Gov and Mayor Add to Downtown Rebuilding Plans

Pataki Backs New School For Growing Population

by Etta Sanders

Acknowledging that the burgeoning Downtown population is straining Lower Manhattan’s resources, Gov. George Pataki on Oct. 30 called for the creation of a new Downtown elementary/middle school.

“We must support this growing residential community with new amenities,” Pataki said in a speech to business and community leaders. “Even with the opening of the Millennium High School in September [see story on page 16], Lower Manhattan still needs new schools.”

In September, Community Board 1 called for the creation of a P.S../I.S. on a development site next to NYU/ Downtown Hospital. Madelyn Wils, the board’s chairwoman, said it was significant that the Governor agreed with the community about the need for a new school.

“If the governor wants it and LMDC wants it, I hope that the city would want it. After all, it is the city’s vision to have new residential down here. I’m hoping they will see the opportunity of putting it in their next five-year capital plan.” That list of projects is being released by the School Construction Authority this month.

Among other Downtown improvements, Pataki called for replacing the unsightly security barriers around the New York Stock Exchange with “security measures that blend into the streetscape.”

A new pedestrian bridge over West Street at Vesey Street will open on Nov. 22, one day before PATH service resumes to the Trade Center site.

Pataki stressed the importance of developing transportation between Lower Manhattan and JFK and Newark airports. As an interim measure, fast ferries will run to La Guardia airport by the end of 2004 and to Kennedy Airport by the end of 2005, he said.

Pataki detailed his timetable for finalizing and implementing plans for the Trade Center site and resolving disputes among players in the redevelopment, many of whom were in attendance.

On Deutsche Bank’s dispute with insurers over its Liberty Street building, he called for a resolution by Dec. 31, with mediation by former Senator George Mitchell. And he set Dec. 15 as the date for Daniel Liebeskind and David Childs to agree on a final design for the Freedom Tower, the tallest feature of Liebeskind’s master plan.

“I know everyone in this room wishes you the best of luck,” he said.

Bloomberg Wants More Retail on WTC Site

by Ronald Drenger

The Bloomberg administration said last month that the master plan for the World Trade Center site must be changed to promote more street activity, notably by increasing ground-level retail by two-thirds.

In an Oct. 17 letter to the Port Authority, Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff wrote that planners must resolve “how retail, streets, open spaces, and sidewalks will work together to ensure that the site is full of people walking the streets, shopping in the stores, and spilling over to the rest of Lower Manhattan.”

The administration wants to create “a retail district that will be a regional destination,” Doctoroff wrote. To achieve this, he called for several significant changes:

• 72,000 square feet of ground-level retail should be added to the 115,000 already planned. Sky lobbies should be created in the three office towers on the west side of Church Street between Liberty and Vesey streets, freeing up street-level space for retail, and building entrances should be mid-block so that stores can occupy valuable corner spots.

• Cortlandt Street between Church and Greenwich should be a regular city street, with pedestrian and vehicle access, rather than an indoor mall area.

• A planned concourse running from the future PATH station south to Liberty Street should be eliminated.

Doctoroff also wrote that, because it will take many years to complete the site’s redevelopment, the first phase should include “contiguous retail along the street walls,” leaving “no voids on any of the site’s parcels.”

Carl Weisbrod, president of the Downtown Alliance, said that the configuration of retail on the Trade Center site could be, in the best case, “an unbelievable benefit,” strengthening Downtown retail. In the worst scenario, “it would tend to weaken retail, and clearly we don’t want that.”

Other changes urged by Doctoroff included:

• Vesey Street should run one-way eastbound and Liberty Street should run in both directions, rather than the other way around, as now envisioned, to better integrate the streets with the rest of Lower Manhattan.

• To deal with the anticipated demand for parking, which “far exceeds” the current supply, either additional public parking should be created, possibly on Site 26 in Battery Park City, or ways must be found to reduce incoming traffic.