ABSTRACT
IN A PHRASE THAT CAN CHARITABLY ONLY BE DESCRIBED AS DISINGENUOUS, LOU THOMSON, PRESIDENT OF THE LMDC, ANNOUNCED THAT THE SEVEN NEW PROPOSALS FOR THE WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE “WERE FORGED IN A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS.” If only it were so: deliberations over the future of Ground Zero have become progressively less and less democratic as layer after layer of bureaucracy is inserted between the citizens of New York and the final decision about the site. The situation was bad to begin with, with the most powerful players the Port Authority, an agency of Olympian detachment from public control, and its largest lessor, Larry Silverstein, whose venal values were nowhere more clearly revealed than in his attempt to persuade his insurers, Swiss re, that two catastrophes had occurred on the site and that his payout should, therefore, be double.
