EDITORIAL: Stop fighting and rebuild at WTC site

Gripping aerial photos released this week of the Twin Towers on 9/11 remind us all of the importance of rebuilding at Ground Zero. And a judicious decision from an arbitration panel is raising renewed hope for progress at the site. The panel ordered the dueling parties to submit a revised schedule and financial plan within weeks - or the panel will impose one. This is the sort of firm direction that has been lacking, stalling this world-watched project for far too long.

Larry Silverstein, who holds the development rights at the World Trade Center site, called for the arbitration in August. For the 12 months prior, he had all but halted construction on his three proposed office towers. Silverstein blamed the site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for substantial delays and sought nearly $3.5 billion in rent forgiveness and penalties.

But the three-member arbitration panel concluded that the Port Authority was not solely responsible for the stop-and-start construction. It denied Silverstein's claim and told the two sides to return with solutions by mid-March.

Silverstein needs to end his appeals to arbitrators and political friends, and get real. He should build whatever the market will finance, but build it without any further grab for public money. It's time this site began representing the best of America, not our country at its most litigious and indecisive. hN