The 9/11 Freedom Tower: Just Build It. Please!

As symbols go, there is none more important in the post-9/11 world than building the 1,776-foot tall FreedomTower on the site of the World Trade Center twin towers.

But the enormous project, originally scheduled for completition in 2008, is the victim of a nasty and never ending slugfest between Larry Silverstein, the developer who controls the lease on the property, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land.

Don't get me wrong. Whatever rose from the site of the 9/11 attacks had to be just right, so it was understandable that the design competition would drag out, which it did.

But there is consensus on architect Daniel Libeskind's umpteenth design interation -- which works just fine for me -- and the money to build the Freedom Tower is more or less there.

But despite vows to quickly rebuild, not one spade of earth has been turned, although the debris from the original WTC towers was long ago cleared and the below streel level transit infrastruture substantially rebuilt.

It's easy to take sides on this one:

Silverstein could give a rat's butt about symbols. What matters to him is maximizing his profit. In fact, he's become a symbol himself: Of unvarnished , public-be-damned greed.

The New York Times has the gory details here.