I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

REBUILDING THE REAL WORLD TRADE CENTER

Hmm... been fairly quiet on the rebuilding news front lately, but this New York Times article (free registration required) is quite heartening.

"For the Restoration Movement, any decision to do anything other than rebuild the towers is the wrong thing to do. And the decision to adopt Daniel Libeskind's plan for a faceted glass tower is the wrongest thing of all.

Their setbacks have only fueled their resolve and hardened their rhetoric. They now refer to Mr. Libeskind's plan as "a death pit," and they declare, in press releases, that if the towers aren't rebuilt the terrorists will have won. None of this has endeared them to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, of course. But it has also enraged representatives of the victims' families. "Some people really think that the towers killed their loved ones," Mr. Wright said. "So for supporting the rebuilding of the towers, I was called a murderer."

Sensing that their ideas were being dismissed, the members began holding meetings at one another's apartments and in coffee shops. They drew up a 1,500-person e-mail list and sent out frequent updates. And they took to the streets, collecting signatures and handing out stickers that read, "YES I'd work on the 110th floor!""

You know, I actually doubt the self-appointed "representatives" of the victims' families represent the feelings of all the victims' families (in fact I know I've read some quotes from victims' relatives in favour of rebuilding the real Twin Towers), but, in any event, frankly, the views of those of us that want to see the lower Manhattan skyline restored and not replaced should trump the views of a few pussies that either don't want to build as tall as before or just leave the pit empty for good (the Daniel Libeskind "Terrorists Win Death Pit").

"On July 26, they held a rally at City Hall Park that was preserved on videotape by one of the members. It was an exercise in civil obedience. Competing with the roar of passing buses and the general torpor of a hot summer day, a succession of supporters made heartfelt speeches. The proceedings hit their sharpest edge when Jonathan Hakala, who worked on the 77th floor of 1 World Trade Center, dismissed Mr. Libeskind's tower as "anorexic spires that resemble large drinking straws.""

"Drinking straws", eh? The analogy I like to use about how the Libeskind plan for the "world's tallest buidling" is really just an 80 storey building with a stupid, useless, ornamental spire rather than 2 buildings with 110 storeys of functional floor space is: I can stretch the foreskin of my penis out quite a ways, but it doesn't mean I can claim my 6� inch penis is a foot long.

"Mr. Epstein shook his head. "I don't think there's any doubt that people are afraid of being associated with us," he said. "At the moment, we are the losing team."

Asked if they believed they would eventually prevail, all four members offered an obligatory yes. Then Ms. Mello recanted. "No," she said. "They will build what they want to build, and they will not care what we say."

Her colleagues around the table nodded stoically. Then Mr. Epstein piped up. "She's right, we won't win," he said. "Not right away. They will build something like they say they're going to build, because there's too much riding on it for them to back out. The victims groups are still too powerful, too determined to let their personal grief speak for all of us. But it will be a huge failure and everyone will know it, and they will tear it down and rebuild the towers at least as tall as the old ones.""

Well, I don't know about tearing the new buildings down, but, as I've said before, the advantage of Libeskind's Death Pit is that it leaves vacant space to build what ought to be rebuilt when the politicians and business people stop being such politically correct pussies and do what scores of people inside and outside New York want them to do...

By the way, the World Trade Center Restoration Movement seems to have a web site, but it doesn't seem to be working at the time of this writing. I'll add it to my list of links in the sidebar should it start working again.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 11:49 PM