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Daddy Diss Supposedly Has Cuomo Mad At Bloomberg, Withholding 9/11 Museum Funding
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 18, 2012
Modified Jun 18, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 18, 2012
Modified Jun 18, 2012
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The National 9/11 Memorial and Museum is still under construction—while the memorial is open to visitors, the museum was supposed to open this September, but there's been a lot of infighting. More recently, there's been reports of the building going over budget again and this past weekend Governors Cuomo and Christie asked the National Parks Service to step in to help manage it. Now the drama continues—with reports that Cuomo is upset at Mayor Bloomberg's staff for treating his dad, former Governor Mario Cuomo, badly and that's why he's been withholding funding!
Apparently this all goes back to last year's September 11 anniversary events. From the Post:
The elder Cuomo was first hassled about 6:45 a.m. that Sunday as he tried to clear security and get into the perimeter of the World Trade Center site.
A short time later, he was again blocked — that time as he tried to access the 9/11 memorial. That confrontation was defused only when a PA official intervened.
One of the governor’s top aides, Joe Percoco, was also hassled by city staffers at the event, even though he was in the governor’s entourage.
Events that day only added insult to injury for the governor.
He was already enraged over the way he felt City Hall tried to minimize his role in planning the ceremonies. He was also angry at being assigned a reading from Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech, because it had been read at a previous 9/11 event by former Gov. George Pataki.
“Mario didn’t want to cause a scene [on 9/11] so he was quiet about it, but it was certainly raised internally. Everybody has heard about it,” a source involved in the city-state museum talks told The Post.
A source close to Bloomberg told the Post that Cuomo's reaction is, “on the chart of crazy, it’s off the charts." Cuomo's spokesman said this conspiracy theory is a lie, but come on, it's Monday and we need a story with political daddy issues. Update: Another Cuomo spokesperson called our office to say, "The story is absolutely 100% false."
Bloomberg and the governors disagree on who should foot the costs—Bloomberg wants the Port Authority to continue paying, but the governors reportedly "contend the PA is willing to pay its share but won’t write a blank check that could amount to hundreds of millions down the road. The governors also insist that the PA maintain day-to-day control over the entire WTC site. The 9/11 Museum is operated by a private foundation chaired by the mayor." One Port Authority official told the Post, "This whole fight is Cuomo and Bloomberg. And it’s about which one of them is going to control the legacy of 9/11." Uh, that would be Rudy Giuliani.
Tagged
9/11
9/11 museum
governor cuomo
mario cuomo
mayor bloomberg
port authority
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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