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Riverside Droves
A new organization, Friends of the Seaport, which supports plans to redevelop the South Street Seaport, hosted a Town Hall meeting in the Financial District on December 1, drawing more than 100 people to the auditorium of the Pine Street School. Both the group and the meeting appear to have arisen in response to Save Our Seaport (SOS), a preservation group vigorously opposed to plans formulated by the City’s Economic Development Corporation and its private-sector partner, the Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC), to remake the Seaport neighborhood. Among these is the renovation of Pier 17 into an upscale retail destination, which is currently under way. But ground has not yet been broken on other aspects of the plan, such as the proposal to…
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Kenneth Chenault: Grace Under Fire
On September 11th, Kenneth Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express, was fortunate to be in Salt Lake City, over 2,000 miles away from New York City. But other AMEX personnel weren’t quite so lucky—11 employees were either killed or reported missing due to the tragedy. Hardly surprising when you consider that AMEX’s corporate offices are only 50 feet or so from the Twin Towers site. But let’s give Chenault credit. He responded quickly and decisively—and not just as a businessman, but as a humanitarian… He personally ordered the evacuation of the AMEX building minutes after the first plane struck,…