The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 112

New Jersey's Gov. Corzine wants a piece of the action at Ground Zero, and apparently is pushing the Port Authority to haggle over the construction of a new Hudson River tunnel and linking that construction project together with Ground Zero rebuilding.

That whole linkage stinks to hell.

And visiting the WTC Memorial Museum may cost visitors. Planners aren't ruling out an admissions fee.

The surprise disclosure by Gretchen Dykstra, president of the Memorial Foundation, touched off an uproar among victims' family members and city legislators.

Dykstra said the final decision about a museum fee will be in the hands of her board of directors, but she insisted that when the matter comes up she will push for an unspecified charge.

"The board of directors has not yet taken up this issue, but when they do I am going to argue strenuously that we charge admission to get into the museum," Dykstra said at a City Council hearing.

Dykstra said "family members and first responders" should not have to pay and that there would be no admission to the memorial itself, which will feature the names of all 2,794 victims and the two waterfalls where the towers stood.

And no one should be required to pay to enter the museum that is supposed to recount the horrible events of that day. They better go back and rework the numbers to ensure that the operation of the museum is free to all who want entry, not just families of victims. The Daily News also reports on the museum fee and quotes one of the family members, Battalion 11 Chief Jim Riches, who lost his son on 9/11, as saying:

"It's like Pearl Harbor," he told the Daily News. "It's not a museum - it's American history."

How true.

UPDATE:
No deal. No kidding. And what a surprise given that we're now dealing with even more egos and political bickering than before.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center, spitzer, silverstein.