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CNN Saturday Morning News
Plans to Rebuild WTC Focus of Public Gathering in NYC
Aired July 20, 2002 - 07:06 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to -- back to New York City, where plans to rebuild at the World Trade Center site the focus of a public gathering today. The forum is called Listening to the City, and officials will get an earful, reactions to six rebuilding proposals revealed earlier this week, mixed, to say the least.
CNN's Brian Palmer joining us from New York with more on probably the most hotly disputed 16 acres on the planet. Right, Brian?
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Miles.
Well, first, good morning from the cavernous Jacob Javits Center, where the Listening to the City event is going to be starting in about two hours. It's a huge space. We just saw some -- I saw a pigeon walking by before with -- totally nonchalantly. This being New York, you could sort of expect that.
About 5,000 people from various backgrounds are going to be coming in to weigh in on those six different World Trade Center proposals. As you said, this is going to be an electronic town hall meeting. They're going to be able to talk about these proposals. And that really is the center of this day. The day starts at 9:00 and it ends at 4:00.
As you said, there was a mixed reaction to these six different design proposals that were presented earlier in the week. Now we're actually showing the pictures of the World Trade Center disaster. That 16-acre site was devastated. But the six design proposals incorporate commercial retail space as well as a memorial and green space.
I think there may have been some misunderstanding or lack of understanding in the public. The design firms that, that, that created these proposals were charged with coming up with designs, structures, that incorporated 11 million square feet of office space and about 600 (ph) square feet of retail space.
The World Trade Center site was a revenue-generating site when it was built, and the lease holders and the city and the state expect it to generate revenue when it's rebuilt. I think some victims of 9/11, some of the family members, were thinking that a memorial should play a larger part. That will also be on the agenda today. People will be discussing the general concept of World Trade Center redevelopment.
But again, at the core of this day will be those six sites.
Now, the first Listening to the City event was held about six months after the World Trade Center attack, was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it was held in February. There were about 600 participants in that event, again, people who were actually at ground zero but also just people who are citizens of New York, concerned citizens.
Their priorities were integrating a memorial into the downtown area, but also creating a transportation hub in the downtown area. That issue wasn't really addressed in these six design proposals that were presented earlier in the week. That may also come up today, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Brian, just a quick question on process and ownership. First of all, is the entire site owned by the Port Authority?
PALMER: The entire site is indeed own by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The lease holders are Larry Silverstein (ph) and a company called Westfield Associates. They deal with the retail space, and Silverstein has the commercial space.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, just hypothetically, could the lease holder do pretty much what he wanted on that site? Or because the Port Authority's involved, they have a lot of say-so and thus the constituents of the Port Authority, thus the people of New York would have a lot of say-so?
PALMER: Well, Miles, the issue, I think, boils down to money. The site has to generate money. Lease, there is a lease, and Silverstein and Westfield still have to pay the city every month still. Insurance is covering that at this point. But the site has to generate revenue.
So yes, this is a democratic event and people will get to weigh in, but fundamentally, the decisions will be made by the city, the state, presumably the lease holders will have a very important say in that, Miles.
O'BRIEN: So I guess the bottom line is the bottom line.
PALMER: Indeed.
O'BRIEN: Brian Palmer at Jacob Javits Center, we will be checking in with him all throughout the morning and the day right here on CNN as we hear from the people of New York.
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