Put It Above Ground

To All,

With temperatures to reach close to 100 degrees once again please take some time to check on any senior citizens on your block. The weather conditions may prevent them from shopping or just getting out.

Check to see if they need something from the store or pharmacy or just see how they are holding up.  

Thanks,

 

Dennis

Please take a moment and read the article below. This is just the beginning. Do you think we can expect the Port Authority to allow the NYC Building and Fire inspectors in once they start building?

If you do I’m sure they have a bridge for you to buy as well.

This is a perfect example as to why we need to have them give up their exemptions and build under the legal jurisdiction of the NYC Building and Fire Departments.

Safety and Security First

 

‘COP OUT’ RULE GETS 7/31

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=26654

The Last Full Measure

Steven Malanga

Gotham may not know how to honor the 9/11 dead, but the suburbs do.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_urbanities-911_monuments.html

Click link below to read important Skyscraper Safety Press Release

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=26773

As you have probably seen in the papers the LMDC is planning to disband before the end of the year.

Our only question is will anyone notice.

For the past five years the only things that they have “Developed” are convoluted and bureaucratic processes that have produced little or no results at Ground Zero.

Millions have been spent and 

We have no finalized plans for the Memorial.

We have no plans in place for the proper removal of remains from the Deutche Bank building and the surrounding area.

We are not sure if there is even money available for the Freedom Tower and the other buildings planned for the site.

We are now told that the future of the site will be controlled by yet another agency created by the LMDC the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.

We are told that this agency will be run by a representative of the Port Authority the same Authority that has refused to build under the legal jurisdiction of NYC building and fire codes and continues to ignore all of the security and safety concerns that have been raised over the past 5 years.

The 5th Anniversary approaches and there are wonderful memorials all over the world to honor those lost on that tragic day and all we have in Lower Manhattan is a hole in the ground.

Our advice to the LMDC would be to take a moment and stop patting themselves on the back for a job well done and pick up a dictionary. Look up the word development

Development

1. The act of developing.
2. The state of being developed.
3. A significant event, occurrence, or change.

5 years, millions spent, very little accomplished. It doesn’t sound like development to us.

Sept. 11 rebuilding agency to go out of business this fall

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=26417

For related articles go to

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=23

 

Memorial names & truth

To The Editor:

I agree with much of your conclusions in your editorial “Let 9/11 families take the lead on name listings� (July 14 – 20). I appreciate the concern expressed of the families regarding the listings; the memorial jury, many in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg have been oblivious to their repeated and reasonably expressed arguments.
However, I do not agree entirely with your reasoning why the names should be listed in a manner authentic to the facts of the day. I mean, that’s the point. To list them by company, tower, floor, or by flight and to identify them as a firefighter or police or court officer and provide their rank and company is the truth. To list family members who died together, together, is the truth. To do otherwise is to impose a meaning of our choice upon the site.  
The first stakeholder at ground zero is not the 9/11 families nor the Downtown residents nor businesses or anybody else. The first stakeholder is the truth. You say the memorial “shouldn’t tell the entire story of 9/11� — well, nor should it ignore it for the sake of, as the memorial jurors have said, “what we need and deserve.�
As I write this, an email was sent to me of an Associated Press story detailing a very credible plot to attack the slurry wall and flood Downtown New York. Preserving bedrock and boxbeams was never a good idea and fell into the category of “what we need and deserve� at the expense of faithfully conveying 9/11.
The solution is simple: Restore a representative piece of the façade and the Sphere, list the names without our editing (and as the public already embraced through the flyers); honor the rescue workers as they deserve (as the public has also already embraced) and build a humble and attractive 9/11 museum, plaza level, housing the flyers, crushed fire trucks and telling “the story� of 9/11, with an atrium overlooking the site. That’s easily secured and accessible to all the shops, etc of Downtown which would be a great boon to their business. Add trees, benches, other artwork, whatever. There’s your memorial.
 
Michael Burke
Brother of F.D.N.Y. Capt. William F. Burke, Jr., Eng. 21, killed Sept. 11, 2001.

Build it safe and they will come: WTC developer

 

http://www.gg2.net/viewnews.asp?nid=3184&tid=countryNews&catid=UK%20News

$5.4 Million for 9 months salaries for chief executives of a firm that received a contract before it was incorporated and has subsequently gone out of business.

$8,100 for elevator operators at the Marriott Marquis Hotel

$125,000 rental fee for six magnetometers that could have been purchased for about $5,000 apiece

$4.4 Million for no show fees for exams not taken by potential candidates

$28,000 for coffee at the Sheraton Hotel in Reston

These are just a few items listed in an audit. But here’s the kicker these are from an audit released last year.

The recent headlines just go prove that nothing is ever done when these audits are released and we can expect the same with the current audit that has shown payments for

       More than 2,000 sets of dog booties, costing $68,442, that have sat unused in storage since emergency responders decided they were not suited for canines assisting in Gulf Coast recovery efforts.
    • Three portable shower units for $71,170 from a contractor who investigators said overcharged the government.
    • 12 Apple IPod Nanos and 42 IPod Shuffles, priced at $7,000, for Secret Service “training and data storage.” Because the Shuffles cost less than $300, the Secret Service said it was not required to track them to ensure they were used properly.
    • 37 black Helly Hansen designer rain jackets, costing nearly $2,500, for use in a firing range that the Customs and Border Protection purchaser later acknowledged shuts down when it’s raining.
    • A beer-brewing kit and ingredients for more than $1,000 for a Coast Guard official to brew alcohol while on duty as a social organizer for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

     Now add that on top of the hundreds of millions that have been given out in improper loans after 9/11 and you just have the tip of the iceberg.

     The bottom line is that this unfortunately business as usual. These abuses continue to occur. We spend millions more on audits and Congressional hearings and Senate subcommittees and the bottom line is nothing gets done.

     That is the reason things like this continue to happen. This will be a headline for a few days and then will be forgotten as was the audit from last year. 

     One can only imagine what the audit will look like for the rebuilding of Ground Zero. Unfortunately we will never see such an audit until years from now. By that time it will be impossible to recoup any of the money lost.

     We can only be assured of one thing that it will make headlines for a few days and then be forgotten

     This will continue as long as the attitude that “it is easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission” prevails.

     Especially when the forgiveness does not include any penalties or restitution.

 

For more see our posting from 7/1/05 at

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16782

 

For related articles go to
 
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=23

 

For this and other WTC related articles click link below

 

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=23