Gore eyeing N.Y. for Live Earth
Concerts aim to fight global warming
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The potential sites can all accommodate the estimated 40,000 or more people expected to attend, New York City's Dept. of Parks & Recreation said on Wednesday.
"We're just waiting to hear back from them on what they want to do," a spokesman said.
Organizers had hoped to stage the event at the U.S. Capitol, but their plans have so far been blocked by Senate Republicans. Event organizers say that Gotham has always been a candidate city to host the U.S. leg of the worldwide event; others include Philadelphia.
The concerts, announced in February by Al Gore and producer Kevin Wall, will take place in venues on all seven continents.
Originally, Gore and the concert's organizers had hoped for the National Mall, but they were informed that it had already been reserved. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) suggested the front lawn area of the Capitol, but that idea has been stalled in the Rules Committee by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) vowed to block the concerts, labeling it a "partisan political event" in an interview with newspaper the Hill.
The Capitol grounds, however, did host an inaugural event for Earth Day 1990.
"Not since former Interior Secretary James Watt tried to ban the Beach Boys from appearing on the National Mall has such a misguided effort at political censorship been undertaken by a Republican official," Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) told the L.A. Times.
Live Earth spokesman Chad Griffin said in a statement: "It is unfortunate for the American people that we are being blocked from staging the U.S. concert in our nation's capital. The show must go on."
Among the artists scheduled to take part in the show are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Mayer, the Foo Fighters, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, John Legend, the Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Fall Out Boy and Korn.
