Preservation group: Delay WTC memorial

nydailynews ^ | March 1st, 2006 | PAUL D. COLFORD

[ncountylee]

An influential preservation group socked the Port Authority with an eleventh-hour demand to delay work on the World Trade Center Memorial - charging the twin towers' historic remains could be damaged under current plans. In a scathing letter that invokes Pearl Harbor, the National Trust for Historic Preservation accuses the agency of "misleading" the public - and failing to address the "major ... adverse effects" the memorial will have on the towers' footprints and access to the solemn site.

"Just like the strafing marks in the concrete that still remain at Pearl Harbor, these tangible physical remains of the twin towers are a direct, irreplaceable and authentic link to the historic events of September 11, 2001," the organization wrote the agency in a Feb. 24 letter obtained yesterday by the Daily News.

The protest - echoed in a separate letter from local preservation groups - is the latest twist in an increasingly tense and crowded debate over the future of Ground Zero.

Mayor Bloomberg is trying to limit developer Larry Silverstein's role in the process and wants some housing on the site. Silverstein is under pressure from Gov. Pataki to resolve his differences with the Port Authority by March 16. And on Monday, Sen. Chuck Schumer declared the rebuilding effort had "moved from consensus to cacophony."

The National Trust's plea to call off the bulldozers comes with work on the memorial's foundation due to start March 13. Although the group has no direct power to delay the change, it's well-respected and is among the so-called "consulting parties" to the rebuilding effort.

The group demanded the Port Authority better safeguard - and provide wider access to - the massive square slabs where the towers stood and the stubby ends of the buildings' columns.

[ncountylee]

Thought that this situation was already under control?

[Vladiator]

It's New York politics - nothing is ever under control, even when it is decided finally.

[Mears]

Nothing's ever simple these days,is it?

[buccaneer81]

I want the twin towers back. Every time I fly into Newark and look out that huge window at lower Manhattan, my heart sinks.

The proposed Freedom Tower is a travesty.

[river rat]

Am I the only one tired of the never ending bitching from the insatiable WTC victims families.

Of the THREE sites attacked that day - WTC, Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93, in which the passengers fought back and prevented a greater disaster... the WTC families have in my opinion been the LEAST consolable and most ungracious of the HUGE outpouring of sympathy and generosity the nation heaped on them.....

One need only compare the Nation's response to a warrior killed in the line of voluntary service to the country -- to the death of a civilian living his life as a civilian and being the victim of an act of violence...

In one case, one volunteers to go into harm's way in defense of his country -- and in case of the deaths at the WTC that service at risk is not present, with the notable exception of the gallant firefighters and police who went into the WTC to help...

It's a telling fact - that the families of the folks on Flight 93 and the families of the victims at the Pentagon -- haven't been nearly as obnoxious as the WTC families...

It must be a NY thing....

Semper Fi

The whole scenario stinks....