And Email copies of this notice to friends and family and even the media, any and everywhere. We need to create a blitz into Pataki's office on this NOW.
The best memorial to the victims would be to rebuild the WTC as it was, only twice as tall.
Bump and ping.
Will send e-mails.
WTC alert ping
So .. they want the memorial UNDERGROUND so as not to remind people of what happened ..??
Hmmmmm?? Sounds like the typical liberal plan .. too worried about offending Muslims.
On September 21, 2001, President Bush addressed this nation. He promised, we will rebuild.
5 years later, ground zero has turned into nothing but a cess pool of pay to play contracts held hostage among the leftist, agenda ridden forces that helped contribute to our nations demise.
I hope ever last one of them rots in hell.
http://www.1010wins.com/pages/14174.php
9/11 Families File Suit to Stop Memorial
New York -- Families of people who perished in the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center petitioned the court Friday to stop construction next week of a ground zero memorial that they say fails to do justice to the memory of the victims.
Preliminary construction work on the World Trade Center memorial is to begin Monday, rebuilding officials said Friday. An official groundbreaking ceremony won't happen for a few more weeks, said Stefan Pryor, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Pryor said the memorial design "will fulfill the highest standards of both safety and beauty."
Friday's petition filed by the Coalition of 9/11 Families Inc., says the relatives want to block plans to pour a concrete slab over the historic "footprint" of the trade center's north tower, the site of the remains of hundreds of victims.
"The footprints of the World Trade Center are the final resting place for over 30 percent of the individuals who were murdered on Sept. 11, 2001, and whose remains were never found," say court papers filed in Manhattan's State Supreme Court. "As such, it is considered sacred ground by the petitioners."
The petition says that unless the current plans are blocked, "the ability to visit and contemplate the authentic site where their family members' last remains reside will be forever lost."
John P. Gallagher, vice president for communications of the LMDC, the state agency in charge of redevelopment at ground zero, said in a statement, "This obstructionist lawsuit is without merit and we plan to proceed on schedule with building a memorial that both pays tribute to those we lost and honors historic preservation principles."
The coalition's lawyer, Alan Fuchsberg, said he was told to return to court Monday.
Fuchsberg said work on the memorial was to begin Monday. He said the builders will have at least two weeks of measuring and planning to do before they began construction, so the coalition still had time to win a court order stopping the project.
"We're in the really early stages, the very beginning" of the project, said William H. Goldstein, an executive vice president with the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.
For the next six to eight weeks, workers will prepare the site for more heavy construction and install new protective coverings on the footprints and box beams that make up the towers' foundation, Goldstein said. After that, workers will begin to pour concrete footings to support the memorial.
"The families consider this a sacred space," Fuchsberg said. "They don't believe that the memorial being planned reflects the proper sensitivity. The memorial being planned does not address remembrance the way it should in a sacred area."
Fuchsberg said his clients also complained that officials at the LMDC did not consult with them meaningfully about the proposed memorial. The lawyer said he will ask the court to require that the LMDC follow state law and consult the victims' families before a memorial is built.
The Coalition of 9/11 Families sued in federal court last year to challenge the construction of a transit hub on the trade center site. The suit against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site and began building the transit hub last fall, argues that a section of the station would cover parts of the footprints.
"Reflecting Absence," the memorial chosen two years ago, marks the twin tower footprints with reflecting pools surrounded by a glade of trees and names of the nearly 3,000 victims killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing.
http://www.1010wins.com/pages/14249.php
WTC Memorial Construction Begins Monday
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- For the first time at ground zero, construction workers will take the place of politicians to kick off a development project when initial work begins Monday on the Sept. 11 memorial.
Ten workers will begin cleaning the memorial site, checking the World Trade Center footprints for damage and installing protective coverings over parts of the original foundation to begin building the "Reflecting Absence" memorial, officials said. In six to eight weeks, concrete will be poured into parts of the foundation.
Although the official groundbreaking ceremony that usually precedes major construction projects won't happen for a few weeks, "it's just a very important milestone for the centerpiece of all that we have to do at the site," Gov. George Pataki said.
"We think this is the right way to go about it," said Stefan Pryor, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. "We're ready for the preparatory work to begin. We want to remain on schedule."
Relatives of Sept. 11 victims and preservationists opposed to the underground memorial design and building on the original trade center footprints say it still isn't too late to fight. The Coalition of 9/11 Families will be in court Monday to try and halt the construction, and other family members said the design isn't yet set in stone.
"There is always opportunity until concrete is poured," said Rosaleen Tallon, the sister of a firefighter killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks. Tallon began sleeping outside her brother Sean's firehouse across from the trade center site on Wednesday, and said Monday's construction work wouldn't stop her protest.
"It's just a really sad commentary that they're just going ahead for the sake of going ahead," Tallon said. "This is a behemoth of a memorial. Really, America's not coming to see this kind of underground water thing."
Others have said the memorial won't be safe and disregards family and rescue workers' wishes to list the victims' names in a certain order.
Pryor said that Michael Arad's design "will fulfill the highest standards of both safety and beauty." Asked if changes could still be made to the design, he said, "we will continue to work with stakeholders within this process, including family members, as the construction proceeds."
"Reflecting Absence," chosen two years ago out of more than 5,200 competition entries, marks the fallen towers near their footprints with two stone reflecting pools at street level, surrounded by a glade of trees. The pools go 70 feet below ground, where visitors can find names surrounding each pool of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing.
The memorial and underground museum is budgeted at about $500 million, although that figure is not final. Rebuilding officials said the project's contractor will analyze the budget and come up with a maximum price in three months.
Gretchen Dykstra, president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, said the start of construction should quiet skeptics who thought no plans would ever be realized at the site, and spur fundraising. "I think it will soar," she said. The foundation has raised just over $100 million of a $500 million goal, while the LMDC state agency has contributed $200 million.
It will cost less than $2 million to prepare the site for construction. Crews will remove a gravel fill from the tower footprints, check the bedrock and box beam columns for damage and put protective, wooden coverings around them, said William Goldstein, a foundation executive vice president.
"It's work that has to happen before anything else happens," Goldstein said. "It's not that dramatic."
After that, crews will spend up to six months building 130 concrete footings to support the memorial, he said. The memorial is scheduled to open by Sept. 11, 2009.
In previous groundbreakings at the site, including one in July 2004 for the Freedom Tower skyscraper, politicians gathered to praise the pace of development in lower Manhattan before any work at all began. Pataki and other politicians laid a granite cornerstone for the tower that now lies untouched, since the tower was redesigned and its construction delayed last year.
"We'll have an appropriate ceremony at the right time," Pataki said of the memorial.