New York will erect a monument to pay tribute to essential workers of the pandemic in the southern tip of Manhattan, overlooking the Statue of Liberty, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.
“While we can never fully pay our debt to essential workers, we can honor and celebrate them with this memorial that will forever stand as a tribute to all they have done for New York in our greatest time of need,” Cuomo said.
The memorial will be unveiled across the Hudson River in Battery Park on September 6.
It will consist of a small circular park, with benches to sit down to rest, within the large space of Battery Park. It will be christened “Circle of Heroes”.
In the center it will have an eternal flame and around the circle, 19 red maples that symbolize the essential workers who kept New York alive in the pandemic: nurses, doctors, health personnel, transportation employees, police, rescuers and paramedics, firefighters, jail guards, commercial employees, the National Guard, government employees, building workers, public services and communications workers, delivery men, teachers, garbage men and cleaners, hotel and food industry workers.
Many essential workers died during the pandemic, including about 150 from the MTA public transportation network that runs the subway and buses, as well as food delivery drivers and medical personnel.
New York City is also planning a grand parade on July 7 in honor of essential workers.
Following New York tradition, the parade will take place at the south end of Broadway in Manhattan, a place also called the Canyon of Heroes.
New York, a state of more than 20 million people, was the national epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, registering more than 43,000 deaths since March 2020, including more than 33,000 of them in the Big Apple.
A week ago, with more than 70% of adults in the state vaccinated against the virus with at least one dose, Cuomo lifted the latest restrictions imposed to slow the advance of covid-19.
lbc/dga
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