1 Tribute for All N.Y. 9/11 Victims

The agency in charge of redeveloping the World Trade Center site decided Thursday that a single memorial will honor all New York Sept. 11 victims equally, angering groups that say firefighters and others deserve special recognition.

Members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. voted unanimously to “honor the loss of life equally and the contributions of all without establishing any hierarchies.”

The move threatened to revive friction between family members of the rescue workers killed at the trade center and relatives of non-uniformed victims.

“New York should not have a reputation of forgetting its heroes,” said John Finucane, a retired firefighter who heads a group called “Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial.”

In its resolution, the development group suggested that stories of the rescue workers’ historic sacrifice be told at the interpretive museum that is planned nearby, and not at the memorial itself.

“To distinguish among those who died diminishes our need to honor life, all life, and to commemorate the sacrifice of all the lives in an attack on our nation,” said Tom Johnson, a board member whose son was killed at the trade center.

A 13-member jury will choose a design for the memorial.

The memorial guidelines will be announced April 28, at which point any adult may register for the design competition.

The jury will choose a design by early November.

Jurors will not know the identities of the people whose work they are evaluating.