English: United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City during the September 11 attacks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a re-post from 2008. I’m glad to say that finally, the gaping hole where the Towers used to be is finally filled. The memorial busy and reverent. But 9-11 wasn’t the only collapse in downtown Manhattan. When I wrote this post, the financial crisis was just starting. 9-11 is now more than a decade past, but the scars still hold, the wounds still hurt. And NYC’s other downtown collapse – well, it’s only just begun re-building.
The other day, I went down to Wall Street. While I was there, I couldn’t help but look for signs of the evil arch-enemy of Main Street politicians keep talking about. I was hoping to see the callous, ultra-rich, a-moral, self-serving “Masters of the Universe” Tom Wolfe wrote about back in the eighties–the women wearing shoulder pads that made them look as tough as line-backers, the men smoking cigars that cost more than some people made in a week. Instead, I saw exhaustion. Tired senior executives, harried young businessmen, “runners” heading home too tired to remove their tell-tale jackets. I also saw the same thing I see everywhere in New York: people getting ready to go out for the evening, working mothers on their cell-phones telling their babysitters they were running late. It wasn’t a disaster area, but those Masters of the Universe – - they were no where in sight.
Then, as I reached Pearl Street, I saw something. Not the kind of Master I had expected, but a Master nonetheless. There, on the sidewalk, it’s cord and plug snaking out behind it, was a Stairmaster looking as if it were waiting to be used, waiting for a second chance. And suddenly, I had as apt a metaphor for what’s been happening in the financial sector as any I’d heard. (more…)
