The recovery of Lower Manhattan

In the months after the destruction of the World Trade towers, there were much talk about people and businesses dispersing across Greater New York and beyond—wanting to get away from a place so vulnerable to terrorist attacks. 

Some did in fact move. But the city has proven more resilient than many thought possible. The New Times reports:

A DECADE after the Sept. 11 attack, downtown Manhattan is resurgent. The residential population has doubled. Two skyscrapers — 1 and 4 World Trade Center — are rising at ground zero, due to open in 2013. The next year, the exuberant PATH transit hub is scheduled to come online. The national memorial is open; two streets have been built. A far more diverse array of businesses call downtown home today, including a large cluster of media companies, law firms and nonprofit organizations. And just last week, both the northbound and southbound platforms of the Cortlandt Street subway station were open.

Reporter Charles V. Bagli quotes John H. Mollenkopf, director of City University of New  York’s Center for Urban Research: “I had a lot of skepticism about whether the World Trade Center area could be recreated as a vibrant, 24-hour place. But I have to say that despite much botched planning, the delays, posturing and bureaucratic politics, things are actually coming along very well.” 

In a separate article on the front of the Metropolitan section, Ford Fessenden presents a series of maps, charts, and renderings that show just how dynamic Lower Manhattan has become. "Four of the 10 fastest-growing census tracts in the city are south of Chambers Street," he observes. "The part of the financial district between Maiden Lane and Wall Street counted barely 1,000 residents when the planes struck the towers. Now it is home to 8,000 people."

From the perspective of urbanism, the terrorists did not win.