9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero

After the 9/11 attacks, once the smoke cleared and the rubble was removed, New Yorkers had a city to rebuild. There was one fundamental question: no one could agree on the future of Ground Zero. Some wanted the towers back, while others believed the site should remain a memorial. Then, a single event changed everything…

On September 11, 2001, almost three thousand people died in the deadliest terrorist attack in America’s history. Edward Wyatt, a reporter at the New York Times, was sent to the local hospital where he waited for hours before realizing that no one was coming. Few people were wounded. There were those who got out and those who died. And most of the people who died were never recovered. Ground Zero became the final resting place for thousands of New Yorkers, from wealthy executives to undocumented immigrants.

Plans for rebuilding began immediately and the stakes could not have been higher. Many thought it might be the end of downtown. The leaseholder, Larry Silverstein, wanted to rebuild the towers just as they had been, But many of the families of the deceased disagreed. Monica Iken was ready to chain herself to the fence at Ground Zero so that they couldn’t “build over dead people”.

Then the city decided to do one of the bravest—or stupidest—things in the history of city planning. They gathered 5,000 representative New Yorkers into the largest town hall in American history to vote on the city’s six proposals. People expected chaos and yelling. But instead, the representatives rejected all the proposals and this top down approach and successfully charted a new path forwards. It was this meeting that that determined was is at Ground Zero today.