New York Times article on Council corruption, March 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document 32 I. J .J , 1

.4 5tt rp..' V Sentimi-fit For Keeping Shafts af Light By DAVID W. OONIAF Besides design, financing and engi- ■ Having gingerly and gratefully neertng, su lew would have to ' grown reaccustomed to the nightly account for toe Impact of search­ ; sight of two brilliant columns over lights OB neighbors and on the Isirts ' Lower Manhattan — a compass point that fly around them. OB which so many lives have turned The New York City Audubon Soci­ ;■ — some New Yorkers seem reluc- ety Is strongly opposed to prolonging ; tint to lose them again. the installation, said a board mem­ • Since March II, 88 searchlights ber, Peter Rhoades Mott. Observers : mounted at Battery Park City, just. have not found any dead or injured ; west of the World Trade Center site, birds around the site since March 11, J have cast parallel shafts into the sky he said, but have noticed that most i every evening after dusk, as a tem- change their flight patterns. ; porary “Tribute in Light,” scheduled “Extending the ‘Tribute’ wouM ; to last two alore weeks. Soiaetimeg substantially increase the likelihood : they ascend endlessly. Sometimes of catastrophe for migrants,” Mr, ; they merely tickle the bottom of low Mott said. Based on a five-year tally ; cloatls. around the World Trade Center, , But they have definitely struck a some species most at risk would be ; chord. the American woodcock, hermit • "It’s a clear path to heaven,” said thrush, gray catbird and black- < the architect Ralph Mancini of Man- throati blue warbler. ; clnl Duffy, whose office was ia the The project has won over some ; trade center’s south tower. “It made who were initially opposed. Anne : me fl we were still there. It Pasternak, executive director of Cre­ : made me feel connected to a lot of ative Time, a public arts group In­ • people. It was a way for me to guide volved in coordinating the “Tribote them to God, ft was magnificent.” in Light,” said she had heard praise ; “I wish the lights could stay on from someone who once feared the • until toe first person move.? into the lights would make ground zero look ; new tiesign of the trade center,** he like a used-car lot. : said, “as a symbol we’re all togeth- But Ms, Pasternak says she ex­ ; er.” pects a debate If there is a move to Mr, Mancini, it turns out, is not make the nieinorta! perniaBent, per-' ; alone. haps along the lines of whether twin ; “At least for the time being — and light towers corauieinorate Ameri­ i maybe for all time — New Yorkers can economic dominance rather than ‘ want those twin beams of light to lost lives. ; soar,’* said Mawrice Carroll, director Even some of the project’s earliest : of the Quinnipiac University Polling supporters qoestton how well it ; Institute. He released a poll yester- would work permanently. ■ day showing that 39 percent of 1,838 “Everyone 1 know felt the thing I registered voters in the city feel the that made It so strong was Its Jraper- nianence,” .said Agnes Gund, presi­ dent of the Museum of Modern Art, She said the beacons are "very spir­ itual BOW, bot after a while It would; feel like either they should he sub­ : xhiIfVA it t 'horJ, A stantial or not be there.” For some New Yorkers, however, : 'path to heavenf ’ losing even a spectral representation of the trade center might be painful. : sfljf oneresUent, "As comforted as people are by seeing this anchor, they are very unsettled by the fact that it's tempo­ rary, ” said Gustavo Bonevardi, who ' lights should stay on until a worked on the design with John Ben­ ,; permanent memorial is bailt and nett, Julian LaVerdiere, Paul Myoda, • that 36 percent feel the lights them- Richard Nash Gould and Paul Ma- : selves should be permanent. rantz. ; Twenty percent feel the lights “Everyone is qoestloning why It ' should be turned off April 13, as has to go,” Mr, Boaevardi said. 1 planned. Aad that is what will hap- “Now that it’s (lone, we feel that it pen, said Kent L. Barwick, president belongs to the city. If that’s what the ; of the Municipal Art Society, the people want to do, we’re excited, • chief sponsor of the project, in part willing and eager to help in having ; because it was approved by various them come back.” ; community groups, government It is clear that even an ephemeral agencies and victims’ family mem- “Tribute to Light” has left an indeli­ ble mart ’w ", -ef, finite gesture. Richard A. Kalian, co-founder of “Having made a set of commtt- Take the Field, a nonprofit group ments,” Mr. Barwick said, “they devoted to rebuilding athletic fields oagiit to be honoretj.” There are at pubic higb schools, was on the U S practical' conslderatioBS, too, “This Almays shuttle from Wasbingten. was concfelved um >\ i",,ted equip­ the night after toe lights were first ment, borrowed materials and tem­ turned on. porary structures on land that does­ “The plot was anaouacing. it to n’t belong to us,*’ lie said. everyone 50 miles away from New The city is deferring to toe Munici­ York: ‘Those of you on the left side of pal Art Society oa whether it woalcl the plane in M minutes will haw a be feasible to resume the installa­ spectacular view of the laeinorial tion, said Jennifer E. Falk, deputy lights,* ” Mr. Kalian said. "AD of a- press secretary to Mayor Michael R. sudden it struck me that for theptibt,. Bloomberg. Only then would there be this was part of the American land­ a fuller discassioB and public review scape in the same way as other great of whether it should te continued. national monuments.”

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