
There's been this big brouhaha here over the past couple days because the Port Authority announced that they'd be calling the ridiculously-named "Freedom Tower" One World Trade Center from now on.
Of course it's all manufactured controversy to get page views and sell newspapers. Most of these guys at the New York Post or whatever don't even live here. Pataki probably really does feel slighted, but he was always an idiot anyway, an upstater out of touch with New York City.
Thing is, a majority of New Yorkers wanted the World Trade Center rebuilt exactly as it was. The people lost that political battle, but we still call it the World Trade Center. Even though there's nothing there, that's what we call it. The subway station is still World Trade Center, the PATH station is still World Trade Center (and everybody cheered when they put that name back up on the rebuilt station, to the surprise of some outside New York). How is calling it what it was before terrorists attacked it "unpatriotic"? I'm not letting some terrorist take that name from me, and I'm certainly not letting George Pataki do it.
And I'm glad the Port Authority isn't either. This building will be One World Trade to me from now on. Or just "the world trade center", which we always used interchangeably between the twin towers and the larger complex.