Cities, the Environment, and September 11

President Obama was in town yesterday, to open the new 9/11 museum on the site of the old World Trade Center.  By all accounts the museum provides a powerful reminder � like a punch in the gut, according to The New York Times � of that awful day.

The event reminded me of the article I wrote for Alternatives Journal, soon after September 11, 2001.  In it I tried to identify the likely consequences of the event for the environment.  As I described, and as unfolded in subsequent years, the consequences were both local � thousands of rescuers, other workers, and residents suffered health effects caused by toxic smoke and dust created when the towers collapsed � and global, including the devastation caused by Bush's war of choice in Iraq. 

Those were grim outcomes.  But I also wondered back in 2001 whether a new sense of vulnerability would reverse the welcome trend of Americans rediscovering their own cities, especially New York.  It is very good news that this has not happened: more people (8.3 million) now live in New York City than ever before, and families play in parks and ball fields even in lower Manhattan.

The World Trade Center, 2.0

The tallest tower of the new World Trade Center is just down the street from our apartment � almost completed, but not yet occupied.  Rather ugly stories can be told about the powerful and wealthy interests that have benefited from the reconstruction of lower Manhattan � not to mention the role of Wall Street in destabilizing our economic system, while accelerating inequality.  But today it feels good just to celebrate how far New York has come back from the abyss of 9/11.

 Of course there is still much unfinished business.  I ended my column back in 2001 by expressing my hope that 9/11 would encourage a stronger commitment to ideas implicit in environmentalism:

That a more just world is a safer world, and that justice includes secure homes, clean water, and other environmental amenities.  That public goods have value: clean water, clean air and protected spaces cannot be provided by the market, but only by the common action of citizens. That government has an essential role, in helping to secure these public goods.  Just as the environment became some time ago a matter of public concern and action, we are now discovering that other functions, like airport security and public health, are also too important to be left to the market.  As public officials like Giuliani provide leadership, and public servants like firefighters provide heroism, the larger lessons about public service, the public good, common action, and effective government should not be lost.