Ridgewood Funeral Homes Adapt to New Populations
Posted on 27. Dec, 2009 by Carolyn Phenicie in Immigration, Money and Economy
By Carolyn Phenicie
For nearly 50 years, the Woodhaven branch of the Walsh-LaBella funeral home served over 150 families annually. Now the funeral home has manages, on average, one burial a week.
With an influx of new immigrants and fewer longtime residents remaining in the neighborhood after retirement, Walsh-Labella has lost about two thirds of its business annually, and like many funeral homes in the area, is trying to figure out how to adjust.
“You have to change with the community,” said John McNamara, a mortician at Walsh-LaBella, which has been open since 1959
Once a neighborhood with predominately German, Italian and Irish residents, Ridgewood now has residents with mostly Polish, Eastern European and Hispanic backgrounds. “This neighborhood used to be all German and Irish,” McNamara said. “Now it’s got the League of Nations.”
Currently, the area is about one-third Polish and Eastern European, one-third Latino and one-third German, Italian and Irish, according to Monsignor Edward Scharfenberger of St. Matthias Parish in Ridgewood.
Fewer families are coming to Walsh-LaBella because the new Hispanic population tends to patronize funeral homes that are run by Hispanics or have a Spanish-speaking staff, McNamara said.
Regina T. Smith, who teaches a course in the sociology of funeral service at the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service, said people want to use a funeral home with employees that understand their culture.
The overall number of people dying in the neighborhood is also decreasing as people retire to other parts of the state or elsewhere in the United States. St. Matthias had five or six funerals a week in the 1970s, Monsignor Scharfenberger said in an interview. Now, the average is two per week.
The church will celebrate a funeral mass in any language the family requests, Monsignor Scharfenberger said. He estimated that for every 20 funerals held, two are in Polish and two or three are in Spanish. There are also four to six per year in German. Those services are usually requested by the families of older people who believe it’s more dignified for the decedent and not necessarily for the language needs of those attending the service, as those held in Polish or Spanish are.
Many families are no longer sending remains back to their home country, said Robert Taylor, a mortician at the Peter J. Geis Funeral Home.
“Years ago we used to ship more to Romania and Yugoslavia. People have become more Americanized [and] they realized they can’t visit the grave if they ship the body back to the old country,” he said. “Plus, the cost is prohibitive.”
The requirements to send remains to another country varies depending on where the remains are being sent, and the cost of shipping the remains depends on the weight of the remains and the destination. Families essentially pay for the services of a funeral director twice, though, because a licensed mortician is required to pick up the remains in the receiving country, Taylor said.
Some families have begun doing the opposite: bringing the remains of family members who have passed away overseas or elsewhere in the U.S. back to be buried in New York. Walsh-LaBella brings in five to 10 bodies a year from overseas, most from Italy, and about 15 from elsewhere in the U.S., mostly Florida, McNamara said.
The trends are not limited to traditional burials, either. Formal acceptance by the Catholic Church in the 1960s plus a growing acceptance by younger people has caused the number of cremations to increase, according to J.P. Di Troia, president of Fresh Pond Crematory.
The trend is not limited to Ridgewood. Recent influxes of immigrant and refugee populations from Burma, Europe and Africa have changed the funeral business in upstate New York, Stewart Williams, a mortician at the Dimbley, Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral Homes in New Hartford, N.Y. said in an interview.
Language is often the biggest barrier.
“You’re needing to always find a translator and just be very patient with families,” he said.
Changes have affected funeral homes all around the country, too, according to Bob Biggins, a funeral director in Rockland, Mass. and spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association.
“It brings challenges to our members, but it also brings wonderful opportunities for them to continue to be beacons of service that our members have been for generations,” he said.
Hundreds rally against beating of a Queens gay man
Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by Lulu Yilun Chen in Crime and Courts, Politics and Government, Queens
Hundreds rally against beating of a Queens gay man from luluyilun on Vimeo.
By Lulu Yilun Chen
Hundreds of people gathered on College Point Boulevard in Queens on a Saturday afternoon to denounce the beating of a gay man whom police say was a victim of a bias crime.
