No More Freedom for the Freedom Tower

The Freedom Tower is no more. From now on, the Port Authority will be referring to the site as 1WTC, which also happened to be the name of one of the two Twin Towers at the Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. And apparently, some people aren't happy about the change.

Although the 1,776-foot tower hasn't been fully built, funded or leased - and won't be occupied until 2014 - the authority said it will not be called the Freedom Tower, but will simply be known as 1 World Trade Center.

"As we market the building, we will insure that it is presented in the best possible way - and 1 World Trade Center is the address that we're using," said Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia.

"It's the one that is easiest for people to identify with - and frankly, we've gotten a very interested and warm reception to it."

New Yorkers and tourists steeled by the slaughter of 3,000 people at the site quickly disagreed - vociferously:

Nancy Sey, a teacher from South Carolina on a field trip, said nothing could be more evocative than the two simple words - Freedom Tower.

"New Yorkers, you live here! This is part of your everyday lives," she said. "For us out-of-towners, it's not like that. Those buildings must be remembered differently. They need to stand out."

What people from out of town, and even those who live in and around the NYC metro area, don't seem to recall is that the MTA still refers to the site as the World Trade Center and the Freedom Tower was a name that was attached to the first and highest tower by Gov. George Pataki, even though the legal name and address of the tower would be designated 1WTC by the Port Authority, which has oversight over the site.

The real issue is not the name, but the pace of the reconstruction efforts.