The parrots of Queens

From the NY Times:

Queens is not the only place the tropical green birds have become firmly entrenched. Fifty years after exotic bird importers began carting them here from their native South America, the parrots have nestled into other neighborhoods in the city and beyond.

The best guess on their citywide population is around 550, though biologists say bird counts often capture just a tenth of their true totals. The parrots have set up colonies in at least 10 states, including Florida, Texas, Illinois and Oregon. They dappled European skies, breeding in England and Spain.

Today in Brooklyn, their pile-of-twig nests are built in the iron gates of Green-Wood Cemetery. They have made homes in Upper Manhattan and amid the trees in Riverside Park. They are in Whitestone and Flushing, Queens. They have built nests in Edgewater, N.J., in the slopes along River Road, an undulating bicycle path in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, said Corey Finger, of Forest Hills, Queens, a co-owner of the birding blog 10,000 Birds.

But Queens has extended the birds perhaps the biggest welcome.

State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., who can see one of their nests from the windows of his district office in Howard Beach, is pushing two bills he introduced in 2010 to protect the parrots (also known as parakeets), though neither has passed. One would put them in a protected category. The other would require their nests be handled with care if they have to be moved. The senator says seeing the “green, rather large, rather unique-sounding parakeet” among pigeons fascinates New Yorkers.

Students restoring Prospect Cemetery

From the Times Ledger:

...after renovations that included the removal of the vegetation and the restoration of the on-site vacant Chapel of the Sisters, a group of volunteers and workers from Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery are repairing dozens of the toppled headstones.

“This is very interesting,” said volunteer Luci Cooke, 19, a college student from Brown University. “It’s actually excellent because I recognized some of the names in the tombstones.”

Cooke was working alongside Vivian Normant and Ali Dore, two of the five students visiting from France and helping in the project through an exchange program sponsored by Preservation Volunteers.

They were restoring the tombstone of Angeline Cornwell, who died in 1908 at age 78.

“This is a very good experience,” said Dore. “The work is hard, but I like it.”

Normant was an English teacher in France, but now she is getting her B.A. in art history back home to teach art to high school students.

“I love the work that is being done,” she said. “We are touching a part of history.”

The group, which includes students from Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design, has restored about 50 damaged headstones. The project will also relandscape the grounds and institute an interpretative history of the place.

The colonial burial ground, next to the York College campus, dates back to 1660.

Push to have Civic Virtue returned to Queens

Letter PDC GreenWood 140605

From Triumph of Civic Virtue:

Given that Civic Virtue was moved to Green-Wood over the objections of local officials and residents, and that City taxpayers footed bills totaling $99,265.00 to not only conserve Civic Virtue but to aid and abet its move to Green-Wood, the Task Force was amazed to find during a recent visit to Green-Wood that the cemetery has installed a sign in front of Civic Virtue that denies both of those facts, and conveys false and misleading information about the circumstances of Civic Virtue’s temporary loan to Green-Wood.

Greenwood’s plainly inaccurate sign states (1.) that the City of New York “could not afford to conserve” Civic Virtue and was “without the funds to do so”; and (2.) that the City could not afford the conservation expense because Civic Virtue “lacked the support of local officials”. Those statements only promulgate the self-serving, false narrative that Green-Wood has concocted around Civic Virtue, and they could not be further from the truth.

CivicVirtue Handout 140610

“Green-Wood may have hauled Civic Virtue into the cemetery, but that doesn’t entitle Green-Wood to re-write history, and to mis-inform the statue’s visitors about the taxpayer funding of the statue’s cleaning and conservation, or the fact that elected officials and the public actually pleaded to keep Civic Virtue on Queens Boulevard,” said Task Force member Robert LoScalzo.

Accordingly, on June 5, 2014, the Task Force sent letters to Green-Wood President Richard Moylan and to Public Design Commission President Signe Nielsen, demanding that Green-Wood immediately remove its false and misleading sign, and that any prospective replacement sign be subject to a public hearing and approval by the Public Design Commission.

CivicVirtueTaskForce NEWS RELEASE 140606

City paid to repair and remove Civic Virtue

From the Times Ledger:

Taxpayers shelled out $100,000 to clean the exiled Triumph of Civic Virtue statue and help move it from its perch outside Borough Hall to a private cemetery in Brooklyn late last year, city contracts show.

