In the News: The void that is the World Trade Center
THE VOID THAT IS GROUND ZERO
Michael Kimmelman in The Times writes about the void that is the World Trade Center. It might require a closer read than I could summon to get the gist? But I think he sees the main problem is being lack of public space, which, largely thanks to the memorial, is true. From The Times: “The original ambition at ground zero to restore streets that the Twin Towers had erased sounded smart and forward-thinking 20 years ago. But it hasn’t panned out as hoped because the streets remain cordoned off and policed like demilitarized zones. Street-level retail in and around ground zero’s office towers is meager. There are few places just to sit and enjoy a sandwich.”
THE NEXT GENERATION OF WTC VICTIMS
New York Magazine has a story on the latest victims of the World Trade Center attacks: people who lived or worked near the towers. “It’s now clear, though, that while the impact was more immediate for first responders, they were not the only people getting sick. By 2019, people who lived or worked near the towers had eclipsed responders among new enrollees in the program. In 2025, that group represented two-thirds of new enrollees. These new enrollees may only be the beginning. The collapse of the towers rained down at least 70 carcinogens over miles of lower Manhattan and beyond, from dioxins, asbestos, and PCBs to lead and other heavy metals. It was one of the worst environmental disasters in American history in the heart of one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world.”
PLEASE FIND DADDY
The Guardian has a story about an exhibit in Brooklyn by Phil Buehler, an artist and photographer who had watched the Twin Towers collapse from his office window and then photographed the missing posters over the following days. He amassed more than 500 images, and put them away in a box on a top shelf because he could not bear to look at them. They are on display for the first time at Most Holy Trinity – St Mary’s.