$800M to be given for the NYC Redevelopment

$800M to Be Given for NYC Redevelopment
By ERIN McCLAMThe Associated Press

NEW YORK - More than $800 million of Sept. 11 redevelopment money will be scattered among cultural, transportation and park projects designed to foster vibrant neighborhoods in lower Manhattan.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. package of federal money includes a previously announced $300 million contribution to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.
Among the commitments are about $80 million to revitalize Fulton and Greenwich streets, designed to spur new development and transform them into key arteries for lower Manhattan.
Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg emphasized that helping Chinatown recover was key to redeveloping lower Manhattan.
Earlier this month, Park Row, a thoroughfare linking Chinatown to the financial district, reopened for the first time since the trade center attack.
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"There have been encouraging reports that Chinatown has already seen the benefits," Bloomberg said.
Included in the $800 million package is a $32 million grant that will go in part to reconfiguring Chinatown streets to make them friendlier to cars and pedestrians.
The governor touted the $300 million for the trade center memorial foundation. The memorial, "Reflecting Absence," is set to be complete by the eighth anniversary of the attacks in 2009.
"The centerpiece of everything we do in lower Manhattan must be remembering those we lost on Sept. 11 and telling the story of the heroic response of ordinary New Yorkers on that day," he said.
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