By Josh Williams
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The upcoming terror trials of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others should be held on Governors Island and not in Lower Manhattan, according to the former head of Community Board 1.
In an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, Julie Menin, who recently stepped down as CB1 chair but is still a vocal member of the downtown community, said the trials should be moved to a site that would be less of an inconvenience to Manhattanites and cheaper to secure.
“Governors Island should be given serious consideration," Menin wrote in the Times. "The island has no residents and few office workers. Access is by ferry only, which should enhance security and thus potentially reduce costs.”
Sen. Charles Schumer recently held a news conference last week in which he demanded federal government shoulder the fiscal burden of the trials.
“Everything should be done possible so that the residents of Lower Manhattan have the greatest amount of safety and the least amount of inconvenience as possible,” Schumer said.
The early estimates for security costs of the trial from the NYPD have reached more than $200 million a year, according to the Times.
Schumer’s office did not return a request for comment.
