America’s national disgrace and shining symbol of ineptitude, the still undeveloped WTC site, continues to embarrass as the Post reports on the latest delays. According to a new report, the transit hub planned for the location won’t be finished until at least 2015 a year longer than expected that will further hamper other development downtown. But hey, at least there’s a Subway! |NYP|
Photo: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
A flickr user uploaded this old school poloraoid of the Towers in their infant stage and notes, “My Dad took this picture of the World Trade Center being built.” |flickr/cntrysigns|
Adland can’t figure out why there was such an uproar over the recent 9/11-themed World Wildlife Fund ad or any creative that obnoxiously uses the World Trade Center as a backdrop, arguing that it’s nothing new: “Why the backlash this time? Was it because AdFreak posted about it? Was it simply the timing?” Or it could just have to with the 3000 innocent people that died there, virtually ensuring controversy (and media attention) every time it’s used? |Adland|
Reconstruction of the World Trade Center site has been scaled back to stumps and now further postponed. According to a secret government report, the Freedom Tower may not see completion until 2018, 17 years after the 9/11 attacks. The central tower and transit hub are predicted to open four years later than was announced last year, while the September 11th memorial may not be completed until 2013, two years later than planned. Though the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center claims the latest dates are incorrect, many, including Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, are infuriated that “Ground Zero has been left to look like an unfinished parking lot.” |NYDN|
Symbolic Freemason and British royal trophy, Prince Harry, has officially arrived in New York City. And judging from his itinerary, he’s doing more charity events than a Red Cross worker. As part of the prince’s two-day public relations blitz, he stopped to solemnly pay his respects at the World Trade Center site. |Gothamist|
Yesterday marked 32 years to the day that George Willig aka “the human fly” ascended the South Tower (WTC 2). Using custom climbing gear, it took the Queens resident about 3.5 hours to reach the top where he was immediately arrested by the NYPD, leading us to wonder: when did he have the opportunity to tag his name on a rooftop beam? The city ended up fining him $1.10 (one penny for every story), but never buffed the high altitude graffiti which remained visible until the building was destroyed.
Photos by Maksimal
The latest plan for the seriously delayed and shrinking World Trade Center calls for dumping several skyscrapers. The Port Authority is proposing replacing Tower 2 and 3, at 200 and 175 Greenwich Street respectively, with a pair of “stumps,” four or five story buildings for retail use. They also hope to abandon all plans for Tower 5 at 130 Liberty Street, the site of the toxic Deutsche Bank building, leaving just two towers and half the office space originally envisioned. And just because the replacement designs are smaller doesn’t mean they’ll go up any faster. The so-called “stumps” could take a couple years to redesign, pushing completion of the site’s transportation hub past 2014. |NYDN|
What’s up with Federal government and 9/11 lately? First there was Monday’s FAA sanctioned flyover near Ground Zero by an Air Force One lookalike that had people running for cover and now there’s word that FEMA put out a coloring book for kids depicting the September 11th attacks and other ready to be colored cataclysms as a way to help them “cope with disasters.” Titled, “A Scary Thing Happened,” the 25 page book was available for download off the Katrina-bumbling agency’s site until they received complaints and decided to remove it. But not before the Smoking Gun was able to snag some images and if you dare, the actual PDF. |The Smoking Gun|
Although it took terrorists (and probably the CIA) only a few hours to bring down all the World Trade Center buildings, after eight years, only the “upper third” of the highly toxic Deutsche Bank building has been dismantled so far according to this color chart released by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. |Curbed|
Here’s a clip of KRS-One at SMT Studios’ Now or Never 2008 benefit discussing how reprehensible it is for the city not to take care of first responders and rescue workers who risked their health—many their lives—during the clean-up of the 9/11 attack. He also talks about how proud he was to be in Loose Change II, a very successful and controversial conspiramentary that offered alternative theories for the attacks on the World Trade Center. When asked if there’s a consensus in Hip Hop on what really happened, the Teacha said he won’t speak for everyone, but did offer an estimation, “I would say 80% of us believe that was some stupid twistedness, like however you put it ‘9/11 was an inside job.’” He goes on and shouts out Jadakiss for outright accusing Bush of knocking down the towers. Also, if you have footage of KRS and are wondering if you need to get in touch with him to legally clear it for your videos, you don’t, he doesn’t mind being used for the promotion of the truth. |911Blogger|
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