Um, ground zero still looks like ground zero (or is it just me?)

By Jen McGahan • September 12th, 2009

Yesterday, after reading a lot of writing in memory of 9/11/01, somehow I understood (on yet another level) the effect of the blow we took as a nation that day. In the morning I heard a radio announcer describe that day as “lustrous,” which seemed perfect, finally; an adjective that provides the sense of shiny clarity the instant just before we lost a huge slice of our innocence. That last happy moment seems more highly polished when you contrast it with the horror of what came next.

Later I read a survivor’s account on HotAir.com in which the narrator Allahpundit describes how it felt to cross the 59th Street bridge speaking of revenge with a total stranger while wondering if the plot extended to blowing up bridges or releasing a disease. The man’s fear and far reaching dread continued; he’d go out at night (months later) in Manhattan, and be cowed by fear of seeing an orange mushroom cloud light up the sky… I never really imagined that, and my heart goes out to New Yorkers.

Me, I was 34 at the time, had just sent my first child to her first preschool just a week or two before, and was pregnant with my second. In the thick of my happy housewife years, I was working on our wedding scrapbook that morning and couldn’t have imagined for the life of me who would have wanted to do this. I paced, made phone calls, and wasn’t able to turn the channel to see another view of it. I remember seeing a toothless woman in Pakistan dancing in the streets later that evening on TV and I wanted to punch something. (This was a surprise, feeling my hands curl into fists at the sight of an old dancing woman. ) What kind of long-time resentment must she have been carrying all her life…and why? I was drunk with anger and grief. I paced a lot.

Who would have ever guessed that 8 years later I’d be googling why the heck that spot in NYC still looks like Ground Zero yet here I am today, wondering whatsup. I watch the footage and I’m brought right back. How do New Yorkers tolerate walking by that hellhole every day?

Turns out we have a few years to wait to see completion of Freedom Tower and the rest of the project…27 of them in fact, according to a recent market analysis by Cushman and Wakefield. And why is that? Well, the usual ‘behind-schedule-and-over-budget’ concerns between the developer Larry Silverstein and the NY Port Authority, for one thing. But another powerful factor is at play…the intangible Belief in the Future of New York.

I put those words “Belief” and “Future” in capital letters because while one side asserts that the city needs those 30 thousand jobs the towers will provide, the other soberly states that it’s a very different market now in downtown New York. It’s a battle of ideologies…and money.

Trust me; I get it. Now is not the time to spend money you don’t have, and if the city doesn’t have the money, well… Say, have you checked out that “moving” 20-foot reflecting pool next to that crane?

I’d love to see that Manhattan bravado you used to hear about reflected in a massive bigger- than-ever skyscraper within 5 years. We could do it if we wanted to. My heart wants to see that; I want my kids to see it. Guess I’m sort of a “More is more” kind of girl.

Not sure what this has to do with business, per se, but it’s worth noting how quickly and fiercely the NY and NJ Port authorities built the first WTC in the late 60’s. The slurry was poured for the retaining wall of the foundation in the year I was born (you can still see that retaining wall in the picture above), and now I have to wait until I’m 70 years old to see this wrong righted? What’s happened to this country?

What was different about that time? We hadn’t taken a punch from an enemy on that scale for a long time, so maybe folks weren’t so wounded by fear back then. If you remember the 70’s maybe you also watched the Bionic Man every week and heard those words, “We can re-build; we can make him better.” I, for one, as a child bought the whole thing.

Sure, the economy sucks and the world is changing, but I want to see those towers rebuilt right now. What better retaliation to enemies of freedom than to erect a gorgeous gleaming “lustrous” building ASAP? Watch this video Building the World Trade Center and imagine the empowerment Americans would feel to see such a sight on that hallowed ground.

We will never forget. But I’d rather remember with the sight of a new building than with that of a hole.]]>