The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 133

The NY Daily News outlines five reasons that the memorial has floundered with the foundation suspending fundraising this week. The five reasons: 1) Follies in fund-raising; 2) Carelessness proves costly; 3) Developmental problems, infighting; 4) No star power to lure donors; and 5) Lack of a leader to take charge.

The fact remains that it was the Pataki's failure of leadership that has made rebuilding at Ground Zero far more difficult since it was his decisions that led us down this path. Instead of Ground Zero being his ultimate triumph, it is his albatross.

Steve Cuozzo thinks that Bloomberg's bull in a china shop routine may have paid off in blowing the lid off the spiralling costs of the memorial design. For that, he says, we should be grateful.

The basic problem with the memorial as now conceived isn't that it would cost twice what we were led to believe (though it certainly would).

Nor does it have much to do with security issues or with pressure from a handful of "victims' families" determined to quash any plan that doesn't turn all of Lower Manhattan into a permanent graveyard.

No, the real problem is the one enunciated on this page last Nov. 28 under the headline, "It Stinks."

The memorial coughed up by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s bizarre competition in 2004 was awful then, and it's just as awful now - despite endless massaging by appalled planners.

Given that the architects had 7-plus acres on which to commemorate victims of an attack that took place high above ground in daylight, how did we end up with viewing chambers situated mostly underground?

It's the fact that the design is unloved, and disliked by so many that has made fundraising so incredibly difficult. It doesn't matter who is running the campaign; if the design stinks, donations simply will not come in. Lee Iacoca's job in fundraising for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island restorations was several magnitudes easier because we love the statue and know what Ellis Island means to millions of Americans. Many critics contend the Reflecting Absense design is lacking on basic aesthetics and not only forces everyone underground, but that it poses safety and security risks.

UPDATE:
Lenore Skenazy thinks that planners and designers better start thinking outside the box. Radically outside the box:

So, with respect, I say: Radically scale down the memorial. Spend the savings on safety - in the name of those who died.

If we really want a fitting tribute to the victims, this would be it: Their names emblazoned on the side of new fire trucks, Geiger counters and radios that actually work. That way, we'd see them every day, all around us. "Look, there goes Tim's ambulance, racing to save a life." "Hey, there's Mira's PATH train camera, watching the tracks for suspicious movement." The dearly departed would become an almost angel-like presence, forever watching over us.

Yes, forever. As the equipment wore out, their names would be transferred to new equipment. Thus would the dead be ever-preserving life.

I am keenly aware that the families of the victims spent years in the painful process of devising the memorial that is currently planned. But that memorial is starting to sound untenable, with a price tag that had been heading toward $1 billion (it may come down some) and donations halted after only trickling in.

I ask the families to consider putting a simple, beautiful park and a wall of names at the site. It would still be a place to gather and mourn. But it would be far less extravagant than the complex of slurry wall, soaring exhibition halls and reflecting pools now planned.

One of the reasons donors have been slow to give money, I suspect, is that the memorial as designed didn't resonate for them. The pools are so understated as to be bland, and yet they cost a lot. Same with the exposed slurry wall. To make matters worse, the blueprints have remained in flux: One day the design is safe, the next day it's a deathtrap. Who gives money to a memorial this volatile, not to mention pricey?

The problem isn't the soaring exhibition hall, but the reflecting pool and that the bulk of the memorial is 70 feet below street level.

The Daily News also opines that we must get leadership and openness from the memorial foundation on its plans - as well as a comprehensive funding and spending plan.

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