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services banished the neglected statue to Green-Wood Cemetery in Kings County in December, justifying the move by saying private dollars would be used for upkeep.

But before the relocation, the city inked a $50,000 contract with Pennslyvania-based Kreilick Conservation to provide conservation and preservation treatment to the controversial sculpture, which included cleaning the entire piece and patching cracks with faux stone material.

The department paid another roughly $50,000 to Washington, D.C.-based Surroundart to build a custom steel cage that lifted the 17-ton artwork off its base in December, according to documents provided to TimesLedger Newspapers.

The contracts were given to TimesLedger by Queens activist and filmmaker Robert LoScalzo, who is currently suing to try and obtain communications between the city and the cemetery.

“This asset — that is no longer an asset to Queens — has been essentially privatized in Brooklyn with little to no explanation to the public and against the wishes and protests of everyone,” he said.

An indefinite loan agreement between the city and Green-Wood estimated the cemetery would pay $165,000 for transportation and $27,500 to put a protective coat on the statue. The cemetery will also build a new base for Civic Virtue, since its Borough Hall perch, including the fountain and underground plumbing, was also in need of repair, the city said. Green-Wood could not provide TimesLedger with the actual cost nor how much it would spend on long-term preservation.

LoScalzo has a hunch the taxpayers’ money could have been better spent refurbishing the statue at its former Borough Hall home, and hopes a judge will force the city’s hand to release communications between the department and Green-Wood Cemetery to find out more.

“It’s not lost on me the symbolic significance that a statue representing the triumph of civic virtue over vice and corruption is not welcome in our borough,” he said.

Someone is suing to get Fat Boy back

From the Daily News:

A Queens-based filmmaker has sued the city over its hastily-enacted plan to pluck a deteriorating statue off Queens Blvd. and move it to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Robert LoScalzo claims the city has refused to turn over emails and other communications involving the removal of the Triumph of Civic Virtue from its longtime perch outside Queens Borough Hall.

“There are still too many unanswered questions,” said Jon Torodash, a Kew Gardens resident who led a campaign to keep the statue in Queens and is working with LoScalzo on the legal action. “How was a heavy construction project like this done in quick secrecy?”

Plans to move the statue were unveiled during a little-known Design Commission meeting in November, when most civic leaders and lawmakers were focused on recovery efforts after Superstorm Sandy.

One month later, the statue was moved to Green-Wood.

Cemetery officials said all of the conservation work on the statue has been completed and it is awaiting a new granite base.

Great, now you can bring it back to where it belongs.

Still fighting for Civic Virtue

From the Daily News:

The controversial Triumph of Civic Virtue statue may be long gone from Queens Boulevard but some local activists are still fighting to find how and why it was moved.

They filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the city for details of the plans to move it to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

But the Department of Citywide Administrative Services has yet to respond, prompting the group to appeal to state officials.

“There are a lot of issues going on with this statue,” said Jon Torodash, a Kew Gardens resident who led the campaign to keep the statue in Queens. “Residents were annoyed enough that we were losing such a great work of art but then there was this whole secrecy and these strange channels through the Design Commission.”

The city Design Commission signed off on the plan to move the statue during a little-known public hearing in November.

Torodash and others complained they had no prior notice about the hearing.

Fat Boy heads to greener pastures

From the Daily News:

The Triumph of Civic Virtue, the controversial Queens statue that has divided local lawmakers and residents for decades, has moved to greener pastures.

A last-minute plea from supporters who wanted to keep the statue at its present perch outside Queens Borough Hall failed to change the mind of city officials.

A crew spent almost 12 hours Saturday carefully removing the statue from its base outside Queens Borough Hall for its journey to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Under an unusual agreement with the city, the cemetery will restore the statue and then place it on display.

“This is a sad day for Queens,” said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., who recently led a rally in front of the statue to demand it be kept in the borough. “The people of Queens wanted this statue. They need to replace it with another large piece of Greco-Roman art immediately.”

No, we need to replace our do-nothing elected officials immediately. Or rather, next November.

It's happening because of us

Editorial from the Queens Chronicle:

It’s a shame that “The Triumph of Civic Virtue,” the 1920 statue by famed sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, which has been stationed outside Borough Hall since the 1940s, is being moved out of Queens.

