9/11 Memorial
9/11 Tribute
Thomas Monaster/News
City officials were shocked to learn that the 9/11 Memorial Museum was considering charging a $25 entry fee when it opens in 2012.9/11 Memorial Museum considers $25 entry fee to Ground Zero, angers politicos and tourists
Friday, June 17th 2011, 4:00 AM
The Sept. 11 Memorial Museum at Ground Zero is mulling a suggested admission price of up to $25 - or a mandatory $20 fee - a City Council committee was told Thursday.
While the 9/11 Memorial that opens Sept. 11 will always be free, visitors and politicians expressed outrage that the subterranean museum that debuts a year later could be so pricey.
"If they don't charge for Arlington, the Smithsonian or Pearl Harbor, it's indecent to charge for the World Trade Center," said Abby Lowenstein, 16, of Los Angeles, who toured the site with her parents yesterday.
"I represent the third poorest district in the city, and I can tell you, most of my constituents won't be able to afford $20 or $25," Cabrera said.
Officials had been saying for the last few years that a charge was possible, but never floated any dollar figures. A permanent cash stream is needed to cover annual operating costs of up to $60 million, they contend.
That means museum-goers could be hit with a "suggested donation" similar to the $25 now posted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said Joe Daniels, president of the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum.
"This will be a world-class museum, and it will absolutely need to generate revenue in line with other world-class institutions in New York City," he said.
But Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, which represents downtown, said, "This is not the Met, and it's not an art museum. This is where we were attacked, and we don't want to make it cost-prohibitive."
Daniels said a mandatory $20 entry fee has been the recent standard for city cultural meccas. That's what the Museum of Modern Art charges, while the American Museum of Natural History costs $16.
Depending on how much is snared from other funding sources, the museum would decide whether to ask for a suggested donation or impose a fixed ticket charge, he told a hearing of the Council's downtown redevelopment committee.
He said there would never be a charge for family members of 9/11 victims, and school groups would receive discounts.
The 9/11 Museum is expected to open Sept. 11, 2012, exactly one year after the Memorial, which opens in time for the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
Note:
This morning, June 20, 2011, Fox News held a brief interview with a 9-11 family member who lost his son, a fireman, on 9-11. The family member is outraged, to say the least, about the NYC Memorial for 9-11 victims. He stated that the USA should treat this Memorial in the same way we treat the Pearl Harbor Memorial - no fees. He pointed out that the 9-11 families had "no say" in the "Memorial"; that the first thing one sees as they enter is a large shop selling T-shirts, which he considers nothing more than vendors on the sidewalks and a mockery of the deaths of almost 3,000 victims on 9-11.
"There is not much about the story of the victims of 9-11 in this Memorial", he stated and added, "This Memorial is less about the victims and more about yet another Museum".
His bottom line is:"They are treating this Memorial more like any other Museum, rather than a "Memorial" and after school kids and everyone collected pennies and dimes to help get this Memorial built, it is an outrage to think that NYC has turned this into some type of cash-cow, rather than an American Memorial for the attack on 9-11."
I had no idea this is what is happening to America's "9-11 Memorial" until this morning! Perhaps America's voices should be heard, by contacting our leaders and the NYC representatives to voice your opinion, before this Memorial turns into another tragedy.
Personally, I believe that after waiting ten years for one Memorial to be built in honor of America's victims who died on 9-11, America deserves better than a $25.00 fee to honor our heroes and all who died that fateful morning, when America was attacked by Islamic terrorists.
Bee Sting
