New York Times article on Authority clean air projects, undated

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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. A Survey Reveals Sentiment I For Keeping Shafts ofLight J

By DAVID W. DUNLAP Besides design, financing and engi­ ; Having gingerly and gratefully neering, such a review would have to . grown reaccustomed to the nightly account for the impact of search­ ; sight of two brilliant columns over lights on neighbors and on the birds ; Lower Manhattan — a compass point that fly around them. ■ on which so many lives have turned The New York City Audubon Soci­ '■'1 J — some New Yorkers seem reluc- ety is strongly opposed to prolonging ; tant to lose them again. the installation, said a board mem­ ' Since March 11, 88 searchlights ber, Peter Rhoades Mott. Observers ; mounted at Bai.ery Park City, Just have not found any dead or injured ; west of the World Trade Center site, birds around the site since March II, ' have cast parallel shafts into the sky : every evening after dusk, as a tem- he said, but have noticed that most change their flight patterns. ■ “Extending the ‘Tribute’ would ; porary “Tribute in Light,” scheduled ; to last two nlore weeks. Sometimes substantially increase the likelihood •J ; they ascend endlessly. Sometimes of catastrophe for migrants,” Mr. ; they merely tickle the bottom of low Mott said. Based on a five-year tally ; clouds. around the World Trade Center, But they have definitely struck a some species most at risk w uld 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. ; cini Duffy, whose office was in the ' trade center's south tower. “It made ; me feel as if we were still there. It The project . . .has „ won over some ^ho were initially opposed. Anne Pasternak, executive director of Cre- p ; made me feel connected to a lot of ; people. It was a way for me to guide ative Time, a public arts group ta- volved in coordinating the "Tribute In Light,” said she had heard praise 4 ' .f

: them to God. It was magnificent.” ; “I wish the lights could stay on from someone who once feared the • until the first person moves into the lights would make ground zero look . new design 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 1

4'^ : Mr. Mancini, it turns out, is not make the memorial permanent, per­ ; alone. haps along the lines of whether twin ■

S' ' “At least for the time being — and light towers commemorate Ameri­ maybe for all time — New Yorkers can economic dominance rather than want those twin beams of light to' lost lives. soar,” said Maurice Carroll, director Even some of the project’s earliest of the Quinnipiac University Polling supporters question how well it i'W

Institute. He released a poll yester- would work permanently, day showing that 39 percent of 1,038 “Everyone I know felt the thing 1 registered voters in the city feel the that made it so strong was its imper- K manence,” said Agnes Gund, presi- B dent of the Museum of Modem Art. B She said the beacons are “very spir- ■ ■■ i temporary tribute Itual now, but after a while it would B feel like either they should be sub- B chord. strikes a A stantlal or not be there.” For some New Yorkers, however, ■ ■ J heaven, ^path to * losing even a spectral representation I of the trade center might be painful. I “As comforted as people are by I says one resident. seeing this anchor, they are very I ’’ ’• • i unsettled by the fact that it’s tempo- I rary, ” said Gustavo Bonevardi, who V • ’• -

: lights should stay on until a worked on the design with John Ben- ■ .; permanent memorial Is built and nett, Julian LaVerdiere VaulMyoda, I j that 36 percent feel the lights them- Richard Nash Gould and Paul Ma- I s j

. selves should be permanent rantz. I ; Twenty percent feel the lights “Everyone is questioning why it I ; should be turned off April 13, as has to go,” Mr, Bonevardi said, I : planned. And that is what will hap- "Now that it’s done, we feel that it I pen, said Kent L. Barwick, president belongs to the city. If th''.t’s what the I ; of tile Municipal Art Society, the people want to do, we’re excited, I i chief sponsor of the project, in part willing and eager to help in having I : because it was approved by various them come back.” It is clear that even an ephemer"! I I 1^1 5®!!! ; community groups, government “Tribute in Light” has left an Indeli- I ’’I agencies and victims’ family mem- ble mark. I -bers as a brief, finite gesture. '- 3 Richard A. Kahan, co-founder of ■ “Having made a set of commit­ Take the Field, a nonprofit group I ments,” Mr. Barwick said, “they devoted to rebuilding athletic fields I ought to be honored.” There are at public high schools, was on the US fl practical considerations, too. "This Airways shuttle from Washington. I was conceived using rented equip­ the night after the lights were first I ment, borrowed materials and tem­ turned on. I porary structures on land that does­ "The pilot was announcing It to I n’t belong to us,” he said. everyone 50 miles away from New I The city is deferring to the Munici­ York; ‘Those of you on the left side of I pal Art Society on whether it would the plane In 10 minutes will have a I be feasible to resume the installa­ spectacular view of the memorial I tion, said Jennifer E. Falk, deputy lights,’ ” Mr. Kahan said. “All of a I press secretary to Mayor Michael R. sudden it struck me that for the pilot, I Bloomberg, Only then would there be this was part of the American land- I k a fuller discussion and public review scape in the same way as other great I of whether it should be continued. national monuments.” I

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