I think this legal/illegal distinction ("I don't mind immigrants, just illegal immigrants") is just an excuse to bash immigrants. It's like the old literacy laws that required literacy tests to be passed before you could vote - the laws weren't passed to protect the voting system but to oppress minorities ("I don't mind black voters, just illiterate voters.") Our immigration laws are stronger than we're willing to enforce, so people flaunt them. We think it's okay to speed 5-10 miles an hour over the limit because the cops don't enforce the laws at those speeds. Why would we expect someone facing our immigration system to react the same way? Under our strict, slow, and draconian immigration system, the only immigration available to most people is illegal immigration. To simply declare the bulk of immigration to be illegal, and then hide behind a hatred for only illegal immigration, then what sets us apart from the ancient societies who mistreated their immigrants? They didn't have immigration laws; they just mistreated immigrants. Aren't we doing the same thing?

$7 Billion Plan to Rebuild Transit Near Ground Zero At the top of the new project list is $2 billion to build what officials call a downtown Grand Central near Church Street, adjacent to the former World Trade Center site. The station would connect PATH trains with three subway lines and would include a $500 million underground concourse, stretching from near the ferry docks on the Hudson River beneath the World Financial Center and through the PATH terminal.
The passageway, which would include moving walkways, would also extend east to a new Fulton Street transit center, a newly designed, $750 million hub. The transit center would straighten out the dispiriting array of pedestrian tunnels that now connect the major subway lines in the area of Broadway, Nassau and Fulton streets; together with the PATH terminal, commuters would have a single complex linking the A, C, E, J, M, Z, N, R, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9 lines.

World Financial Center gets new facade in first sign of rebirth in WTC area

Did you know? U.S. law prohibits anyone but Immigration and Naturalization Service agents from arresting illegal immigrants based on their immigration status. -Nashville, Tennessee INS spokesman Ron Kidd

Mexican I.D. cards gaining acceptance in U.S.
Is it better to keep illegal immigrants from being able to identify themselves or is it better to encourage them to identify themselves?

"[I.D.'s] are especially important at a time like this when we are asking people to prove their identity," says Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza in Washington. She says the Mexican government, which has made the matriculas a priority since Sept. 11, did a good job of recognizing that fact. If we are worried about security, we should want [illegal immigrants] to have contact with civil authorities and with law enforcement and with businesses," she says. "The more we isolate people, the more dangerous a situation we create."

Efforts to reduce traffic are looking up
Get businesses to encourage public transportation, and you breathe life into the system.

A Time for Civic Activism | Metropolis Magazine | February 2002

Newsday.com - WTC Redevelopment Planner Outlines Mixed-Use Vision

Bathroom poetry by a friend:

Hovering above
The porcelain inverse dome:
Haiku, no can do.

A Frustrated A.C.L.U. Teams Up with Foreign Consulates