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MOLIERE COMEDIES AT WFC, P. 14
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VOLUME 24, NUMBER 39
express ss THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2012
Audit calls for ‘top-tobottom’ redesign of Port Authority
Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer
An exhibit currently on display at the African Burial Ground National Monument shows how slaves in New York City lived and died.
Remembering the slaves who helped build New York BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER Lower Manhattan has a special claim to prominence during February’s commemorations of black history. It is the site of one of the largest African-American
cemetery in the United States. Late in 1991, workers began to excavate the foundation for a 30-story federal office building at 290 Broadway. In May, they came on the bones –
hundreds of human remains, all that was left of the thousands of enslaved African men, women and children who
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BY ALINE REYNOLDS Rebuilding the World Trade Center is turning out to be considerably more expensive than the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s initial budget projections. An audit released last week revealed that the total cost to redevelop the World Trade Center has surged to an estimated $14.8 billion, up from the 2008 projection of $11 billion. The audit, performed by Navigant Consulting, Inc. and at the behest of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and NJ Governor Chris Christie, was initiated in response to last year’s toll and fare hikes. The audit’s executive summary deems the Port Authority to be a “challenged and dysfunctional organization” in need of a “top-to-bottom redesign.” The audit also pointed to the agency’s lack of transparency and “effective oversight” at the W.T.C. site that has “obscured full awareness of billions of dollars in
exposure.” More specifically, the agency was accused of “inconsistent leadership, poorly coordinated capital planning, and inadequate cost control.” Additionally, the Port Authority’s overall debt, which is expected to climb to $20.8 billion by the year’s end from $19.5 million in late 2011, “will remain a burden for years to come,” according to the audit. The auditors attributed the W.T.C. budget overrun principally to the rush to open the National Sept. 11 Memorial in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The audit also notes that costs also rose because of accelerated construction of the W.T.C. Transportation Hub as well as construction the agency undertook on behalf of the 9/11 Memorial Foundation and other parties involved in the redevelopment of the W.T.C. site. At a press conferences last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg backed the Port Authority’s decision to pri-
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