A moment that has become sadly familiar over the years, yesterday saw family and friends of September 11 victims descended into Ground Zero to pay their respects, lay flowers and remember their loved ones as the city remembered September 11, 2001. Brothers and sisters of the victims read the names of the 2,749 killed on that bright day in a short and moving ceremony. This year, the speeches reflected on the London bombings and New Orleans as well.
Four years later, the ceremony seemed to be more subdued and less-tourist-attracting than in previous years; the only people we saw downtown seemed to be mourners (seeing the family members with photographs and firefighters and police officers in their dress blues made us so sad); all the local stations televised the ceremony, except for WB Channel 11/WPIX (even the UPN Channel 9 broadcast it!). What's interesting is that even though the city's feelings about September 11 are raw, people want the various parties to stop stalling and start building. The NY Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote over the weekend that what may be buit at Ground Zero is pretty depressing.
Photograph of a reflecting pool at the World Trade Center from Reuters
