The New York City Council approved measures on Thursday to rename 26 avenues and public spaces after victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and asked the state legislature and governor to introduce a 9/11 educational program in every school in the state.
The full list of names can be found on a new City Hall webpage dedicated to commemorating the attacks, which includes interactive maps and other data, according to a council statement.
The page is titled "The Council Keeps the Memory of 9/11 Alive: 25 Years of Commemoration." Beneath the headline is a photograph of illuminated buildings at night, with the two columns of blue light that mark the anniversary of the attacks each year at the site of the former World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
A message to new generations
A message on the page said many relatives, friends, neighbors, and exceptional, brave and outstanding people lost their lives that morning at the World Trade Center, and that the city has continued losing more people since then to illnesses and other consequences linked to 9/11.
Twenty-five years on, more than 30% of the local population was born after the attacks or was too young to remember them, the page noted. Renaming more streets, it added, is a way for new generations to learn about the losses and the stories of heroism, compassion and unity shown by New Yorkers.
Firefighters, medics and civilians honored
Most of those being honored are members of the Fire Department of New York and its Emergency Medical Services (FDNY/EMS), the agency that lost hundreds of firefighters and paramedics responding to the attacks. A large number of the new monuments also honor police officers and civilian victims.
The new City Hall page also gives the public access to information on the city budget, council committee work, land-use legislation and other proposed bills.
Twenty-five years ago, the attacks on the World Trade Center changed the city forever, City Council Speaker Julie Menin said in the statement. She said that amid the tragedy, the heroism and unity everyone witnessed were the driving force that ultimately rebuilt the city.
Other measures approved
Among the other measures the council approved the same day were the recognition of dancer Alvin Ailey, founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the establishment of a registry of burial sites linked to enslaved people or to historically African American communities.
