A Word from Paul Blair:
The two messages below are from Robert Yaro, who chairs the Civic
Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, and were intended for
distribution to a broad public. The Civic Alliance is the
organization that earlier this year held extensive public forums (in
convention halls and online) on the various proposals for the World
Trade Center. Apparently the powers that be are seeking to avoid such
extensive organized public discussion of the proposals they will
unveil tomorrow. In response, the Civic Alliance is going to provide
a mechanism for registering comments through its website, as Yaro
details below; in the email below that he provides contact
information for the officials responsible for blocking these forums.
I urge those interested to be heard.
>Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 18:34:20 -0500 (EST)
>From: Listening to the City <ltcemail@weblab.org>
>Subject: Message from Robert Yaro, Regional Plan Assoc.
>
>Dear [...],
>
>This is a message to all Listening to the City participants.
>
>While the public agencies have ignored our call for a through public
>process on rebuilding Lower Manhattan, you can still make your voice
>heard. The Civic Alliance has prepared a worksheet for evaluating
>the seven LMDC plans for the WTC site, which are to be released
>Wednesday at an event to be televised live on NY1 at 10 a.m. I
>encourage you to visit the Civic Alliance website:
>
>http://www.civic-alliance.org
>
>... and print the form you'll find there:
>
>http://www.civic-alliance.org/pdf/scorecard.pdf
>
>Refer to the form when you view the designs. You can then return to
>the Civic Alliance website and enter your scores, which we will
>tabulate and publicize.
>
>This is far from an ideal public process, but we must start
>somewhere. I hope you will continue to call and write to the public
>agencies to urge them to hold the public process that we deserve.
>
>Regards,
>
>Robert D. Yaro
>President, Regional Plan Association
>Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 15:09:09 -0500 (EST)
>From: Listening to the City <ltcemail@weblab.org>
>Subject: Listening to the City
>
>Dear [...],
>
>On behalf of the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, I am
>writing to encourage you to join us in calling on rebuilding
>officials to continue the thorough public process begun at Listening
>to the City before final rebuilding decisions are made in Lower
>Manhattan. As a participant in July's Listening to the City you know
>what a real public process looks and feels like, and I ask that you
>urge rebuilding officials to initiate a process that includes the
>following:
>
>1) Display the concept plans prepared by all public entities at
>satellite sites in addition to the Winter Garden, including
>Chinatown, Lower East Side, all boroughs of New York City and New
>Jersey;
>
>2) Provide a feedback mechanism for the public to easily judge and
>rank the plans, and a designated area for display and viewing of
>public comments at the Winter Garden and satellite locations to
>foster a dialogue amongst public viewers, along with accepting and
>posting online comments for all to see;
>
>3) Hold another public forum or forums similar to Listening to the
>City. The event(s) need not be quite as large, but participants must
>be representative of the region's demographics and the format must
>be interactive, with results quickly tabulated and made available
>on-site for media and participants. Public officials should be
>expected to respond formally to the results of the forum.
>
>We are at a crucial juncture in the rebuilding process, and the
>public must be included in reviewing new plans. I hope that your
>experience with Listening to the City and your interest in
>rebuilding Lower Manhattan will convince you to join us in calling
>or emailing rebuilding officials to ask them to host another
>Listening to the City:
>
>Lower Manhattan Development Corp,
>President Louis Tomson
>Ph: 212/962-2300, Fax: 212/962-2431, email: lmdc@empire.state.ny.us
>
>Port Authority of NY/NJ
>Executive Director Joseph Seymour
>Ph: 212/435-7777, web: www.panynj.gov
>
>City of New York
>Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff
>Ph: 212/788-2958, Fax: 212/788-2460, web: www.nyc.gov
>
>
>I look forward to continuing the rebuilding dialogue with you. For
>more information please email info@listeningtothecity.org.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Robert D. Yaro
>Chair, Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York
>
>- - - - - - - - -
>Special note to online participants: Several of you have requested
>hard copies of the Listening to the City final report. Our online
>partner, Web Lab, has not forgotten this request and they hope to
>have arranged for shipment of these booklets in the next few weeks.
>On behalf of Web Lab, apologies for this delay!
>- - - - - - - - -
4:47:12 PM 
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