If you live or work within a 1 mile radius, you might not have a difficult time procuring a $5 dollar footlong.
Now for those who work at the World Trade Center, they won’t either as workers have called a new Subway trailer their lunch home a top the construction site.
It’s a far cry from a PB&J and thermos, but it’s a close meatball hero. Who doesn’t like the smell of fresh baked bread at the office?
A few years from now, New York University students may be calling the World Trade Center’s Tower 5 their “dorm.”
That’s right, according to the New York Post, NYU officials are eying the yet-to-be-built tower as part of an ambitious 20-year plan to expand by a whopping 40 percent, adding 6 million square feet of housing, classrooms and administrative space in the process. Around half of that behemoth square footage will likely be added in the school’s current Greenwich Village neighborhood, but space constraints in the area have forced NYU to look elsewhere for the rest of the expansion. That’s where the WTC and Lower Manhattan figure in to the plan.
The British are coming! The British are coming! But this time it’s a very good thing. Both Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth will visit New York City over the course of the next month, but for decidedly different reasons.
Twenty-five-year-old Harry is set to once again face off against Argentine polo stud — and Ralph Lauren model — Nacho Figueras in the third Annual Veuve Cliquot Polo Classic. The event, slated for June 27 on New York Harbor’s Governors Island, will benefit American Friends of Sentebale, the U.S. arm of a global charity founded by Harry to aid the impoverished children of Lesotho in southern Africa. Celebs such as Madonna and Kate Hudson attended last year’s match, so be sure to bring binoculars and your star-stalking A-game.
Sadly, Queen Elizabeth won’t be playing any polo during her stint in the States. Instead, on July 6, Britain’s 84-year-old monarch will make her first trip to America since 1976 (when she was here for the Bicentennial) to tour Ground Zero and pay her respects to the 3,000 innocent people who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks.
According to the New York Daily News, the Queen will officially open the British Garden of Remembrance in Hanover Square, not far from the World Trade Center site, to honor the 67 British citizens killed that September day.
As of today, Ground Zero has its first hotel.
The World Center Hotel, which had already begun construction when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit, is finally, officially open for business on Washington Street on the southern tip of the World Trade Center rectangle.
So what is the hotel like? For starters, it boasts unimpeded views of the Ground Zero construction, including the Freedom Tower and the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, as well as breathtaking views of the Hudson River, the Manhattan skyline and the surprisingly beautiful New Jersey skyline (yes, you read that correctly). And for the weary traveler looking to drink in these views and a few tasty beverages, the World Center Hotel also has its own bar, the View of the World Terrace Pub, located on the top floor.
Unless you’ve been completely cut off from the outside world for the past couple of months, you’ve probably heard that there are plans to construct a mosque just steps from Ground Zero. Also probably on your radar: A lot of people aren’t too happy about it.
Proof of this was on display Sunday, when more than 1,000 protesters gathered on the corner of Church and Liberty Streets to rail against plans to construct a mosque and Islamic cultural/community center on Park Place, a mere two blocks from the World Trade Center site.
According to the Tribeca Tribune, during the three-hour demonstration, organized by Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), protesters endured 90-degree temps to listen to speakers — from family members of 9/11 victims to a former Muslim woman — denounce not only the construction plans… but often Islam itself.
The signs the protesters, most of them middle-aged or older, waved also bashed the religion. One read, “All I need to know about Islam, I learned on 9/11.” Another said, “You can build a mosque at Ground Zero when we can build a synagogue in Mecca.”
But the Cordoba Initiative, the Muslim group dedicated to fostering better relationships between New York City’s Muslim and non-Muslim communities, feels that this is exactly why a mosque and educational/cultural center would be so beneficial at 45 Park Place, a location it owns and plans to name Cordoba House when building is complete. The Cordoba Initiative opposes the radical Islam responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and wants the opportunity to teach people the difference between those extremist violent sects and the vast, peaceful majority of Muslims.
The protesters who gathered on Sunday, however, remain unswayed. Their feeling is that there are plenty of mosques in New York already, and they believe it is inappropriate to build another one so close to the site of 9/11 devastation.
