Disqus - Latest Comments for iqwirty

Re: Meet a Mayor Who Figured Out How to Neutralize Anti-Bike Lane NIMBYs

Shannon Wagner — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 06:36:07 -0000

Berkeley would be perfect for bikes! The weather is so nice!

Re: Cambridge Becomes First U.S. City to Make Protected Bike Lanes Mandatory

Shannon Wagner — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 06:31:23 -0000

It's a great point - I always think about how to deal with "what happens when the bike lane ends" - In NYC, I've seen that vary from "now we dump you into high-speed traffic" all the way to "here's some great protection to carry you thru this gnarly intersection". The designs are super-important! But it seems like a lot of people already know how to do it right.

Re: Metuchen To Use Flags To Improve Safety On The Streets

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:41:13 -0000

Every little bit helps. The crosswalks in Metuchen are pretty dangerous - a combination of roads with lots of thru traffic and lots of people rushing in cars (and on foot) to get to and leave the train station. Personally I prefer to cross NOT at the crosswalks, since then I can safely find a time to cross when there are no cars nearby. But that's not a good solution for many people, and it would be better to have a community focus on making the crosswalks as safe as possible.

Maybe flags will look silly and occasionally all end up on the same side of the street, but if they help to raise awareness of the need to respect state law when pedestrians are crossing then I think they've done a good job for the community.

Re: The Eleventh Anniversary - Issues Surrounding the 9/11 Memorial Museum - Why Are They Important ?

Shannon Wagner — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:49:40 -0000

I am in favor of greater openness, transparency, and responsiveness by the Memorial, the Memorial's Board, Port Authority, the Mayor's Office, the Governors' Offices, NYPD, etc..., and I am supportive of many of the family concerns which have been raised over the years. I also have my own frustrations regarding personal memorial and often feeling like I am making no progress when talking to people at many city agencies and organizations, even on issues which seem to me to have easy solutions. But I've had personal conversations with several of the people involved in this project at the upper levels of management and I don't believe their goal is to "make money on a shared American tragedy." I think that is an unfair statement.

Re: The Eleventh Anniversary - Issues Surrounding the 9/11 Memorial Museum - Why Are They Important ?

Shannon Wagner — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 09:37:22 -0000

I think it's important to keep the Board of Directors of the National September 11 Memorial involved in the conversation. The Board consists of about fifty members who also share responsibility for this project - the exact responsibilities and duties would be described in the organization's bylaws but my understanding is that typically they would include providing oversight and making certain decisions by voting.

Members of the Board are, typically, intended to be individual voices. They do not work for the Chairman, President, or Mayor. And it is not only fair to ask them to become involved in oversight, it is unfair to the organization's staff to ignore the responsibility the Board shares in the organization's operation. Board members are typically people with useful experience and a long view of the organization's work. That experience and point-of-view should not be ignored or under-valued either by internal staff or by external stakeholders such as ourselves.

All that said, my experience talking to senior management at the Memorial has shown me some deeply caring, hard-working, and well-meaning people. That doesn't mean I believe they are doing everything right, but I do believe that both my issues and the ones discussed in this thread can come to some good resolutions as long as communication and transparency increase.

Re: The Clock: Time for Something Completely Different

Shannon Wagner — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:06:44 -0000

I've been hearing a lot about this - will definitely try to see it before the showings end.

Re: The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial

Shannon Wagner — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:03:32 -0000

Is there any chance the tag "Bomb detection" could be removed from this post? Everybody knows that bomb detection takes place throughout public spaces in all of New York City, but it hardly seems within the mission of the Memorial foundation to start writing posts on the topic. The post is really about a dog, so wouldn't it be more appropriate to tag it "dog" or "chief morale officer" (this is a term that some companies that have dogs on-site use to describe their furry friends).

Maybe it would be better for posts such as this to be written instead as guest posts on the NYPD Community Affairs website, or on the Port Authority's World Trade Center news site?

Re: Dropbox to Google Drive Sync

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:38:32 -0000

Agreed - I think this could solve the problem. Both Dropbox and Google Drive's desktop client sync to a local drive. You could symlink a subfolder of the Google Drive into the Dropbox to link the two services.

Of course this isn't really a "cloud" solution (wouldn't work with my Chromebook) but it might be good enough for now?

Re: Music Blogging Hiatus

Shannon Wagner — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 14:12:16 -0000

A very healthy attitude. :-)

I'm sure the music posts you've already written will continue to be enjoyed by many people for a long time.

