HOW much insurance did Larry Silverstein get again?

Larry Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center site, who in 2004 was declared eligible by a court to collect about $2.2 billion in compensation from the nine insurers of the destroyed buildings, has government bailout envy:

The private developer redeveloping New York's World Trade Center site, destroyed in the September 11 attacks, has asked the government for financial assistance, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Quoting people familiar with the matter, the Journal said The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government body that owns the site, was considering helping finance at least one of the three office towers planned in the project.

Sources said developer Larry Silverstein had sought financial help with at least two of the towers.

Silverstein declined to comment to the Journal, but the Port Authority confirmed it was engaged in ongoing talks on the rebuilding.

"We are continuing to discuss with SPI (Silverstein Properties) how to best meet a changed market while ensuring the WTC site is rebuilt in the best public interest," a statement obtained by Reuters said.

While the New York Waterway, which was the only way out of the city on 9/11 for those living on the other side of the Hudson, and during the blackout a few years later, and whose boats rescued the passengers of the U.S. Airways flight that landed in the Hudson in January, is in danger of going bankrupt without a Port Authority takeover, this billionaire wants money from the same entity.

In honor of changed times, and as a living monument to those who died there, I say we just make the site a park with a memorial chapel and call it a day.