New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced an ambitious $10.6 billion redevelopment plan in lower Manhattan where the World Trade Centre once stood.
The area would be transformed by parks, a promenade lined with 700 trees in the style of Paris's Champs Elysées and additional schools and cultural institutions.
The mayor's proposal came a week before the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is expected to present seven competing proposals for the future of the World Trade Center site.
Mr Bloomberg offered a menu of financing mechanisms including $5.9 billion in federal funds already received for rebuilding the World Trade Centre site.
Mr Bloomberg called for a commuter train station at the World Trade Centre site in addition to additional subway and ferry facilities. He said a public market would transform shopping and help anchor housing in two new neighbourhoods.
The mayor said construction of large-scale performing arts centres would draw tourists, stimulate private investments and help redefine lower Manhattan. Smaller facilities would provide much needed studio and rehearsal space for performing and visual artists.
He suggested building a park to be named Greenwich Square on a deck over the mouth of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, which connects Manhattan with the outer borough, and erecting schools where the World Trade Centre once stood.
AP