By Sally Regenhard

Now that the contentious lead-up and highly anticipated meeting with Mayor Mike and the 9/11 families is over, we can breathe a sigh of relief to know that, at least for now, we will not be locked out of Ground Zero (GZ) on September 11.

With trepidation, we entered City Hall, along with our attorney, Norman Siegel, to meet with the mayor. Armed with maps and the plan devised by Skyscraper Safety Campaign’s chief technical advisor, Prof. Glenn Corbett of John Jay College (NYC), I knew we had a solid, safety-based plan that would appeal to his head, but I was also aiming at his heart.

I was hoping that our deep connection to the spot where our love ones died, the willingness to arrive at a conciliatory agreement and the critical symbolism of entering GZ would move him. Thank God it did, and we all agreed to a modified plan that would allow brief and limited access down the ramp to GZ, the ability to toss a flower and say a prayer on what has become the “sacred ground” for us, and to then immediately proceed up the ramp and out of the deadly Pit.

I think what really riled many family members is what was perceived as the “out of sight, out of mind” aspect of this year’s proposed ceremony and the far-reaching ramifications of taking the focus off GZ. Whether spoken or not, many families as well as members of the public sense a move to “cover up,” hide, diminish and forget about what really happened on that deadly site where 2,749 innocents lost their lives in a brutal and needless way on that infamous day. In addition, the reality remains in the back of minds that the memorial is not what most families ever wanted in any way, shape or form.

I remember the endless hours of attending “Listening to the City” events, calls for input from the families, being part of committees, attending public meetings in Lower Manhattan and then having all our wants and needs put into the circular file by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), who all seemed to have their own hidden agenda.

In reality, most aspects of the future 9/11 memorial building actually will be hidden. The first hidden aspect is the fact that this memorial, as well as the entire WTC development, will be once again totally immune and exempt from all NYC Building and Fire Codes—just like the first WTC was. Yet, this fact remains largely hidden from public cognition. For supporters of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, and many members of the public, this is an outrage and just one of the “lessons” that were not learned from the collapse of the WTC. In addition to this, the entire memorial and museum (except for an entrance way) will also be physically hidden beneath the ground—parts of it as much as seven stories deep. Two pools of water are the only things that will be visible, period.

This “out of sight, out of mind” memorial design—which originally included a proposal to bury the victims’ names below the earth—prompted the creation of PutItAboveGround.org. This petition-driven organization collected 14,446 signatures supporting an above-ground memorial at GZ and also called for the elimination of all Port Authority exemptions and immunities at GZ. Our dissatisfaction with the implied dishonor of having the memorial and listing of names far below ground was so strong that it impelled Dr. Rosaleen Tallon, sister of “10-10” Liberty Street firehouse victim, Firefighter Sean Patrick Tallon, to take the extraordinary step of protesting with other colleagues in a nightly sleep-out on the streets of GZ for three weeks in March of 2006. Even though I was only able to last for one week, it was one of the most difficult, yet most significant events of my life.

Sleeping on the sidewalk near GZ in the bitter March wind taught me true humility and deeper understanding of what it feels like to be homeless. What crystallized the event for me was when a young man, an Annapolis student from Indiana, visiting NYC for the first time, haltingly approached us with an outstretched hand one cold night. In it was a dollar bill.
When we told him we were not really homeless, he didn’t believe it. It must have been difficult for him to process our explanation of the entire WTC Memorial conflict; all he saw was our freezing group, wearing six layers of mismatched clothing in the middle of winter. But that night, cold and forlorn on the godforsaken streets of GZ, I felt that God had sent this respectful young man as a sign. As we reflected upon what our beautiful loved ones suffered on that deadly day, we knew that this sacrifice was worth it, and that we would win this battle. As it turned out, we did win the battle, but not the war. With increasing media reports of our sleep-out, plus ongoing pressure from 9/11 family groups, the LMDC relented, and the names of the dead will be listed above the ground. Unfortunately, the rest of the memorial (and most of the museum) will still be buried far beneath the ground.

Another relatively hidden aspect of GZ is the shockingly high number of human remains that are, after six long years, still in and around the WTC site. To this day, 40 percent of the victims—1,113 people, including my beautiful son, Christian—still remain missing at the WTC site.

Despite the fact that the system has made a concerted effort to downplay the shocking reality, over three years after the Port Authority, the City of New York and its agencies all declared GZ was free of all human remains, nearly 1,500 remains have been unearthed in the past two years! The newly expanded searches of GZ are a direct result of advocacy by our family members who have been informed by construction and rescue workers of likely spots to search for the remnants of our loved ones.

This dreadful situation is just one of the legacies of shame from the Giuliani Administration which refused all outside assistance to deal with the GZ disaster in a proper and professional manner. Echoes of 9/11-type gross mismanagement were also apparent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where hundreds of people remain missing with little hope of being found due to refusal of local authorities to accept outside help to search for victims. In stark contrast to NYC and New Orleans, Minnesota officials recently asked for federal assistance from the U.S. Navy to ensure that missing people from the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse would be found as soon as possible.

Recently, a compassionate resident who lives near GZ reported to me that a pile of original WTC debris was wedged near her building, and that the city had never searched this area. Could it contain human remains? If, after 9/11, NYC had accepted assistance from a skilled organization that specializes in the search and retrieval of remains, we would likely have found the vast majority of victims years ago. Seeking and accepting federal assistance at GZ could have changed the course of the bitter history of the WTC site and helped to find the remains of over 1,100 human beings who are still missing at and around the site.

Keeping the focus on Ground Zero—both symbolically, by having some access to part of the site on September 11 now and in the future, and by focusing on the need to learn from the deadly mistakes that allowed 9/11 to happen—is the only way to have a legacy of change and reform in honor of the lost and for the safety of the public. We must not seek to hide from the past, but instead continue to focus on the lessons for the future. Are we prepared for another attack? What about the air quality of GZ and Lower Manhattan? Can the FDNY communicate in all buildings, subways and tunnels? Why does this city get paralyzed in a rainstorm? Are we prepared for a nuclear or “dirty bomb” attack? Does Lower Manhattan have an emergency evacuation plan? Are we prepared for natural as well as man-made disasters? If we deny the mistakes of the past, we are doomed to repeat them. That’s why it is important for everyone—not just the families of 9/11—to keep the focus on Ground Zero now, and in the future.

Sally Regenhard is founder and chair of The Skyscraper Safety Campaign and is a participant in 9/11 and Lower Manhattan committees organizations concerned with public safety.