Officials of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. lashed out yesterday at last week’s decision by Gov. Pataki to yank the International Freedom Center from Ground Zero.
The move, they said, undermines their ability to rebuild the World Trade Center site.
“There is no question that the LMDC has been deeply wounded here,” Roland Betts said at a meeting in which all but one of his fellow board members disapproved of the IFC’s removal.
Betts acknowledged, however, that the LMDC shared some of the blame for failing to defend a project that it had already approved.
“What happened was that a groundswell of rumor and innuendo was applied to what the IFC intended to do, and it had no basis in fact whatsoever and we, as a board, let that get out of hand, and we are responsible for that,” said Betts, who is also a business partner of IFC founder Tom Bernstein.
Betts demanded that Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg “reaffirm their commitment” to the LMDC board, which they jointly appoint, and to the process of rebuilding the WTC site.
“I think without that there is no future for this organization,” Betts said at the first LMDC meeting since the IFC was booted.
Chairman John Whitehead added that the board should have been allowed to follow through with its review of the IFC.
“In all candor, I must report that most of our board, including its chairman, was quite distressed that a process we established two years ago, with full public approval, was not allowed to work its way through to conclusion,” he said.
Robert Harding, a deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration, was the only board member to back Pataki.
“While I agree with the decision, I think we still face an enormous task,” he said, referring to the rebuilding.
Pataki’s rejection ended months of controversy about the museum, which had been slated to go next to the WTC Memorial.
Opponents, led by some 9/11 families, had repeatedly voiced concern that the IFC, dedicated to the march toward freedom around the world, might someday host exhibits and discussions that they would consider anti-American on a site where 2,794 people were killed.
Trustee whiners / Editorial: P. 32