By JIM DWYER Published: December 6, 2012
There is now more deserted office space in Lower Manhattan because of Hurricane Sandy than there are offices in many cities. Mobile boilers line the streets. Portable generators are stacked to the curbs. Ventilation tubes coil around scaffolds, snake above sidewalks, quiver and pulse. It is as if bodies had been turned inside out, exposing the hearts, lungs and organs that are normally internal. Of course, these devices keep the buildings running in some limited ways. Still, 15 million to 18 million square feet of space is unusable, about as much as exists in any condition whatsoever in cities like Miami, Phoenix and San Diego.
It is not enough to have generators that keep a few elevators and a bank of fluorescent lights running.
The telephones are not working. And it turns out that under the current schedule for repairs, Verizon will not be finished until May, a fact Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dropped into a speech on Thursday morning. "That is just not acceptable," Mr. Bloomberg said.