As a wag from The Irish Echo wrote in an article entitled "Feast Precedes Famine Tribute" (Feb. 16, 2011), "Pataki admitted to a road-to-Damascus-like experience while visiting his mother's family home in County Louth. 'Why not a Great Hunger memorial in Manhattan?' he thought while sitting on a stone wall."

The Irish Times was somewhat more respectful in an article entitled "A Field in New York That is Forever Ireland," published on July 20, 2002, four days after the finished Irish Hunger Memorial was unveiled. The article stated that "The memorial was very much the brainchild of the state's half-Irish Governor George Pataki. Indeed, he claimed on Tuesday the memorial idea had come to him on holiday on his mother's family farm in Louth with the Battery Park City Authority's CEO, Tim Carey. The two men pushed through its $5 million funding, and his association with the project will certainly do Pataki no harm in the Irish community in the November elections, despite his (American) Republican colours."

On March 15, 2001, Gov. Pataki and Mary McAleese, President of the Republic of Ireland, had broken ground for the memorial on a half-acre site. The plan was to have the memorial finished by St. Patrick's Day of 2002, but the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center intervened.

President McAleese was with Gov. Pataki again for the dedication, which was a splendid affair. On July 15, 2002, the evening before the public opening of the memorial, the governor hosted a party at the Embassy Suites Hotel (now called the Conrad Hotel) where, as Mayo Ireland reported ("Irish Hunger Memorial Celebration Dinner"), the guests included foreign ministers, church and government leaders "such as Michael Bloomberg, Rudolph Giuliani and Ed Koch, and literally hundreds of Irish and Irish-American notables. The Governor's mother, Margaret, was also present for the occasion."

On July 16, the actual day of the dedication, Mayo Ireland described a day "blessed with glorious sunshine....Before the official unveiling there was a special mass celebrated at 10 a.m. in the Embassy Suites Hotel...After the mass, the 69th Regiment provided an honour guard leading the dignitaries to their places for the official dedication...The official dedication ceremony was followed by a spectacular celebration of music, arts and culture by more than 100 leading musicians, actors and dancers from the United States and Ireland."

Unfortunately, as I reported in Downtown Post NYC, by April 2003, the memorial had to be closed for repairs. "The materials holding the structure together were literally washing away because of poor drainage," I wrote. "A composite material used for the pathway became slippery when wet. The BPCA spent $250,000 to fix these problems."

But that was not the end of the construction and drainage problems. Irish Central reported on Dec. 9, 2015, "The Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City in New York is in complete disrepair and will cost $5.3 million to rehabilitate, according to the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA). That is more than it cost to build, which was $5 million."

The BPCA board of directors meeting on Dec. 4, 2015 where this issue was discussed was reported as "acrimonious."

The Irish Central article continued, "Hearing the new price tag, new board member Hector Batista asked, 'why do we have to do this? Why can't there be something else there?'"

BPCA Chairman Dennis Mehiel replied that the board had considered doing away with the memorial — an idea that was rejected — moving it in order to "reclaim that piece of grass" on "which additional commercial or residential space" could be built — an idea that was also rejected because there was nowhere else to put it — or perhaps selling air rights to recoup some of the money that was being invested in the memorial."

Except for the expenditure of $5.3 million, none of this came to pass.

Now, more than 20 years after the groundbreaking for the Irish Hunger Memorial, it has grown roots in Battery Park City. Many people visit it and admire it. And it continues to bear a message about the cruelty of hunger. "The monument is an outward call to conscience and to responsibility," President Mary McAleese had said at the dedication, "daring us, challenging us to care about the stranger in far off lands who is dying right now of hunger, who is wondering does anyone care and who despairs for his or her children and their future."

Downtown Post NYC's website (www.DowntownPostNYC.com) is updated daily. That's the place to check for urgent messages, breaking news and reminders of interesting events in and around Lower Manhattan. So be sure to look at the website every day, especially if you want to know about breaking news.

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At a grueling, five-hour-long meeting on July 7, George Tsunis, Chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, met with members of Community Board 1's Battery Park City Committee to discuss a proposed Essential Workers Monument.

Most of the members of the Battery Park City Committee were outraged as were most of the members of the public who spoke during the meeting.

On June 25, via a local news outlet, they had heard for the first time that New York State was about to break ground on a "huge monument" for the "Rockefeller Park lawn." The monument had been commissioned by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to honor the hundreds of thousands of essential workers who had put their own lives on the line and the lives of their families so that everyone else who lives and/or works in New York State could be safe and cared for during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tsunis correctly observed that "facts are relevant in this process" and that "where there is a vacuum of information, people come to conclusions that are not accurate."

Judging by the comments and by a preliminary version of a resolution drawn up by the Battery Park City Committee, there was inaccurate information in abundance. The resolution condemned the placement of the monument, the design of the monument, the fact that it was going to be in Battery Park City at all and the "secretive" process by which the monument was said to have been designed and sited.

"I have three obligations here," Tsunis said. "The first is that we have a process so that people feel they are heard and respected. The second is to make sure that there's a lot better communication going forward. The third is that residents have a priority here BUT we also have an obligation to honor our essential workers who sacrificed so much."

