Damage of 9/11 Memorial Blamed on Skateboarders

The effect of the 9/11 memorial in Boston’s Public Garden has been compromised.

The monument is scarred by black veins. Some of the names on the pink granite cannot be read. Critics blame skateboarders for battering what Mayor Martin Walsh calls a sacred place.

“It’s a great monument and memorial,” Walsh said to CBS Boston. “What we have to do is make sure we protect it and hopefully skateboarders will have respect. You can go to other places. That’s not a place to be skateboarding.”

The granite, which came from Stony Creek Quarry in Branford, CT, was supposed to last between 50 and 100 years.

Chris Cook, the interim commissioner of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, noted the problems with the granite. He said the city would use some of the memorial’s privately raised $350,000 endowment to reapply the seal and improve the etching, which he expects to be done after the winter.

Cook expressed surprise at how the granite has fared during the decade and said he would meet with representatives of the 9/11 fund about whether it should be replaced.

“I think the reapplication of the lettering will dramatically change how it appears,” he said to the Boston Globe. “But we can’t ignore the long-term deterioration concerns.”

To dissuade skateboarders from riding the upper edge of the memorial, the city added an unobtrusive chain-link fence between the bushes and the granite. Cook said it seems to be working, though many streaks and scuff marks remain on the lower edge.

The Garden of Remembrance, which was built in 2004, commemorates over 200 people with ties to Massachusetts who died in the terrorist attacks. Mayor Walsh says the city will do maintenance and repair work on the monument after the winter.

Image via Shutterstock.