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MI: Madelyn Wils, being who she is, needs to try to put the future on the table for redevelopment of the site. She has to do that for the community and the residents. That is her role. My role is to make sure that we understand the memorial process and that the key players have to be involved in everything that we do. Everybody has to be involved. It has to be a constructive dialogue between all the people at hand. She sees this as more of an opportunity to revitalize the area as if, wow, these buildings fell down. Now we have this clean slate and we can just go on and rebuild and do all these wonderful things. And in essence that's not what it's about. We have to really help them to look at the big picture of this. This is historical. A hundred years from now, this is something for the future generations. This is not an opportunity to revitalize. A horrific even took place there. It's not like we knocked down buildings and now we can rebuild and it's fine. No, that's not what happened. As Americans and as a world we need to heal and we need to think about the long-term effects from this. It's so important that everyone who's involved understands that and sometimes I think they don't get that idea because they're looking at this as an opportunity. It is an opportunity to do the right thing and to look at the big picture because once we do something, we can't take it back.
MI: My meeting with Larry Silverstein about the families was very good. It was a small group and he was gracious enough to meet with us and hear what we had to say. We sat at an intimate setting where it was a small number of people speaking to him and it was very interesting to hear his points of view. In turn, he heard what we, as families, felt about what happened that day. He was very interesting because he could have been there himself. He had a dermatologist appointment and I don't know if he really understands that he was spared because he wasn't there. He didn't have to witness the horrific nature of what happened that day. But he realized how the families do feel. I do feel that he understood how we felt about our loved ones and how important it is. However, he is a builder. He obviously has a lot at stake. You know, it's all about money for him. And I understand that but I would have hoped that he could have understood a little more about how we were feeling and how horrific that event was for us and that we need to honor those lives. He saw it as having an opportunity once again to rebuild and for the future generations and as an obligation to revitalize what was there and get it going as soon as possible. I am not sure he understood how difficult it would be for us if they just go and rebuild. I tried to explain to him that you don't want to have your legacy be known as the man who built over dead people. I think he understood what I was trying to say and how important it is. However, he's going to do what he needs to do obviously because he sees it as his opportunity for the future to revitalize and get offices back up and running and people working and try to mix it in with the memorial and have cultural venues on the site as well. We tried, as families, to convey the importance of the memorial and what we have to do and try to work together.
MI: I found Larry Silverstein to be very nice; a well-spoken individual who is very fatherly. He has two children. I think there is a sense of compassion there for the families. It's just that he's a developer and a builder and that's his priority. He was very nice to us. He was friendly and he did listen to what we had to say. I mean, I did most of the talking. He kind of just listened and just looked at me and I think he was kind of in shock at the fact that I kind of knew what I was talking about and I don't think he expected the families to be so composed and reasonable. I think he thought maybe we'd come in there, irate and unreasonable and demanding and, I think he was quite impressed by the fact that we didn't. We came across just as grieving families who lost loved ones who just went to work. I think he did understand that because he could have been in that building that day. And his children could have been in the offices. They were going to -- they were fixing their offices on the 92nd floor. His two children work for him. They would have been there. And he even said that he was lucky that the office wasn't finished and that his children weren't there. So I think he understands in one sense. You know, I see the compassion there but I also see that he's a businessman and he has a lot at stake. So I got to sense that he did hear what we said but I don't really think it's going to make a difference. In the end, he has to do what he has to do.
MI: I don't have a problem with World Trade Center 7 being built because it is off-site and I know they have to do it because it's a Con-Ed hub. The only thing I have a problem with is the fact that Silverstein is going to build the building and he's cutting it in half basically so that Greenwich is left open. And Greenwich is one of the streets that they want to open up and put right through the site, which will basically go up against the footprints of the towers if Greenwich runs all the way through. And I have a problem with that because I don't think Silverstein is being nice when he's cutting the building in half basically and leaving Greenwich open. I don't think that it is out of the generosity, like, "Oh, I am going to do something nice for the families." He knows that Greenwich is going to wind up going right through the site and opening up east and west, which is the whole idea of what they're trying to do. And that's a problem for me because I can't even imagine traffic going through the site like that. I just feel that that can't happen. The souls need to rest in peace. I don't want to be standing on my memorial with cars whizzing by and all the sorts of traffic. I mean, it's bad enough we have the trains there which carry eighty thousand people through there everyday. But to then have roads going through the site and on top of that the memorial, and on top of that, retail, services, and hotels. I mean, anything else?
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