Protests from neighbors in Battery City Park were almost instantaneous. Many staging demonstrations at the proposed site said the monument's location was selected without public meetings or hearings on the plan, which called for chopping down trees and replacing grass with concrete. Battery Park City Authority Chairman George Tsunis, who's served as a leader on the project and met with protesters for hours over the course of the past few weeks, confirmed the Circle of Heroes project would take the necessary step back to incorporate more community partners. New York State Critics have been vocal that their opposition is not to the monument itself, but toward the potential park loss for another monument in the neighborhood.