CHRISTOPHER MICHAUD, New York | Friday
THE developer who led the group that bought a 99-year lease of the trade center said he was determined to help rebuild the complex, as well as 7 World Trade Center, a neighboring building that also collapsed, the Wall Street Journal said in its online edition on Friday.
“It would be the tragedy of tragedies not to rebuild this part of New York,” said Larry Silverstein, who closed on the $3,2-billion deal with his partner Westfield America Inc. in late July.
“It would give the terrorists the victory they seek,” he said.
New York’s two senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, emerged from a meeting on Thursday with President Bush to say he had endorsed their goal of $20-billion in extra emergency money, beyond the $20-billion initially envisioned.
The city remained on edge, with the three area airports shut down on Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration only hours after they reopened for the first time since Tuesday. Some 90 bomb scares and threats, all unfounded and which prompted evacuations throughout Manhattan, only added to the frayed nerves.
But on a third straight day the likes of which New Yorkers had never seen, and hoped never to see again, people struggled to resume some semblance of their daily routine.
In the boroughs outside Manhattan, most shops were open, people rode the subways and cafes and coffee shops were filled.
American flags hung everywhere.
Entrances to firehouses were piled with bouquets of flowers left by residents. Ice cream and doughnut shops installed televisions for customers to keep up with the latest developments, and newsstands sold out of virtually all their newspapers.
Signs hung from apartment buildings proclaimed “This will not stop New York,” and churches continued to hold vigils and prayer services. Groups of people stood on corners or sat on brownstone stoops talking quietly — and there was only one topic of conversation.
Broadway shows resumed performances, with the cast of the hit “The Producers” dedicating the performance to those who had died in the attack and their loved ones. Theaters dimmed their marquees in honor of the victims.
Family and friends of the missing continued flocking to hospitals in search of any news on their loved ones.
Most schools reopened, and roadways began to get back to normal, although several tunnels and bridges leading into Manhattan remained closed or sharply restricted.
Former President Bill Clinton walked the streets of Manhattan on Thursday and toured the wreckage of the World Trade Center with his daughter, Chelsea, who was only 12 blocks away when the twin towers collapsed.
Shell-shocked US bond market participants on Thursday filed in for their first day of work since the disaster, and the stock market was expected to reopen on Monday after four days with no trading, the longest closing since World War One. – Reuters
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