The former home of the World Trade Centre has, in recent months, also become a monument to the cavalcade of dithering, selfserving bureaucratic ineptness that has led to approximately zero progress on the construction front.

Let's recap, shall we:

Larry Silverstein, the developer who owns the lease of the WTC site, is obligated to build five new towers (we're talking 10 million square feet of office space, coupled with 300,000 square feet of retail space) . . .

the centrepiece of which is meant to be visionary architect Daniel Libeskind's somewhat contentious 'Freedom Tower'. The price tag? All in, we're talking $7.3bn.

Here's the thing:

Silverstein may hold the lease, but the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey own the land . . . and they don't think that Larry has the resources to deliver the project by the due date of 2015.

What's more, months of heated negotiations have gone absolutely nowhere, due to disagreements over Silverstein's cut on the deal . . . reputedly, his real estate firm was set to clean up on project, with the financial risk shunted in the direction of the state authorities.

Who, naturally enough, are not happy.

Notoriously headstrong New York governor George Pataki, representing the Port Authority's interests, has now gone on the attack, stating that "We cannot and will not allow profit margins and financial interests to be put ahead of public interest in expediting the rebuilding of the site of the greatest tragedy on American soil".

Many have suggested, however, that the outgoing Governor Pataki's urgent interest in the future of downtown Manhattan might have more to do with his possible plans to run for US president in 2008 . . . call it a little legacy-building.

The bottom line . . . nothing is happening, and New York is starting to get very pissed off. And you don't piss off New Yorkers. Watch this spacef