2002-12-09 - 1:14 p.m.
Working 40+ hrs and commuting 20+ hrs every week leaves me with very little free time. However, more oft than naught find myself engaging in activities that would be associated with someone with drastically far too much time on their hands...
Creating and submitting a 9/11 Memorial proposal
Recently, CNN.com (one of just a few websites that the firewall at work allows through the network) was accepting memorial proposals from the general public. The "best" proposals were being posted on their site. My inner civic engineer awoke from a lifelong slumber, and I feverishly began work on my plan. If CNN had decided to display my architectural masterwork (which they did not), I would have humbly posted the link on my blog. I envisioned my fellow CNN proposal-submitting-peers rallying behind my design as 'The One', and having this support somehow boil-over to the Lower Manhattan Rebuilding Committee. It would be I who would shape the skyline on New York City for generations to come.
My plan called for the creation of the 9/11 Memorial Bridge connecting Jersey City and the World Financial Center. Eight lanes for vehicles, tracks for the NJ Transit Light Rail, and a spacious pedestrian concourse (making it possible to traverse the Hudson River without paying $1.50). At ground zero I had placed a big Effle Towery thing and second grand sculpture of wire that looked similar to the bridge so there was continuity to the whole area. The bridge itself was one of those ultra-modern single suspension bridges like I once saw on The Learning Channel a few years ago when I had cable. The 9/11 Memorial bridge really would've been something. Roebling be damned.
Tune in next time to hear how responding to an unassuming little post on Craigslist landed me on Japanese TV playing folk music and completely wasting an entire afternoon.
