Judge tosses suit over WTC security

The city’s plans to implement a series of restrictions around the World Trade Center complex were upheld by a Manhattan judge Thursday, despite Downtown residents’ complaints that the move would create an environment of “fortresslike isolation.”

The New York Police Department plans to close the streets in and around the building complex to normal through traffic. Vehicles would only be allowed access to the complex after a screening, the NYPD has said.

Downtown residents brought a lawsuit against the city saying that the NYPD failed to do a proper environmental review before adopting the plan, the New York Daily News reported. They argued that the plan would create a gated community plagued by frequent traffic jams and pollution from idling tour buses.

But Justice Margaret Chan dismissed the suit Thursday, saying that city lawyers had convinced her that the NYPD had thorough evaluated alternatives.

“While the NYPD has to consider a reasonable number of alternatives, these alternatives do not have to be the same as those proposed by the (opponents),” the judge wrote in her decision seen by the newspaper. Downtown residents had proposed that the tour buses could be inspected further uptown. [NYDN]  — Hiten Samtani