Memorial jury hears residents, families clash

By Josh Rogers

The tensions between relatives of the 9/11victims and Lower Manhattan residents played out last week in front of the jury to pick the World Trade Center memorial.

Many relatives of the victims have objected to calls by residents to improve the pedestrian access around the memorial area either by bringing it up to street level or by allowing a pedestrian walkway over the area, which is proposed to be 30 feet below the street.

Julie Boryczewski, whose brother Martin Boryczewski was killed, told residents, “you’ve been walking around the World Trade Center site since before the attack. Perhaps the lifestyle enhancements should not be done because of the attack on America.”

She was speaking last Thursday at an invitation-only meeting before 12 of the 13 jurors who will decide on the memorial to those who died in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 2001 and the six who died in 1993 when the Twin Towers were bombed.

The original trade center provided east-west access through the complex although many have said pedestrian connections should be improved with the new W.T.C.

Anthony Notaro, chairperson of Community Board 1’s Battery Park City committee, responded to criticisms of some family members that neighbors are looking for better shopping at the site.

“We don’t need a store,” said Notaro. “What we need is access to a place of healing and rebuilding.” He said he has walked near the sunken area of the site almost every day since the attack. “I’ve had my eyes looking down for two years. I want the chance to look up.”

Holly Leicht, one of the leaders of Imagine New York, which held a series of forums on W.T.C. plans, said bringing the memorial up to the street would be “a real betrayal of the public trust” because it would be contrary to the selected site plan of architect Daniel Libeskind. After the meeting, she said a walkway over the memorial might be compatible with such a design.

In an interview with Gabe Pressman on WNBC a week ago, Libeskind said: “I believe in the memorial being not on the street level, so that it’s separated from the traffic, so that it has a spiritual and civic dignity to it, so that people can come and reflect, and it will be developed in the composition as a memorial park, as a beautiful place to be.”

The audience at last week’s hearing included members of Community Board 1 and the advisory committees to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which includes family members, residents and Downtown business people. Relatives of passengers of United Flight 93, which crashed in Somerset County, Penn., were also invited.

Lloyd Glick, whose son Jeremy helped force the plane to the ground before it reached its target in Washington, read a statement on behalf of the Flight 93 families. “It’s a great honor and privilege to have the memories of our loved ones be included in your memorial,” he said.

Memorials are also being planned in Pennsylvania and near the Pentagon, but the W.T.C. site, where 2,792 were believed to have been murdered in 2001, will be the only place where all 3,016 Sept. 11 victims will be honored.

Kevin Rampe, interim president of the L.M.D.C., said that “the jury is going to have the final decision with respect to the memorial.”

Liz Thompson, who made it out of Tower One safely on the last elevator down from Windows on the World, told the jurors that the community “needs green space — needs a town square back.”

Patricia Reilly, whose sister was killed, was the only family member to say she did not care if the memorial was at street level as long as family members could also go 70 feet below ground to the area where most of the human remains were found. “We are not opposed to an above-ground memorial,” she said. “We want access to the bedrock.”

Reilly, like many of the family members who spoke, said she was against building a garage for tour buses under the memorial area.

Edie Lutnick, a Cantor Fitzgerald executive whose brother died at the firm, said there should be “no vehicular traffic crossing the site. None of you have vehicular traffic running over your loved ones’ resting place.” She and all of the other family members who spoke did not raise objections to the PATH commuter trains going under the memorial area over part of the “footprints” of the Twin Towers.

Other residents, as well as State Sen. Martin Connor and Councilmember Alan Gerson said it was important to get the polluting tour buses the memorial will attract off the streets.

Arthur Gregory, who owns A & M Roadhouse bar, said many of his regular customers who died in the attack were investment bankers and he finds it hard to imagine that they would be in favor of placing too many limits on the site.

“I can imagine Tommy Glasser, a partner at Sandler O’Neill sitting with a cigar in his mouth saying, ‘you’re going to keep 16 acres for my remains? That’s crazy,’ Gregory said. “He was a total capitalist.”

Of the 13 jurors, Vartan Gregorian, who also did not attend a May 28 meeting that was open to the public, was the only one who did not attend. One juror, artist and architect Maya Lin, left last week’s meeting about 30 minutes early.

The May meeting was dominated by firefighters and relatives of firefighters who asked that rescue workers in the F.D.N.Y., N.Y.P.D. and Port Authority police be listed together by company unit with their rank.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who will have a chance to meet with the jury, was quoted as saying over the weekend that the memorial should make it clear who the rescue workers were and the sacrifice that they made.

Over 13,000 people registered to submit a memorial design and the L.M.D.C. expects to get the first submissions this week. The deadline is June 30 and a final design is scheduled to be selected this October.

Josh@DowntownExpress.com