Bones reburial set for Wash. Sq.
BY GABE HERMAN
Plans are moving forward for the reinterment of
bone fragments that were found in Washington
Square Park during recent construction projects.
For 30 years during the late 1700s and early 1800s,
two-thirds of what is now Washington Square Park
was a potter’s fi eld, according to the Parks Department.
It’s believed that during that period, about
20,000 people were buried there.
During three phases of park reconstruction, between
2008 and 2017, human remains were found.
While intact burials were left alone, according to protocols
of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission,
several hundred bone fragments were removed,
with plans to reinter them in the park at a later time.
At the June meeting of the Community Board 2
Parks and Waterfront Committee, Sybil Young, the
historic preservation offi cer at the Department of
Parks and Recreation, presented the department’s reinterment
plans. Basically, the remains would be buried
together in one box, in an existing planting bed
near the park entrance at Sullivan St. and Washington
Square South.
The box would be buried 5 feet down, in accordance
with New York City Board of Health rules. The
site would be marked with an engraved granite paver
next to the planting bed.
The C.B. 2 committee gave input about what the
marker should say. The proposed text now reads:
“From 1797 until 1825, what is now Washington
COURTESY NYC DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
This burial vault was one of two uncovered
beneath Washington Square East during work
on a water main a few years ago. This vault’s
contents — including coffins with metal
nameplates — were in better shape than the
other one, which contained scattered skeletal
remains previously disturbed by a 1960s Con
Ed project.
Square Park was the City’s Potter’s Field, where thousands
of people including the unidentifi ed, the indigent
and those who died of yellow fever were buried.
In addition, several church burial grounds were located
in the northeast portion of the park. Fragmentary
remains of some of the early New Yorkers buried in
this Potter’s Field were found by archaeologists during
construction in and adjacent to Washington Square
Park between 2008 and 2017. The City reinterred the
remains on this site in 2019.”
Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation,
said his group has not been involved in the
reinterment plans.
“There are literally thousands of people buried under
Washington Square,” he noted, “as there are under
a surprising number of parks, playgrounds, and
even schools and residences in our neighborhood.
“Though these individuals may have been forgotten
over time, and were in some cases forsaken at the
time of their burial, we should treat their remains
with respect and care,” he added. “Occasions like
this remind us of the layers of history — literal and
fi gurative — that can be found in a neighborhood like
this. It’s important to remember that rich history and
honor it, and make sure it is not erased from our collective
memories.”
Parks spokesperson Crystal Howard said the reinterment
would happen this summer. She said that, appropriately,
the box to be buried is expected to be coffi
n-size, to hold the several hundred bone fragments.
At last month’s C.B. 2 Parks and Waterfront Committee
meeting, members unanimously passed a resolution
supporting the reinterment plan. The resolution
noted that the community board “looks forward to
consideration of additional narrative markers which
might elaborate on the rich history of the park.”
14th St. bus-plan rollout rejected, again
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
It was an extended holiday weekend for many,
but the city’s Department of Transportation kept
pushing in court on Friday morning to lift a judge’s
order blocking the start of a novel no-cars “busway”
on 14th St.
But D.O.T.’s efforts fell fl at, as an Appellate Division
judge refused to lift the temporary restraining
order, or T.R.O., issued last Friday by state Supreme
Court Justice Eileen Rakower. Rakower had ordered
the parties to submit additional paperwork this
month, and then return to court on Aug. 6.
Arthur Schwartz, the Village activist attorney
representing Village and Chelsea block associations
and co-op residents in a lawsuit against the 14th St.
scheme, said D.O.T. basically tried to pull an endaround.
“Rather than wait until the Aug. 6 return date in
front of Judge Rakower, D.O.T. went into court…and
asked to vacate the T.R.O. barring D.O.T. from proceeding
with its 14th St. plan,” he said.
On Friday, Judge Gishe, of the Appellate Division,
“wouldn’t take argument” after having carefully read
the paperwork submitted by both sides, Schwartz
said.
“She said that granting the relief D.O.T. requested
opened up the possibility of a ping-pong effect at
great expense to the city and confusion to the public
— meaning T.R.O. on, T.R.O. off… .
“She had read the papers carefully and noted that
D.O.T. had identifi ed 14th St. as a street needing Select
Bus Service way back in 2011, so that their assertions
this week of an emergency need to move forward
seemed out of place.”
Schwartz said the city attorney representing D.O.T.
has tried to argue that the car-ban plan must be in
effect to allow S.B.S. to operate at top speed. But
Schwartz noted that, for example, 23rd St. has S.B.S.
but doesn’t ban cars from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day,
as the fi rst-of-its-kind “Transit/Truck Priority” lanes
plan for 14th St. would do.
The anti-cars plan has never been tried before anywhere
else in the city, according to agency offi cials.
The Village attorney said he is also skeptical that
D.O.T. would submit data and studies to justify its
14th St. plan, even though that is what Rakower specifi
cally asked to be provided with by July 12.
Village and Chelsea opponents fear that banishing
cars from 14th St., among other things, would merely
push them onto their narrow side streets, causing
congestion and also endangering their historic buildings
due to the vehicles’ vibrations.
S.B.S. on the M14 route did start on Mon., July 1 —
despite the court-ordered T.R.O. currently blocking
the city from implementing its plan to prioritize 14th
St. for buses and through trucks while banning cars.
The community lawsuit did not seek to block S.B.S.
from starting.
David Marcus is an individual plaintiff in the lawsuit
against the 14th St. plan, as well as a founding
member and former steering committee member of
the 14th St. Coalition.
“Once again,” Marcus said on Friday, “the court
has sided with the Downtown community in barring
D.O.T. from implementing its ill-advised and unjustifi
able traffi c plan until such time as it proves its need
versus the impact it would have on the community.
“It is not lost upon us that the D.O.T. plan is Polly
Trottenberg’s disingenuous attempt to substitute new
reasons to justify her attempts to reconfi gure 14th St.,
now that the excuse of the L-train shutdown is no longer
available to her,” he added, referring to the D.O.T.
commissioner.
“We are grateful to the courts and to attorney Arthur
Schwartz,” Marcus continued, “for helping us
preserve the sanctity of our communities and neighborhoods,
by considering the needs of tens of thousands
of Downtown residents and businesses that
would be harmed 24/7 by the plan, and not blindly
accepting the claims of improved service to questionable
numbers of transient commuters and the unsubstantiated
claims of marginally improved bus schedules.”
Schwartz noted that the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority has been absent in court on the issue,
which would seem to indicate D.O.T. really being the
lead agency that is spearheading the 14th St. scheme.
In a statement after the T.R.O. was fi rst issued on
Fri., June 28, an M.T.A. spokesperson issued a statement,
saying, “This ruling will undoubtedly hinder
our goal of speeding up buses on one of the busiest
and most congested arteries, and make traveling
around the city harder for our customers. Transit prioritization,
such as the city’s Transit and Truck Priority
busway, would help speed up Select Bus Service.”
The statement added that, in the meantime, with
the launch of the M14 S.B.S. on July 1, the M.T.A.
would be “working with D.O.T. and N.Y.P.D. to enforce
existing rules to ensure our buses won’t be
blocked by vehicles double-parking and blocking bus
stops.”
Schneps Media CNW July 11, 2019 3