But the fact is we don’t deserve to keep it.

The statue, commonly just called “Civic Virtue,” has not been well maintained. It’s not respected by many residents here; most probably don’t even know what it is. It was controversial even before it arrived at the corner of Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike. And its pending move to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, while unfortunate, may provide the impetus for the residents of this borough to be more protective of our treasures.

“Civic Virtue” comprises a male figure wielding a sword and towering over two writhing female figures, sirens of Greek mythology, meant to symbolize vice and corruption. Those who want to keep it where it is understand the symbolism.

But from day one the sculpture has been misinterpreted, both knowingly and not, as sexist. Elizabeth King Black of the National Women’s Party is one who decried it, saying, “Men have their feet on women's necks, and the sooner women realize it the better!” That was no recent comment made by someone ignorant of history; she said it at a hearing in the 1920s.

So while we sympathize with those who know what the sculpture is meant to convey, we also understand the view of those who look at it and just see misogyny.

That, however, is not the main reason people in Queens should throw up their hands and just let “Civic Virtue” go. The main reason is that we let our officials allow it to all but fall apart over the years, and now it’s too late to do anything about it. Those who wanted it preserved should have demanded that funds be allocated for that years ago.

Instead, in typical Queens fashion, no one got it done. Now that the statue is just days away from being moved to Green-Wood — which will pay to restore it with private funds and let those who want to admire it afterward do so — we get a too-little, too-late press conference, led by two City Council members trying to stop the process.

The hearing was held, the decision was made, and all we can say now is that Queens residents should do a better job protecting other borough assets, such as the New York State Pavilion from the 1964-65 World’s Fair, the Bowne House, the Steinway Mansion and so many other endangered landmarks. If we lose another, the fault again will be not in our stars but in ourselves.

Too little, too late

The above video is from July 19, 2012. There was also a press conference February 25, 2011 calling for the removal of the statue and a subsequent March 11, 2011 NY Times article about Greenwood's interest in it.

If elected officials were really serious about keeping Civic Virtue in Queens, they wouldn't have waited until December 8, 2012 - nearly 2 years after this nonsense started - to have a press conference/rally, after it was announced that it was a done deal that it was being moved to Brooklyn. The fact that the Johnny-come-lately rally was led by Council Members Peter Vallone, Jr. and Liz Crowley is actually quite comical in light of their anti-preservation records.


The deliberate and uneducated actions of certain Queens elected officials (specifically Marshall, Ferreras and Weiner) and the deliberate inaction of all other Queens elected officials is what exiled Civic Virtue to Brooklyn. Ponder the symbolism for a moment.

The way preservation works in Queens is that electeds allow whatever is going to happen get to the point of no return and then they hold meaningless last-minute rallies to try to save face as the ship sinks. Pathetic preservation suckers fall for the charade every time, too.

The more I think about it, the more I believe Civic Virtue belongs in Brooklyn, which still has a few burning embers of civic virtue, and at Greenwood Cemetery where it will be restored and properly cared for. Getting anything fixed or preserved in Queens has unfortunately become a really unfunny joke, with the joke being on us.

Civic Virtue vote was pretty shady

Queens pols allow loss of Civic Virtue

From the NY Times:

Given the improbable journey of “Civic Virtue” since it was begun by the sculptor Frederick MacMonnies in 1920, nothing can be ruled out. The statue, known rudely as “Fat Boy” or “Rough Boy,” is about to become the best traveled public monument in city history, moving from the Bronx (where it was carved) to Manhattan (1922 to 1941) to Queens (1941 until the present) to Brooklyn, where it is to settle indefinitely in Green-Wood Cemetery.

The move was authorized Nov. 13 when the municipal Design Commission approved a long-term loan of the statue to Green-Wood. In a city preoccupied with cleaning up from Hurricane Sandy (Green-Wood suffered at least $500,000 worth of damage), the authorization slipped under the radar. A mayoral spokeswoman confirmed it on Monday.

Within months, perhaps by year’s end, the perennially controversial and increasingly crumbly 15-foot-high marble — an allegory of virtue standing atop the sirens of graft and corruption — will disappear from the prominent spot it has occupied for 71 years in Kew Gardens, at Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike, outside Queens Borough Hall.

