AEGiS-AP: Efforts redoubled for proposed AIDS monument in N.Y. Cost will be about $175,000

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Efforts redoubled for proposed AIDS monument in N.Y. Cost will be about $175,000

Associated Press - December 5, 2005
Gerard Robinson

Another World AIDS Day has passed without a monument to those New Yorkers who died of the disease.

For the past 10 years, a team of local volunteers has lobbied for the creation of such a public memorial site, but factors like bureaucratic intransigence, the effects of 9/11 and swiftly changing municipal priorities have combined to prevent the simple monument from being built. That may be changing as the AIDS Monument Committee gears up a new fundraising effort and renews its outreach to Community Board 2 and the Hudson River Trust to make to make the project a reality. Both have signed off on the proposal.

"We need a place where people can go who have been affected by the epidemic to reflect on the lives of loved ones they have lost," said Andy Marber, a volunteer for the committee. "Many friends and lovers were buried in far away places or had their ashes scattered to the wind. That was the case with my lover who was cremated 12 years ago. I can't easily go visit him but I can visit the monument."

The site selection for the monument sits along the Hudson River at Bank Street. The semi-circular stone bench or plinth, 20 feet long and set in a clearing in the trees, faces old Pier 49, its pilings still visible. A pedestrian bridge juts out on the river and faces the pilings. An inscription from a traditional Swedish hymn carved in the stone - which can be viewed or used as a bench - will read: "I can sail without wind, I can sail without oars, but I cannot part with my friend with out tears." An accompanying plaque will read: "This site is dedicated to those whose lives have been ever changed by AIDS. Remembering those who died, may we, the living, speak for their silence."

The monument will cost about $175,000 and the committee is now gearing up for a new round of fundraising. The objective is to have the bench installed by summer of 2006.

Originally the AIDS monument was planned at Collect Pond Park at Centre and Lafayette streets, by the courts and abutting a parking lot. When that plan fell through, it was decided that the serene Village location was more appropriate.

"The Village was the epicenter of AIDS," Marber said. "In 1985 it was a thriving community, devastated by AIDS."

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