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Quelling the controversy simmering over the museum's intentions, Governor George Pataki officially evicted the International Freedom Center from the World Trade Center site. His statement read, "Since June, we have offered the International Freedom Center (IFC) the time they needed to clarify their intentions and work with stakeholders to reach a consensus There remains too much opposition, too much controversy over the programming of the I.F.C., and we must move forward with our first priority, the creation of an inspiring memorial." And while Governor Pataki offered to helop the IFC find another location in Manhattan, the museum issued a statement saying, "We are deeply disappointed that the will could not be found to continue the development of the International Freedom Center at this hallowed site. We do not believe there is a viable alternative place for the IFC at the World Trade Center site." So there will be no IFC anywhere!
The next question is whether or not the IFC's building, designed by Snohetta, will even be built. Newsday says some groups may try to get the memorial museum moved there. Interestingly enough, vocal IFC-opponent NY Post has John Gotti on the cover, instead of proclaiming "IFC KO'D" or something, and the Governor's press release about the IFC's removal is nowhere to be found on his Rebuilding Lower Manhattan part of his website.
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IFC-Ya?
Nice to see George Pataki polishing up his 2008 Republican presidential candidate cred by caving in like a wet cardboard box to the proverbial squeaky wheel. Thanks for arbiting how the rest of us get to reflect on one of our greatest national tragedies, you right-wing assholes.
that site is a mess of doublespeak. freedom this, freedom that... it seems more like the whole site is stuck in tyranny. censorship, politics, greedy developers, bureaucracy, and a small group of victims getting more attention than common sense. celebrate freedom.
Nobody wanted that baloney there in the first place - except for the usual left wing hypocrites who want to bash our government and beg for handouts at the same time.
And dry your tears, hijiki and mourn this. Nobody is preventing you from reflecting on this event any way you like.
nola nola
sipped a cola
told us all to go fuckola
Thank you, heroic Governor Pataki, for declaring ground zero an art-free zone.
Too bad this also makes it a freedom-free zone.
I always thought we were attacked because our enemies thought we didn't have the guts to stand up for what we believed. They must have been looking at Pataki when that conclusion was reached.
And four years later (more time than it took us to win WWII for crying out loud) we still have a gaping hole in the ground.
Nice work, scumbag.
Begging for handouts? Bashing the government? Nola, how did you know that I was a Republican congressperson? Good job, Sherlock!
Nola hit it on the head. First of all, aren't ALL museums and art galleries "Freedom Centers"? The fact that there would be a door (and probably an admissions charge) to get into the "Freedom" Center made it questionable from the get-go. The idea that today's Artists would celebrate 'freedom' with flags and heroes and celebrations of America was absurd. It would have been a cultural free-fire zone and a flashpoint for protests and the sort of publicity-driven "art". Let's face it, this building would not please families of the dead even if it had Lynne Chaney in charge it.
So who wanted it? Pataki. Because it was part of Daniel Liebskind's master plan. Hey, is there ANYTHING left of that guy's master plan?
I blame Pataki for the entire debacle downtown post 9/11. Simply put, his cronies picked the wrong master plan. They should have bought out the Port Authority and all the lease holders from the get-go and looked at the area with a clean slate. They should have concentrated all the re-building money the feds were putting up and put it into transit, security and a memorial. Take care of the transit problems downtown and make people feel safe and the place will bloom. My guess is, the whole area would be studded with construction cranes right now instead of, well, nothing much.
The current re-building effort seems much closer to Sir Norman Foster's arguably better master plan than Liebskind's...minus the gorgeous twin tower replacement that frankly would have been a huge terrorist target and un-rentable fiasco. So what DO we have? We have a lot of angry artists and their supporters and more space for yet another banal office building with no tenants. Or a nice vacant lot until they can figure out what to build on it. Great job George.
The re-building of downtown has been a disaster, but thankfully this minor, fixable disaster has been averted. And only a few years and millions of dollars have been wasted. Let's hope it further dooms Pataki's hopes for higher office. If he can't rebuild a few acres in New York how the hell would he deal with Iraq? Or New Orleans for that matter.
Culture DOES belong downtown. I've written before about how much sense it would make to re-locate New York's two woefully under-visited history museums on the site. But what downtown really needs is a new Governor.
ttorison be mad confused, son.
I'm not a republican or a family member or a left-wing hypocrite, and I think the IFC was a terrible idea. And nola's right: you can mourn however you fucking want. But putting that center there would be like installing a museum on heart disease or smoking or drunk driving at a cemetery. Yes, we want to know why these deaths occurred. Just do it somewhere else - remember the dead where they died, plain and simple. No museum is warranted or necessary.
It's not gonna be a cemetary. It's gonna be a freaking shopping mall. Why would a museum hurt?
By the logic of "remember the dead where they died," perhaps we should raze all of south Brooklyn to honor the colonial regulars who died in the pitched battle there during the Revolutionary War?
nola, personally i don't care about the 'freedom museum'. the memorial is there for the mourners and that's where i feel the victims' family input should end. but my point was that the whole process so far is a parody of the word 'freedom'. i wonder why you see this as a party politics. i know you have trouble hearing opinions outside your party-religion, but i'll tell you again, i'm no left-winger.
Really, it just turned into more of a Freedom Mall.
I think bootsy missed the word "elsewhere" in the lead paragraph of that story. The Freedom Center site is not going to be turned into some downtown version of the Time Warner Center. Thanks to the Governor, it'll be yet another mostly empty building downtown where people feel bummed out and unsafe. The future boarded-up storefronts will be a few thousand feet away.
hijiki: The plugged wan't pulled on this idiotic idea by the 9/11 families alone. I agree that they should not be in charge of this process, and I agree that the process has been one long bad joke. But why do you have a problem with the IFC being canned when most people think it is a stupid idea?
WTF-Est: A museum doesn't hurt, unless some left-wingers decide to use it as an opportunity to bash the evil white man for stealing Indian land. That's what happened here and I'll take a Starbucks over that any day.
Tim N.: You seem to think shoving this project down NYers throats would represent a triumph of freedom. Is this one of those lame "if we don't build it the terrorists will win" arguments?
because it was canned due to victim family concerns, not because 'most people think it is a stupid idea".
i could be wrong, but as i understood it, the museum's purpose was to educate people on the long history of similar events with the hope that insight may help avoid such stupidity in the future. they didn't want to sign a contract that would give nimbys the right to censor the content. that's different from a 'down with the white man' agenda.
I think it was a stupid idea. The plans showed an empty warehouse where people milled around looking at giant P.C. photos. The was no grassroots concept of what was going to be installed. Good riddance. I have no problem with buying pants at the WTC site.
Step # 2 the White House in 08
Step # 3 Evict the UN from our shores
Step # 4 Offer a one ticket to Canada for all the
left wing cry-babies
shut up dumb-asses
BAKAYAROU....you pathetic demorats and repubes can only argue politrixs over the site of a tragedy.
sad, but on the other hand, not surprising, the left and the right are solely responsable for the shit america has become in this day and age..
evolved humans vote third party. just to say KUTABARE to the humans who are stuck in stupid.
The only thing being shoved down my throat is fear of art. New ideas are dangerous, they make me afraid. Save me, governor.
And the governor, lacking any backbone himself, dropped his drawers and rolled right over.
We live in so much fear, the terrorists have already won.
Sorry... typekey isn't working!!!
Dear Headline Writer (The first post here) - I love it when you Leftists show your true peace & love compassion. Why do you (who consider your opinions so highly) always resort to violent cursing when you don't get your way?...and you ALWAYS blame it on the mythical "right-winger".