Disconcerting

Google! came out with a brand new toy this week in a beta test. It allows you to view maps via satellite imagery. It's very cool stuff - you can see your house from probably 200 miles in space with a resolution of a few meters. Very high tech and very cool. However, if you pan over to New York City's Lower Manhattan, you get to see something that is rather more disconcerting.

Look over where the World Trade Center used to be. It's still a gaping hole, although there are signs of some construction work. It's not a direct overhead shot, but instead taken at an oblique angle, but the one thing you take away is a gnawing sense of absense. Nearly 3.5 years later, there's still no sign of anything permanent being built.

I just wished to bring that little tidbit to people's attention. The Pentagon was rebuilt and restored within a year. Seven WTC is nearly built on the former site of that building, but the Pit is still absent permanent reconstruction.

This overhead shot shows just what that means to Lower Manhattan and to New York City.

Call your representatives, the Mayor's Office, and the Governor's Office and demand that construction begin. It appears as though no one is in any hurry to see the site built. And that is a shame and brings dishonor to all those who lost their lives on 9/11. Their memories should not be tarnished because no one had the political will to see the site built in a timely fashion.

UPDATE 04/08/2005 9:46AM EDT:
I'm not alone in my view that the site's current condition is shameful. The most interesting quote is this one, and apparently a student of history:

Kate Campana, 45, a Manhattan homemaker, said, "It takes forever to get things done in this town. There are too many interested parties with lots of power and they screw things up. You need a Robert Moses these days to get things done."

Ms. Campana saw Moses' works at the tail end of his long and storied career as the master builder of metro New York (his works extend from Jones Beach to the Triborough Bridge to hundreds of miles of roadways throughout the State. Yet, she hits the nail on the head when she says that it would take someone with an indomitable will to get the site built. Gov. Pataki appears unwilling or unable to push the project forward, despite his backing of the Libeskind plan. It is that plan, and its Freedom Tower, that is the source of many of the woes. Silverstein's architects and engineers are having an extremely difficult time trying to get the Tower to actually work with the site, and huge egos are at play as well.

As others have suggested, it is quite possibly the time to put forth a renewed call to rebuilt the WTC as Twin Towers - albeit a much improved and safer version. I think that call is warranted considering the dismal success thus far. Most New Yorkers would probably agree.

UPDATE II 11:24AM 04/08/2005:
In case there was any confusion over the Google satellite imagery, those images must have been taken more than a year ago, as they fail to show the construction taking place on 7 WTC, which is now nearing completion. The Ground Zero site continues to have little new construction taking place, so the images are representative of the lack of progress to date.