Posted on 05/05/2006 10:46:10 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
...Rebuilding officials concede that the new price tag is breathtaking — "beyond reason" in the words of one member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board — and it is sure to set off another battle over development at the 16-acre site, with calls to cut costs, scale back theIt was supposed to be immune to the controversies that had en design or even start over...
...The new estimate, $972 million, would make this the most expensive memorial ever built in the United States. And that figure does not include the $80 million for a visitors' center paid for by New York State. It is likely to draw unfavorable comparisons to the $182 million National World War II Memorial in Washington, which opened in 2004; the $29 million Oklahoma City National Memorial, which opened in 2000; or the $7 million Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, which opened in 1982.
The original World Trade Center itself cost $1 billion in the 1970's, or about $3.7 billion in current dollars. Then again, everything at ground zero carries a big ticket, from the $478 million vehicle-screening center to the $2.2 billion PATH terminal...
...The matter is complicated by what some officials regard as the foundation's anemic effort to raise donations, more than four years after Sept. 11. In addition to the $130 million the foundation says it has raised, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has put up $200 million, which, added to $100 million from the authority, would bring the total amount raised to $430 million.
The foundation has yet to address how it will handle the annual expense of running the memorial and the museum, which could reach almost $60 million...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Donald Trump is a hairpiece-wearing megalomaniac. But if HE were building this thing it would be HALF the price. Give it to The Donald!
Ah! The real truth of how the terrorists wanted to hurt the economy.
"Donald Trump is a hairpiece-wearing megalomaniac"
Hairpiece? I thought that was a nuclear powered comb-over.
Screw the whole thing and everyone involved with it. "Sacred, hallowed ground" my ass; it's just another piece of political pork being held up by political egos who want to push through monumentally hideous designs (no pun intended) that are not wanted by the public.
As far as I'm concerned, they should just leave it as a vacant lot until they decide to rebuild as the Pentagon did.
earmarks or just the usual Big Pig cost overruns?
Give it to Trump...rebuilt the twin towers bigger and stronger...PERIOD.
The Pentagon apparently built a very impressive memorial to the nearly 200 dead there that cost just $11.5 million and it opens in a few weeks. What is the reason for this billion dollar megalith (advertised as privately-funded) when the American public apparently will not support it with contributions? A simple statue surrounded by working office buildings with a memorial plaque could be far more evocative and appropriate. This was not a national effort on the scale of World War 2, Vietnam or Korea; why the overreach?
Maybe THAT is the new technology which will replace Saudi oil.....
Use the money to rebuild the towers with a big F-You sign facing Mecca.
I like the memorial that duplicates the looks of and encloses the WTC lobby.
I would say just leave that piece of real estate untouched. no new buildings. make a bautiful fence.. a 2 huge marble stone with the times of impact on each tower. and fill it with beautiful trees.
I understand Bill Gates isn't happy with his money anymore.
Let him pay for it.
http://www.triroc.com/wtc/
I'm sorry, that's 16 acres of privately-owned property in the middle of the Manhattan financial district, some of the most expensive real estate in the world. They've already set aside two acres for this; are you prepared to compensate the owners with your money for an additional 14 acres?? The Vietnam Memorial takes up about one-half acre; same for the Korean Memorial and the WW2 memorial occupies perhaps one acre. People live and work in lower Manhattan; the last thing ehey want is a 16-acre cemetary. The best memorial to the dead is a living, breathing workspace that shows the vitality of America and the people that work in it.
this is an out of control project management disater.
Bravo. Let's quit turning our cities into giant cemetaries. Respect and honor the dead, but life is for the living.
That is the price of "inclusion," "tolerance," "compassion for alternate views and religions," "reverence for minorities over the collective," and all of the other inane, absurd, and meaningfullessness depths to which this country (at least the 'tolerant' parts) has sunk.....
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