(The New York Times published the following Associated Press article.)
NEW YORK — Officials have proposed a grand, airy transportation hub at the World Trade Center site, but some relatives of Sept. 11 victims are angry the plan would infringe on the “footprints” of the fallen towers.
At a meeting Thursday, officials from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, offered some broad concepts that would drive redevelopment of transportation and infrastructure at the site.
Tony Cracciolo, director of priority capital programs for the Port Authority, said a “grand point of arrival” was needed in lower Manhattan to foster economic development in a neighborhood devastated by the terrorist attacks.
One proposal — the construction of an underground parking area for tour buses in the space one of the towers used to occupy — sparked an emotional exchange between the community and business leaders who make up the development corporation’s advisory councils.
“Your plan preserves the North Tower, but swallows the South Tower footprint,” said Michael Cartier, who said his brother died in the South Tower.
Cracciolo said a place had to be found for the scores of tour buses that bring visitors to the area — a view echoed by lower Manhattan residents who said their neighborhood’s streets were choked with buses.
Cracciolo also expanded on the existing idea of a hub connecting the PATH underground rail line connecting Manhattan and New Jersey with a dozen subway lines in the area.
While artists’ renderings showed how the transportation hub might look — complete with “natural light all the way down to the PATH trains” — Cracciolo stressed specific decisions about design had not been made.