BY ALINE REYNOLDS | For some Downtown residents, The National September 11 Memorial is no longer just a vision based on architectural renderings.
On Wed., Aug. 31, N.Y.S. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver invited members of Community Boards 1 and 3 to a preview tour of the memorial plaza, which is on the cusp of completion for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
In an opening speech at the Port Authority’s Downtown office, Silver applauded the community boards for helping to mold the neighborhood’s post-9/11 revitalization.
“With the 10th anniversary…less than two weeks away, I thought this was an appropriate time to bring together those in our community who have done so much to help Lower Manhattan recover and rebuild,” Silver told the board members. “You have helped us open new businesses [and] build new schools and new parks, from the East River to Battery Park City and everywhere in between.”
Since a prior tour of the site in early August, Silver noticed the plaza’s new lawn and newly planted ivy around the 225 symmetrically positioned trees that have been planted thus far. The memorial’s two reflecting pools were not turned on during last week’s tour, as the pools’ granite walls are getting a final waterproof coating.
Community members expressed their gratitude toward Silver for arranging the visit — particularly since they were denied special access to the site the weekend of 9/11.
“The Speaker was the one that was sensitive to our needs and accommodated us in this way, not the Memorial,” said Cedar Street resident Pat Moore, who was hoping to commemorate the 10th anniversary on the plaza with her fellow Community Board 1 members after the nationwide Sept. 11 commemoration ceremony. “This is our community — we’re the ones that see this and live with this every single day.”
While he was pleased to participate in the tour, C.B. 1 member Jeff Galloway said he felt as if he was encroaching on the sacred territory of victims’ families. Echoing Moore, he would have preferred, he said, to convene at the plaza on the weekend of 9/11. “I personally would have felt better if I had known the family members had already been there,” he said. “I agree that the family members take priority, but I don’t agree that the general public on 9/12 takes priority.”
The sight of the names strewn across the reflecting pools nonetheless moved Galloway. “It exceeded my expectations in terms of the sobering effect of seeing those names around the [former] towers,” he said.
Tribeca resident Tricia Joyce was troubled by the tour. The two gaping holes in the Twin Towers’ footprints particularly upset her. “To me, there’s something sad about that. Maybe it’s meant to be upsetting, and if so, it’s successful,” she said.
Joyce said she would have liked to have seen a part of the plaza dedicated to the area’s rebirth. “I don’t totally love it, to be honest,” she said of the plaza. “I’d love to see the living along with this space.”
Community Board 3 member Ariel Palitz, who purchased a cobblestone on the plaza, felt satisfied walking the grounds of the memorial knowing that she had contributed to its creation.
“For me, it’s just a way of being physically connected to the place,” said Palitz, “and to know that I did something in some small way to help rebuild.”
