If all goes accordingly, the Mets and Yankees will play their 2009 home openers in new stadiums. The Mets' new home, Citi Field, is currently under construction. Both stadiums will no doubt be magnificent. The combined cost for building both is more than $2 billion.
While some may question this spending, we believe this city and its two Major League franchises deserve arenas second to none.
But as we watch these stadiums rise, we cannot help but wonder why it was possible to build them in two years without disruption, except for parking at the existing stadiums, while not one brick has been laid at Ground Zero?
The challenge at the World Trade Center site is, of course, greater. The Port Authority, which oversees its reconstruction, estimates that rebuilding the 16-acre site will cost upward of $15 billion.
But no one can explain why nothing has been done nearly seven years after the World Trade Center's destruction. Gov. David Paterson said the parties involved in the planning and reconstruction will meet later this summer to analyze the delay and come up with a workable plan.
Sadly, no one thinks the job will be done in time for the attack's 10th anniversary.
The Ground Zero fiasco is an embarrassment. One building at the side has yet to be torn down. With each year of delay, the rebuilding cost goes up. The two stadiums' on-time rebuilding on public property shows that the public and private sector can work together for a worthy cause.
Maybe Paterson and the highly paid Port Authority directors should take note.
