Civic Talk: What If? Battles Over Development By Henry J. Stern

YORK, NY -- July 7, 2008 -- Our last article, on Wednesday, July 2, discussed the difficulties at the former World Trade Center, where, six years and seven months after 9/11, the only new structure is an office tower, 7 WTC, built by Larry Silverstein.  The rest of the ruin, under the jurisdiction of the public sector, has not yet reached ground level.  There will be endless remonstrances between all the parties involved as to who is to blame.  We listed the players last week; they are all still around. No one has yet confessed to anything; no one expects any expressions of contrition.

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The June 30 report to the governor by the new Port Authority executive director, Chris Ward, was an splendid idea.  He has rightly absolved himself, and Governor Paterson, who appointed him, from responsibility for anything that preceded their advent.  That is fair and reasonable, but the clock has now begun to run on the new team.  Tony Shorris may have been lucky to have been replaced before the problems grew worse.  As to Ward, he has command responsibility for the debacle at the huge water filtration plant being built in the southeastern corner of Van Cortlandt Park.

That is not to say that Ward did anything wrong with regard to the plant, or failed to do anything he should have done.  He was NYC Commissioner of Environmental Protection in the Bloomberg administration from 2002 to 2005 while the giant hole in the ground (to store and filter water) got under way.  The cost of the project has risen from one to three billion dollars (estimates, all) and the enormous excavation is the closest thing to the Grand Canyon on the eastern seaboard.

The project, which would filter water from Croton reservoirs but not the water sources in the Catskills, was imposed on the city by federal bureaucrats.  We won't know if we needed it until the water gets dirty, by which time it will be too late to build it.

Ward left the Bloomberg administration under somewhat unusual circumstances.  He quit in 2005 to take a private sector job as chief executive officer of a firm which operated two container facilities at the Port, one in Red Hook and one in Port Newark. On his departure, the mayor's statement called him an "outstanding steward of our precious water supply." American Stevedoring, Inc. had experienced problems with city government.  The Bloomberg administration wanted to get the company out of the Brooklyn waterfront so it could redevelop the area.  The company believed that a former Bloomberg commissioner would be a prize asset in dealing with the administration he left.  Ward lasted there about a year.  It has become the standard for Bloomberg commissioners to serve the mayor's full term, which gives the administration high marks for stability, which is a value although it is not a standard of necessary merit.

In 2006 Ward had the good fortune to become managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York. He was essentially a lobbyist for a powerful trade group, which had problems of its own. It has been my experience in government that people who skip through jobs often do better than the plodders who stay in one agency.  When the jumpers have a problem in one agency, they often end up with a better job elsewhere to decorate their resume. 

It was my lot generally to stay with whatever job I had until I was thrown out by a change of administration (twice) or a court decision on the City Council's (once).  This saved me from the burden of making career choices, in which I believed I would have had as much success as I would have if I decided to play the lottery.

The New York Post took off on the WTC story today, with two columns on page 23 and an editorial on page 22.

The editorial, SCRAP THE PLAN, claims that Ward’s plans are “unworkable, unmanageable, unaffordable,” largely due to increasingly exorbitant costs. They suggest that he stick to Silverstein’s basic five office towers. 

Nicole Gelinas's BIG DIG'S LESSONS FOR GROUND ZERO in today’s Post compares the World Trade Center memorial to Boston’s Big Dig, telling readers and council members how they can learn from another state’s mistake.

On the same page, Steve Cuozzo writes a reassuring column: the offices towers, albeit overdue and subject to design alterations, are in good shape, especially since the PA will likely give the Freedom Tower to a private developer. The shortcomings in Ward’s plan stem from non-commercial aspects of the plan, whose plans are nevertheless likely to change. 

Today’s New York Times featured an article on pages B1 and B2 by Diane Cardwell, who profiled Ward and his attitude in dealing with the financial problems of the Memorial. He said that what happened was an understandable response to the overwhelming disaster which had occurred.

The Trade Center was attacked in 1993 and destroyed in 2001. At today's rate of progress, nothing much will have been built by 2009. Rome wasn't built in a day, or a decade, but it was a fairly large city for its time. It didn't fall in a day either; see Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The World Trade Center did.

Direct comment to Henry J. Stern to StarQuest@NYCivic.org and peruse the New York Civic Website archive at www.NYCivic.org.

Comments

The attitude towards the world trade center disaster was flawed from the beginning. The resulting "design flaws" are a result not of the professionals involved but of a lack of leadership which did not allowed a full understanding of a real American tragedy. The first problem appeared with the effort to erase the disaster from public view. This happened within 3 days of the collapse of the towers.
It was a race to make everything right, as politicians too often do, with photos ops and all.
It was, in my opinion, a failed effort to rebuilt confidence in a false set of ideals. A Disney stage prop.

The forces in play were complex and remain many. Unfortunately they are all surrounded by the issues of politics, money and greed.

What the WTC project needed to make it right was time.
Not money. And certainly not politics. Greed speaks for itself.

If there is fault to be placed: someone please buy a mirror for our megalomaniac “leaders”.

Whatever it is worth, I stood on the rubble with the smell of death and cremation, for days. At that time I understand there was an opportunity for New York to redefine itself.
Apparently (and sadly) the politicians won.
and they think nothing of us, the people of this country.

Thank you for the article Mr. Stern.

The failure to have the Towers rebuilt already is a scandal. But it is typical of how government screws up everything it touches. Remember that when voting in November if you think Obama's "big government" ideas will work.

They will fail, just like all liberal "big government" progams fail. The facts and history are indisputable. Go back to LBJ and count the failures...starting with public education, the "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty." All failures -- then and continuing right up until today.

The EMPIRE STATE BUILDING was built in 13 months.

Not YEARS- MONTHS.

Pataky and Spitzer were two of the worst Governors in the history of this state.