Abstract
The terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City in September 2001 set in motion a planning process meant to rebuild on the site as quickly as possible. The first attempt at plan development—Phase 1—failed. The six planning proposals were unanimously rejected. Phase 1 had to be repeated. What went wrong? This paper examines the event through the lens of the inherent marginality of public planning in the USA, the idiosyncrasies of local and local–state politics, and the interaction of property rights and the public interest.