By Julie Shapiro
Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to disband the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and transfer its functions to the city.
Bloomberg called on Gov. David Paterson Wednesday to end the state-city agency’s six-year run at the helm of Downtown rebuilding. That would slice into the bureaucracy that is delaying work at the World Trade Center site and particularly the former Deutsche Bank building, Bloomberg told reporters.
“The multiple levels of authority just keep getting in the way,” Bloomberg said. “I don’t think necessarily that the city can do a better job than the L.M.D.C., but it’s another layer of bureaucracy.”
Bloomberg, who appoints half the corporation’s board, wants the L.M.D.C. to turn its weightiest responsibility — the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building — over to the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, another city-state agency.
“We’ve got to get the Deutsche Bank building down and down safely,” Bloomberg said. Replacing the L.M.D.C., which owns the building, with the L.M.C.C.C. means “one less” agency involved, Bloomberg said.
“Somebody has to do the work,” he said. “With the L.M.C.C.C., we have a say in it.”
The city would also take over the L.M.D.C.’s economic development efforts. The federally-funded corporation was created by former Gov. George Pataki at the end of 2001 as a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corp. After Bloomberg took office at the beginning of 2002, the governor granted the city equal appointments to the agency, but it has always been dominated by the governor.
Paterson released a statement Wednesday about W.T.C. rebuilding that did not mention the L.M.D.C.
“The mayor and I share a sense of disappointment and frustration at the unacceptable pace of the ground zero rebuilding,” Paterson said in the statement.
Bloomberg first outlined his idea in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday. Paterson, in his statement, called the essay “an important contribution to our ongoing dialogue,” but he would make no commitments until the Port Authority, which owns the W.T.C. site, releases its update on W.T.C. budgets and schedules later this month.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told Downtown Express he was glad to see the mayor finally make ground zero a priority, after years of “too many other priorities and too many other developments.”
“It’s unfortunate that it took seven years to do that, but I’m glad we’re here now,” Silver said.
However, Silver said the mayor should focus on getting his city agencies to cooperate with the L.M.D.C. rather than disbanding it.
“They’re doing the job,” Silver said of the L.M.D.C. “They are the only agency that’s designed to coordinate between all the agencies involved in the construction and cleaning up at ground zero…. I don’t think it should be eliminated.”
Bloomberg fielded questions about the future of the L.M.D.C. at a press conference Sept. 10 that was held to invite New Yorkers to sign a steel beam for the 9/11 memorial.
Asked whether the state would surrender some of its rebuilding power to the city, Bloomberg replied, “I assume everyone at the state level would try to do what’s right. I can’t imagine anyone would let petty [politics] get in the way.”
The L.M.D.C. would have to stay in existence, at least in name only, to channel the federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. When Pataki tried to disband the L.M.D.C. in 2006, he was not able to go through with it because HUD stood in the way, according to city and other sources. HUD never acknowledged that. The city began taking on a larger role in L.M.D.C. projects after Pataki was thwarted by HUD.
Bloomberg said Wednesday that Paterson could dissolve the L.M.D.C. without HUD’s permission.
“The federal government has nothing to do with it,” Bloomberg said. “The L.M.D.C. is a state organization.”
After consulting with a member of his staff, Bloomberg clarified that the L.M.D.C. would have to stay in existence on paper, but Paterson has the power to transfer all of its responsibilities away.
Brian Sullivan, a HUD spokesperson, declined to comment, saying in an e-mail to Downtown Express that the L.M.D.C.’s future is “essentially a state and local issue.”
“HUD’s not involved in this discussion,” Sullivan wrote.
L.M.D.C. and L.M.C.C.C. spokespersons declined to comment on Bloomberg’s proposal.
The crux of Bloomberg’s argument to disband the L.M.D.C. is the lack of progress at 130 Liberty St., the former Deutsche Bank building. Under the L.M.D.C., the Deutsche Bank decontamination and demolition has been plagued with delays and mishaps — the most serious being the fire in August 2007 that killed two firefighters, which District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is investigating. The D.A. is considering charging the city with the deaths of the firefighters in indictments later this month, according to news reports. The L.M.D.C. is also being investigated by Morgenthau.
Speaker Silver said that many of the problems with the Deutsche Bank site happened years ago, long before Gov. Paterson took office. This version of the L.M.D.C., led by Chairperson Avi Schick, is doing well, Silver said.
Paterson and Schick both attended Silver’s reelection party Tuesday night.
Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber stood alongside Schick at a press conference in 7 W.T.C. Tuesday and gave no indication that the mayor was about to advocate dissolving Schick’s agency. Lieber sounded satisfied with the city’s role on the site, saying that the city “finally has a seat at the table,” referring to the Steering Committee the Port convened to evaluate priorities and deadlines.
The Deutsche Bank site is essential to the future of the World Trade Center because it will be the entry point for Silverstein Properties’ construction trucks to build Towers 2, 3 and 4, Bloomberg said Wednesday.
The L.M.D.C. currently plans to have the building down by next summer, a prospect that the L.M.C.C.C.’s takeover would “greatly enhanc[e],” Bloomberg wrote in the Journal. Bloomberg wants the L.M.C.C.C. to issue monthly progress reports on the demolition.
“The public has a right to know whether we are meeting our goals,” Bloomberg wrote.
The L.M.C.C.C. was the public face of the Deutsche Bank project before the fire, but the L.M.D.C. took back that role after the fire. The L.M.C.C.C. now “provides technical and construction support to the L.M.D.C. and makes recommendations on how to deconstruct and abate the building,” said Deborah Wetzel, spokesperson for the L.M.C.C.C.
“The L.M.triple-C has a lot of institutional knowledge and a lot of familiarity with the building,” said Julie Menin, chairperson of Community Board 1. “They could really hit the ground running.”
Menin, who is also on the L.M.D.C. board, said she supported disbanding the agency as long as that didn’t delay work on 130 Liberty St. or prevent the community from getting the federal funding the L.M.D.C. has yet to distribute.
The community has long been critical of the L.M.D.C.’s management of the Deutsche Bank building, and local residents sounded the alarm on safety concerns years before the fatal fire. C.B. 1 had a fresh reason for concern this week after the Daily News reported that cigarette packs and beer cans were found in the Deutsche Bank building. A worker’s discarded cigarette started last summer’s fire.
“This is very disturbing,” said Paul Stein, who chairs the New York State Public Employees Federation W.T.C. Committee. Stein spoke at C.B. 1’s W.T.C. Redevelopment Committee meeting Monday night. “The L.M.D.C. has messed up badly,” he said. “We’re worried they’re going to mess up again.”
Workers are supposed to check their cigarettes at the entrance of the site, but URS Corp., L.M.D.C.’s representative on the site, found two empty cigarette packs and one with seven cigarettes remaining, along with two beer cans, on the building’s third floor Aug. 26, L.M.D.C. spokesperson Mike Murphy said. The L.M.D.C. called the city, who sent in the Fire Department to investigate. The Fire Department found more empty packs on the first and sixth floor, Murphy said. No work is going on on any of those floors and they are off-limits to workers.
The L.M.D.C. is waiting for the Fire Department to finish its investigation before taking action. A C.B. 1 member asked if the culprits will get more than just “a stern talking to,” and Murphy said the L.M.D.C. may reassign workers.
“We’re taking this seriously,” Murphy said.
The W.T.C. Committee unanimously passed a resolution calling on the L.M.D.C. to be more transparent about safety problems on the site. It was the first resolution about 130 Liberty St. the board passed since immediately after the fire.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
