9/11 memorial donations were strangely slow in coming

Take Back the Memorial.org ^ | October 6, 2006 | Tim Sumner

[Sergeant Tim]

As pre-ordained, Mayor Bloomberg was voted in as chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation yesterday. While waiting for the inevitable, my mind wandered back to late last year and this.

Following the 9/11 money (from a New York Daily News editorial, originally published on December 10, 2005)

No one knew how much money the city was going to need and for what purposes. Sen. Chuck Schumer presented the best guess to Bush in the Oval Office, and the President said, "You got it." So programs were created, and grants, loans and tax incentives began arriving to meet immediate needs, such as clearing the towers' rubble and working toward lifting the city's badly battered economy, starting in lower Manhattan. Amid an emergency, officials were sure only that they had to move aggressively.

Now, four years have passed and the Daily News is publishing a series that is the first attempt to account for how the federal 9/11 money was spent. The sixth installment is in today's paper. The product of four months of investigation, the articles prompted Rep. Pete King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, to order a probe...

The debate engendered by The News' examination is long overdue...

"Kickbacks, payoffs, mob contracts, payments to undeserving firms and businesses - all this and more must be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable. Not only for the sake of justice and the memory of those who died, but to show that this immoral and illegal conduct was the exception and not the rule."

Then I read that right after the Memorial Foundation voted Mayor Mike in as chairman where American Express gave them a $10 million gift:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was named chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation yesterday, despite strong opposition from several relatives of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. Many of the family members say they will continue to press to have the names of the dead, with ages, organized by affiliation and where they died; Mr. Bloomberg wants them listed at random. With a new $10 million gift from American Express, Mr. Bloomberg’s chief function will be to raise the additional $155 million needed for the project.

Huh?

The guy from AMEX who presented the check has been a Memorial Foundation board member for a good while, dating back to when the Foundation was struggling to raise money and stuck at 131 million. And then WHAM! it hit me like a brick and I remembered this one NY Daily News article where they said:

"When it came to distributing federal dollars to put lower Manhattan's crippled businesses back on their feet after Sept. 11, the city and state followed an age-old axiom: Them that got, gets."

Their article even had this catchy title Rich got richer as poor got crumbs

STAYING PUT

Initially, the Empire State Development Corp., which managed the Job Creation and Retention Program grants, "awarded firms to stay downtown even if they were not at risk" of moving away, spokeswoman Deborah Wetzel said.

The result? Only one company, Aegis Communications Group, was lured from outside the city to lower Manhattan by the job program.

But millions upon millions went to businesses firmly rooted downtown with no plans to leave.

American Express snagged a $25 million Job Creation and Retention Program grant six months after it announced publicly that it would return all its employees to lower Manhattan. The company made a point of saying that cash grants had nothing to do with its decision.

The American Express grant comes to $6,200 for each of its 4,000 employees. By contrast, firms with 200 employees or less were eligible for a maximum of only $3,500 per worker, under a separate program designed for smaller companies...

The article also mentioned this poor smoe:

His devastated enterprise nets a cool $38

On the evening of Sept. 10, 2001, Oliver Herold risked his life savings of $20,000.

A 33-year-old budding fashion designer, Herold was debuting his original line of women's clothing during New York's Fashion Week at Bryant Park.

He hired models and makeup artists. He paid for a deejay to help them sashay down the runway. And he engaged a public relations agency to whip up buzz afterward.

Less than 24 hours later, the World Trade Center was in ruins. So was Herold's East Village business, a victim of incredibly bad timing.

Herold applied for a Business Recovery Grant and submitted tax returns and business records, expecting to get $5,000 in aid.

When he opened his mail about a month later, there was a form letter signed by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg: "It is our pleasure to inform you that your application to the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program has been approved."

Herold went slack-jawed when he saw the amount: $38.

"Is this a joke or something?" he remembered thinking. "It was a heart-crushing blow."

The NY Daily News did not say (and I am not saying) that American Express did anything wrong. I am just wondering aloud why a huge company that apparently suffered no direct ill affects or financial setback as a result of 9/11 could legally apply for and receive 25 million dollars from the 9/11 funds. And I wonder -- seeing how they were obviously willing to so generously donate 10 million dollars -- why they did not donate that amount before Mayor Bloomberg got elevated to chairman, back when the Memorial Foundation was scratching for every penny and getting nowhere fast.

Like I said, I am just wondering aloud.

Author's note: This article followed Pataki must be crazy to anoint Bloomberg which was posted on Free Republic yesterday.

[Sergeant Tim]

ping! And good morning.

[mewzilla]

Considering what's been done wity taxpayers' terror funds...

NY Squandered Billions in 9/11 Aid

...I can understand why folks would worry about giving money to the memorial, too.

[Leisler]

The failure to rebuild the WTC by now is just symptomatic of why New York state and city are dying. Each day productive citizens and business out, welfare in and politicians and unions like the last days of Rome.

[Sergeant Tim]

If the New York media had the courage (or inclination), they'd find a lot more reasons for folks to be wary. As they do not have the courage and are yet to feel inclined, we will do what we can to inform.

[cgk]

Thanks for the ping... while I can't say I'm surprised to read some of this, I will be surprised if there is actually a real-live investigation that actually bears some fruit.

[Boris99]

No problem, I'm sure Gov. Spitzer and his AG Cuomo will just sue someone and get things squared away. In the end the taxpayers will end up with some sort of memorial that pays homage to multi-cult, homosexuality, and Islam rather than the victims of 9/11.

[Sergeant Tim]

That sounds a lot like the International Freedom Center's proposal.

Perhaps that is why the Take Back the Memorial's slogan became 'No politics at Ground Zero, period.'

[Boris99]

How is the Flight 93 memorial coming along? Last I heard they changed the "crescent of appeasement" to a circle.

[TomGuy]

Maybe the send money, then we'll figure out how to spend it concept didn't catch the interest of the pubic.

Maybe the public has been burned too many times.

Could it be that donors don't want to donate, sight unseen, to another Arizona memorial fiasco or Flight 93 memorial fiasco?

[Sergeant Tim]

You could be correct that Arizona’s activist memorial has made donors wary.

[George W. Bush]

Many FReepers predicted this outcome. No surprise.

[oceanview]

are you nuts. NYC is booming, construction everywhere, you can't even get concrete.

the WTC project was delayed because of alot of real disputes - with the PA, with Silverstein, etc. not because "NYC is dying".

[Leisler]

Shanghai China is putting up more square footage in a year, than exist in Manhattan. That's a main reason you can't get concrete because on the world market the Chinese are paying more and outbidding New York for Portland cement.

Anyways the hold up at WTC, which if anything should of been quicker, is again symptomatic.

I actually go back to the Progressive movement around the 1880's as the beginning of the end.

Another ill omen was the Jacob Ruppert Brewery being replaced by the UN. Productive and tax producing replaced by destructive and tax eating.

The building boom in NY city is over due by 4-5 decades, at least. The fact that presently a little of what should of been done for decades is take place in no way makes up for the underlying economics of the city. High cost slow decision environment. Another analogy is that of a long term lupus patient putting on a few pounds, looking and feeling better and mistaken a temporary phenonenom as a cure.