DETOUR: Construction workers
created this barricade to block
Washington Ave. traffi c from
turning onto the Eastern Parkway
Service Road. Photo by Colin Mixson
STATUE
ELEVATORS
COURIER L 14 IFE, JAN. 18–24, 2019 DT
of opposition group Stop Sims
Statue.
Green-Wood honchos last
April pledged to keep locals
informed as they decided on
a fi nal resting place for the
statue, months after some residents
organized in opposition
to cemetery brass’ January offer
to make the burial ground
a new home for the likeness of
the 19th-century doctor.
The monument to Sims —
whom many claim should not
be memorialized because he
performed experiments on
unwilling black female slaves
— previously stood in Central
Park, until city offi cials
booted it following their 2017
review of controversial public
monuments .
But Axelrod said Green-
Wood refused her group’s recent
request to set up a meeting
about the statue’s future,
citing a Jan. 10 e-mail in
which an employee told her
group to sit tight until leaders
of the private graveyard have
more news about their plan to
put the sculpture back on public
display.
“When Green-Wood is
ready for further movement
on the issue, we will reach out
to you, to Community Board
7, and to our elected offi cial
to make plans to meet,” the
e-mail from John Connolly
read.
Another graveyard spokeswoman,
however, assured this
newspaper that locals will be
among the fi rst to receive any
updates about the statue of the
so-called “father of modern
gynecology” — whose physical
remains are among those
of the cemetery’s more than
570,000 permanent residents.
And until a plan is hatched,
the monument will remain
locked away, the spokeswoman
said.
“The statue of J. Marion
Sims remains in storage,” said
Colleen Roche. “Green-Wood
continues to research and consider
options for its placement
and is committed to working
closely with the community
and the city.”
Green-Wood’s head previously
promised that if he
placed the Sims statue on the
property, it would be alongside
a plaque explaining the
doctor’s complicated history.
But that reassurance did
little to soothe many critics,
one of whom recently doubled
down on his stance that
no amount of context justifi es
continued display of the monument.
“The man committed violence
against black women for
a living,” Ethan Cohen told
this newspaper on Jan. 10. “He
does not deserve a shred of
commemoration.”
cused the Authority of giving
no notice of the renovations.
“It would have been nice
to know,” said Heather Paul,
a 40-year resident of Eastern
Parkway’s Turner Towers.
A doorman at her building
told this reporter he handed
out fl iers to residents in advance
of the project, but Paul
claimed she never saw or received
any such notices.
Berman assured that the
Service Road’s traffi c lane,
while narrower, would be
open to vehicles at all times
throughout construction,
but barricades made of caution
tape and traffi c drums
completely blocked off an entrance
to it near Washington
Avenue when this reporter
stopped by, forcing a United
Parcel Service employee to
park his truck on the avenue
and walk packages to their fi -
nal destinations.
“They wouldn’t let me go
through,” said the delivery
man, who declined to give
his name, citing company
policy.
A contractor with the Authority,
who also declined to
give his name, said workers
at the site closed the roadway
to ensure their safety,
but Berman only reiterated
his claim that the Service
Road would remain open to
vehicles when told about the
blocked entrance to it from
Washington Avenue.
Future phases of the
years-long station renovation
call for installing a street-tomezzanine
elevator on the
Brooklyn Museum side of the
hub, along with two more lifts
from the mezzanine to both
the Brooklyn- and Manhattan
bound subway platforms,
and new elevator-machine
rooms and handicap-accessible
boarding areas outside
the lifts, Berman said.
STUCK IN STORAGE: Green-Wood
Cemetery leaders remain undecided
about the fi nal resting place for
a statue of controversial gynecologist
J. Marion Sims, almost a year
after they acquired the sculpture
from the city.
Associated Press / Bebeto Matthews
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