NY Post Rips Corzine on World Trade Center Rebuilding “Meddling”
Plans to rebuild at ground zero, the site in downtown NYC where the Twin Towers once stood, have been slow to develop due to the normal big government bureacracy and political wrangling over the shape and scope of a memorial to the victims of 9-11. Now, Jon Corzine has gotten involved, and the NY Post is not too happy.
“Ground Zero” is controlled by the Port Authority, a joint New Jersey - Nw York agency that manages the three airports in the NY-NJ metro area along with the PATH trains, the Lincoln Tunnel, the GW bridge, the ports and just about every other major piece of transporation infrastructure.
Jon Corzine has demanded that the Ground Zero developer kick in the extra money, at least $100 million, to keep the project solvent and to fund the memorial {link].
The NY Post responds by attacking the governor and his motives. In N.J. Side Shaking PA Talks quotes members of the Port Authority board of directors saying New Jersey is throwing up roadblocks “…because they don’t have to live with a hole in the ground.” And in an editorial
Corzine’s Blackmail they editors really let loose, saying New Jersey is blocking Ground Zero redevelopment because they don’t want the added competition for office space and commercial real estate that would happen occur when the site is developed. “New Yorkers may wonder why the fate of a prime parcel of land in their city should be subject to the whims of a neighboring state” says the editorial. They also describe New Jersey as a financial parasite “…the only big action in New Jersey. The state’s elected officials have been milking that cow for decades”. And they note that one of the Jersey members of the PA managing board is himself a commercial real estate developer.