New York City Still Has Large Hole in the Ground
After the towers fell, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only New Yorker who assumed that we’d build them back up, and quickly. My favorite initial plan was to have four smaller towers flanked by one larger tower in an F-U gesture to future cowards.
That was a long time ago. So long ago that now I fear we will soon live in a world where T.V. shows and movies construct alternate realities as if 9/11 never happened. [SPOILER ALERT: We already live in such a world.]
And that would be fine if we had truly moved on from the tragedy. You grieve, you remember, you move on, it’s a natural part of life. But we haven’t moved on. Despite all of our sacrifices in blood, treasure, and liberty, all we are left with is our grief. Osama Bin Laden still limps around free. The TSA could demand rectal probing to get on an airplane, and we would submit “just in case.” And oh yeah, we’re apparently out of money — which is kind of exactly what the terrorists were trying to accomplish.
And there’s still this big, gaping hole in the middle of the city. Can we get anybody interested in doing something about that?
Yesterday, there was a rally at Ground Zero:
Construction workers hoping to speed up the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site chanted “Build it now!” at a rally Tuesday to urge quicker movement on the project.
Construction is under way on 1 World Trade Center, a memorial and a transit hub, but the building of other planned towers has stalled as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey battles developer Larry Silverstein.
via The New York Post
The dispute between Silverstein and the Port Authority is complicated and messy and the kind of thing you’d expect to be cleared up if there was a single adult in the room. Let me explain how this could be solved if New York was run by average New Yorkers instead bureaucrats and corporate interests who are more concerned about their asses than the city:
Issue #1 Port Authority wants Silverstein to put more private funds into the project. Silverstein does not.
Resolution: Silverstein needs to kick in some extra dollars. Right now he owns a hole in the ground. Soon he’ll own the most important building in America. My buddy Vinnie could make money with a front like that. So can Silverstein.
Issue #2 Port Authority wants construction to be delayed until the real estate market rebounds.
Resolution: When I want advice on the best way to get to New Jersey, I’ll ask Port Authority. When I want real estate market advice, I’ll ask just about anybody other than somebody who runs a bus station.
Issue #3 Unions want to play a big role in constructing the new towers.
Resolution: The original World Trade Center was built in under five years. Can you do it in under five years? You’ve got the job.
Issue #4 New York State has been run successively by: George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, and David Paterson.
Resolution: One guy was a lame duck milquetoast, the other guy couldn’t keep his pants on, the current guy is just … well … totally incompetent. Until further notice, the only politician allowed to talk about the Ground Zero project is Michael Bloomberg. This isn’t America, this isn’t a democracy, this is New York freaking City. Shut up and do your job.
See how easy that was?
There is literally no excuse for politics and money to be screwing up our expression of national pride.
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You’re probably correct on all of the points you’ve. And not living in in downtown NYC, I have little first-hand knowledge of any of it. But I will confess that it bothered me from the start that we were so willing to rebuild there. In my mind that “gaping hole” was and is still a grave site. The only thing in the aftermath that has ever given me solace are the two great towers of light that rise into the sky, into eternity.
The problem is that if you rebuild it as an F U to the terrorists, who gets the top offices? I vote david lat. Until he purchases functioning servers, he deserves to test fate.
The only sane solution would be to break the 99-year lease with some kind of payment (I think the original lease was in the ballpark of $3.5 Billion.) Just exercise eminent domain, buy it back, and return it to an agency to have full control over it.
Thank Pataki for “privatizing” which created this whole stalemate to begin with. The ongoing costs to the city economy are enormous.
Too bad the hole doesn’t expand to swallow Wall Street with all its swindlers and thieves. In fact a larger hole where New York used to be might be a win-win all the way around.
David Paterson is not incompetent. He is black. Sorta. Sorta like you, Elie.