Rebuilding Official Lukewarm on NYCO Downtown Home

This week's issue of Downtown Express offers a comprehensive progress report on post-9/11 rebuilding.

I was especially struck by Madelyn Wils's article, "Finding the right arts mix at the new W.T.C." Wils, who heads Community Board 1 and is on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, surely has an insider's view of the rebuilding process.

The article talked about the cultural institutions that the LMDC has shortlisted for the cultural institution to be built at the WTC. Of the New York City Opera, she said:

The New York City Opera has aggressively pursued a Downtown home. They could be a welcome addition on the site, but it is still unclear whether they physically fit. If they do, the question is would it be in lieu of other organizations that might have more direct impact on the community? The opera's programming may be successful Downtown, but how this 2,200-seat theater would be used when the opera is not in season is still unanswered. It would not be in anyone's interest to have a performing arts complex that is dark much of the year.

That doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement.