By: Serach Nissim
About 200 Battery Park protesters gathered in Rockefeller park in lower Manhattan to keep the pressure on Governor Andrew Cuomo after he promised not to use green space at the park for a COVID-19 memorial.
Originally, the governor planned to honor essential workers with a concrete coronavirus memorial in the green space at the park. The outcry that arose when local residents found out, however, led the governor to scrap the plans and look for an alternative location for the memorial. “This site is going to change. It’s going to be a new site. It’s off the table. Ok,” said Battery Park City Authority chairman George Tsunis, on Thursday. The Cuomo appointee said the site seemed like a good spot for the “Circle of Heroes” Covid-19 workers memorial, but after backlash from residents, a different location will be sought out. “When additional facts were brought to [our] attention it’s good to analyze those and pivot, which is what we did,” Tsunis said. “You have my apologies,” he later added. The residents applauded in relief.
As reported by the NY Post, on Monday, even after the announcement that the plans for a memorial at the location were scraped, locals gathered for another protest—just to be sure the governor got their message. The task force which the governor tapped to find a site for the memorial was made up of only union leaders, not Battery Park residents. “I’m fed up with this. They were about to roll over with their tractors. No warning, no announcement. Nothing,” said Karen Gerber, who lives in the area, and who was at the protest.
“We will not come in the middle of the night and we’re not trying to pull a fast one,” said Tsunis. He said the governor is now “pushing me” to find a different spot for the memorial, so as to have it erected in time for Labor Day weekend. He said Cuomo told him, “Look, as long as we can find a more suitable location…we’re not going to please everyone.” Tsunis added that they will seek out a more “commercial area” that is “nowhere near where kids play.” It is still possible that the memorial will be planned for elsewhere in Battery Park City, which is state-owned property.
Community Board 1, which represents the Battery Park neighborhood, has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, at which plans for the monument can be discussed. The Governor’s office has not yet commented as to whether the Battery Park City Authority will send representatives to the meeting, or have options available to deliberate.
