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New York City rebuilding coalitions have more in common than they thought.
By Susan S. Szenasy
Editor In Chief
May 2002
Contrary to reports in one local tabloid, the New York City rebuilding coalitions
that formed in the wake of the September 11 attacks are not at each other's
throats. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, those who bother
to attend just one of the many meetings held around town these days would
come away with a sense that New Yorkers have changed. We seem to be less
hyper and contentious, more somber and conciliatory in our many interactions,
even on the subway and the street. Could New Yorkers be transforming from
competitors to cooperators?
Evidence for such a behavioral shift could be found on February 26, when
R.Dot, the Rebuild Downtown Our Town citizens' coalition (of which I'm a
founding member) held its first press conference at Pace University.
It was a day we'd been working toward for the past five months. We had finally
put together enough material to make public our recommendations for rebuilding
Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site. (For the full report, log
on to www.metropolismag.com.) Though we considered our proposal a work in
progress, we felt that the document would be helpful to those burdened with
the difficult decisions of rebuilding our city.
What does R.Dot stand for? Livability and sustainability. That's the common
ground all coalitions stand on. There may be slight differences in emphasis,
but our shared vision of New York today is a city of mixed-use, 24-hour
communities where people live, work, and play; where street life is valued
over car culture; where mass transit serves neighborhoods as well as the
region; where new areas of business development are identified. (For
R.Dot that means education, healthcare, retail, and the arts.) R.Dot wants
the immediate needs of our beleaguered downtown neighbors addressed; we
want to remember the dead (with a graveyard and a memorial) as well
as the living.
At the podium that morning Beverly Willis, architect and co-founder of R.Dot,
gave a detailed press conference on our interim white paper to local radio,
TV stations, and newspapers. Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan
Association and the Civic Alliance, came to support R.Dot's efforts. He
reminded us that "New York is the international capital of sharp elbows,"
but that it looked like those sharp elbows have been put away. Eva Hanhardt,
planning director of the Municipal Art Society and an R.Dot member, talked
about her organization's grass roots program, Imagine New York. And Rick
Bell, executive director of New York New Visions, recognized the "unprecedented
energy spent in the city to come together, to speak to the best of who we
are." He noted the similarities between his group's proposals to ours,
and expressed hope that all these efforts would help "elevate the discourse"
among those who will do the building. Betsy Gotbaum, public advocate for
New York City, promised to "help cut through red tape" and to
put our recommendations in front of the powers that be. A few days later
we were invited to present R.Dot's ideas to the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment
Corporation, the specially created state agency charged with rebuilding
the World Trade Center area.
Now we're planning the next steps. R.Dot will put out position papers aimed
directly at specific rebuilding issues. We will continue to collaborate
with specialists as well as other coalitions. No sharp elbows. Just good,
useful work.
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