Photo: U.S. Mint
Pennsylvania developer Larry Simon, already viewed on his side of the Delaware Water Gap as the guy who enticed too many New Yorkers to buy vacation places in the Poconos, now has an even bigger New York–dependent plan. He airlifted twenty prominent Wall Streeters to Smithfield Township, Pennsylvania, yesterday to show them his proposed site for the so-called Penn Regional Business Center — what he envisions as a backup facility for the New York’s financial firms in case of a major terrorist attack on Manhattan. So how’d he make his pitch?
Paul Colford explains in the Daily News:
The sales pitch included a gourmet luncheon and brief video — accompanied by the solemn “Adagio for Strings,” the theme for the war movie “Platoon” — that showed a few images of 9/11 in New York.
In other words: Listen to the sad, sad strings. Look at the horrible, horrible things. Wouldn’t it be a shame if it all happened again? Sure would. Care for some lox?
Now compare this with Simon’s local pitch of the same project, quoted three weeks ago in the Pocono Record:
“These jobs, they will bring in people of a high quality of life. That’s going to elevate the whole quality of life in this area.”
Ah, yes. Nothing’s better for an area’s quality of life than the destruction of lower Manhattan. More lox?
Wall Street Mini-Me Pitched by Penn. [NYDN]
“Wall Street West” in the Works [Pocono Record]
