Customs did a slick one on NYC

[donsu]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/116271p-104875c.html

As New Yorkers prepare to solemnly mark the second anniversary of 9/11, the Customs Service will throw a party today to celebrate its abandonment of lower Manhattan. In other words, to revel in its cowardice.

Customs sent out invitations weeks ago to announce the fete at its new office space in Newark. They stick it to New York and they're gonna have a hootenanny? This, on the day before mourners gather at Ground Zero.

Thousands of square feet of vacant office space downtown could easily be occupied by Customs. Instead, the agency weaseled its way out of the city. Initially, Customs said its move to Jersey would be temporary. Then, in October, Kathleen Haage-Gaynor, Customs' New York/Newark regional director, issued a memo touting the Newark site as a new "international trade center, the hub for commercial transactions."

Lower Manhattan had been the hub for Customs transactions since 1789. Two years ago, the agency had 750 employees at 6 World Trade Center. All survived the terror attacks. But while the Bush administration was urging businesses and individuals to return downtown, Customs secretly planned its retreat. Today, there are only seven employees in a small Bowling Green office. It's less than a token operation. The clerks can't do anything but send filings elsewhere, so Customs brokers don't bother to use the place.
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the article ends by saying the new offices should be painted yellow.