[Pizzuti]

As a person who doesn't live in NYC, I don't think people outside the city are really judging America's strength/weakness on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. Nor are they using it to formulate observations about the city. Politicians may choose to frame the site that way to fulfill their own political ambitions - but that's not what ordinary people are thinking right now.

We've already done too much to tie the WTC site to a symbolic American response to 9/11. There are so many people in the country or in New York, and so few with actual influence over what happens with the site, that it would be unfair and strange to judge the country based on rebuilding. It was always clearly going to be a battleground for many competing interests and entities that would take a long time to hash it out.

I see how someone from New York City, where 9/11 was about the attack itself and the death and destruction there, not some generalized, vague assault on freedom or America, would see the site as an important symbol. I was in high school and feeling oppressed by the suburban, socially conservative place I lived in, and was in LOVE with New York City (where I had never been, but thought of it as a tolerant place for an eccentric teenager), I had the neighborhoods and prominent buildings of Manhattan memorized, and was first in line hoping to see the site rebuilt as soon as possible, with something bigger and stronger and greater than what had been there before. I had pictures of the trade center all over my bedroom wall, I was one of the few who knew what "towers 1 and 2" meant when they announced at school that they had fell (most kids were thinking the world trade center was the Empire State Building). Twin Towers were emblematic of New York City and the city hasn't yet gotten a new emblem to put in its place.

But I guarantee you that nobody is saying "oh, I guess NYC wasn't really so great or important after all" because of the delay. Nor are they taking it to mean anything about America. Nor can I imagine that a person living in France or China, who, when considering the United States, looks to see if they've re-built the WTC site yet.

When I think of physical places, symbols or objects in NYC I think of subways, Central Park, the Empire State Building, taxis, Broadway, the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Times, and finally the World Trade Center, in that order. Most people see NYC being characterized by ethnic diversity, sexual liberation, vulgarity, an arts and cultural capital, self-importance, liberalism, a banking capitol, rudeness, social tolerance... in that order. Those are just images I get and not necessarily judgments or analysis. They think of cities (especially those as high profile as New York) as the people and not as much the physical objects in them, if that makes any sense.

As far as this discussion goes with New Yorkers wanting this to get rebuilt soon, skyscraper enthusiasts wanting this to be rebuilt soon, and those immediately effected by 9/11 wanting it to be rebuilt soon (perhaps; I don't really know what the families think), I'm on board and in favor of that discussion. I hope it gets rebuilt ASAP too. But don't worry about this affecting New York's image to those living in other states - it doesn't have any effect whatsoever. Those who are current enough on national events to pay attention are also aware of the complexities of the process and know it's a difficult feat to bring everyone together.