Standing across the street from the protest was about a dozen people who said they were friends of the two men arrested. They protested behind barracks set up by the police and held up signs saying that the public should not rush to conclusions to accuse the suspects of bias.
At about 4:30 a.m. on October 8th two men attacked Jack Price, 49, of College Point, outside a local deli at College Point Boulevard and 18 Avenue in Queens after he stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes on his way home. The two men repeatedly beat and kicked Mr. Price, all of which was caught on videotape from a security camera, according to police.
After the assault, the suspects fled the location, leaving Mr. Price with a shattered jaw, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Mr. Price managed to return to his home and call 911. He was rushed to Booth Memorial Hospital where he is currently being treated. He was able to identify the two suspects and make an account of the crime, according to police.
Police said that Daniel Aleman, 26, was arrested three days after the assault and charged with felony assaults as a hate crime. Daniel Rodriguez, 21, was apprehended in Virginia five days after the attack.
Supporters of the victim marched down College Point Boulevard from 20th Avenue to 14th Avenue, joined by many city officials, including Helen Marshall, the Queens borough president, Scott Stinger, Manhattan borough president, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who is openly gay.
Daniel Dromm, the Democratic candidate for City Council district 25, led the crowd chanting, “Now is the moment. Now is the time. We say no to hate crime,” “LGBT, we celebrate diversity,” and “Jack Price was under attack. What do we do? Fight back!”
It was a diverse crowd that ranged from moms carrying seven-month-old babies to men with dressed-in-pink Chihuahuas and grey-haired women holding rainbow flags with the printed words “equality.”
About 300 people stopped at the nearby Popenhusen playground to give speeches, according to organizers. Family members of Mr. Price and city officials, including William Thompson, the City comptroller and mayoral candidate, delivered speeches to the crowd.
“The answer when it comes to hate crime,” said Thompson, “The answer is no.
“We are sending out a message of what we will allow in this city and what we will not,” added Thompson. “We will not be silent in any act, in any community. We will come together, we will let those people know it is wrong and you will not get away with it.”
Joanne Guaneri, 42, the sister-in-law of Mr. Price, embraced her daughter, Amanda Guaneri, 15, listening quietly to the speeches as they stood close to the stair-converted-stage in front of the crowd.
Joanne Guaneri then walked to the microphone and spoke in husky voice, “They beat my brother-in-law until near death. For $10. And for a pack of cigarettes.
“Put aside the hate crime on this, they beat a man to near death and that is why I am out here,” said Ms. Guaneri.
The youngest speaker was Jack Price’s niece, 15-year-old Amanda Guaneri, a student at Bayside High School.
“I am proud of him (Mr. Price) to be my uncle. Whatever he is, he is my uncle. I love him and I will stick behind him,” said Amanda Guaneri, “I want to say to the people following Daniel Rodriguez: Why? Why? He did wrong. You shouldn’t be behind him.”
Those words were directed at a group of 14 people, who supported Mr. Rodriguez and rallied right across the street on College Point Boulevard, arguing that the public should not jump to conclusions and define the beatings of Mr. Price as a hate crime.
Marcel Gelmi, 26, who has known Rodriguez for 11 years, said he was not biased toward gay people.
“Why is this a hate crime? Because Jack Price says so? Those cameras pick up no sound,” said Mr. Gelmi, 26. “Danny had a lot of gay friends.”
Hate crimes are not common in Queens, according to Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker.
“The two hateful people who we believe committed this crime are not representative of Queens County or College Point,” said Ms. Quinn. “The two men who did this are a minority.”
The last time an assault related to the gay community happened in Queens was in 2001, when Edgar Garzon was attacked outside of a gay club in Jackson Heights, Queens, and died because of the injuries.
However, incidents motivated by bias based on sexual orientation were up 5.5 percent within the past two years since 2006, accounting for 16.6 percent of hate crimes conducted in the United States, according to F.B.I. reports.
President Obama signed a bill on Wednesday that finally declared it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity.
In the past 10 years, the House and the Senate separately approved the hate crimes expansion numerous times. But congressional Republicans repeatedly blocked final passage.
The new policy will expand the definition of a 1968 hate crime law that applies to people attacked because of their race, religion or national origin.
