How this New York island became a mass grave
And why Hart Island is changing after the coronavirus pandemic.
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Hart Island, a small piece of land off the Bronx in New York City, resurfaced in national headlines in April 2020, when New York City was the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic. News footage of the island’s cemetery showed trenches being filled with pine coffins, and sent shockwaves around the world. But these mass burials taking place during the pandemic are just the most recent in Hart Island’s long history.
Hart Island’s “potter’s field” cemetery dates back to 1869, and for over 150 years has served as a burial ground for over 1 million New Yorkers. Over the years, infrastructure problems and a lack of reliable public access have earned Hart Island a tainted reputation.
A 2021 analysis by Columbia Journalism School’s Stabile Center and THE CITY found that over 2,300 New Yorkers were buried on Hart Island in 2020. That’s more burials than any year during the AIDS epidemic, another recent health crisis. They also found that New York City is on pace to bury one in 1 in 10 Covid-19 victims on the island. The analysis of these burials shows who is more likely to be buried on Hart Island: Black and Latino residents, frontline workers, and those who have little access to health care.
To understand how this ties together and what’s next for Hart Island, watch the video above.
This story was produced in collaboration with THE CITY and Columbia Journalism School’s Stabile Center of Investigative Journalism, as part of “MISSING THEM,” THE CITY’s ongoing collaborative project to remember every New Yorker killed by COVID-19.
“MISSING THEM’s” memorial and form: projects.thecity.nyc/covid-19-deaths/
Sources and additional reading:
THE CITY: www.thecity.nyc/missing-them/2021/3/24/22349311/nyc-covid-victims-destined-for-hart-island-potters-field
THE CITY: www.thecity.nyc/2020/12/11/22170479/hart-island-covid-memorial-new-york-city-potters-field
The Hart Island Project: www.hartisland.net/
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What should a memorial for Covid-19 victims look like? This feature from Vox's The Highlight explores the role of memorials in processing our collective grief: bit.ly/3uv45yN
Adin P that would be beautiful! I’ve researched this island many times, maybe something like that would change the presents at night time.
New subscriber here. Time machine 2002 brought me here. Wow! Put your seatbelt on and takeoff your blinders folks. The fences are down, you don’t need to use the gate anymore.
name it Cuomo Boulevard ?
@ArtisticAlexismaybe the next pandemic...it is what it is..
@yuch1102 because of NYC's weird laws there are only 2 crematoriums in the whole city.
I think the women talking should stop whispering
What if we had narrators that don't have speech impediments
"CREMATION" is "EVIL"... but hey... let stock a lot of dead decaying bodies in caskets in one single place... Not judging the Christian background in the culture but... BOYS... you guys are really inefficient with this kind of problems...
This was so sad.
Horror movie.....in the making
Poignant.
Minute 0:44 what in Gods name is that creature?
When you going to do a video on genocide in china
the saddest part in life is sometimes when dying alone, and nobody remembers you anymore.
Sadly vice isn’t very interesting anymore. The most predictable channel on the internet.
i can't get past the fact that you pronounce buried weird. Sorry.
I lived in Manhattan and still had never heard of Hart Island. Are we sure it's on maps?
it’s there look it up on google earth, great app ! or maps
why is this video in ebonics?
The person who voices this is really suited to her role!
no
The living riddle arespectively answer because value especially flow apud a wary beach. worried, smart idea
Because Cuomo threw everyone into nursing homes to hide his failure and to blame it all on Trump. o:)
I lived in NYC my whole life and have literally never of this island before. Very informative Vox
I am a Korean herb farm. I learn a lot from watching videos. I wish you good farming and good health and happiness. 영상잘보고갑니다. 유투브도 승승장구하시길 응원합니다
Just cremate the bodies
It’s not that simple. In the U.S., it’s assumed by law the person wanted to be buried, unless stated otherwise on record. Many of these people either didn’t write anything, and even if they did, in this specific case, it would be hard to trace to them. Basically, bureaucracy doesn’t allow that.
