Kahn/FDR Memorial Boondoggle Signage Plunked Down In Front Of Potential United Nations Donors - Will Foreigners Donate When Americans Don't?

Image of Kahn/FDR memorial Southpoint Park commercial from Roosevelt Island 360

Sunday afternoon I was on the Tram and noticed a large billboard or sign at the southern tip of Southpoint Park. I went over to the Park to see what it was but the park was closed due to security for the UN General Assembly so I could not find out any additional information about the structure. Yesterday, I received a message from a reader who said the sign was some sort of billboard promoting the Kahn/FDR memorial boondoggle. I inquired of RIOC President Steve Shane if that was true and if so whether it was a bit premature to allow a commercial for the proposed memorial boondoggle. He responded:

Yes, it is true. The agreement has not been negotiated and signed. I do not believe it to be premature. The sign will only be there for UN week when the Southpoint is otherwise closed by Homeland Security and populated by NYPD. Fund raising from the UN Delegate lounge from which the sign is highly visible is very important to FERI.

Wow. the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI) has been unable to get American financial support for their $45 million memorial to Louis Kahn that is being sold as a tribute to FDR so they have to try and get foreign financing. What does that say about FERI's ability to finance this boondoggle and claim that it is a memorial to President Franklin Roosevelt? To date, Americans have not been willing to finance this project so FERI is now seeking overseas money. How typical of this entire charade. If placing a sign facing the UN delegate's lounge is the strategy being employed by FERI and Kahn memorial supporters to raise funds for this 35 year old failed project, I am confident that they will continue to fail, as they should, and this project will never be built. Of course that means more delays until a real waterfront park is built for Southpoint Park. What a terrible shame and waste of time and resources.

For the record, Roosevelt Island 360's image above is just a satirical representation of the FERI sign meant to demonstrate the destruction of NYC waterfront and skyline views from Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park that will be the intended result of the proposed Kahn/FDR memorial, not the actual sign itself.