Retail Plan for Ground Zero Is Unveiled

[merwin]

Retail Plan for Ground Zero Is Unveiled

By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: September 29, 2005
A day after evicting the International Freedom Center museum from the memorial quadrant at ground zero for being too controversial, state officials described a plan this morning to develop a half million square feet of retail space elsewhere on the World Trade Center site.
...
The Freedom Center, picked for the memorial site by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, was envisioned as a living memorial in which the story of Sept. 11, 2001, would be told in the context of the worldwide struggle for freedom through the ages.

Critics said the sacred precinct of the memorial was no place for a lesson in geopolitics or social history, particularly when the memorial museum was planned entirely underground, within the trade center foundations.
...
Debra Burlingame, who led the opposition to the Freedom Center, beginning with an article in The Wall Street Journal, "The Great Ground Zero Heist," on June 9, congratulated Governor Pataki on his decision. Her brother, Charles F. Burlingame III, was the pilot of the airliner that was crashed into the Pentagon.

"The International Freedom Center was an obstacle not simply for the families, the first responders and all those who were personally affected by the events of Sept. 11," Ms. Burlingame said in a telephone interview, "but for all Americans who will be coming to the World Trade Center memorial to hear the story of 9/11 and that story only.

.....

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Sure, why would you ever want to learn about the worldwide struggle for freedom and why this event happened in the first place? Of course not. People would rather shop.

[northzax]

1. put up a GAP

everything'll be ok then.

[truthisfreedom]

2. keychains! get your 9-11 keychains here! remember 9-11-2001! get your

keychains!

[Sub Atomic]

7. Have you been to "ground zero"?

Because that's exactly what is happening today.

[Angry Girl]

3. America is the ultimate Consumer Nation: WE WANT MORE STUFF!

Shit, they'd open up a gift shop at Abu Ghraib if they thought it would be profitable.

[sando]

4. Don't be surprised

When they do just that.

[all.of.me]

5. 8x10 glossies of lynndie england - autographed?!

[Bridget Burke]

6. GW Bush's 2nd Inaugural Address would have been featured....

www.ifcwtc.org/words28.html

Most of the "Words of Freedom" are from better sources. But why should GW Bush's linking of 9/11 with "freedom" be shoved in the faces of those who come to the Memorial. (Yes, the Memorial will still be built.)

Coincidentally, the main mover behind the Center was Tom Bernstein. He's a developer in the area & from 1989 to 1998, Mr. Bernstein was one of the principal owners of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club with the ownership group led by George W. Bush, now the President of the United States.

Many opponents of the IFC thought it would be too "liberal." If so--great! Let it be built elsewhere--I like that liberal stuff. However, all plans have been dropped.

But I'm glad "they hate us for our freedom" won't be preached at the Memorial.

[Skink]

8. Walmart

:wtf:

[Sub Atomic]

9. Will never happen.

Walmart is now trying to get into Staten Island, the only borough that hasn't told WallyWorld to stay the fuck out.

There will never be a Walmart in Manhattan.