May 2013 – The Twin Towers Alliance

Last week was one of the worst news weeks ever for the WTC development. CRAIN’S started off the week by reporting that “No major corporate office lease has been signed at the site since magazine publishing giant Condé Nast signed a deal to lease about 1.2 million square feet at 1 WTC two years ago.” (It’s closer to three.) “The deal was hailed at the time as a validation of the site’s prospects as an office neighborhood, but the buildings continue to lose out on the handful of major office tenants currently in the market.”

That information alone required editorial page reactions, given how heavily invested the public is at the site. How many people read CRAIN’S? But it is that refusal by the media to deal with the facts, while they can still be dealt with, that has made the World Trade Center a PR agent’s dream. Anything they pump out gets distributed by the media as gospel, no matter how wishful — or wasteful — it may be.

The other news items were just as sensational. Where is the outcry? The revelations in the Observer were a reminder of how willfully officials imposed their reckless plan at such a high cost to the public. Isn’t looking into abuses of power the media’s obligation? Where is that abuse more despicable than at the World Trade Center? The proof that publishers and editors have other loyalties is in the stories their papers don’t follow. For some reason, they just can’t get excited about how the public is being swindled at Ground Zero.

Meanwhile, Larry Silverstein, who is having a wonderful time getting rich and famous off of the WTC, continues to put his money into private, more lucrative ventures, while we — the toll-paying, tax-paying public — continue to pay his way at Ground Zero.

New York Times

“A ‘Sphere’ That Has Taken a Year to Roll Nowhere“

Real Estate Weekly

Silverstein closes loan for $950M Four Seasons tower“

Businessweek

“WTC Properties Loses Bid to Bar Act-of-War Defense Over 9/11“

New York Post

“Path says ‘eye’ do“