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POWER AT GROUND ZERO

Name: POWER AT GROUND ZERO
Author: Lynne Sagalyn
ISBN: 978-0-19-060702-5

POLITICS, MONEY, AND THE REMAKING OF LOWER MANHATTAN

by Lynne Sagalyn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2016

The narrative’s sheer bulk will likely intimidate some readers, and that would be a shame, because Sagalyn has produced a...

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A superbly qualified scholar thoroughly deconstructs the tortured story behind the rebuilding of the World Trade Center complex.

Fundamentally, the resurrection of the site in Lower Manhattan destroyed by the 9/11 attacks was a public/private real estate development project, albeit a vast, complicated, and hugely expensive one. Of course, the traumatic event that necessitated the rebuilding supercharged the atmosphere surrounding all the decision-makers: a private, lease-holding developer, New York’s governor, the city’s mayor, and the Port Authority, the bistate agency that owned the property. These players and a host of lesser but still formidable participants—world-class architects, security experts, the victims’ families—all jostled for power, engaged in a protracted, elaborate game of “pick-up-sticks” where no decision could be made without affecting something else on the site. An aggressive, opinion-shaping press looked on. As she maneuvers through the 15-year rebuilding effort, Sagalyn (Real Estate/Columbia Univ. Business School; Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon, 2001, etc.) keeps the many strands of this story expertly in hand: the legal, economic, and commercial realities; the shifting alliances and balance of power; the political and public relations dynamics regarding property and contract rights; the interdependencies among the parties; the clashing egos and ambitions of the scores of principal actors. Objectively and assuredly, Sagalyn chronicles hundreds of episodes within this immense story of the messy, sometimes seemingly leaderless rebuilding effort. From the dry and legalistic but vital issue of whether the leaseholder could make good on his “two-occurrence” insurance claim to the political controversy over establishing a cultural presence at the site to the mundane but essential matters of infrastructure and transportation to the emotionally charged question of how to display the victims’ names on the panels surrounding memorial waterfalls on the tower “footprints,” the author neatly handles every challenge posed by this multidimensional saga.

The narrative’s sheer bulk will likely intimidate some readers, and that would be a shame, because Sagalyn has produced a definitive history and an urban studies classic.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-19-060702-5

Page Count: 992

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: June 7, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.