You lived in a hole?
Naw, I walked along Battery Park Place between The Ocean (that building on the left in the picture of Battery Park and Castle Clinton) and Battery Park. They dug up Battery Park Place and the parking lot that used to be in front of The Ocean as well as part of the sidewalk, and then covered much of the surface with those big steel plates you can walk or drive over.
I had an apartment in The Ocean for a few years. Indeed, I was finishing breakfast there and looking out at the harbor when the second plane flew by within a hundred feet or so on 9/11 before it evidently climbed higher and hit the second Trade Tower.
I suspect they are doing this project on federal funds, because the feds have been supporting a huge project in response to 9/11 to fix all the infrastructure under the streets of Manhattan from Canal Street south to the Battery. So holes and steel plates are a common sight down there.