BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY December 15, 2019 4
Mayor signs laws to make Hart Island a “dignifi ed resting place”
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MEMBER:
BY MARK HALLUM
AMNEWYORK REPORTER
The long quest to reform
Hart Island was realized
Wednesday as Mayor de Blasio
signed legislation to transfer
the potter’s fi eld out of the jurisdiction
of the NYC Department
of Corrections and into
the hands of the NYC Parks Department.
Within the massive indigent
burial ground lay an estimated
million people who were
often unidentifi ed at the time of
their deaths. During the AIDS
crisis, especially, it served as
mass burial site for gay men
and addicts whose bodies went
unclaimed.
Often those who die in city
detention are buried there by fellow
detainees, hence DOC’s authority
over the small island.
The City Council recently
passed legislation that Councilman
Ydanis Rodriguez sponsored
for the transfer of Hart
Island to Parks Department jurisdiction.
A separate bill, also signed
into law Wednesday, requires
the NYC Department of Transportation
to organize a means
for the public to visit Hart Island.
The 131-acre island has storied
past in the city’s history.
During the Civil War, it
served as an internment camp;
then a psychiatric institution,
and a Nike Missile launch site,
according to the mayor’s offi ce.
“Now the folks who have
been buried on Hart Island
over generations – they are
New Yorkers, they are part
of the fabric of our life. And I
think it’s a reminder to us all
there are so many people who
built this city, who made this
city great, whose names we
will never know, and that’s a
sad reality, but does not take
away their personhood, it does
not take away their place in history.
It doesn’t take away who
they were as human beings,”
de Blasio said. “It’s important
to recognize that an injustice
was done to so many and we
will not let that be the way the
story ends.”
With the new legislation,
the NYC Department of Social
Services will also be required
to hold a public hearing on
public burials, and the NYC
Human Resources Administration
will also establish the Offi
ce of Burial Services.
Veteran Herbert Sweat salutes the mayor the councilmembers
for bringing more respect to those buried
on Hart Island. Photo by Todd Maisel
Advocates for Hart Island watch as Mayor Bill de Blasio signs the bill into law as supporters hug. On left is long time advocate Melinda Hunt.
Photo by Todd Maisel
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