After the World Trade Center: Rethinking New York City Book

The September 11 attacks transformed all of New York City, not just the historic financial district of Lower Manhattan. In After the World Trade Center, the eminent social critics Michael Sorkin and Sharon Zukin call on eighteen of New York's best urbanists to consider the attack and its aftermath in the broadest context. These essays provide a panoramic social portrait of the city at a new crossroads, one that both reflects New York's pre-eminent role as a financial and cultural capital and reveals the fault lines under the last few years of rapid growth. The essays point to a manifesto for a democratically planned New York, where all the city's communities-from Tribeca to Chinatown and Jackson Heights-count.

But while the city still digs through the debris, contrary forces shaping its future are at work. Developers jockey to control the right to rebuild "ground zero." Financial firms line up for sweetheart deals. Architects and planners debate surveillance schemes over New York's boisterous public life, and proposals for memorials are gaining in appeal.

Though these processes are taking form, none has achieved a political consensus. Through a multitude of perspectives on the emerging city, After the World Trade Center provides alternative visions to the expected landscape of power.