We'll show 'em! Eventually. (Report: Freedom Tower won't be built until 2018)

[BeyondGeography]

Ground Zero Freedom Tower construction lags, slated for 2018 finish

A secret report predicts the Freedom Tower - billed as America's defiant answer to terrorism - won't be finished until 17 years after the 9/11 attacks.

A 2018 opening for the iconic, 1,776-foot building would come more than four years after the opening date the Port Authority trumpeted just 10 months ago, the government report found.

The July 14 "confidential draft...risk analysis" by the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center (LMCCC) found that every blockbuster project at Ground Zero has fallen years behind time lines the PA unveiled in October.

The report says the grandiose transportation hub may not be ready until 2018, while the Sept. 11 Memorial, the site's emotional centerpiece, could be two years behind its 2011 deadline...

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/08/04/2009-08-04_touted_ground_zero_construction_projects_years_off_schedule__report_behind_the_t.html#ixzz0NDQh8tQ7

Would be nice if all those delays prompted a rethink of the entire unnecessary project.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Agreed

The area is a graveyard. The idea of commerce and business as uausl just....just...doesn't seem right.

[zipplewrath]

3. Drop the "usual"

More than one area (see Miami after Andrew) has not only recovered from disasters, but thrived. Rebuilding the core down there with the "building of tomorrow" in some sense could be the ultimate expression. Make it the "greenest" we know how. Integrate all the newest communications technology into the building. Make it the most well "connected" building around. WiFi/G4/whatever. Make it pedestrian/Segway/public transport "friendly". Integrate waste reprocessing on site, solar power on the walls, a "gray water" system integral with the building. And develop these technologies and products here, with US labor, in Michigan, and Cleveland such that the investment stays. That way, when the building becomes the model for new construction around the world, we are the technology leaders in providing it.

[MrScorpio]

2. They should rebuild the WTC

That'll show them durn terrists

[Wapsie B]

4. You mean the Bush family?

[MrScorpio]

6. Yeah, have the Bush family pay for it

Since Georgie ignored the warnings in the first place

[Historic NY]

5. Bet they're still going to use foreign glass too.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/04/wtc_facade_glas.php

[lunatica]

7. I hate Bushian terms. The word Freedom has been highjacked

to serve as a propaganda tool to do it's opposite. Freedom Tower, Freedom Fries, they hate us for our Freedoms. And no one takes our freedoms away faster than the Bushistas.

Puke!

[bunkerbuster1]

9. Really oughta be called "Freedom Nuggets Tower."

Because we all love cleaning up them Freedom Nuggets, don't we?

[HamdenRice]

8. Here's a little insight. I sat in on a meeting where a non-profit was considering moving there.

It was a non-profit educational institution, which had already planned to move from its current space. The developers of the Freedom Tower were offering massive subsidies. Iirc, there was going to be a part set aside for non-profit and cultural institutions.

The discussion was pretty brief and was to the effect that the area is going to be a target for another terrorist attack sometime in the future, given 1993 and 2001, and they'd be crazy to move there, no matter how much money was thrown at them.

I suspect that attitude is pervasive.

Without tenants, you can't develop the site, because you can't get financing without rent paying tenants lined up.

Rebuilding to defy the terrorists was a stupid Bush era idea that combined the mindless jingoism of the Bush years with the greed of the real estate boom.

Both are over.

Turn it into a park and memorial space and be done with it.