Matt, city resident

I wanted to make note that obviously there needs to be a memorial, I think people agree to that. But I think it is very important that the city skyline is not that memorial. Consequently, I am concerned a little bit about some of the proposals that have large non-functional structures like the THINK World Cultural Center, and to a lesser extent, the Libeskind proposal, which to me looks largely like 120-story tombstones at the foot of lower Manhattan.

Personally, if this type of thing were built I think I would actually have to move out of the city because it would be constantly depressing. To me, the skyline is a symbol of hopes and dreams, and to me, there's an obligation to respond to the tragedy of September 11 by making that skyline better than it was before. I think an effort to structure an icon of imagination is really what's called for. I think what's at issue here is how we as a city and a nation respond to tragedy, and I understand that the development corporation might have limited control over any actual developer, but I hope that they will require this of any developer: that any structures that are built restore the skyline to at least its former height, so that the city skyline again induces New Yorkers to look up to the sky and continue to dream.