People dead from coronavirus brought to Hart's Island for mass burial

Untapped Cities  

Until the coronavirus pandemic, Hart Island was one of the New York City’s most forgotten places. Yet, since 1869 it has been serving as the city’s potters field, an active burial place for those who are too poor to afford a burial or who die unclaimed. Today, around a million souls are lying in rest there and that number is increasing quickly. A lot of confusion has circled around Hart Island in the past few days, but what is known is that the pace of burials is increasing there — five times the normal rate, in fact. Burials have traditionally been performed by New York City Department of Corrections detainees, a practice that began over a century ago and was still in place until the pandemic. But now, contracted laborers are doing the burials.Officially, COVID-19 patients are not being buried on 

Hart Island but that only counts confirmed cases. With a marked increase in deaths at home, and the slow ramp-up of testing availability, it is believed that COVID-19 cases are being grossly undercounted here. New York City mayoral spokesperson, Freddi Goldestein, did make a statement addressing the likelihood that COVID-19 victims are buried there, saying, “For decades, Hart Island has been used to lay to rest decedents who have not been claimed by family members. We will continue using the Island in that fashion during this crisis and it is likely that people who have passed away from COVID-19 who fit this description will be buried on the Island in the coming days.”

Rikers Island convicts get tasked with burying the casualties of COVID-19

The Intercept

 New York City is offering prisoners at Rikers Island jail $6 per hour — a fortune by prison labor standards — and personal protective equipment if they agree to help dig mass graves on Hart Island, according to sources with knowledge of the offer. Avery Cohen, a spokesperson for the office of 

Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed the general arrangement, but said that it was not “Covid-specific,” noting that prisoners have been digging graves on Hart Island for years.

The offer is only being made to those with convictions, not those jailed before trial, as is generally the case. A memo sent to prisoners, according to a source who reviewed it, does not specify what the work on Hart Island will be, but the reference to PPE leaves little doubt. The offer comes as New York City continues to be the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, with 38,000 people infected and more than 914 dead so far. New York City owns and operates a public cemetery on Hart Island, which has long been maintained by prison labor. The island was identified as a potential resting place for a surge of bodies in the event of a pandemic by a 2008 report put together by the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Hart Island, though, “has limited burial space,” the report noted, and “may not be able to accommodate a large influx of decedents requiring burial,” which the preparedness plan estimated at between 50,000 and 200,000 in a pandemic with a mortality rate of 2 percent in which 25 to 35 percent of the population is infected.

The city document proposed employing the Department of Defense’s “temporary mass internment method,” which places caskets 10 in a row, head to foot, so as not to stack them on top of each other. Hart Island is located off City Island in the Bronx. In 2008, Rikers prisoners were burying roughly 20 to 25 bodies per week there, the report found.

Liz Crowley wants to make Bronx cemetery a park

From the Daily News:

Part of Hart Island, a 130-acre isle off mainland Bronx that has been used as a public cemetery since 1869, may become the city’s newest park after a Queens lawmaker vowed to revisit a measure that would bring it under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department.

A Queens lawmaker?

City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) said she’ll re-introduce the bill she co-sponsored to transfer Hart Island’s jurisdiction from the city Department of Correction. Crowley said she aims to have the bill — which died in committee on New Year’s Eve — reintroduced by next month.

Crowley said she plans to work with the Council’s new Parks Committee leadership to give the plan a fair hearing.

The northern end of the island — which hasn’t had new burials in many years — could easily be turned into a park, said Melinda Hunt of the Hart Island Project, which is advocating for increased accessibility to Hart Island.

A Parks Department spokesman said he wouldn’t comment on legislation that didn’t yet exist, but said the department has refused jurisdiction of Hart Island in the past because the agency won’t operate on an active burial ground.

I guess since Crowley lacked the talent and ability to obtain a park anywhere within her own district, she's focused her attention on another borough. You know, Liz, there's a cemetery in the town you grew up in, that should be preserved. Why not focus on that?

City cemetery for sale

From the NY Times:

...New York City...has been trying to sell Canarsie Cemetery in Brooklyn for more than 25 years.

This year, it is trying again. The city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services issued a request for bids earlier this week, and officials say they hope it will be more fruitful than the last round, which took place in the mid-1990s during the Giuliani administration.

The Canarsie Cemetery, at the corner of Remsen Avenue and Avenue K, was originally owned by the town of Flatlands, which then became part of Brooklyn. When the five boroughs merged in 1898, the ownership passed to New York City, which has handed it off to a veritable alphabet soup of agencies, some of which are defunct.

Hopefully someone will buy it, considering how the City treats the dead...