Mayor Firm on Plan To Move Sept. 11 Ceremony

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that the September 11 anniversary ceremony would not be held in its original ground zero location, despite threats by family members to boycott and hold their own shadow remembrance. Construction on the memorial to the victims, as well as new buildings that are going up, have made the site unsafe for a large public gathering like the one that has taken place at the site each year, he said.

Mr. Bloomberg said the decision to move the sixth anniversary commemoration to a plaza off the southeast corner of the site was final, and that "it would be a big shame" if anyone skipped the remembrance events out of anger. "They can't take place in the old location — we just couldn't make it safe. Construction is going on over there," Mr. Bloomberg said. For five years, mourners have participated in the same ritual at the site: As the names of the nearly 3,000 victims were read aloud, family members could descend a ramp into the seven-story pit.