Re: Pinning to Remember 9/11

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:15:27 -0000

Can you provide a little guidance - Pinterest is new for me. How do I tag a pin with "#911memorial"? This is the one I just uploaded:
http://pinterest.com/pin/17...

Re: Memorials to 9/11 Victims in NYC, Around World

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:56:43 -0000

Thank you for sharing the link to this project - I've shared it out to my Google+ profile also, and will upload any of my new memorial photos to Pinterest going forward (as well as to my blog and to my Google Map of memorials).

Re: Friends of J.S. Jenks fight music cuts with a big fundraiser

Shannon Wagner — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:05:54 -0000

Thank you for sharing the info! Just wanted to point out that I think the link to the website might be broken. I think maybe it should be http://friendsofjsjenks.org/ instead?

Re: Memorial Reservations Director Answers Your Questions

Shannon Wagner — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:18:30 -0000

Personally, I would recommend at least an hour to spend on the plaza.
I hope you will consider bringing something to leave on the plaza - e.g., flowers, stones, candles (unlit only, without any glass), flags.

The plaza is very big, and in my experience of seven visits since September it "feels" very empty of anything personal. To me as a family member that is very upsetting since I remember the vast landscape of beautiful and personal items that densely filled many impromptu memorials around New York City in the time after September 11th. Those displays were an important part of what pulled me through those days and I always expected that Ground Zero would again have that sort of positive energy for me, once it opened to the public.

I am hoping that a section of the plaza will eventually fill that need for a more concentrated display of personal items, possibly near the "Survivor Tree" which you will pass soon after walking onto the plaza - several times I have noticed a collection of flowers and wreaths hung on it and its central location could possibly become a good way to attract a lot of positive energy in one beautiful display.

Hope you have a meaningful and reflective visit... peace...

Re: Oklahoma's Coburn questions more funding for 9/11 museum

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:20:34 -0000

Some more context re: Federal funding at Ground Zero...

According to this NY Times article the U.S. Embassy in Iraq originally had a $6 billion budget for 2012, and efforts are being made to cut the staff portion of that budget by half. In contrast, the National September 11 Memorial currently requires $60 million annually to operate.

U.S. Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by Half
http://www.nytimes.com/2012...

If the embassy in Iraq is a vital part of the U.S. diplomatic and security strategy in the Middle East, then I would say that the Memorial at Ground Zero is a vital part of the U.S. message of peace and diplomacy to the entire world.

In that context, can we really say that the $20 million which Congress is currently considering to fund the Memorial is a lot of money?

Re: Oklahoma's Coburn questions more funding for 9/11 museum

Shannon Wagner — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:41:31 -0000

To me, this isn't about politics... my thoughts (which are a bit long) posted on my blog: http://www.workingsandbox.c...

Re: Fiscal Hawk Blocks Federal Aid for 9/11 Memorial Museum - Fox News

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:56:19 -0000

I agree that we should not have spent much money to build a memorial at Ground Zero. But the fact is, we have - about $650 million before the $60 million annual budget even begins.

Now that it is built, it needs to be operated, and in order to do that the organization needs to dedicate a lot of resources to fundraising and tourist development.

Even though that would not have been my first pick for what to do down there, I can accept it. Except that one of the byproducts of the need for tourism to support fundraising is a set of security rules which prohibit some very basic family memorial activities. For example, I am not currently allowed to light a candle for the person I lost. If you lived in NYC in the months after September 11th I think you understand how strange it is to have a memorial to September 11th which does not include the sorts of candle memorials which covered the city back at that time.

I'd be very happy if I could just visit the area, simply and cheaply, and light a candle and leave a few things like flowers. I have been working with management since October on making some small changes to policies so that this type of memorial visit will be possible, for me personally.

Re: WTC Performing Arts Center Board Makes Its Debut with John Zuccotti

Shannon Wagner — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:13:21 -0000

I've read a few articles about this cultural center but I still don't really understand what it is. Do you know where it is going?

Is it going to be a theater, kind of like the ones up at Lincoln Center?

Re: A Joni Mitchell Tribute at a Groovy New York City Coffeehouse

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:10:09 -0000

Definitely looking forward to it - see you there!

Re: Gift the Moving Portraits App – Because the iTunes Store is Always Open

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:21:29 -0000

Agreed. Looking forward to the chocolate! :-)

Re: Tributes at Memorial Reflect Holiday Season

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:31:30 -0000

Thank you for sharing the story from MyFox Memphis about tribute items at the September 11 Memorial.

