When plans were being made to rebuild the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks, all the talk was about the symbolism of the effort. But now that we are in the midst of a recession and a credit crunch, the cold hard facts are getting in the way. There is not enough private money available for the project.
So now the issue is, does the Port Authority of New York use tax payers funds to finance the project, or does the rebuilding stall and seem like a victory to the terrorists.
It is a tough question.
The result would be that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government entity that owns the site, would take on more of the risk of the project at a time when the agency already faces budget restraints to pursue its core transportation and infrastructure missions.
The Port Authority, eager to prevent the project from stalling, is considering helping to finance at least one of Mr. Silverstein’s planned three office towers, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Silverstein is requesting financing help on at least two of the three towers. The Port Authority would require concessions from Mr. Silverstein, including possibly giving up some of upside profits should the towers succeed in the long term.
Developer of 9/11 Site Seeks Aid – WSJ.com.
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Larry Silverstein should be tried for treason. He has already admitted that he gave the order to Demolish World Trade Center 7 on Sept. 11th 2001. This was the third building that collapsed on 9/11 but was not hit by any plane. Mr. Silverstein has already collected somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 Billion dollars in Insurance claims from those attacks and is still seeking more from the airlines and federal government in various civil lawsuits. Now he is asking congress for a bailout>? Get the F out of here. Why doesn't he use some of the $9 billion he has already got in insurance payments.
Oh, and for the record, Mr. Silverstein bought the deeds on the WTC property in June of 2001 for about $60, Million dollars and immediately insured the property and buildings specifically against acts of terrorism.
Maybe we should just scrap this whole project and put up a memorial garden instead? It would be good for New York to have a pretty, air filtering, food growing tower.
The suggestion by Portland Real Estate seems like a good and certainly much less expensive way of erecting some kind of memorial that could still have the same significance.
I say show the world how great this Country really is and rebuild the World Trade Center, only 20 stories taller than the originals and add stairwells to all four corners of each building along with four or five floating skybridges connecting the two buildings. And best of all, hand Saudi Arabia the bill for all this and never mind what the economic climate is. This Freedom Tower crap is a bunch of passificsm to placate all the liberals and the mealy-mouths of the country. Remember, that's why the buildings came down in the first place!