NEW YORK -- Gov. George Pataki, bowing to a growing campaign by furious Sept. 11 families, ousted a proposed freedom museum from its space at ground zero Wednesday, declaring that the International Freedom Center has generated "too much opposition, too much controversy" to remain.
The decision follows months of acrimony over the Freedom Center, with angry families and politicians saying that the museum would dishonor the memory of the 2,749 people who died at the World Trade Center.
"Freedom should unify us. This center has not," Pataki said. "Today there remains too much opposition, too much controversy over the programming of the IFC and we must move forward with our first priority, the creation of an inspiring memorial to pay tribute to our lost loved ones and tell their stories to the world."
Pataki said the Freedom Center could not occupy space in a cultural building located near the proposed trade center memorial, but left open the possibility that the center could find a home elsewhere on the 16-acre site.
The governor said he would direct the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. -- the agency he created to rebuild the site -- to explore alternate locations for the center.
"We are deeply disappointed that the will could not be found to continue the development of the International Freedom Center at this hallowed site," the Freedom Center said in a statement. "We do not believe there is a viable alternative place for the IFC at the World Trade Center site."
"We consider our work, therefore, to have been brought to an end."
The removal of the center follows a four-month campaign that began with several Sept. 11 family groups and grew to include four police and fire unions and several politicians, most recently Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and ex-mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
"Goodbye and good riddance," said Rep. Vito Fossella, one of three congressmen who had threatened hearings on federal funding if the museum stayed where it was. "The IFC will not stand on the hallowed grounds of the World Trade Center site."
The center was chosen more than a year ago by the LMDC along with a museum along with three other cultural institutions to occupy long-planned cultural space at ground zero. The center proposed a museum that celebrated American ideals of freedom and tolerance, with exhibits on leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as documents like the Declaration of Independence and the South African constitution.
But opponents charged the museum could include inappropriate exhibits that would distract attention from the proposed memorial and could foster anti-American debate and discussion about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Rebuilders are also planning a separate, underground Sept. 11 memorial museum and plan five office towers, a performing arts complex for two theater companies and a transit hub on the rest of the 16-acre site.
Some families have opposed the museum as much for its location as its content; they say it would sit in a prominent part of ground zero that would obscure a memorial museum. Some take great offense at the LMDC's plans to locate the memorial museum 60 feet below street level, near the bedrock foundations of the trade center.
Although most family members who have expressed opinions are against the Freedom Center, a few have thrown it support, including its vice chairman, Paula Grant Berry, whose husband David died at the trade center.
© 2005 by WNBC.com The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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