If We Can’t Tightrope Between Twin Towers . . .

. . . then the terrorists will have won:

Philippe Petit, the French aerialist and juggler whose unauthorized 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers is the subject of the documentary Man on Wire, which plays at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, doesn’t really approve of the Freedom Tower. “I stay away from politics because I am just a street juggler,” he says, “but I can tell you secretly that I am very unhappy to not have two towers being built, because I could offer to dance again — a dance of freedom, of victory, of ‘We shall not be doomed.'”

Brooklyn Paper: 911 Is A Joke

Gersh Kuntzman in the Brooklyn Paper, playing the Paul Krugman card*:

9-11 didn’t change anything except turning what could have been a mediocre presidency into one of history’s worst.

*As in, “I predict that in the years ahead Enron, not Sept. 11, will come to be seen as the greater turning point in U.S. society”.

Ce N’est Pas Une Bombe

A malfunctioning science project forces its owner to go into full Magritte mode to calm fellow subway riders:

A school science project that went awry and caused smoke to billow from a student’s backpack sent panicked B train riders scurrying for the exits Thursday in Brooklyn.

“This is not a bomb! This is not terror!” yelled Gregory Kats, 29, a computer engineering student at the New York City College of Technology.

Kats, 29, was heading home from school when wires on a device he had built short-circuited in his backpack, he told the Daily News afterward.

When white smoke began spiraling out of his backpack as the train neared the Seventh Ave. station in Park Slope, riders quickly became alarmed, he said.

“They were panicking, and I realized their fear,” an apologetic Kats said at his Sheepshead Bay home.

They “started to jump out of the train” as soon as it stopped at the platform and the doors opened, Kats said.

He said he tried to disassemble the contraption on the platform even as he reassured riders, “Don’t worry. This is my science project.”

The Architecture Of Shoes

Form follows function, and function follows security at JFK’s new terminal 5*:

From the moment that passengers first arrive at JetBlue Airways’ $750 million terminal at Kennedy International Airport in September, they will face an unmistakably post-9/11 world.

Most airline terminals have been jury-rigged since 2001 to accommodate all the extra security workers and equipment. But JetBlue’s new Terminal 5 is among the first in the United States designed from the ground up after the terrorist attacks.

The 340-foot-wide security checkpoint will dominate the departures hall the way ticket counters once did, occupying the focal point of the Y-shaped building.

There will be 20 security lanes. “They were sized with the idea that passengers have luggage, have children, have wheelchairs and have special needs,” said William R. DeCota, director of aviation at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs Kennedy.

After running the security gantlet, travelers will find a lot of benches where they can pull themselves back together.

There will be subtler touches, too: resilient rubber Tuflex floor (instead of cold, hard terrazzo) for the areas where one has to go shoeless.

Location Scout: JFK.

*Not to be confused with the old Terminal 5 or other variations thereof.

Bomb At Times Square Recruiting Station

Bill Ayers is in the news again and a bomb goes off at the Times Square Recruiting Station:

A small explosive device damaged a landmark military recruiting station in Times Square before dawn today, prompting a huge police response that disrupted transit at the “crossroads of the world.”

The explosive device caused minor damage, and no one was injured when the explosive went off about 3:45 a.m., police said. The explosion shattered a glass entryway.

Members of the police department’s bomb squad and fire officials gathered outside the recruiting station, which has occasionally been the site of anti-war demonstrations, ranging from silent vigils to loud rallies.

Witnesses staying at a hotel in the area said they heard a “big bang” and could feel the building shake. A large plume of smoke was also visible after the explosion, they said.

Location Scout: Times Square Recruiting Station.