“We had prepared for an emergency,” Mr. Norich said. “The emergency we had prepared for was an act of terrorism, not this.” … The afflictions of these wounded buildings have forced major tenants like Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Oppenheimer & Company, Sullivan & Cromwell, Standard & Poor’s and The Daily News to either pursue short-term leases in alternative spaces or crowd into unaffected offices that they already lease in other parts of the city or region. – http://nyti.ms/StG9na

More broadly, officials must ask whether it is sensible to replace buildings on the Manhattan waterfront, the Jersey Shore or the Long Island coast — and continue to dare nature. After all, the waters surrounding New York have been rising an inch a decade, and the pace is picking up. – http://nyti.ms/VO6ihj

…the scene speaks to something so obvious it is often overlooked: The waterfront in New York City has never been a suitable place to live. … Despite the pervasive liberalism of New Yorkers, particularly on the issue of climate change, Tropical Storm Irene last year did not spur a radical shift in thinking among developers. The devastation of this year’s storm will force a reconsideration of certain practices … And yet the anxiety of New Yorkers is powerful, and so it doesn’t seem preposterous to speculate that no matter what sort of precautions are taken, certain people will forgo the romance of the waterfront in favor of higher ground. -http://nyti.ms/U8vHXm