The public planning process produced a design for a respectful memorial as part of a master plan for the WTC site. That should have been the end of the story. Instead, the International Freedom Center has become a historical footnote, the Drawing Center is off the site, the fate of the Snøhetta cultural-center building is uncertain in the wake of McCarthyite claims that it was somehow un-American, the Gehry performing-arts building has been abandoned, a lawsuit has been filed to stop construction of the new path station, and there are even calls to censor adjacent retail development planned for the site. This small group of activists should not be allowed to dictate the design or uses of the WTC site. It is indeed time to take back the memorial.
—Michael Connolly, Manhattan