Lower Manhattan can become the world's first 21st century city, incorporating the best practices in urban design, green buildings and technology, transportation, and economic development. It is altogether fitting that Lower Manhattan show the way to a new urban future, in much the same way that a century ago it became the first great 20th-century high-rise city built around a modern metropolitan transportation system. We have a vision of a new downtown that builds on New York City's historic past, but takes it into a new era that will be the best of its almost four centuries of existence. We envision a new Downtown that is alive 24 hours a day, a place where people stroll along the narrow historic streets that anchor America's leadership of the global finance system, while simultaneously serving as a home to diverse and economically integrated residential communities, to shops and restaurants, schools, universities and to new industries. This is a place that contains moving memorials to tragedy and history, and that offers welcome respite and amenities to millions of visitors each year. This is a regional and global center of culture, and a place with a remarkable number of high quality public parks and spaces for both residents and visitors. It is a place that draws on the latest innovations in sustainable city design practices from all over the world to craft a beautiful and prosperous place to live and work. Above all, it is a place that honors those who died in a terrible act of war on Sept. 11, 2001, by affirming and building upon our democratic principles while moving forward into a more prosperous, enlightened, efficient, inclusive and vital era.