I continue to be hopeful that the policy of removing the beautiful and touching items that visitors leave, at the end of each day, will soon be re-evaluated by management and by the Memorial's Board. After my first visit in September I was surprised to see that there is no convenient or comfortable place to leave items like flowers, photos, notes, or candles. As the story points out, people get very creative and find ways to stick these items into the holes that the letters form on the wall around the pools, hoping that their notes of love won't be blown into the water of the pools or out into the highway that runs next to the Memorial plaza.

But visitors - especially family members and close friends - should not have to be creative in order to find a way to leave their own contribution to the Memorial. And once someone makes the emotional effort to leave an item, is there really any reason to remove it less than 12 hours later?

It is nice that some of these items are being preserved for the Memorial museum. But the museum is for generations, for the future. A museum is a way of preserving culture and memory that has lingered over months, years, so that the next generation can see what life was like during a previous time. The museum at Ground Zero fulfills an important role, but it is very different from the much more critical and important role of the land itself, which for many people (myself included) is, in fact, a cemetery.

Please don't forget that Ground Zero is, for many of us, the only cemetery we have.

Your visitors, every day, are choosing to add their own physical expressions of memorial to the original Michael Arad design. And if a visitor leaves a flower one day - the next day another visitor is far more likely to think of leaving a note or a flag for a victim they never knew, if there is already something there. Everyone will connect more, and will contribute more, if the connections and contributions of the previous day are not erased each night.

I understand that making these changes would require a little more maintenance work - but it really is not a lot. I can't imagine that it would take more than one, entry-level, full-time employee (or even a small group of managed volunteers) to maintain an absolutely beautiful and lovingly memorable dedicated section on the vast Memorial plaza, where the important contributions of thousands of visitors would get to linger for a few days or weeks - making new and recreating the old September 11th positivity of community expressions of goodwill, just as we saw throughout New York City for many months after the original attacks.

Please reconsider the current policy on handling of tribute items - some thoughtful changes will mean a lot to many people.

Re: 9/11 Memorial Draws Tributes to 'Extraordinary Ordinary People'

Shannon Wagner — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:13:45 -0000

Hopeful that soon the September 11 memorial items can be left on the plaza for longer periods, as they would at a cemetery.

Re: The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial

Shannon Wagner — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:55:06 -0000

Michael - Have you reached out to individual board members, management of the Port Authority, or local politicians which provide oversight to the operation/construction of the Memorial?

Re: Proposed 9/11 Memorial Would Simulate Walking On Air, Above Ground Zero

Shannon Wagner — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:37:31 -0000

I agree that the Memorial does not capture the sense of confusion and complete upheaval that existed in New York City in the months after September 11th. But I think the better way to capture and evoke that set of emotions is to more fully embrace the real memories - on the plaza in full public view, not just in a curated museum collection.

My own vote would be to bring back the haphazard candle and flower memorials that were so prevalent throughout New York City at the time, and to put them in a dedicated section of the Memorial plaza.

Re: The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial

Shannon Wagner — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:47:53 -0000

Thank you for sharing your experience about your visit to Ground Zero...

"I wasn’t even aware the central building at the World Trade Center site and 9/11 Memorial was finally going up and here it was — in my face."

Most of the people I have spoken to (who live and work in New York City) also did not realize that One World Trade Center was already being constructed.

I think that many of the people who were most deeply affected by September 11th kind of tuned out for a few years - still healing. In my view, we as a country, today, are just about ready to begin the process of starting to figure out how to rebuild. But unfortunately that's not how it happened - the country rebuilt while a large portion of us were still reeling in pain. That makes it harder to now capture and allow at the newly constructed Ground Zero for much of the emotion and thoughtfulness that would have been incorporated into the site if we had, as a country, taken more of a pause before rebuilding.

Harder, but not impossible.

Re: 9/11 Memorial Joins Nation in Remembering Pearl Harbor

Shannon Wagner — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:59:52 -0000

I agree that the Michael Arad design and the Memorial's policies cannot take precedence over the needs for expression and preservation of history by family members, friends, and others who are most closely connected to this land. To many of these people (myself included) the land is a cemetery before all else, and that brings certain very reasonable expectations, some of which are not being met. These "family" expectations are very different from those that more distant visitors and "strangers" have when visiting the site, in my opinion.
My own personal frustration along these lines has been that lighting of candles is prohibited... I've been working on that issue since a few weeks after the Memorial opened.