New Yorkers are fond of leading the world in one thing or another. So it’s no surprise that the new Freedom Tower is being pumped as ‘the world’s tallest building.’ But is it, really? “It will certainly be the world’s tallest cable-framed, open-air, windmill-filled, spire-studded superstructure, rising atop 70 stories of offices, restaurants, a broadcast center and an observation deck,” says David Dunlap, but uninhabitable spires such as the one that will stretch some 625 feet above the tower’s occupied space may not count towards the ‘world’s tallest’ designation. The final decision on such things is left to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which we swear we are not making up.