“I think it’s one small part of a large picture which needs to be painted in order to have a world where everyone can be a full person without being physically, psychologically, or legally punished because of their gender or sexuality,” said Marisa Ragonese, head of Generation Q, a program for young gay and lesbians.
Mr. Price underwent surgery for a puncture in his lung last Tuesday and is now in stable condition, according to Ms. Guaneri.
New Renovation Plans for Ridgewood Reservoir
Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Carolyn Phenicie in Health and Environment, Metro, Politics and Government
The Ridgewood Reservoir in western Queens has been allowed to re-grow into a marsh and birch forest.
By Carolyn Phenicie
Ivy has grown up a seven-foot-high fence, obscuring the view of a natural woodland where grey birch, red maple and black cherry trees grow from the leaf-covered forest floor. The whoosh of traffic on the adjacent Jackie Robinson Parkway is the only clue that indicates this little pocket of nature, the Ridgewood Reservoir in southern Queens, lies within New York City limits.
But this quiet leafy corner is about to change under a plan to renovate the area that would replace existing fences with shorter ones, install lights and repair the existing running path. This plan, like the proposals that came before it, has angered some local residents who said they feel the Parks Department is not listening to their input on the project. Many said that they believe that with the exception of a few cosmetic improvements, the area should be left in its natural state.
The reservoir, which held 154 million gallons of water, was built in 1856 and used as a source of drinking water for the growing population in Brooklyn from 1858 to 1959. Two of the three basins were drained after the Catskills aqueduct was built, and one remained a backup water supply until 1989. The Department of Environmental Protection completely decommissioned the site the next year. Since then, the area has returned to its natural habitat. Basins One and Three, about 10 and 21 acres respectively, have become forests of birch, maple, cherry and sweet gum tree. The central basin, 11.85-acre Basin Two, contains water and has returned to a marsh full of phragmites, an invasive type of reed not native to the area.
In 2004, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gave authority over the nearly 43-acre reservoir to the Department of Parks and Recreation. At the time, the department intended to turn one of the basins into a park with ball fields. That proposal has since been abandoned because the budget for the project got cut, but it angered many area residents who believed it should be left alone.
“It’s so counterintuitive for a mayor who says he’s environmentally minded to go in and destroy an important habitat like that,” Rob Jett, who maintains the blog Save Ridgewood Reservoir, said in a phone interview.
Jett said the area doesn’t need any more recreation space. The reservoir is next to Highland Park, which already has two baseball fields, a basketball court, a football field and concrete area for skateboarding.
Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall believes the area should be preserved as a natural habitat, Dan Andrews, the borough president’s press secretary, said in a phone interview.
Those calling for the preservation of the area also found vocal allies in Comptroller Bill Thompson and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who published an op-ed in The New York Times in May 2008 calling for the preservation of the area.
“Ridgewood Reservoir offers visitors a rare chance to lose themselves in a forest, to hear bird song, to touch wilderness and to sense the divine,” they wrote. “The city shouldn’t let that slip away.”
When the project was first proposed in 2004, the parks department held a series of public meetings with the community, Jett said. Those who attended felt the department wasn’t really listening to their ideas: primarily, to leave the reservoir mostly untouched and refurbish the recreation areas at Highland Park.
There’s not a lot of trust between the agencies involved and the public because many decisions are made behind closed doors, Geoffrey Croft, NYC Park Advocates president, said in a phone interview.
“It’s not the way these projects are supposed to work,” Croft said.
The current incarnation of the plan is the result of four listening sessions held with the public, according to Patricia Bertuccio, a press officer with the parks department. Since that time, designers and contractors have been working on three conceptual designs for the first phase of the project. The broad concepts will go through several phases of review before construction.
Despite the public meetings for the downsized project, Jett and others said they feel the department is once again not listening to residents’ concerns. Specifically, he said, community boards don’t like plans for new lighting. Also there are no plans for the installation of exercise stations or park benches along the existing track that runs around the reservoir, as residents had requested.
The department has worked “very diligently” with the community, citing meetings during which members of the community could speak directly with project designers, Bertuccio said in a phone interview.
“We think we’ve been doing a great job working with the community and we’ve gotten some positive feedback from them,” she said.
