Plan B for Wall Street

You gotta love the sheer chutzpah of it. A group of Pennsylvanians says they're not stealing from the Big Apple. They hope New York City's financial giants will open disaster-ready offices in the Keystone state. Their word for it? Augmenting.

"We're not looking to steal away the business of Wall Street," developer Lawerence Simon told two dozen executives yesterday he'd shuttled by helicopter to a posh Poconos resort on the Delaware River. "We are trying to make a ‘Mini-Me' of Wall Street."

Whether it's stealing, augmenting, or something else, Mr. Simon tried to woo New York firms to augment their headquarters in a corporate park he's calling Wall Street West by convincing them to establish backroom offices they could staff with top executives to quickly resuscitate their operations following a catastrophe like a hurricane, blackout, or terrorist attack.

"What you have worked so hard to make cannot be swept from you because of some psychotic individual," Mr. Simon told the executives after showing a dramatic montage, played to dramatic minor-chord music, of New York during its 2003 blackout and after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Opening a corporate office in his Pennsylvania development is close enough to New York City, supporters said, but distant enough that the site has a different power supply in case of a blackout and a different water source in case reservoirs that serve the city are poisoned.

Great scenario, guys!

http://www.nysun.com/article/41317