(NYC/NJ) Port Authority Doing Away With Freedom Tower Name

[davepc]

Source: New York Post

Freedom is so passe at Ground Zero.

Once hailed as a beacon of rebirth in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Freedom Tower's patriotic name has been swapped out for the more marketable One World Trade Center, officials at the Port Authority conceded today.

But more than seven years after the terror attacks and amid an effort to market the iconic tower to international tenants, sentiment gave way to practicality.

"As we market the building, we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way," said Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/seven/03262009/news/regionalnews/port_authority_doing_away_with_freedom_t_161457.htm

[XemaSab]

1. How do you market something like that?

It's like marketing Hitler, or Ebola.

Most people have a pretty unhappy connotation. :(

[Posteritatis]

2. I can get behind this; "freedom" as a brand instead of a condition gets pompous pretty quick (nt)

[JerseygirlCT]

3. Totally agree

Now it makes me alert to nonsense instead of having positive connotations at first hearing.

[msongs]

4. here, have some freedom fries :-) nt

[marmar]

5. Just on a practical level, isn't it silly to be adding office space to a glutted......

..... lower Manhattan market right now?

[BrklynLiberal]

6. The entire area should have been made into a memorial..as the site in Oklahoma City was..

but the people involved were too greedy to do that.

Personally, no matter what it looks like and no matter what they call it..I would never work in
a building on that site.

[TankLV]

23. I don't agree with you at all, but it sure looks like reality does and reality will prevail...

and nobody got a choice in this matter!

What's best in the end always has a way of prevailing, even if we don't see it at first...

[nyc 4 Biden]

18. It won't be added right now.

I'm not sure of the estimated completion date or if there even is one, but i bet the new WTC won't be available for quite a while. Hopefully our economy will be in a better place at that point.

[truthisfreedom]

7. Stupid republicans and their freedom fries.

What a ridiculous name that was anyway.

[StrongBad]

8. Good.

"Freedom Tower" in my mind conjures up the Bush era and their abuse and misuse of words like "freedom".

One World Trade Center sounds classy and gives a nod to the past.

[Webster Green]

9. This will no doubt upset the "Homelanders"

They love talking about freedom, but when it comes to actually having freedom.....well, not so much. :rofl:

[grytpype]

10. Good. Bush gas given freedom a bad name.

[Hawkeye-X]

11. Freedom Tower was the dumbest name I've heard.

Let's pick something that we can live with

[Stuckinthebush]

Right up there with Freedom Fries

I never understood the connection between 9/11 and freedom.

[marybourg]

16. And the "Patriot Act" nt

[No Elephants]

29. Don't you remember that the Muslims attacked us because they hate us and

the only reason they hate us is because of our freedom?

Makes perfect sense if you think about it for a minute, just like serving Freedom Fries in the Senate Dining Room made perfect sense. Things like this are how we will win the War on Terror.

That's why liberals don't understand squat--because you so quickly forget the logic behind things like this.

(Too lazy to find the sarcasm emote, but envision it here.)

[Stuckinthebush]

33. Oh, right...

Thanks for the refresher. They hate us for our freedoms.

I envision a guy in the desert shaking his fist at the sky saying, "Those damn Americans and their evil freedoms! Curses!"

[Patsy Stone]

12. Excellent

That was the worst name ever. A little too Deutschland Uber Alles for me.

[Tyler Generation]

13. OMG IT'S THE NWO ENSLAVING US WITH GLOBALIZATION DON'T YOU SEE?!

:sarcasm:

[Jkid]

14. Good

Still I want my Twin Towers II. Seven years has passed, and this "Freedom Tower" should have been already completed.

[Swagman]

15. 9/11 has done it's job-time to forget as fascism rules

[Roland99]

17. Thank. Fucking. Gawd.

[KamaAina]

19. "the more marketable One World Trade Center"?!

The name of the scene of one of the worst tragedies in all history is "more marketable" than what, exactly?

Back to the drawing board, guys: "Hudson Tower" for starters, seeing as how the name "Stuyvesant" is already on plenty of other stuff in Lower Manhattan.

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. The towers could have been rebuilt by now if the USA hadn't wasted their resources on wars

.
.

Wars that have produced NO positive results in over 7 years.

Wars that have ruined millions of lives, and not made the USA one bit safer.

Wars that have cost the USA trillions of dollars and loss of respect,

and President Obama has made no positive moves to end these wars.

We noticed.

(sigh)

[onehandle]

21. Oh, God Yes!

I cannot believe that New Yorkers would have stood for that in the end.

Now rebuild the towers as they were before.

They can place the shrine where the Marriott stood.

[TankLV]

22. Good - about damn time SANITY returns...

[bottomtheweaver]

24. pic:

After all that, it looks like... WTC 1.

[jzodda]

25. Good: There is no freedom

Freedom is an illusion anyway, given to the masses by those at the top of the ladder who really have it.

[gauguin57]

26. Thank GOD! If they wanted to call it Freedom Tower, might as well call it Foreign Policy Tower....

Cuz they DON'T "hate us for our freedom" ... they hate us for our Foreign Policy.

One World Trade Center is much better.

[bottomtheweaver]

27. Here's the best part: they changed it to please their first tenant -- Communist China!

First to sign on

The change came after board members voted to sign a 21-year lease deal with Vantone Industrial Co., a Chinese real estate giant, which will become the first commercial tenant at Ground Zero. It plans to create the China Center, a trade and cultural facility, in 191,000 square feet on floors 64 through 69.

The negotiations with Vantone, which is closely affiliated with the Chinese Communist government, had nothing to do with the name change, PA officials insisted, but was based primarily on bottom-line marketing considerations.

Despite a five-year global hunt and millions of dollars plowed into marketing efforts, until the Chinese deal was inked, the PA had failed to snag a single private-sector tenant at Ground Zero.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/26/2009-03-26_freedom_out_at_wtc_port_authority_says_t.html

:rofl:

[derby378]

36. Oh, this is going to end well... (n/t)

[liberal N proud]

28. I suspect there was pressure from the bu$h regime

for the Freedom Tower name.
It was all part of the your with us or against us theme and taking away your freedoms to keep you safe mantra.

I think the name Freedom Tower would have been a sore reminder of the bu$h regime while sticking with World Trade Center provides memorial to those who lost their lives there and the real American spirit of not giving up.

[No Elephants]

30. World Trade Center is an easier marketing job? Coming soon-Hiroshima Condominiums.

[Turbineguy]

31. If they change the name

will we still be safe?

[Tarc]

32. First went the freedom fries, now goes the Freedom Tower

Good fucking riddance to neocon-era jingoism.

[Beetwasher]

34. The Name "Freedom Tower" Was Absolutely Repulsive

And as a New Yoker, mine is the only opinion that matters on the subject. :evilgrin:

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Strange thing is, make it Latin rather than Germanic, and call it 'Liberty Tower'

and it sounds less pompous (as someone said above), to me, anyway. Though normally, it's the other way round with words in English. It would match with the Statue of Liberty, of course. I'd also guess there are a lot of 'Liberty Avenues' in the US, far more than 'Freedom Streets'.