NEW YORK CITY-The word of the day was “commitment.” As a celebration of accomplishment, the gathering of key players in the World Trade Center’s construction was a sight paralleled, perhaps only by the WTC’s rapid construction. On the 10th Floor of 250 Greenwich St., also known as 7 WTC, local dignitaries and businessmen gathered to make the WTC’s completion an inevitability with an official reaction to the agreement between the Port Authority, the City of New York and Silverstein Properties. The press hustled into a small section of the 10th Floor and watched a brief time-lapse movie of the construction of the World Trade Center. The movie was created by Marcus Robinson and ostensibly introduced the afternoon’s proceedings. Mayor Bloomberg drove the point home toward the afternoon’s press conference as he explained, “New York has deserved to see this hole in the heart of our city filled.”
Governor David Paterson hit on a common note of the afternoon saying, “We are rising today to capture our freedom. Not just here, but across the country.” He pointed out that despite the numerous set-backs, the beleaguered site was “on the road to great success.” As important as the deal itself, solidified recently by a deal with the Port Authority of New Jersey, Paterson noted that the memorial pools, already under construction, are on schedule for a 2011 opening, on the 10-year anniversary of what the governor referred to as a “vile and vicious attack.” Paterson also took some time to apologize to the Mayor and Sheldon Silver regarding the state’s resources, which were not up to snuff to accomplish what everyone wanted during the process; admittedly a process not entirely under the governor’s control.