City launches online survey for New Yorkers to weigh in on controversial monuments
Photo via
Almost two months after Mayor de Blasio announced the 18-member Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments and Markers, formed to assess controversial statues and public art on city-owned property, his administration has now revealed that they’ll be welcoming feedback from all New Yorkers. According to the Daily News, the city has launched an online survey for the public to weigh in on which markers classify as “symbols of hate” and which should be kept, relocated, or altogether removed. In addition, survey participants can suggest if a monument should receive a contextual or educational plaque, as well as suggest ideas for totally new monuments.
The issue came about following the violent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, after which Mayor de Blasio announced a 90-day review of possible “symbols of hate on city property.” As 6sqft previously broke down, some of these include:
Columbus Circle’s Christopher Columbus statue (City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito wants the statue removed based on accounts that Columbus enslaved and killed indigenous people), all monuments and naming related to Peter Stuyvesant (based on a request from Jewish rights group Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center due to Stuyvesant anti-Semitic past and religious intolerance), and the East Harlem statue of Dr. James Marion Sims, who became the father of modern gynecology by performing experiments on slaves without consent or anesthesia.
Since being assembled, the commission has held one private meeting. Co-chair and the city’s cultural affairs commissioner Tom Finkelpearl said that survey responses “will play a critical role in shaping the commission’s work of developing guidelines that can be applied broadly to art on City property, with the ultimate goal of putting forth a thoughtful way to promote more inclusive, welcoming public spaces for all New Yorkers.”
Responses will be collected through November 26th. You can take the survey here >>
[Via NYDN]
RELATED:
- De Blasio announces 18-member committee, including Harry Belafonte, to review controversial monuments
- De Blasio suggests adding contextual plaques to controversial city statues
- Jewish rights group wants Peter Stuyvesant monuments removed over anti-semitism
- De Blasio considering removal of Christopher Columbus statue near Central Park
Get Inspired by NYC.
Leave a reply
Your email address will not be published.
I have suggested apple-shaped “history hotspot” sidewalk markers. You can read the marker. If you have a device like an iPhone, you can point it at the “history hotspot” and, for example, find out why New York is called “the Big Apple” in Spanish or Japanese or Hebrew. If NYC does not do this, I have suggested that they tear down the still-unexplained “Big Apple Corner” (Broadway and W. 54th St.) that I dedicated in 1997. https://www.6sqft.com/why-is-new-york-city-called-the-big-apple/
http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20170903/dave-neese-cleaning-up-our-historical-act
DAVE NEESE: Cleaning up our historical act
“We must seize this opportunity to indulge ourselves in smug moral righteousness, in “virtue-signaling,” as it has come to be named. “
Apparently, “native americans” were not the first “indigenous” people here in North America. Evidence is mounting that they pushed out a previous population of European-centric origin:
The Smithsonian Magazine:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-very-first-americans-may-have-had-european-roots-5517714/?no-ist
The Very First Americans May Have Had European Roots
Some early Americans came not from Asia, it seems, but by way of Europe
The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/radical-theory-of-first-americans-places-stone-age-europeans-in-delmarva-20000-years-ago/2012/02/28/gIQA4mriiR_story.html
Radical theory of first Americans places Stone Age Europeans in Delmarva 20,000 years ago
The National Geographic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0903_030903_bajaskull.html
Controversy erupted after skeletal remains were found in Kennewick, Washington, in 1996. This skeleton, estimated to be 9,000 years old, had a long cranium and narrow face—features typical of people from Europe, the Near East or India—rather than the wide cheekbones and rounder skull of an American Indian.
http://sciencenordic.com/dna-links-native-americans-europeans
Ancient DNA reveals that the ancestors of modern-day Native Americans had European roots. The discovery sheds new light on European prehistory and also solves old mysteries concerning the colonisation of America.
https://www.google.com/search?q=europeans+were+the+first+americans&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb