December 14, 2006

WTC Memorial names to be grouped, not at random

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, now under the leadership of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has agreed to ditch a plan to randomly display the names of the the people killed in the attacks of Septermber 11, 2001 and the 1993 explosion at the WTC. Instead, the names on the memorial will be grouped by command, precinct or company if they were firefighters or police officers, and by other groups if they were civilians.

The sunken pool marking the location of the North Tower will be inscribed with 1,518 names, including the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees and those aboard American Airlines flight 11, according to the Daily News.

The South Tower pool will be inscribed with 1,461 names, including first responders, people who worked in that building, the people on board the three other flights hijacked the morning of Sept. 11, the six people killed in the '93 attack, along with "those whose exact location on 9/11 is unknown," according to the New York Times .

The new groupings have appeased some camps, including the firefighters union, but not others, including Edith Lutnick, the executive director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund. The Times explains:

But Ms. Lutnick said that that was one of the flaws of the new plan: that civilians — unlike uniformed personnel — would not be listed explicitly by affiliation. “You’ll know from this memorial who died at the Pentagon, who died on Flight 175 and who was a firefighter,” she said. “Why do civilians not deserve the same respect and remembrance?”

She said the plan — “almost a unilateral action” by Mayor Bloomberg — failed to take into account what people always asked about a victim: “What was his age? Where did he work? What floor was he on?”

December 14, 2006 12:29 PM in Downtown, Museums

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