New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday the families of Sept. 11 victims will have limited access to the World Trade Center site for the memorial service this year, but some families say that is not good enough.
A coalition of relatives gathered in Lower Manhattan Wednesday to protest the decision to move the ceremony off the World Trade Center site, where it has been held for the past five years.
The families also filed a request with the Port Authority that owns the site to suspend construction that day so they can hold their own memorial service at the site.
"We are actively looking at ways to accommodate family members who want to pay their respects on the World Trade Center site on 9/11, but the substantial construction activity and current site conditions will not allow the formal ceremony to be safely conducted on the site," the Port Authority replied in a statement.
Due to construction, the city moved this year's six-year anniversary ceremony to nearby Zuccotti Park, just southeast of the World Trade Center site.
The mayor says the families can go to the site from the park to pay their respects and leave flowers in an area along the southern edge, but says they won't be permitted to go near the construction at the site.
"Family members will be able to go there," said Bloomberg. "What they just can't do is go down into the area. It's just not safe. Listen, we have had enough tragedy down on that site and our first priority is to make sure that everybody is safe."
Bloomberg says the city is unable to make the site safe enough to hold a ceremony there, but he also assured families that this year's ceremony will be even better than those in past years.
But some families say that's not good enough, saying the new location has none of the significance that Ground Zero has.
Relatives say that if the Port Authority turns down their request to hold the event at the site they will take their plea to the federal court.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani also expressed regret over the news that this year's ceremony will be moved because he, too, has an emotional attachment to the site where the twin towers collapsed after being struck by hijacked airliners.
Source: Xinhua
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