I could not disagree more. Those are not “gaping holes” left because New York was too weak or incompetent to rebuild. They are the actual footprints of the Twin Towers, deliberately kept open as hallowed ground.
We understand this instinct elsewhere. We did not raise the USS Arizona from Pearl Harbor, polish away the scars, and pretend nothing happened. Some places are allowed to bear witness.
The World Trade Center was rebuilt. But where thousands of human beings entered those towers one morning and never came home, we chose something different: absence itself.
The water falls into a void that can never be filled. The names of the dead surround it. You stand where the towers stood and confront what was taken from us.
That is not weakness. That is remembrance.
I'm also a VP at a big bank in NYC and I see a lot of misconceptions about what I do. So here's a typical Day in the Life:
7:30am: morning coffee. it's extra delicious because my bank imports the finest Colombian coffee picked with exploited child labor
8am: Catch up on overnight news and get updates on overseas wars where we finance both sides
9:30am: market opens. High five my citadel handler on another beautiful day to frontrun retail clients
11am: flock camera out front identifies a passing single mother with no credit card debt. Immediately give her a free credit card with a low low interest rate of 65%
11:30am: new pollution regulations threaten to harm maritime shipping profitability. Call local congressman and instruct to kill bill
Noon: time for lunch. Slop bowl from cava today because we got advance notice of a lettuce recall from sweetgreen CEO.
12:05pm: sell our sweetgreen shares before the FDA announces said recall
1pm: pick up our daily tithe of shekels from the vault and deliver to Israeli consulate
1:30pm: conference call with lockheed martin. They want to issue debt to finance a factory for new cutting edge bombs that can specially target Gazan women and children. Expedite loan approval.
3pm: in person, all hands meeting with local Epstein associates. Female interns invited
4pm: market closes. Another all time high. Well done boys
4:45pm: invite ICE agents for roundtable on new financial monitoring tools we're developing to identify undocumented immigrants. Deliver today's list of local deportable migrants
7pm: work dinner at michelin starred restaurant where we dine on the finest cuts of proletariat
9pm: after party at underground club with trafficked women. Force her to take plan b and seize her passport a few weeks until she gets her period
11pm: time for bed! Go to sleep grateful i can make the world a better place each and every day
Just a random Friday morning thinking about how the 2026 New York Knicks played the most dominant 10-game stretch in NBA history, all against playoff opponents