New York Observer article on Mayor's emergency bunker, 1999

NYC-WTC_000173908 . bd pegeny i Mag VIE, ie agony aiai- 600 B tla serious emergency, the facility could, "|| + Id ag many-aé 100 top city Plans alsp call for’ water and cots for. The center will have backup genera-”. rs tobe tised during power failures and ena place for workers to cook. As for the administration official said, there ra few cans af fruits and vegetables —but, i said dryly, the Mayor and his aides < eteria on the building's third floor. Ms,-Collins told The Observer that the | ty.spent $4.9 million on general con- |. ction, $4.6 million on electrical equip- dent and some $2 million on mechanics, jumbing and sprinklers. Add that to the fa- ity’s annual rent, an average of $1.5 mil- con for 20 years, and the total price tag— _ Shinus operating costs—comes to more. ' sohan $40 million. . “| The center's first emergency took place - Sluring a folu-inch snowstorm on the Sibeekend of Marsch 13-14, according to - Hauer, the head of the city’s Office of bins the facility. Mr. Hauer said the center's. Spates allowed his colleagues to get to i} tir posts the night before the storm hit. “Rather than have them drive in snow, Rome {could] stay over,” he said. Ew Mr. Haver added, however, that ac- <<lobably would prefer the fare at a public” 1 { ’ 1 i _.commodations were aitything but swank.* “They” re very modest, ‘ike a army tunks,.. | double-decker bunks,” he suid‘noting that® they were based on bedding arrangements * | { | provided for Secret Service agents housed" :.0n1 the alinth floor, ofthe same sar ae oa teks f wn fer To P SEGR ET * Seven World Trade Center is a soaring | office tower occupied by Salomon Smith’ Bamey and the New York office of thé Se-", curities and Exchange Commission,” among other terfants. No one—not even . . Messengers—is allowed beyond ihe lobby, . without approva! from somebody else in|} - the building. A guard standing nearby told? }-- The Observer that the command center was : impressively high-tech. Buthe said hehad been instructed not to talk about the center." Coupled with the harricades around City Hall, critics said the command center ._ suggested a politician quick to see him-. _ self ag under siege, an embattled leader surrounded by encroaching enemies. In a. Daily News column last spring, Michael. Daly pronounced the facility a “bar- gain" —compared, thatis, with the luxu 1uAUT i- ous, $60 mifiion, turquoise-tiled bunker’ ; inhabited d by Saddam Hussein. -- ue Tid Bist Suangosurs ai BoB Se.. | the project certainly didn’t do the Mayor ahy |. - good,” observed City Council member ™ Ken Fisher of Brooklyn, who nonetheless sees merit in the facility. Despite the real dangers of worldwide © conflicts spilling over to New York, many : i t w f © 4 ; have questioned the need for an expensive, eM Be be aes chaibebidiaciat cake ate wees 3. command center's , décat, ‘Mr. Haver has. strenuously rejected the suggestion thatil: . the facility is, in fact, a bunker. He has} : F pointed out that. the center is nora place. |: -for the Mayor arid his allies and relatives to, ; ds high-tech facility. Los Angeles, hardly a}]{ . hunker down through disasters. Rather, he, F stranger to calamities like mudslides and - Tiots, managed to convert a 1960's bomb shelter tnto an emergericy management* ; cénter, updating the facitity for several’ ; million dollars. And for years, the city’s emeigency marjagement system has been’ : Duheffectively out of Police Headquarters:' .. Even with the hew facility all but finished, ~ the command center at, U Police Plaza Fe- men operational. os we fate wa There are cans: as of fruits. ‘and vegetables in the. “command center, but * ao4ms * ie iviayur provapiy - _ " “would prefer the fare at "a third-floor cafeteria . * ity Hal) shrugged off the critics and, in _ an indication of the urgency the adminis- bela nee e lh ada the eeninnt Sheena Rninhad aS See DS SS ere pete Se ini less than a year. That's no small ac- - complishment in a city where the instal- lation of asingle public toilet or the repair -Of a single exit on the FD.R. Highway “ takes years. . “Despite the quasi-military look of the. pee ee , HEADING FOR cover?’ * Of course, ona less dramatic note, the | - opening of the command center coincides | has said, the facility boasts a | state-of the-j art communications system, connecting: * scores of people In government and law.“ | enforcement via computers to'a rapping? Ve ; system that pinpoinis the locatin df dis-} - : asters and shidws how near they are to sews! ; " erfines, water mains and subway tunpielsi} “Giveri the things that have happened! . inthis city,” noted Bob Louden; an expert? in emergency.management at John Jay! College of Criminal Justice,’ it makes! sense “to upgrade what they are doing and” . " create a new entity somake sure all bara : cies work together.” Bo . : with a Ip ta vir. UTUNAants popuianty ana a perceived political vulnerability. The Rev. Al Sharpton has managed to reinvent! himself yet again, this time at Mr. Giu*. liani’s expense, with two weeks of well- publicized demonstrations at Police Head- _ quarters. The tactics of his Police Depart ment have come under national scrutiny. And just the other day, a coyote roamed, lanca in Msntra) Dork Officials may say the facility is not a bunker, but evenso, Mr. Giuliani might be forgiven for taking cover in a quiet place with a foldout couch until his political storms blow over. “He may need it—his poll numbers are dropping,” quipped Ifthere’s an emer; Giullan! on the 23 tech command ce: the White Housc. City Council me Queens. Then again, hes no matter how cn may be. The can $@° 396d CIBESPSZTe 88 add NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document