers. What they liked a lot was the memorial promenade. What does that also tell you about what the public wants?

YARO: Well, one of the -- I think it was very interesting, one of the, I think, big ideas that's emerged from all of this is the idea of taking this 10-lane highway that's called West Street (ph), it's the Westside Highway, and undergrounding it, putting in a park and a promenade that would connect the memorial of the Trade Center site to Battery Park City and all of the national shrines in and around New York Harbor, Lady Liberty and Ellis Island and Governor's Island, where the new national memorial is. And link all of them in a great new public space that could, in fact, be a memorial to the people who died here.

HEMMER: Shortly after 9/11, we were told by several people in this city that one of the main items that one has to consider in terms of rebuilding is tenant demand.

YARO: Right.

HEMMER: Do you have a gauge right now on how interested businesses are in relocating in lower Manhattan?

YARO: Well, we know we have a challenge that we've got, it's probably a 15-percent vacancy rate. There are several million square feet of empty office space downtown right now. We also know that historically, the absorption rate, the rate at which space fills up downtown, is about a half million square feet a year. We've got a down economy. If the economy comes back, we can expect, we think, to see that demand return. But that means that building 11 million square feet of commercial space could depress market values and rents for decades, which is what the Trade Center did.

HEMMER: But even more than that, you're going to ask businesses to occupy land in lower Manhattan that some consider built on the site of a tomb. How is that being received?

YARO: Well, I think what we are seeing is a growing consensus that the footprints of the two towers, where most of the people died, that those places can't be built upon, that there is going to have to be -- those will be memorial spaces of some kind. I think the challenge is going to be, it is a crater, you know, it's an 80-foot deep hole, and it has to be filled. I think the challenge is going to be to create a great new place downtown that people do feel good about, and people do want to be in.

Obviously we are still in shock. We are still in mourning, and we're going to have to get over that. But this area has traditionally been the most dynamic economic engine in the world, and I think that people do want to see that happen. And there was a real consensus that people want to see the area come back, they want to see it a productive and valuable area of the city.

HEMMER: Go to Oklahoma City. I think this is the one comparison as Americans we can draw. It took six years from the devastating attack in April of 1995 until they actually opened up the memorial in Oklahoma City. And early on, they had decided they were not going to rebuild that building. We are not even at that stage here in New York just yet. Knowing the challenge of six years in Oklahoma City, is it unrealistic to say that this might be a 10-year project at a minimum?

YARO: Well, I think rebuilding the site is going to be a 10-year project at a minimum. I don't think the planning needs to take that long, but we do need to design the memorial. We need to have that be integrated into the larger design of the whole area. And that's something that came through loud and clear the other day.

And by the way, I don't think that this was, by any means, a food fight that happened the other day. There is a very substantial public consensus that we want to see a broader range of alternatives, we probably want to see the commercial buildings scaled back. Most people said they want to see a soaring memorial of some kind. They want to see a tower of some kind that commemorates what happened, and it recreates the skyline. People want to see the transit improvements that have been proposed, and they are already under construction.

So there is a tremendous amount of consensus here. We are going to have to renegotiate the leases with the people who had leased the Trade Center site just months before the attack.

HEMMER: Right.

YARO: And I think things can move forward reasonably quickly...

HEMMER: You've got your...

YARO: ... although it will take a period of years to do that.

HEMMER: You've got your work out. We're out of time. But good luck, OK? We'll talk again.

YARO: Great, thanks very much.

HEMMER: Robert Yaro.

YARO: Appreciate it -- thank you.

HEMMER: Good luck, all right. Thanks.

YARO: Thanks.

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