Submitted by Foundation for Historic New Amsterdam, Sep 19, 2007 10:01

A 50-acre Tolerance Park as a mixed-use development is what we have advocated and planned for since 1998 and for which we raised $100 million in 2000. Yet, we have never gotten a response from the State or the City for www.GovernorsIslandNationalSymbol.org during the ten years that we tried to dialogue with the politicians. The envisaged Tolerance Park (www.TolerancePark.org) with the Tolerance Monument as centerpiece was scheduled to open in September 2009 (www.LifebloodofAmericanLiberty.com) but we are patient and, like the Statue of Liberty, don't mind if it gets opened ten years later. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been spent on the island. To attract 55,000 visitors to the island in 2007, enormous promotion, advertising campaigns and tax dollars were necessary. One mediocre artist performing on the Great Lawn of Central Park would have attracted that number of visitors in one night. If all that work and money were expended to just increase public awareness of the island why not go with our Governors Island Preservation and Education Project (http://tolerancepark.org/_wsn/page2.html)? It could have attracted 5 million visitors if that is what this is all about.

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