New York Post
by STEVE CUOZZO
September 11, 2005 -- "FOUR years after 9/11, and here's what a stroller at Ground Zero finds — testament to Gov. Pata ki's appalling lack of leadership and Mayor Bloomberg's colossal indifference:
Business as usual in the 16-acre pit — which is to say, next to nothing going on, with the notable exception of the Port Authority's start tomorrow on the Santiago Calatrava-designed PATH station.
The grim hulks of 130 Liberty St. and Fiterman Hall looking as macabre and permanent as ever. Streets in deplorable condition with no end in sight.
No, the terrorists didn't beat us on 9/11. But local government has done its damnedest to throw them the game ever since. If not for New Yorkers who voted with their feet and made new homes Downtown, and for some big companies that had the guts to stick it out, Lower Manhattan would be as finished as al Qaeda surely hoped it was..."
It seems...just seems to me that there are two kind of folks screaming to high heaven about the Flight 93 Islamic-Crescent Monument Fiasco in Pennslvania. Architects or those claiming enough familiarity with the subject to proclaim that NO architectural firm could ever have created such a monstrosity without knowing full well what they were doing. For anyone even casually familiar with architects I say HUH? Have you been paying attention to the wacky designs put forth to fill the void left by the Twin Towers? My niece's 7th Grade Class did essay's about how silly the plans were, and half the kids even noticed that the original design had the Freedom Tower going up in direct line with a much-used truck route, making it an easy target for a tractor trailor filled to the brim with high explosives. The grown-ups finally discovered it too, and that's why the plans were delayed for a year.
And some are kvetching about the Crescent deal? Sure it's flat out stupid as 40 kinds of hell but good lord we beseech thee, they did it on purpose? Architects? The same profession every civic-minded New Yorker is ready to have legally banned from ever practicing again anywhere in the City?
New Yorkers know of and deal with architects. Please. The travesty that was once the World Trade Center is compounded each and every time one dingbat architectural firm or another makes a proposal.
But I said there seemed to be two kinds of folks, didn't I. The hive mind is the other. You don't get millions of hits and well-paying ads by being the wait-a-sec-let's-think-about-this type of blogger. Trust me, you don't. Half the time I cannot believe they don't know the real deal, and the other half of the time I want to call them honor-deprived barkers, for, yes, the yak woman.
I'm conservative. I've left little pieces of my body and large pieces of my soul in more mud holes and sand pits than I can remember. It was all for you. And if a fella can go that far to protect the things he loves, then typing a half-crazed essay on DEATH TO THE CRESCENT ARCHITECTS should be falling off a log. But I can't. I need to know more, and think about it more, because YES, it IS important.
But architects? Really?
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