One of the Battery Park City Committee's biggest complaints was that no one from Community Board 1 had a seat at the table while the Essential Workers Monument was being designed and sited by the heads of 23 labor unions. In fact, the Committee claimed ignorance that anything of the sort was happening.

"In January at the Battery Park City Authority board meeting, the chairman had announced in open session that we were in the preliminary stages of planning an Essential Workers Monument in Battery Park City in Rockefeller Park," said Nicholas Sbordone, Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the BPCA. Sbordone mentioned that Gov. Cuomo announced at that time that there would be an Essential Workers Advisory Committee.

"Which we were not invited to!" said Justine Cuccia, chair of CB1's Battery Park Committee.

The committee complained in a draft resolution that the advisory committee had "never held a single public meeting and never solicited input from residents, CB1 or elected officials."

Bob Schneck, a Community Board 1 member, replied to this comment by saying, "I've been involved with several monuments of various types and they were always done with people who weren't like [those] in the Community Board. I've never really seen anything quite like that. So we're making a demand that's really not the norm and I don't think it really was tried to be behind closed doors."

There was a misapprehension on the part of Community Board 1 and indeed on the part of some elected officials that Gov. Cuomo had been high-handed in proceeding with this monument without public input. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said, for instance, "We have a process — if you want to change anything about public land you have to go through land review. This situation has no consultation and no procedure."

That would be true of New York City-owned property but does not apply to property controlled by New York State. Battery Park City is a State-owned entity. What happened vis-a-vis the commission, design and siting of the Irish Hunger Memorial is a case in point. Gov. Pataki could do anything he wanted in this regard — and he did. Gov. Cuomo was also free to proceed without community input.

Another frequently heard complaint from the committee and the public was that there are already too many monuments in Battery Park City.

"The Battery Park City community is already overburdened with more monuments and memorials than any other in the City of New York or the State of New York including the Irish Hunger Memorial, the Police Memorial, the Mother Cabrini Memorial and the Hurricane Maria Memorial — a situation lately made worse by Governor Cuomo's recent spree of memorial building which has resulted in 'monument fatigue,'" a draft resolution complained until more slightly more temperate language was advised, although still with the same sentiments.

This accusation is now at least 20 years old. An article in The New York Times, "Memorial to the Hunger, Complete with Old Sod," dated March 15, 2001, wrestled with the question "Is this 92-acre landfill [meaning Battery Park City] turning into a necropolis? That article continued, "It's far from becoming a mausoleum," said James E. Gill, chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, which commissioned the [Irish Hunger Memorial] and will pick up its $4.7 million cost. Battery Park City is or will be home as well to the Skyscraper Museum, the Museum of Women, 30 acres of parks, two schools and more than a dozen large artworks, among large office towers and apartment buildings." (Editor's note: The cost grew to $5 million before the Irish Hunger Memorial was unveiled and the Museum of Women was never built. Also, BPC has 36 acres of parks and gardens, not 30 acres.)

George Tsunis conveyed an offer to CB1's Battery Park City Committee that the Essential Workers Monument be built either on what is now the volleyball court just south of North Cove Marina or on a strip of land between the Irish Hunger Memorial and 300 Vesey St.

The Committee considered neither of these alternatives to be satisfactory.

After approximately four-and-a-half hours, George Tsunis took his leave, shaking everyone's hand before he walked out the door. The Committee stayed on for another 45 minutes or so to draft a resolution to be presented to Community Board 1's full-board meeting on July 27, 2021.

In the meantime, on Friday afternoon (July 9) the Battery Park City Authority issued this statement from Tsunis:

As planned, this week — and as recently as Wednesday night — the Governor’s office and Battery Park City Authority have continued to hear from the community, take in feedback, and make changes based on that feedback regarding the new essential worker monument scheduled for completion later this year. After many long and productive conversations, we are still so excited to celebrate and memorialize the essential workers here in Battery Park City. We look forward to sharing the updated plans for the monument.”

And this afternoon (July 12) at 4:30 p.m. there will be a rally at the Irish Hunger Memorial opposing the Essential Workers Monument plans. It will be led by U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler. If it doesn't rain.

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On July 9, a Hasidic man wearing traditional Jewish garb was attacked in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn by "an unknown assailant" according to a New York Police Department report. The report said that the attacker "made anti-Jewish statements and assaulted the man in broad daylight, in front of at least one witness." New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attack "anti-Semitism, plain and simple. It's abhorrent and unacceptable, and these hateful attacks have absolutely no place in New York." He called for the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to offer assistance in the ongoing investigation.

This was the second time in recent months that Cuomo has publicly asked State Police to work on an anti-Semitism-related issue. In late May, he directed that security be reinforced at Jewish institutions throughout New York City following a number of violent incidents targeting Jews.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust at 36 Battery Place is among those institutions. Since the museum opened in 1997, its mission has included raising awareness of how anti-Semitism has played out in the past and how to recognize it and defuse it.

For the next month, the Museum of Jewish Heritage will be showing films related to Jewish life and culture and in some instances to the Holocaust. The series includes popular films that are high in entertainment value such as "Dirty Dancing," "The Sound of Music" and "Cabaret" as well as lesser known films.

The films are being screened in the museum's newly renovated Edmond J. Safra Hall. Tickets are $5 for museum members and $10 for non-members. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.