One protester, Joyce Boland, whose son died in the Sept. 11 attacks, told the Tribune: “I don’t think that a mosque should go up to loom over his grave, when they were responsible for what happened.”
While no violence erupted during the protest, there was definitely some pretty palpable hostility. An Arab-American TV crew, who were later revealed to be there to protest the mosque, had to be removed from the crowd by a police escort when protesters became agitated by their presence.
What is your feeling on the situation? Are those opposed to the mosque being to narrow-minded? Would a mosque near Ground Zero be a positive step in defusing prejudices toward Islam that were ingrained on the hearts and minds of many Americans on Sept. 11, 2001? Or is it just too soon and too close for comfort?
Things are heating up in the bid to buy into the as-yet-unfinished One World Trade Center, aka Freedom Tower, a 1,776-foot tower (by the way, didn’t something important in our nation’s history happen in 1776?) that will add 2.6 million square feet of office space to Ground Zero. When the current builder, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, opened up a bidding competition in January, six of the United States’ biggest developers threw their hats in the ring. But according to The Wall Street Journal, the recent dropout of Boston Properties Inc. means that only two finalists remain.
On one side of this epic face-off is the family-run Durst Organization, which has specialized in Midtown apartment and office buildings for the better part of a century and most recently completed the Bank of America Tower in Bryant Park. On the other side is Related Cos., a gargantuan international developer responsible for building such mammoth edifices as Columbus Circle’s Time Warner Center.
The fragments are smaller than a fingernail, but endless amounts of hope for the families of victims of September 11th still waiting to find identifying remains from their loved ones, nearly 9 years later.
48 instances of human bone have been found during reconstruction. The bone fragments were retrieved from otherwise inaccessible areas of the World Trade Center site.
Scientists at the Freshkills landfill have already started work to cross reference the remains with their DNA database.
As we all recognize, first responders of the September 11th attacks had sacrificed their lives, their healths and as some doctors have found — their sense of smell.
The sense of smell is important for a human’s first line of defense against chemical poisons or spoiled foods. Nearly 22 emergency responders, construction workers and other crewmen reported a loss of smell for more than two years after their exposure to the World Trade Center site. An astounding 74% were unable to recognize irritants through smell as reported by doctors at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.
If you’re thinking that this study might have been released a bit tardily, you are not incorrect. According to an article published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “The findings could not be published until now, in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, because it took until last year for the Mount Sinai people to extract personal histories for the over 100 subjects.” The studies indicate that there exists subsequent damage amongst the subjects olfactory nerves that may not be regained without nasal steroids and other treatments.
Like most longtime Battery Park City residents, there is a hole in our hearts where two towers used to be. It’s almost 9 years since the terrorist attacks occurred at the World Trade Center — we can’t help but be reminded that something terrible here happened when we pass the busloads of tourists and people hawking “Tragedy” books outside our door.
It has been previously announced of an initiative to build an Islamic mosque at 45 Park Avenue — the former site of the Burlington Coat Factory and merely 600 feet from the World Trade Center site.
The Mosque called the Cordoba House would be a 15 story Islmanic center which would include a mosque, performing arts center, meeting rooms and a recreational facility. According to its proponents, Daisy Kahn and her husbnd Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf members of the American Society of Muslim Advancement seek to “reverse the trend of extremism and the kind of ideology that extremists are spreading.”
A formal vote is scheduled to be heard tomorrow (May 25) before the Lower Manhattan Community Board. However, reaction to the plans for the Mosque have been mostly negative. Prompting action from September 11 Victim family members as well as creating websites and Facebook pages in protest of the mosque.
As of today, the Facebook page described as 1,000,000+ people who disapprove of building a mosque at Ground Zero! has over 72K members showing a strong solidarity against the initiative. There is also a dedicated website Nomosqueatwtc.com which is dedicated to highlighting their protest — as well as selling bumper stickers. The latter efforts are a bit suspicious … nevertheless a strong showing of anti-mosque sentiments.
How do you feel about it ? Do we have room in our hearts and in our home for Muslims in NYC to worship?