9/11 Artifact For Second Glendale Memorial
An artifact from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center may soon be put on display in Glendale, and it could pave the way for the revitalization of the neighborhood’s American Day Parade.
During last Thursday’s (Apr. 11) joint meeting of the Glendale Property Owners Association and the 104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol, Harold Mecabe of the American
Day Parade Committee informed residents that the Port Authority of NewYork and New Jersey has agreed to provide an artifact from the original World Trade Center to the Glen- dale group for use in a memorial.
Assemblyman Mike Miller had filed the request on behalf of the American Day Parade Committee to the PortAuthority, which maintains a depository of relics-including steel from the original Twin Towers-to be distributed around the nation for communities to build their own memorials to the victims of the 9/11 at- tacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa.
Mecabe added that management at The Shops at Atlas Park has agreed to provide an unspecified amount of space at the Glendale shopping center for the artifact to be displayed.
This would be the second 9/11 memorial in Glendale; the first, created largely through the advocacy of the American Day Parade Committee, is a granite monument at Dry Harbor Playground, located in Forest Park off the corner of Myrtle Avenue and 80th Street. The committee holds an annual memorial service on Sept. 11 at the monument.
Once the Atlas Park memorial is completed, however, Mecabe and Miller hope it would serve a role in the revitalization of the American Day Parade itself.
First held in 2001 along Myrtle Avenue in the wake of the attacks as a demonstration of patriotism and resolve, it was last held in 2006 as a march between Dry Harbor Playground and Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, where a candlelight vigil is held annually.
After the 9/11 monument at the Dry Harbor Playground opened in 2007, the American Day Parade Committee co-sponsored memorial services at the site in lieu of the march.
“The plan is to have a parade from the Dry Harbor Playground to Atlas Park” once the second memorial is in place, Miller told the Times Newsweekly in a phone interview last Friday, Apr. 12.
“We’ve been approved so far by the committee, but we’re just waiting for all the paperwork to come down the line,” Mecabe said, praising Miller for his assistance in the application process. “If we get this over at Atlas, maybe one day, we can have a parade from A to B and see what happens.”
How much space will be allocated for the planned 9/11 memorial at Atlas Park has yet to be determined, Miller said last Friday, and the amount of area provided will likely dictate the size of the artifact itself.
“If it’s going to be a nice, big plot of land, we will probably get a big section to put there,” the assemblyman added. “If it’s small, we will get a smaller artifact.”
The Port Authority does not charge any approved organization for an artifact from the former World Trade Center site, but Miller noted that there may be a cost to transport it. “We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” he said.
