9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero

As part of U-M Democracy Week Programming, join us at Michigan Theatre for a viewing and discussion of the documentary Reclaiming Ground Zero, which follows New Yorkers in the aftermath of 9/11 as they struggled to decide what to do with the site of the attacks.

After the 9/11 attacks, once the smoke cleared and the rubble was removed, New Yorkers had a city to rebuild. There was one fundamental question: no one could agree on the future of Ground Zero. Some wanted the towers back, while others believed the site should remain a memorial. Then, a single event changed everything…

The city decided to do one of the bravest—or stupidest—things in the history of city planning. They gathered 5,000 representative New Yorkers into the largest town hall in American history to vote on the city's six proposals. People expected chaos and yelling. But instead, the representatives rejected all the proposals and this top-down approach and successfully charted a new path forward. It was this meeting that determined what is at Ground Zero today.

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