Between remembrance and rebuilding : developing a consensus process for memorialization at the World Trade Center

Abstract

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were a national tragedy. Communities across the United States and internationally both directly and indirectly affected by the terrorist attacks are in debate about how to appropriately memorialize such catastrophic events and loss of life. This thesis focuses on the response in New York City to remember and rebuild at the World Trade Center site. This thesis explores spontaneous public responses to the events of September 11th by individuals, victims' families groups and civic organizations that claim a stake in the memorialization and rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. During the first several months following the terrorist strikes, the absence of an inclusive decision-making process for remembrance and rebuilding at the World Trade Center site produced conflicts between stakeholders, particularly victims' families, and New York decision-makers. To illustrate this tension between remembrance and rebuilding, this thesis discusses the "temporary memorial" development in New York City in March 2002 and the PATH train and site rebuilding disagreements that escalated during April 2002. Traditional decision-making processes maintain the public voice at a distance from the decisionmaking powers. Elected and appointed officials arbitrate public voices that are restricted in advisory roles and produce final decisions. As an alternative, consensus building involves a range of stakeholders in decision-making roles. A consensus building process would earn civic endorsement, lead to a durable outcome and would capture this unprecedented opportunity for grieving participants and witnesses to engage in a planning process. The thesis argues that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the state-city agency convened by New York Governor George Pataki to oversee development of Lower Manhattan and the WTC site, could convene a consensus building process. The process would provide neutral facilitation and management of stakeholders who select representatives for an open and ongoing dialogue about such contentious issues as sacred ground, rebuilding, memorialization, and economic recovery. A consensus building process is an inclusive conversation that could reach agreement on a plan of action for the rebuilding and memorialization on the WTC site. This process would recognize the rebuilding of the WTC site as one of the greatest planning projects in New York history. The process would embrace the diversity and number of stakeholders, the destruction and trauma on the site witnessed world-wide and the challenge of achieving agreement on a technically complex site in the center of one of the world's leading financial marketplaces.