Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for April 4, 2017
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
April 4, 2017: The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center will always be associated with the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. To many Americans today, the skyline of New York looks empty without the towers that were once the tallest buildings in the world.
But those towers defined the city’s skyline for only about three decades, less than 10 percent of the city’s history. Construction began in the mid-1960s, and the external structures were completed by 1971. Both towers had some tenants in place by 1972, but the official ribbon-cutting ceremony took place a year later on April 4, 1973.
In retrospect, it’s remarkable that such relatively new buildings could have been so completely identified with the city that they became the primary target for a terrorist attack.
The entire project was initially undertaken by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and was not without controversy. The government agency used eminent domain to force the relocation of many small businesses. The businesses fought the effort until the Supreme Court refused to hear their case.
Another controversy involved the subsidies provided to keep rents low in the building. Other real estate developers saw this as unfair and a means of keeping overall rents artificially low.
Regardless of the long-ago controversies, the Twin Towers became one of the nation’s most unifying images on the morning of September 11, 2001.
- Yesterday’s number looked at the 283,996 federal regulatory employees and how the number of such positions has increased over the past several decades.
- Last Friday’s number looked at the 31 Pivot Counties in Iowa. These are the counties that voted twice for President Obama and then voted for Donald Trump. There are more Pivot Counties in Iowa than anywhere else in the nation.
- Last Thursday’s number showed that the average worker receives $11.03 per hour in benefits. The increased cost of benefits, primarily related to health insurance, takes more than $3,000 away from salary and wages annually.
- Wednesday's number was $25 billion, the cost of storing paper records in warehouses. We now generate so much paper that a firm is building robots to clean up the mess.
- Tuesday’s number was 14, the number of U.S. presidents who made one or fewer appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is possible that Neil Gorsuch could be Donald Trump’s only chance to elevate someone to the court.
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
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Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
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