Feds to condemn land for Flight 93 memorial

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The government will begin taking land from seven Somerset County property owners so that the Flight 93 memorial can be built in time for the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the National Park Service said.

In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, the park service said it had teamed up with a group representing the victims' families to work with landowners since before 2005 to acquire the land.

"But with few exceptions, these negotiations have been unsuccessful," said the statement.

The seven property owners own about 500 acres still needed for what will ultimately be a $58 million, 2,200-acre permanent memorial and national park at the crash site near Shanksville, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

"We always prefer to get that land from a willing seller. And sometimes you can just not come to an agreement on certain things," park service spokesman Phil Sheridan said.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09127/968459-455.stm

but what happens if flight 93 didn't exist like the WMDs in Iraq and the torture that supposedly didn't exist but did.

ZOMG!

wow...I am just amazed!!!

it's so very BushCo.

I'm sure that's what the victims and the victims' families really want, to make a deeply shitty event affect more and more people, years after its occurrence. :sarcasm:

2,200 acres! You could put a decent memorial on a half acre or so and call it good. It's the thought that counts.

and create a 2200 acre memorial and park, puts way too much emphasis on this part of 9-11 story. I was all for a simple memorial to recognize those who died. This is extreme.

this is assinine.

Think how many people could be fed for that money. How many children given health care. How many mortgages saved.

Bull shit. total bull shit.

TG

Although I guess this "technically" does not fall under that term.

what somebody might be afraid somebody else might 'turn up' if that land is farmed.

but, no, wasn't thinkin Hoffa. Was thinkin more recent forensic evidence and what near-future technology might be able to prove or disprove about Flight 93's demise.

reeks of fetishization, let alone the offensiveness of confiscating private land.

I'm not 100% opposed to eminent domain, but the 'public good' in question has to rise to a higher level than this...

to remember the victims than making and artificial park

Last summer I got off I95 to go to a Civil War "battlefield memorial" because I saw the sign and had never heard of the battle. I drove all over hell and creation and finally got to the place. It was a farm. That's it- a farm. Nothing there other than some little "museum" which was closed, and some historical information on a kiosk.

No one is going to go to West Bumfuck Pennsylvania to see a 911 memorial.

is totally ridiculous. It's insane. What lame brain idea came up w/ this boondoggle?

Howza 'bout a memorial to every plane wreck, those people are just as dead as the Flight 93 people.

...there are hungry and homeless people in this nation...and these people are insisting on a memorial that costs millions of dollars? Why? It is not going to bring anyone back, right? How about doing some good in their name instead...like setting up a scholarship fund, etc., that allows their acts of courage to continue to live and not just rest in a field.

JMHO

If it's farm land, it would affect the livelyhoods of the farmers to take their land.

These people lost will be remembered by their families no matter what the gov't does. It's not like it's going to be a big tourist attraction except every 4 years as a Republican Mecca during the run-up to elections.

the crash site is. It's in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The road that leads to it is a simple rural two-lane road. Accessing the site itself is by gravel road, IIRC (it's been 3-4 years since I went there). Land is needed for the memorial itself, and also needed for support of tourism at the memorial. Parking lots, restroom facilities, a visitor's center, probably some god-awful "let's roll" souvenir shop, etc.

My point is that the infrastructure to support even a modest memorial simply doesn't exist there. It will need to be created, and that requires *some* land. Again, not 2200 acres, but a little half-acre parcel simply isn't going to do.

If they agree to open up the investigation and show pictures of the crash site and let independent experts investigate how flight 93 crashed there, then I might consider this huge waste of land. No offense to the missing passengers of flight 93. With Shooter and Rummy at the helm it does not look good for them.

A simple, dignified memorial marker with a small pullout along the nearest highway would be sufficient. The kind you see all over the US.

and to honor them, the government takes property from American taxpayers?

How American of them, forget the freedoms and ideals, the government will get what it wants.

2200 acres - for what? A tourist trap and the road to get there?

If I had died on that flight, I'd come back to haunt this project.

The double standard is breathtaking.

If ever there was an in-your-face, no, make that SPIT-in-your-face, illustration of the two-class system in this country, this is it.

I'm actually surprised at how incensed this makes me. I am PISSED.

A monument to a bu$h failure

That's 55 acres and nearly 1.5 million dollars per person.

Why memorialize the victimization of anyone? The whole thing is deranged and sounds like something BushCo would push for.

Teh stoopid is contagious and spreading rapidly

They're stealing land from people who probably need or use it, in order to build a wildly over the top monument.

:tinfoilhat:

See my posts up-thread. Forensic evidence gathering today or with some near-future technology would be hard to investigate from Federal Land.

Planes that break up on impact probably leave wreckage in smaller area than planes that break up in air. Might need more Federal land off limits if there is a possibility of wreckage scattered further from crash site.

please don't seize anybody's private property to "memorialize" me.
I don't want to be remembered with bitterness.