It will be swallowed into the ornamented landscape of Green-Wood Cemetery, where it will stand at Jasmine and Garland Avenues. Surrounded by ornate mausoleums, memorial statuary and 560,000 dead bodies, “Civic Virtue” will be much less conspicuous. Make of that political metaphor what you will.

Fat Boy kidnapped; not coming back

From the Daily News:

The city has hatched a secret plan to move a controversial, crumbling public statue out of Queens and into Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, the Daily News has learned.

The Triumph of Civic Virtue, which sits near Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens, has been both hailed as a priceless piece of public art worthy of restoration and derided as a sexist eyesore that should be trashed.

The city is mulling plans to replace the statue with a plaza dedicated to famous women from Queens.

Classic work of art to be replaced by a monument to tweeding. Only in Queens.

Respectfully remembering the fallen

From CBS 2:

Today, the 478-acre expanse of greenery and statuary covering [Green-Wood] cemetery’s rolling hills is believed to be the final resting place of about 8,000 Civil War veterans.

A team of volunteers and Green-Wood staff has spent nearly a decade trying to identify all those graves. When the project began in September 2002, cemetery officials figured they had, at most, 500 veterans of the nation’s bloodiest war buried here.

Using the cemetery’s own burial records, plus government, military and privately owned documents available online, Green-Wood’s project has identified the graves of about 4,600 Civil War veterans. Green-Wood historian Jeffrey Richman estimates 3,000 to 4,000 more are scattered among the cemetery’s more than 560,000 total interments.

The Civil War dead buried at Green-Wood include unknown privates and famous officers, buglers and Medal of Honor recipients, Yankees from Maine to Iowa, fathers, sons and brothers, and even 75 Confederates, including two generals. None of the original gravestones for the Confederates gave any indication they had fought for the South, an intentional omission being rectified by the installation of new granite markers provided by Veterans Affairs.

Some of the gravestones and other markers at the previously known burial plots indicate that a person was a Civil War veteran, but most don’t bear information or an insignia that would tip off researchers, Richman said. Some of the grave markers are so worn the inscriptions can’t be read, while others are overgrown by grass or have sunken below ground level. Many of the veterans lie in unmarked graves, and it’s only by checking the cemetery’s detailed maps that individual burial plots can be located.

Part of the project includes placing new granite markers at the graves, marked and unmarked, of 2,000 of the Civil War veterans. So far, about 1,300 of the VA markers have been installed.

Saving the historic vista

From Courier-Life:

Green-Wood Cemetery’s Roman Goddess of War is about to clash with her toughest foe to date: city bureaucracy.

Area preservationists are seeking to secure a historic, though often threatened, view corridor between the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and the Minerva — a nine-foot-tall bronze statue that regally presides over the cemetery.

The cemetery is beginning a campaign to create a “197a plan,” a jargony name for something very basic: a document that would, at least in theory, force the city to consider the community’s wishes if a developer threatens the view plane.

The name “197a” that refers to a section of the City Charter that formalizes a community’s policy position.

“This is an important statement of city policy,” said Kenneth Fisher, the former councilman and attorney representing the cemetery. “It would force the city to go on the record with any deviation from that [stated] policy.”

The Statue of Liberty has stood in New York Harbor since the 1880s. When the statue of Minerva was erected in 1920 — to commemorate the crucial Revolutionary War Battle of Brooklyn — the goddess’s gaze was intentionally fixed upon Lady Libery.

But in 2008, that view corridor was threatened by a development at Seventh Avenue and 23rd Street. Public outcry helped persuade the developer to reconfigure his building to preserve the view.

Even before that threat, the cemetery had been calling for an official “scenic view” that would prevent out-of-scale development in a line from Minerva through Greenwood Heights and the South Slope to Red Hook, where undeveloped properties like Joe Sitt’s Revere Sugar site on Richards Street make statue-watchers nervous.

Early efforts failed when the city made it clear that it wasn’t interested in embarking on what would be a complex, unprecedented and time-consuming change that would affect an array of individual properties.

Supporters hope that the 197-a plan will give prospective developers pause if they were to consider constructing a building tall enough to breach the view plane.

But the 197-a plan is not legally binding and only serves as a guide for city agencies that might be required to review a prospective project.

Photo from Save the Vista