Mayor Tells of Dream For "Beautiful" Memorial

NY Daily News ^ | 12/20/01 | Lisa Colangelo and Bill Hutchinson

[newwahoo]

Mayor Tells of Dream For 'Beautiful' Memorial

ayor Giuliani said yesterday he envisions a "dramatic, beautiful, and inspirational" World Trade Center memorial that would teach generations to come the full story of the terrible tragedy and its victims.

The memorial should be striking, he told a town hall meeting in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, because the disaster site is "a sacred place, a burial ground, a place where American democracy was attacked."

"It should be a place where children can go," he said, "like Normandy or Gettysburg, but maybe not as commercial as Gettysburg."

The mayor appeared to completely abandon his earlier dream of building a world-class office complex at Ground Zero, saying there was plenty of room for office space in the corridor on the West Side between 24th and 42nd Sts.

The still sketchy concept he shared last night included "an opportunity for people to review what happened, including videotapes and interactive media."

More than 300 people crowded into the Bay Ridge Manor catering hall for Giuliani's 96th — and final — town hall meeting. Another 200 were left out in the cold.

The meeting took a serious turn when the mother of a cop killed in the Trade Center collapse asked the mayor "to give the [NYPD] cops a living wage."

An obviously perturbed Giuliani responded, "I can't negotiate a contract with you ...it really isn't fair to ask me to do that."

[newwahoo]

I think this is going to be a big issue eventually. Sooner or later the city and the whole country need to have a serious discussion about what is appropriate. I believe the city owns the site, which is about 15 acres, but there is also a 99-year lease involved.

[NYC GOP Chick]

The mayor appeared to completely abandon his earlier dream of building a world-class office complex at Ground Zero

*Very* bad idea. Besides completely destroying the surrounding neighborhoods, it would mean that what the bastards accomplished on the morning of 9/11/01 -- the destruction of the major commerce center of NYC -- was permanent. It would mean that the shot they took at the heart of our financial center was fatal.

[anniegetyourgun]

The city "owns" it, but there's a "lease" involved? Can you explain this further? After the 99 years does it go back to the Indians?

[newwahoo]

For a while I wanted the towers to be rebuilt to be the highest in the world with the same basic design. Now I'mm not so sure. Can we really ever have people working in offices on the site of such an atrocity? Can we have a striking memorial and still get that beautiful skyline back? A massive empty memorial tower? I don't know.

I'm curious, now that its been a few months, what others think. Especially you folks out in the rest of the country. Maybe I'm too close to the forest to see the trees.

[eureka!]

I would hope that there would be a "Never Forget" (a la the Holocaust) museum, with all of those pictures and films that bring that fateful day back. It will instill resolve to continue the fight against evil for generations to come...

[newwahoo]

The Port Authority (the city) owns it but leased it to a developer. Its just a very long term lease, but I think it affects the whole process of what is to be done.

[newwahoo]

I think you make a very valid point. We did refloat some of the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor and sent them out to fight the Japanese.

I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with the site being used that way, and I'm not sure anyone would even want to work there anyway.

[Lurking Libertarian]

The city "owns" it, but there's a "lease" involved?

IIRC, it's owned by the New York Port Authority, an agency owned jointly by the State of New York and the State of New Jersey. The Port Authority regularly lost money on the Trade Center and, about 4 years ago, leased it for 99 years to a private real estate company.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

I don't know if it would be a memorial or a new office building, but whatever goes at Ground Zero, should be big enough to be seen from wherever the WTC could be seen from.

Actually, if I had my druthers, I'd actually rebuild like that picture of five towers giving the world the finger, but I don't think that's going to happen.

[anniegetyourgun]

Thanks for clarification!

[newwahoo]

"I would hope that there would be a "Never Forget" (a la the Holocaust) museum, with all of those pictures and films that bring that fateful day back. It will instill resolve to continue the fight against evil for generations to come..."

There probably will be something along those lines. But will it be in some sort of ground-level park memorial or at the top of a huge skyscraper or on top of some middling small office tower that will be nowhere near as grand as its predecessor?

I think this is going to be the real issue....

[Celtjew Libertarian]

I've been reading a lengthy history of NYC (Gotham -- I forget the authors and I don't have the book at-hand.). Even if it only covers to 1898 (and I'm only up to 1840 or so), one thing I've noted is that with every disaster, NYC would build back better; but each time they did, the nature of the area of the disaster changed.

I'm not saying that a new WTC shouldn't be build in the same place. But even if it isn't the history of NYC is that it comes out of these shifts bigger and better.

[Tallguy]

but maybe not as commercial as Gettysburg."

Ok, I'll bite: What, exactly, is so "commercial" about Gettysburg? The town? The Park Service has no control over that. Does he think that some enterprising Manhattan entreprenuers might not try to take financial advantage of any memorial that Mayor Guiliani might envisage?

[newwahoo]

I think I've seen one possibility that appeals to me. Basically its usable office tower up until the height of where the planes hit then empty, square lit-up glass the rest of the way up. I guess a memorial and museum would be in the glass part. At least that is what I thought that I saw.

[newwahoo]

He was wrong to say that. Especially considering that right now there are hundreds of peddlers selling WTC/FDNY/NYPD hats, shirts and flag pins all over lower Manhattan. It drives me nuts that they aren't doing anything about it, especially since they're competing with property tax-paying stores down there that are really hurting, and have to pay very expensive leases. Those peddlars are parasites, and I hope any freeper who visits the city buys their stuff from legitimate store owners.

[Question_Assumptions]

Build four 50 foot towers. Put two of them in the same position as the old towers. Extend those two towers up to the 110 stories but as a framework filled with frosted glass etched with the names and (if the family wants, silhouettes) of those who died so that it looks somewhat like the old towers. Run 4 stairwells up each corner and a stairwell/elevator core up the middle to light it at night. Build a restaurant on the top of the one tower and put the TV broadcast antennas on top the way it was before. Build an observation floor and observation deck on the other tower, just the way it was before. Add window cleaning equipment like the old towers had.

That would put NYC's skyline back the way it should be. It would give people back their view of the city both from a restaurant and an observation deck, it would provide a platform for TV broadcasts and cell phone antennas (which could be hidden inside of the "hollow" upper floors), and it would be a memorial that you couldn't miss.

As for terrorists, it would still provide a target but, at most, hundreds of people would be near the top and not thousands. And with stairwells near the corners, it would be more likely that they could escape and there would be less to collapse. The big benefit is that you wouldn't have to worry about renting those upper floors -- only the restaurant.

[Question_Assumptions]

Ooops. My first sentence should read "50 story", not "50 foot".

[Arthur McGowan]

I like the idea of a statue of the firemen and cops at the site, and converting the dump across the river into a cemetery, with a view of the site, and away from the hubbub of Lower Manhattan. And rebuilding REAL buildings at the site. Land is too valuable to just plant grass there.

[eureka!]

Who knows. It definitely will be something special. See #12...

[newwahoo]

See my #14. Where have we seen this concept? Anyway, it seems like a decent compromise considering all the different priorities.