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Rendering of the future World Trade Center buildings; 1 WTC is the tallest building, at right
The Post called it "Free Dumb" on its cover. Former governor George Pataki, the man who dubbed the 1,776-foot skyscraper (including antenna) "Freedom Tower," said, "The Freedom Tower is not simply another piece of real estate and not just a name for marketing purposes. In design and name, it is symbolic of our commitment to rise above the attacks of Sept. 11. Where One and Two World Trade Center once stood, there will be a memorial with two voids to honor the heroes we lost. In my view, those addresses should never be used again." The Daily News offered a blistering editorial, calling the Port Authority "imperious," but said it wasn't a big deal anyway, since the Port Authority has screwed up every deadline promised and lied about costs.
Relatives of 9/11 victims weighed in. Rosemary Tallon, whose firefighter brother died, said, "My gut reaction is calling a building the World Trade Center when it really isn't the World Trade Center is pretty creepy," while Debra Burlingame, sister of a pilot whose plane crashed into the Pentagon said, "If we can't say the word freedom out loud, God help us. I understand the decision from a marketing point of view. But it saddens me that it's no longer economically viable to declare who we are."
So far, 88% of our readers believe that 1 WTC is a far better address—if you haven't voted in our poll, you can:
Mayor Bloomberg said on his radio show this morning, "I would like to see it stay the Freedom Tower, but it’s their building and they don’t need me dumping on it. If they could rent the whole thing by changing the name, I guess they’re going to do that and they probably, from a responsible point of view, should."
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No point calling it World Trade anything if no world trade is even taking place there. How long before someone demands it be named after Obama the magnificent?
I think Gothamist has nailed it ... TIZZY TOWER
With the financial sector being systematically dismantled and carried off to Washington, who do they expect to occupy these buildings anyway?
"In design and name, it is symbolic of our commitment to rise above the attacks of Sept. 11."
We aren't going to rise above anything if we keep slapping the word "Freedom" on things like it's 2002.
I really hope Albany doesn't start a bill to force the PANYNJ to name it Freedom Tower instead of 1WTC.
its almost 8 years since the attack....and what is of the big hole in the ground....NOTHING. Why not just make it a big public park!? Ahhh...they cant do that b/c they wont make money from it. But if they charge for $10 hot dogs and $15 pretzels, they can make back the money in no time.
They're not going to make money from office space, either.
Why not just call it the "Continual Bitchfest Tower?"
Seriously, though, I'm not a fan of the "freedom fries" and other "us against them" stuff, but I've never put "Freedom Tower" into that camp -- I think it's a fine (if maybe a little uninspired) name. But I really don't care what they call the thing -- the name only really matters if they ever get around to actually building the building.
i might be alone in this, but thank god. i don't agree with calling it '1 world trade center' either, but 'freedom tower' somehow just smacked of everything terrible about the post-9/11 world that we've all been trying very hard to forget - blind patriotism, baseless hate, fearmongering media, george w. bush, etc. it's also terribly uninspired.
Shocking that right winger parrots would take advantage of 9/11 yet again...
You'd think there was nothing else going on in the world for the Post and DN to write about...
Freedom can only be used if French was/is the predecessor of.
It's the French Kiss Tower
Since a good protion of it is being leased to chinese firms, "Freedom Tower" hardly seems appropriate.
"So far, 88% of our readers believe that 1 WTC is a far better address..."
Likewise, something like 88% of Daily News readers could care less about what it's named so long as it's built. Check out the DN reader's comments posted for their article.
If the Post and Daily News are so upset about the renaming, why don't they rename themselves the "Freedom Post" and the "Daily Freedom News"?
Why not? Because that would be a stupid, jingoistic, vapid move.
I'm glad they renamed it something logical. Now if they would only redesign it and add housing to it...
As a name, "Freedom Tower" could be just as marketable as The Empire State Building. Although people interested in marketing a memorial should suffer through another plane crash. Onboard.
just build the fucking thing and shut up.
Relax, it's up to the tenth floor. Once you get past the foundation work and the load-bearing framing down below, it's a race to the moon.
Who we are? We are invaders, enslavers, bombers, and exploiters. That's who we are. We better not name buildings by who we are. 1 World Trade Center is fine.
@ 8 Thespis, right on!
I don't give a nut what former Governor George Pataki thinks. He never said or did anything as governor but stand behind Rudy Giuliani and spew freedom loving, so I don't care what he thinks about it now.
Quoth Debra Burlingame: "If we can't say the word freedom out loud, God help us."
I... I don't think this is an issue of censorship?
build it first name it when people move in...
One Fail Tower