TIA,

Coventina

2200 acres? Millions of dollars? Absurd. When there are more tragedies, (and there will be more) will a memorial be built to every one? Until we are a country of over-the-top memorials connected by super highways?
I've always thought smaller was better. Modest, respectful, purposeful. So I ask, whose interests are served by this grandstanding show in Pennsylvania? Surely not the families of the victims. I would not want such an obscene memorial to reflect the memory of my loved one.

my frame of reference is Busch Gardens, a local big-assed classical Euro-themed amusement park and that's only 360 acres...

http://www.ghosthunter.com/encounters1.htm

Night security guards at the crash sight have reported unexplainable things throughout their night watch there, including what sounds like a large group of people walking and talking. Almost every night, the door to their security trailer was knocked on. They would open the door to find no one there. One of the guards heard a man's voice in the cab of his truck ask, "So what now?". This was reported on by Johnstown, PA's news station WJAC.

http://www.nps.gov/flni/parknews/09rendering.htm



2,200 acres for this?!?


Viewing the Sacred Ground

http://www.nps.gov/flni/parkmgmt/memorialdesign.htm

Check out the pdf
http://www.nps.gov/flni/parkmgmt/upload/phasingplan.pdf

WTF is that? Sacred ground - I think I'm gonna :puke:

That drawing is ridiculous. A collection of granite, steel and concrete stuck in the middle of a pastoral landscape.

I ask again - Who's making money on this?

it will be taken from them by the government

2200 acres of sacred ground and roadways - the tower of voices



it is insane

It looks like it represents people jumping to their deaths. :puke:

And "sacred ground"?? Yeah, that sure as hell is gonna go over well with the Native American community....and all the sane human beings on the planet.

The "Tower of Voices," housing 40 wind chimes, marks the entry to and exit from the memorial site at Route 30. Set on a planted mound, the Tower of Voices is tall enough to be seen from the highway. "The continuing songs of chimes in the wind celebrate a living memory of those who are honored," say the architects. The curved tower, covered with white glass tile, will be illuminated at night, and stands in living memory to the voices of the forty heroes of Flight 93.

http://www.nps.gov/flni/parkmgmt/the-memorial-design.htm

the total 2200 acres will not be government land but much of it will be privately held. there will be a buffer zone built around the monument and that buffer zone is what accounts for the 2200 acres, unless of course you want this type of place right outside the boundary (which is why there are buffer zones):

:eyes:

But seriously, the whole scale of this memorial is off the charts, which leads me to ask the old question "Who benefits?" Is this large scale national park/monument being developed as an economic stimulus for the area?

Steal the land for some phony memorial for a plane that didn't crash there. Even the mayor said no plane crashed there. But for some odd reason I cannot find that video anymore. :tinfoilhat: Knee high grass that doesn't burn like concrete and steel. An old crater that had been there for years. Bodies "burned" beyond recognition but somehow they were able to ID everybody. No seats no luggage same as New York. We need another investigation of 9/11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59kouBgO_s

Eminent domain is being taken far beyond its original intent.

2200 acres and 58 million?! Are you kidding me?? And stealing peoples land to boot. Unreal. :nuke:

by that time. I have big doubts - I don't think anyone died there. I express regret for saying this if any family member is upset, but I must say it. We should save the money and do what is necessary to obtain the land fairly, if necessary. I think there are better ideas for the money - such as an organization to improve cultural differences, but more importantly - an organization to instill integrity in government and foreigh affairs.

be supportive of such an act? Why give the "terrorists" (whoever they may be) more acknowledgment and more power by memorializing one of their acts? Celebrate your loved one's lives, people, NOT the way that they were killed!

The fastest tallest longest biggest twistiest damned roller coaster in the world.

It would be called the "911"

I can't support this project unless they have a roller coaster.

And they've got to have puppies. Lot's of puppies.

"The proposed boundaries of the National Memorial extend from Lambertsville Road to U.S. Highway 30. It will be about 2,200 acres (890 ha), of which about 1,000 acres (400 ha) will be privately held, but protected through partnership agreements. The memorial itself would be a 400-acre (160 ha) bowl-shaped area, with 1,800 acres (730 ha) surrounding as a buffer.<4> In December 2002, landowner Tim Lambert donated 6 acres (2.4 ha) at the crash site, and entered discussions with the Conservation Fund regarding 160 acres (65 ha) additional.<5> Using some funds donated from receipts for the film United 93, the Families of Flight 93 organization purchased 3 acres (1.2 ha) in the summer of 2006. The organization is also seeking $10 million in federal funding to use for acquiring land.<4> In November 2006, the Conservation Fund acquired 100 acres (40 ha) as buffer land which are to be managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.<6> PBS Coals Inc. sold 900 acres (360 ha) to the families' organization in March 2008.<7>"

source Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_93_National_Memorial

We should take the money going toward the Bush library and use it to build the "memorial". I mean isnt that his legacy anyway?

nnnm