Posted on 10/31/2006 1:12:06 PM PST by presidio9
It's the only piece of the World Trade Center still standing where it was before terrorists destroyed the twin towers.
But the "survivors' staircase," a path to safety for countless workers on September 11th, 2001, will be moved -- to build one of five planned office towers on the site.
Preservationists, including a group that named the staircase one of America's most endangered places this year, are lobbying to keep the only standing remnant of the destroyed trade center complex where it is.
A final home for the The 21-foot-high, 350-thousand-pound staircase, which once connected an elevated plaza to a street north of the site, still isn't decided.
Historians had hoped it would be returned to the same spot where survivors of the terrorist attacks found it in a debris-filled plaza, following the stairs from a bridge to street level just before the second tower collapsed.
That's what I meant. And the Italian ones know a guy who knows a guy.
Still, I'd like to know how these atheists bring all this political vig, that they can blow off all these Irish and Italian guys in service and get a simple memorial taken down.
What's the deal?
Pataki is a RINO, and Bloomberg is an open lefty.
The Cross is an important historical artifact, and it blongs at Ground Zero permanently.
I think that kind of sentimentality is forced and shallow. The WTC site should be cleared and a tasteful memorial placed at ground zero. That's it - no skyscrapers, statues, lone staircases, or twisted metal shaped like a cross.
Honor our murdered brothers & sisters in a tasteful way. Less is more.
Where exactly was this staircase before WTC1 fell? Was it inside, and part of, the tower? Or was it a staircase under the plaza somewhere, by the crosswalk across Westside over to the World Financial Center that got flattened when WTC1 fell?
The tower fell all the way to bedrock and wrecked the basement structures underneath it. I can't imagine how the stairwell managed to remain in place, without following the rubble of the upper floors into the basement levels. Amazing. What was holding it up? The Atlantic Monthly serialization described two inverted cones of rubble that were huge at the plaza level, which they just about destroyed, and narrow at their apexes resting on bedrock.
Tell the truth: You applauded when Spain voted José María Aznar out of office, right?
Not at all, what makes you think that?
Oh, so if they'd put up a "rainbow" or a hammer-and-sickle to celebrate their "solidarity", then it'd still be there.
The WTC site should be cleared and a tasteful memorial placed at ground zero. That's it - no skyscrapers, statues, lone staircases, or twisted metal shaped like a cross.
You know better than that. Prime Manhattan real estate etc.
Because why would you give in to the terrorist's intentions and abandon a part of what makes NY what it is? I work across the street from ground zero. The only people who visit it now are yokel tourists, and if it becomes exclusively a memorial, the only people who will visit it then will be the same hayseeds.
If we really wanted to honor the dad, we'd build it back the way it was, only taller. And the Cross and the twisted facade would be in the courtyard. All of the people who died have graves in peaceful cemetaries. The actual site should be an in-your-face reminder of what happened, because more than half of the country seems to have forgotten already.
Not a lauging matter. The a--holes who designed the memorial already rejected the suggestion by the majority of families and the FDNY, and the PAPD, and the NYPD that the names of the deceased be grouped by where they worked. The designers felt that it was important to deemphasize the individual in favor of highlighting the randomness of the destruction, whatever that means.
Much of the original WTC was not leased at the time of the 911 attacks. I don;t know many folks who will want to work on the 90th floor of the fattest, slowest, and biggest target in the USA.
It means "the client has expressed the wish that there not be too many/any conspicuous memorials, which would be bad for business and tend to hold down his rents."
Trust me on this one:
The memorials are going to be great for business. It's all part of Bloomberg's master plan to turn NYC into one giant antiseptic urban theme park.
I'm not giving in to the terrorist intentions at all. I lived about a mile from ground zero for over 33 years.
I don't have the size fetish of bigger and taller some folks have, sorry.
It's the site of our nation's greatest defeat. Honor the murdered, vow to avenge them, and pledge that that it doesn't happen again. Somehow a Panda Express and a Pizza Hut in the mall area of a new skyscraper just don't jive with that, for me anyway.
I honestly don't see how this gives into the terrorists in any way.
They wanted to erase these buildings. They tried twice. You are all to happy to appease them. Congradulations.
Granted, WTC wasn't a "cool" building to work in -- but there's no way they'll let that ground go "unproductive." At the first hint of that Robert Moses would rise from the grave, walk zombie-like up the center of Lex to give Bloomberg a kick in the nads.
That's too tough on out-of-towners.
In case you weren't paying attention, they won. They did erase the buildings, murdered 3,000 of our citizens. They won that round.
I have no problem acknowledging that. It is the site of one of our greatest defeats.
Now I want us to win. Building a skyscraper and a food court at that site is not part of my winning plan. If it is to you, good. I just think it's misplaced effort and focus.
Not everyone outside of NY is a yokel, but that's certainly the best description for the people I see at Ground Zero every single day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.