Official Affirms Remarks About New Tower at Ground Zero

NEW YORK, Sept. 18 -- The chairman of the agency that owned the World Trade Center defended his decision not to ask employees to move into the proposed Freedom Tower at Ground Zero because of the attacks on the twin towers.

Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, discussed the decision in an interview with the Record of Bergen County, N.J. His comments were published Monday.

"Twice these people were the subject of that attack, and I am not going to ask them to move into that building," Coscia said. "I'll resign, but I won't ask them to move into that building."

The Port Authority is negotiating a deal to move into another planned tower at Ground Zero. Federal and state agencies tentatively committed over the weekend to taking nearly half the space in the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower.

Coscia spokesman Marc Lavorgna said Monday that the chairman believes the Freedom Tower will be safe but that "the building would simply carry too much emotional weight for people who've twice been the victims of attacks in that exact location."

A truck bomb in 1993 killed six people at the trade center, where the Port Authority was based. Hijackers flew airliners into the towers on Sept. 11, 2001, destroying them and killing nearly 3,000 people, including 84 Port Authority employees.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) chided Coscia for his remarks.

"I don't happen to agree with him," Bloomberg said Monday. "And I think it is as safe a building as you could possibly ever, ever live in, work in."