August 18, 2004

I'd like to welcome everyone to this brand new column debuting on the brand new Save The WTC website, entitled "Talk Back." Here, I, Jack, will speak my mind and talk back about the WTC rebuilding whether it's about any latest news, what I think should be done and so on.

The last major announcement that spread through the news wires was on July 4th, when the Freedom Tower's groundbreaking or should I say, laying of the cornerstone took place. It was no big deal, we sat and heard Pataki, McGreevey, Bloomberg and the rest of the officials say basically the same speeches only in various forms. It's important to note that on such a busy holiday, who was even watching and listening to their 15 minute speeches? They all talked about freedom, the Constitution, the nation's history while I for one who saw and heard what they said later in the day during the evening news, sat there wondering what's this all about.

I'll tell you all what's it's about, it's about Pataki and company trying to spin this tower into some symbolic, patriotic gift that he's presenting us with, which apparently no one wants. If this tower's ever built (I hope not), you're going to never stop hearing about how symbolic and how much of a representation it is, yet the bottom line is, no one cares.

Thinking about this further in skyscraper history, no skyscraper was ever given such symbolic representations in the past before it was actually built. Pop me an e-mail and correct me if I'm wrong. The whole point of a famous, popular, successful skyscraper is to have it constructed and it lives, breathes, is of use and the nicknames or representations naturally are formed. Calling the original World Trade Center a representation of the United States economic success and financial might before its foundations were even laid would've been laughable, since it hadn't earned this title just yet.

On another aspect of the rebuilding process, the new 7 WTC is looking better than ever, rising quickly even without tenants. It's currently at the 40th floor or so and will eventually be completed at 52 stories. Click here to see a recent image thanks to the forumer gripja at Skyscraperpage (link to that can be found at forums page under Interactive.)

I'll conclude this first column and every column by providing a pro-rebuilding quote I've heard, came up with, or found on the web.

"Rebuild them exactly as they were."

                                            -Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, Week of Sept. 16-22, 2004

Any comments, thoughts, critiques, suggestions are welcome and can be submitted to