Sept. 11 tribute goes dark

Every Sept. 11, two beams of light at Ground Zero remind New Yorkers of the attacks on the World Trade Center. But the funding for the tribute has run dry, meaning the memorial may never be lit again.

Tribute in Light, run by the Municipal Arts Society of New York, was a project funded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. It was first illuminated on March 11, 2002. But the $3.5 million grant expired in 2008.

"With that grant we bought the lights, which cost a million dollars," said Frank Sanchez, senior vice president of the Municipal Arts Society. "We produced it every year for five years. At the end of five years we had around $200,000 left over."

According to Sanchez, a contribution of about $150,000 made the memorial possible last month. But its future is uncertain.

"The society is committed to finding the money to keep this thing going," Sanchez said. "We're having discussions with a number of public and private entities."

But some students feel the money used for the memorial could go toward other causes.

"I think it's really important to remember those who died in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks," Stern freshman Grace Paulsen said. "But at the same time, I think it's important to spend money benefiting the city and the people that are living there today."

CAS junior Jamie Fell agrees with Paulsen.

"I think the Tribute in Lights is really important for local people," Fell said. "At the same time, considering all the other things New York City can be using that money for, I'm not sure that concentrating on funding the light ceremony is really the most important thing they can be focusing on."

A New York Times survey indicates that three-quarters of the victims' families want the Tribute in Light to be permanent.

Jon Ritter, NYU's faculty fellow of art history and director of the New York's Society of Architectural Historians, believes the memorial is a "worthwhile project."

According to Ritter, it is more effective than the memorial currently being constructed on the former World Trade Center site.

"I happen to like it," Ritter said. "I think it is an effective memorial tribute."

CAS freshman Liz DeBold agreed with Ritter.

"I think it's a really nice tribute," she said. "Maybe the fact that they are there is a comfort to those who lost loved ones in the tragedy."

Sanchez said the Municipal Arts Society is doing everything to assure that the tribute is lit up again in 2010.

"We have every expectation that it will be lit up, and we will try to make sure that happens."

Clarissa Wei is staff writer.