By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Days after he said it would be dumb to move the 9/11 terror trials to Governors Island, Mayor Michael Bloomberg now says he would be happy if federal prosecutors moved the proceedings elsewhere — and that the hearings would likely last 4 1/2 years.
"It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will," Bloomberg said at a press conference Wednesday morning. "It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people."
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly had estimated the price of the trials at about $215 million a year and the mayor's $1 billion projection was based on a 4 1/2 year trial, according to the mayor's spokesman.
Bloomberg noted that the downtown location of the trial would impede the lifestyle of residents and negatively impact traffic and business. Last week, Kelly outlined a security plan that would lockdown Chinatown and parts of lower Manhattan with metal barricades and armed guards blocking several streets.
The mayor said that he had discussed the downtown location with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and when asked if the city could provide security, he told Holder, "Yes, we can. It’s going to cost a lot of money, we’d like you to pay for it."
He said Wednesday he hoped that Holder and President Obama would change their minds about the decision.
Downtown residents had proposed Governors Island as an alternative location, but the mayor dismissed the ideas as "one of the dumber ideas" he'd heard.
Bloomberg said on Tuesday that he had asked Commissioner Kelly to look into the Governors Island proposal, and it turned out that it wasn't feasible.
At a Community Board 1 meeting in Greenwich Village Tuesday night, members passed a resolution requesting Holder to consider moving the trials to military facilities upstate.
City Hall might be more receptive to this idea than the Governors Island proposal — Bloomberg said Wednesday that the idea of holding the trials at a military base is "probably a reasonably good one."
