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Those fancy shirt sleeves were rolled up as officials met over the crazy costs for the World Trade Center Memorial. And if there's anyone to speak about money, it's our billionaire Mayor Bloomberg, who the NY Times says gave the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation a "verbal spanking":
He chastised the foundation, saying the group had become obsessed with the design and construction of the memorial. "The foundation should be focusing on fund-raising," he said. "The agreement fundamentally was that the L.M.D.C. — the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation — would do the design, somebody would build the building and it would be run by the foundation, who would be raising private money."We can see both sides here: The LMDC was maybe trying to figure out how much it would cost to build the memorial, which is important...but they really should have been trying to raise more money - tsunami and Hurricane Katrina competition, be damned! Mayor B suggested that the memorial's museum and visitor center could be moved into Freedom Tower to eliminate some costs. Hmm, next they'll suggest the memorial not be built but shown on virtual reality goggles handed out there.
And we finally got around to seeing Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t episode about Ground Zero. While it overly simplifies things, what it was good at was that the WTC development was supposed to be Governor Pataki's way to the White House in 2008, but instead he made terrible decisions. For instance, this quote in the Daily News from September 11 widow Monica Iken on the Memorial Foundation board: "We were promised a 'world-class' memorial by Gov. Pataki, and we've been given a world-class failure."
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They really should scale back the design of the memorial. Based on the comments on yesterday's link to the story, it seems most agree. A billion dollars for a memorial is a little ridiculous. I think if you added all the WW1 and WW2 memorials together and adjusted for inflation they would not be even close to a billion dollars. The suggested 500M is too much. There is something to be said for modesty and humbleness, especially when dealing with something solemn. I think that money could do a lot for the people who are actually alive and I really don’t want my tax dollars being sucked up into this whole debacle. If the families need anything beyond a tasteful wall of names then they should finance it themselves.
The above post hit the nail on the head 100%. I am not opposed to family members wanting to memorialize their loved ones. If they want to spend $100 billion of their own money - they should go for it. I just don't want my tax dollars to go for this kind of thing. I don't care about helping out a little - but $1B is crazy. Half of my mother's family was wiped out in WW2 and they never, ever asked for something like this. I am sorry for their pain - but loss does not mean they get free reign.
I mean, it's not as if a more expensive memorial will bring their loved ones back or somehow makes us realize what happened. We all know what happened, we were there! Expensive does not always mean better...
Last I checked, it wasn't "the famlies" asking for this memorial (in cost and scale), but politicians looking to boost their cred. by putting themselves behind a sentimental memorial to the events of September 11th.
On the other hand, I have yet to hear any requests from "the famalies" for anything but answers.
K, then you haven't been watching or reading the news... they've been making "requests" the entire way through and politicians are all to eager to cave in.
K: Um... I think the Associated Press would disagree with you:
"Families of people killed in the World Trade Center attack demanded Monday that officials redesign the memorial, saying the current plan is unsafe and disrespects victims by placing their names below street level..." -- Feb 26
"Families of people who perished in the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center petitioned the court Friday to stop construction next week of a ground zero memorial that they say fails to do justice to the memory of the victims." -- March 10
"With little fanfare, construction workers on Monday began clearing debris from the site of the World Trade Center towers, the first step in building a permanent memorial to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. Some victims' families rallied nearby to protest the monument's design." -- March 13
Etc.
Sounds like they are running the show to me...