Sacred 'Ground Zero' area is teeming with bars, porn, liquor stores, salons

New York, Aug 16 (ANI): Although a mosque and Islamic community center has been proposed near 'Ground Zero,' a walk down the area would reveal that the neighbourhood, which is supposedly sacred, is actually a hub of bars, porn, liquor stores and salons.

The area around the former World Trade Center has as many as 17 pizza shops, 18 bank branches, 11 bars, 10 shoe stores and 17 separate salons where a girl can get her lady parts groomed.

People can also buy porn, play the ponies and take care of all manner of personal business within steps of the former World Trade Center.

On the other hand, there are at least 10 churches in lower Manhattan south of Canal St., three synagogues, one Buddhist community center and a Hare Krishna facility.

"There is something for everyone downtown, from mom-and-pop establishments to luxury retailers such as Tiffany's and Hermes," the New York Daily News quoted Jeff Simmons of the Alliance as saying.

"Ground Zero is pizza, cafes and apartments," said Nick Champa, 21, a lower Manhattan student who said he opposes the proposed mosque, but would like to see better bars and restaurants in his neighbourhood.

"A 13-story, 100 million dollar structure stands out as something that can be opposed," said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.).

"There are limits to what you can be opposing just as a practical matter. Tomorrow, if some guy were to build some eight-story strip club a block away, we would do what we'd have to do," said King,

Debra Burlingame, spokeswoman for some Sept. 11 victims' families and the sister of one of the pilots killed in the attacks said: "I don't have an interest in policing every square inch of lower Manhattan to purify it.

"We're trying to prevent an imam from appropriating 9/11 to push [Islamic law] in America, an ideology at the heart of why our loved ones were ripped to pieces," she added. (ANI)