2. THE RESULT  

A) By eliminating sidewalks and curb-side parking every street gains 4 additional lanes. The capacity of city's streets is in effect, more than doubled.

B) By opening the ground floors of buildings to motor vehicles and dedicating that expanse largely to parking and unloading, and to additional streets, the city's  traffic problem is solved and the parking challenge is substantially eased.

C) Here is also the answer to the challenge of municipal trash collection. Instead of refuse cans and black plastic bags dragged daily to the edge of the sidewalk for a noisy 3 AM pick up, permanent refuse bins on the elevated platform penetrate down to hatches in the ceiling over the roadway. Sanitation trucks passing under the bins electronically open and close the hatches and allow the refuse to fall through. Garbage collection becomes clean and silent and automated.

D) Telephone, electric and other communication cables, even gas pipes, are closeted in ceilings over the roadways. This makes the infrastructure easily accessible and obviates the need to periodically tear open the pavement. That it is sheltered from rain and snow will additionally prolong the pavement's longevity.

E) Separate sidewalks mean no more waiting at the curb for the Walk Sign. They mean no more people caught under the wheels of cars; also the end of pedestrians sharing space with dangerous, metal machines. The elimination of that growling threat and the freedom from automobile fumes will make urbanites easier in their skin. It will make for calmer, friendlier people.

F) Because the transfer points between pedestrian and vehicular streets are limited to escalators and elevators, law enforcement will be able to guarantee a safe city at all hours.

G) The city will become less noisy and dirty, and more beautiful. The absence of automobiles will enhance its architecture. Automobiles can, certainly be beautiful. But the asymmetry of numerous cars, trucks and buses moving at different speeds in different lanes makes for a wild and unattractive pattern. That is a big reason why the handsome promises of architectural illustrations are invariably contradicted by the finished reality. The most glorious building disappoints amid gray streets filled with the noise and confusion of auto traffic. Whereas even a mediocre building in a park like setting, pleases.

H) A valuable commercial advantage accrues to shops that flank a pedestrian mall and are simultaneously accessible to private and public transport and to commercial vehicles.

I) New York City is seriously lacking in  neighborhood greenery. Pedestrian sidewalks will create a city inside a park.

3. WHY HERE?   

The WTC site is near where the city began and where the nation made its first capital. It is the right place for a revolution. It will be America's first great 21st century construction project. Not since Rockefeller Center has New York had a chance to build something so splendid. Several buildings will rise as a unit, ideal for the application of pedestrian streets. The site is large enough to constitute a unique neighborhood and to justify elevated sidewalks for its own sake. It can serve as a prototype and test bed.

4. THE FUTURE

The direction of the city's future is clear enough. What is not clear is who will take the fateful first steps. Will it be we? Or will posterity deride us for burdening it with the obsolete? That the seedling will take a long time to grow great should not be a deterrent. We must muster the courage and the will to begin.

Consider a city master plan adopting the elevated sidewalk. All new construction would require, at a minimum, the incorporation of design elements which will allow for easy conversion to the format. Such structures would function conventionally until a neighborhood is ready for separate streets and sidewalks.

Clusters, similar to the WTC prototype would sprout here and there throughout the metropolitan area. In time these clusters would link up. In short, the city can transform itself gradually. It is not a matter of all or nothing. Moreover, it will be possible to modify many existing buildings to accept an  elevated platform.

A city is not built or rebuilt in a day. Gradualism has advantages. A network of closed roadways for vehicles belching fumes will require an elaborate ventilation system. But not necessarily if the internal combustion engine is replaced in the coming thirty to fifty years. Vehicles powered by fuel cells or electric batteries producing minimal pollutants are a distinct possibility. That will make the task of ventilating the roadway simple.

5. MEMORIAL

There can be no forgetting that whatever is built on the WTC site, it will be on a graveside. Those 16 acres now stand desolate because of an attempt to smash America, to humble her proudest city, to cower her people. It succeeded in crumbling a technical marvel, and in shattering the lives of thousands.

How can we best honor those many dead, and keep their memory alive? A significant part of the city was ravaged, the entire nation was violated; how is that evil to be avenged?

By making those murdered men and women the seeds of the metropolis of the future. They will be at the root of the city inside a park. They will live in its splendor. New York's flowering will forever be linked with them.

We can make the devastation of 9/11 the launch pad of a transformation. Let our foes see that we have not shrunk back before their deed, but rather have been propelled forward. Let them despair in the realization that they have inspired us into advancing our city and strengthening our nation. We owe that effort to the thousands in the dust of these 16 acres. Such a memorial will honor the dead and serve the living.