Families insist 9/11 remembrance be at Ground Zero

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ne...y-nynews-print

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 31, 2007

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday that the Sept. 11 anniversary ceremony would not be held in its original Ground Zero location, despite threats by family members to boycott and hold their own shadow remembrance.

Construction on the memorial, as well as new buildings that are going up, have made the site unsafe for a large public gathering like the one that has taken place at the site each year since the attacks, he said.

Bloomberg said the decision to move the sixth anniversary commemoration to a plaza off the southeast corner of the site was final, and that "it would be a big shame" if anyone skipped the remembrance events out of anger.

For five years, mourners have participated in the same ritual at the site: As the names of the nearly 3,000 victims were read aloud, echoing across what was once the World Trade Center basement, family members could also descend a long ramp into the seven-story pit. There, they laid flowers on the dusty bedrock.

Some family members have written angry letters to Bloomberg and Gov. Eliot Spitzer, warning that they will hold their own gathering if the ceremony is not moved back to its original place.

The families said yesterday that they will now apply for a permit to do so, but it is unclear whether that would be successful; the city controls permits for the land where previous remembrances were held, and a separate bistate agency is in charge of the seven-story pit.

That agency, the Port Authority, said yesterday it was working to find a way to let families visit the site on the anniversary. Spokesman Steve Sigmund said that would not include permission to hold a separate ceremony, nor would it include access to the pit.

The family groups that are protesting say the new location has none of the significance that Ground Zero has.

"This is not the site - it's across the street," said Anthony Gardner,whose brother was killed in the attacks. "You have a better view of a Burger King than the actual trade center site."

Families have long said they feel an emotional attachment to the site, a sentiment that is particularly strong for the relatives of the 1,100-some victims who have not had any identified remains recovered from the site. Many feel that Ground Zero is a burial site.