9/11 kin file request to keep commemoration at ground zero

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...gion-apnewyork

By DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press Writer
August 1, 2007, 1:52 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- A group of 9/11 family organizations, outraged by city plans to move the commemoration ceremony, filed a permit request Wednesday asking to hold the annual event at the World Trade Center site.

The coalition filed the request with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site.

The city has said that ground zero, now undergoing reconstruction, is not safe for the large annual gathering and it plans to move the recitation of names to a nearby plaza.

"This is the place we have. A precedent has been set in letting us touch ground zero," said Diane Horning, a representative of one of the family groups.

Family members will have some access to the site just not to the pit and not for a ceremony, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

"It's just not safe," said Bloomberg. "Listen, we've had enough tragedy on that site. Our first priority, No. 1, is to make sure that everybody's safe, and nothing's going to get us off that."