World Trade Center Tribute

Around 9 Years Ago:

8 Years ago at 9:03 AM:

NEW YORK, Sept. 10 — In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with the ruins of the World Trade Center still smoldering, political leaders from New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to President George W. Bush vowed to quickly rebuild the site, bigger and better than before.

“The skyline will be made whole again,” Giuliani said. And as a sign of the city’s resilience, initial plans called for the rebuilding to be complete by 2011 — the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Eight years later, the site known as Ground Zero remains mostly a giant hole in the ground. A projected completion date has been pushed back years, if not decades. The project has been beset by repeated delays, changing designs, billions of dollars in cost overruns, and feuding among the various parties involved in the complex undertaking.

“It’s just one big political nightmare,” said Jim Riches, a retired New York deputy fire chief, who lost his firefighter son, Jimmy, on 9/11 and who has attended meetings on the progress of the construction. “I think it’s a national disgrace,” he said. “I really think it’s horrible. We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t get all the politicians in New York . . . to build the World Trade Center back up again.”

As time has passed since the 2001 attacks, some are now questioning the complexity of the plan. Others are wondering whether a city hit hard by the recession — with a shrunken financial sector and with a glut of cheap commercial space — really needs to be spending billions to add 9 million more square feet of office space. A report commissioned by the authority estimates that it will be 2030 before all the space can be filled.

“The design of that site was done in a political and emotional environment,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit business group. “It wasn’t realistic about the technical aspects and the cost, and it wasn’t realistic about anticipating that this was a long-term project that would have to go through changes.

“All of America wanted to show our resilience,” Wylde said. “As time has gone by, it’s become increasingly clear that we can fight back and show our resilience and strength, but we have to do it within the constraints of how much we have to spend.”

I Hope all the World Remember It!