For some reason, Parks doesn't want headstones at burial ground

From the Daily News:

THE CITY has dropped plans to place four headstones at a 19th-century Flushing cemetery that was long forgotten and became a park - angering advocates fighting to respect its buried dead.

The Parks Department scaled back its visions for the Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground - formerly known as Martin's Field - to a single obelisk inscribed with the four names, officials said.

Critics insist the grassy plot at 46th Ave. and 164th St. will lack the appearance of a cemetery without headstones, which were eliminated after the city built a playground on the site in 1936.

They say the obelisk will not go far enough to dignify the spot where hundreds of African-Americans, Native Americans and poor whites were interred between 1840 and 1898.

"We have this ancestral need to correct history," said Robbie Garrison, who co-chairs a conservancy dedicated to honoring the site. "It's notorious to just cover up black dead people and keep going."

During a meeting between civic leaders and the city last week, department officials said they are excluding the headstones out of fear that they will be rejected by a city commission that reviews public projects, sources said.

What an absolute crock of shit. We all know city agencies work hand-in-hand.