Everything about the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation totally explained
The
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (
LMDC) was formed after the
September 11 attacks to plan the reconstruction of
Lower Manhattan and distribute nearly $10 billion in federal funds aimed at rebuilding downtown Manhattan.
It was founded by Governor
George Pataki and then-Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani. The LMDC is a
joint State-City
corporation governed by a 16-member
Board of Directors, half appointed by the
Governor of New York and half by the
Mayor of New York. As a result, Pataki and Giuliani appointees dominate the LMDC. Its original chairman was
John C. Whitehead, a former Deputy Secretary of State and head of
Goldman Sachs.
LMDC doesn't own the World Trade Center site and this has created problems in its dealings with the owner -- the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and
Larry Silverstein who has a lease to the site. It is a subsidiary of the
Empire State Development Corporation, which is a state authority which is used to implement various projects in the state that are not subject to Legislature or voter oversight.
The L.M.D.C. was funded through the disbursement of Community Development Block Grants-amounting to $2.783 billion-approved by the federal government in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and resultant destruction of much of lower Manhattan's economic and structural base.
In
February 2003, the LMDC chose
Daniel Libeskind's master plan for the reconstruction of the
World Trade Center complex. The organization also sponsored the
international design competition for the
World Trade Center Memorial, which resulted in
Michael Arad and Peter Walker's
Reflecting Absence being chosen as the winning design in
January 2004.
Having distributed its funds, the LMDC in July 2006 announced plans to dissolve.
It will be transferring its current responsibilities to other existing agencies and foundations, including the W.T.C. Memorial Foundation, and the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.
Stefan Pryor, corporation president, has recently announced that he'll be leaving the LMDC this September to become Deputy Mayor of
Newark,
New Jersey.
At times, the LMDC has been the subject of intense public criticism. Reasons for criticism include:
- 1. Questions surrounding the proposed and long delayed September 11th memorial.
- 2. A perception of its questionable handling of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.
- 3. The holding of a seemingly official design competition for the new WTC site without the authority to do so or the power to actually implement the winning design (Liebeskind) as the new design for the project.
Two members of the LMDC's board have asserted that up to $45 million allocated to the LMDC from a "community enhancement" fund in May of 2005 hasn't been directly accounted for, and that up to $15 million from that stipend might have been spent in areas other than those it had been explicitly stipulated for.
(External Link
)
In May of 2006, New York's Attorney General,
Elliot Spitzer unequivocally condemned the LMDC as an "abject failure" in its capacity as an agent for rebuilding lower Manhattan. He also attributed the departure of
Gretchen Dykstra from a group raising money for the World Trade Center memorial to a process where "there was nobody willing to make decisions."
Spitzer has had a longstanding feud with LMDC chairman
John Whitehead.
Once Spitzer became Governor, he rethought his condemnation of LMDC as an "abject failure" and announced a "reinvigorated LMDC" that would continue the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. Mayor Bloomberg welcomed the Governor's renewed interest.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Lower Manhattan Development Corporation'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://lower_manhattan_development_corporation.totallyexplained.com">Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
