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March 6, 2007
With Terror Insurance To Expire, New York City Leaders Urge Renewal
AP, via InsuranceNewsNet.com
NEW YORK — When property owners could not get terrorism insurance amid post-Sept. 11, 2001 worries of future attacks, Congress provided a backup — a program that many say must be renewed before it expires at the end of this year.
During a hearing Monday at City Hall, blocks from the World Trade Center site, Sen. Charles Schumer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and real estate developers urged federal lawmakers to make the program permanent — or, at the very least, extend it for several years.
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Critics of TRIA have complained the federal program unnecessarily subsidizes already successful developers and insurers, but Bloomberg said it simply corrects a "market failure" caused by the threat of terrorism.
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Bloomberg noted several major development projects happening simultaneously in New York City, including the rebuilding at ground zero and a major commercial and residential complex in Brooklyn known as Atlantic Yards."Without terrorism risk insurance, none of them would ever get off the ground," he said. "And if projects like this are put in jeopardy, so will the future of our city — the global financial leader of America."
NoLandGrab: A terrorism and security risk assessment has been requested by the commmunity, but was not included in the Environmental Impact Statement because it is not required by law.
Even though Atlantic Terminal was the target of a thwarted bombing plot, the City and State have not questioned the wisdom of or costs associated with constructing a glass and steel tower, in close proximity to a landing approach for LaGuardia airport, at one of the busiest intersections in Brooklyn, over one of the largest transit hubs in the system.
Brooklynites are puzzled by why they are not getting the same consideration as Lower Manhattan, where the base of the Freedom Tower was redesigned to address vulnerability to truck bombs.
Remember, back in early December, 2006, Al Rosner warned that the insurance industry's risk assesments, revised after 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina, could leave taxpayers holding the bag.
Posted by lumi at March 6, 2007 8:40 AM