The Freedom Tower

The foundation building the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has turned down a $30,000 donation from a company minting a 9/11 coin.
The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation turned down a $30,000 donation from the National Collector’s Mint, according to the New York Post.
“We weren’t comfortable (with the donations) because of the history,” a foundation spokesman said.
The Collector’s Mint ran ads offering coins made from silver allegedly found at Ground Zero. Former New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer fined the company for claiming to have minted coins made of pure silver. The company has offered two different coins in recent months, one of depicting The Freedom Tower and another called the 2001-2006 Commemorative Coin.

The Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey says it will now cost $3 billion to construct the Freedom Tower.
The figure comes from an exclusive story in today’s New York Post. The newspaper says the new figure is the latest PA estimate. This figure is up from a little over $2 billion estimated just last spring. The new figure is contained in the PA’s capital budget which includes an additional $500 million for nonconstruction costs that include security, the sale of bonds to finance the project, marketing office space and other expenses, The Post said.
“Adding all the costs, the price tag for the Freedom Tower budgeted by the bistate agency is $3 billion - making it not just the tallest building in the city, but also the most expensive,” the newspaper said.

Policy holders of a British insurance company are objecting to the sale of its U.S. subsidiaries.
One of those policyholders is the World Trace Center and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer have asked the Delaware Insurance company to reconsider spinning off is subsidiaries, opposing the sale because it could jeopardize the reconstruction of the World Trade Center. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey say the insurance company owes at least $250 million. The Delaware Insurance company is owned by Royal & Sun Alliance.
Janno Lieber, World Trade Center project director for the Silverstein organization, which owns the World Trade Center, also responded in a written statement: “Royal & SunAlliance’s blatant attempt to ditch its U.S. division is an outrage that would result in its U.S. policyholders getting stiffed on their legitimate claims. The Delaware hearing officer’s conclusion, in addition to being flat wrong, is only a recommendation. The ultimate decision lies with Delaware Commissioner of Insurance Denn.”

New York city officials apparently were divided over whether the air at and around Ground Zero was safe.
ABC News reports obtaining new documents that indicate city officials at the New York City Health Department and the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection were at odds over the quality of the air at Ground Zero. In a memo, ABC says New York City Health Department Associate Commissioner Kelly McKinney acknowledged the dispute between New York and federal officials. In the weeks after 9/11 some city and federal officials assured the public the air from the fires burning at ground zero were not health hazards.
McKinney said the Office of Emergency Management disagreed with the US Department of Environmental Protection.
“The mayor’s office is under pressure from building owners and business owners in the red zone to open more of the city to occupancy,” McKinney wrote. “According to the OEM, some city blocks north and south of Ground Zero are suitable for reoccupancy. DEP believes the air quality is not yet suitable for reoccupancy. I was told the mayor’s office was directing OEM to open the target areas next week,” ABC reported.

A New York police officer who participated in September 11, 2001 rescue efforts died just hours before legislators honored him in Washington by inviting his son to attend the State of the Union address. Cesar Borja, 52, died of lung disease about three hours before President Bush gave his speech. His son and family say Borja contracted the lung disease after breathing the contaminated air at Ground Zero.

The families of 9/11 victims again have cause to complain about the recovery effort at Ground Zero. Construction workers uncovered large steel columns from the fallen twin towers on a service road at the site. They were buried at the site when the twin towers collapsed more than five years ago.
The discovery this week raises more questions about what was left at ground zero in the cleanup after the 2001 attacks.
The steel was found during a dig for human remains that has yielded nearly 300 bones in the past three months. It includes two heavy beams that were stacked horizontally in the landfill. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has confirmed the new find.
The columns were about 18 feet long and may weigh as much as 60 tons each. They were found just 2 to 3 feet below the surface of the road, were deliberately set there at some point during the cleanup. The digging was halted in the immediate area surrounding the steel columns until the Port Authority removes the steel. The columns will be put into storage at a hangar at Kennedy International Airport.
Authorities are talking about the find openly but a source did confirm the find to the Associated Press. The AP said that three connected steel columns that once formed the facade of the trade center were also found below the road. Another column was found on the other end of the trade center site, where the Port Authority is building a retaining wall for three planned office towers. Unlike the stacked columns, this steel appeared to be burned at one end.

The slogan for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation is “Think Back. Move Forward.” Its their slogan this year. In a sense, the Freedom Tower is the move forward; the Memorial itself, Reflecting Absence, will feature the representative gaping footprints of the two towers. The goal of the foundation is to get “Americans to think back to September 11, 2001 and remember where they were? “Where were you when it happened?” they ask.
The foundation hopes the campaign will help them drum up $167 million to complete the WTC Memorial and Museum.
At “A writer and his web-blahg,” remember:
“On September 11, 2001, Nelson Lopez was at work in the massive Brooks Brothers emporium right across the street from the World Trade Center. He’s been cleaning the shop’s doors and shelves since 1997, and even as I talk to him, he can’t prevent himself from spraying and wiping clean little metal fixtures around the store.

“I was in the restroom, I remember, when I heard the sound,” he says. “A co-worker burst in and asked if I’d heard it. I said yes, and that I thought it was the computers or something.” When Lopez reached the glass doors, he saw only clouds of white paper, falling like confetti from the skies. “The plane had struck the other face of the building, which I couldn’t see. So when I saw only black smoke coming out, I thought it was simply a fire.”

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When the second plane struck, just after 9 a.m., the real panic began. “That plane hit much lower, so I could actually feel the heat on my shoulders.” Lopez began running down Broadway, often jumping over people who had stumbled and fallen. “I stood for a while near a bank building, and then began edging my way back. People were jumping out of the towers. There was chaos on the streets because there was nowhere to go; all the trains had stopped.”


“When the first tower fell, Lopez heard rather than saw it – a low rumble that prompted him to run away again, pursued this time by a galloping cloud of thick dust. “The air started turning black, and I couldn’t breathe,” he says. “I thought about my son and my family. I thought I would die.” But he didn’t. When the air started clearing, Lopez, his throat lined with dust, joined a throng of people crossing the Manhattan Bridge on foot, back to his son and wife.

His son, Angelo, is nine now, and he has only asked his father about 9-11 a couple of times, and that tentatively. When Brooks Brothers reopened the store, exactly a year later, Lopez had the option of shifting to a different branch, but he chose but he chose to come back …”