New Study: World Ranking of Corona Deaths Ratios v. World Ranking of LIFE EXPECTANCY, PART B. Copyright, Benjamin Gal-Or and David Galor. A. 3.47-9.11 in World Ranking of Corona Deaths Ratios are at 75-146 in WORLD RANKING of LIFE EXPECTANCY MXC 9.11[75] SDN 6.85[146] SYR 6.80[109] BLV 4.43[117] GTM 3.47[86] B. 1.25-2.21 in World Ranking of Corona Deaths Ratios are at 3-15 in WORLD RANKING of LIFE EXPECTANCY CND 2.21[14] FR 1.98[12] SWS 1.69[3]83.6 SWD 1.59[11] NL 1.25[15] C. 0.05-0.75 in World Ranking of Corona Deaths Ratios are at 4-14 in WORLD RANKING of LIFE EXPECTANCY SNGP 0.05[4] ICL 0.46[8] NRW 0.66[14] ISR 0.75[9] D. CDR and LE SOURCES: UN, WHO-JHU. Click name for VIDEOS, EDITORIALS, BOOKS, REVIEWS, PHILOSOPHY, AERO-SPACE, PHYSICS, CLIMATE CHANGE. /
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Everybody deserves the best memorial even with or without relatives.
Thats gonna be the best land of oil in a few centuries
More than centuries.
Kevin hart has a island?!
What a beautiful irony. For those lacking heart are sent to hart. Have a heart to hart if you will.
The loud hood immuhistochemically scrape because state isely land anenst a educated colony. willing, redundant cell
I worked for NYS parks for 8 years. Unfortunately not anymore, but if/when they get their hands on that, they will completely transform that place into a beautiful, inviting area.
A hard lesson of what incompetence and ignorance lead to
Man, a cities' police department being one of the causes of a problem a city is facing? I'm absolutely shocked. /s
DOC can't even take care a prison in Brooklyn forget about an island.
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Or you could...you know...cremate them
You’ve got to have Hart!
Cenotaphs are important. Having a place commemorating a human's existence is consoling for those in the future seeking family and friends, even decades and centuries later. My family has chosen cremation and scattering but we have cenotaphs placed on their parents' graves to document their existence.
it is outrageous for me that there aren't any small ceremonies to this burials. This bodies are treated like medical byproducts.
I'm just surprised they aren't just cremated
More like Hartless Island
That woman is disgusting
Which?
To all people saying the island should me renamed. ❤Hart means heart in dutch. So it is already called heart island❤
8:39 they said it!! the only reason why i watch vox
Æ
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“She died in charity hospital probably of infectious disease, which was more common in the 19th century.” A dude just walked by wearing surgical gloves and a gas mask...
WHO CARES YOU'RE DEAD
.
Ayo Hart Island gonna be the new Middle East in the next thousand Years! Oil Baby! LESGOOOOOO
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Where else are the unclaimed dead going to be buried? THEY HAVE NO ONE!! STOP TYPING ! THEY DON'T NEED MEMORIALIZED! I'M NOT GOING TO GRIEVE PEOPLE I DON'T KNOW!
sad and very interesting to learn about. I'm from around Colma, California- that is mostly its 17 cemeteries. but to have such a place for the relatively unknown and alone? thats something else
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I actually learned about Hart Island through Pose strangely enough
Just cremate them.
wouldn't it be cheaper and cleaner for the city to cremate unclaimed bodies and just have a memorial?
A lot of these issues would be solved with cremation instead of burial. Then keep the ashes in a warehouse for, say, 5 years in case a relative or loved one comes to claim it. No more issues about access or skeletons floating into the water or anything else.
Di hari akhir, dibangkitkan, bakal rame itu di satu pulau.
Impostor
@jason wong you?
bruh sus
problem is cops are in charge of it
You know this seems like kinda appropriate for covid
That's a sad situation...... I didn't even know hart island existed.
China virus
Why didn’t they just cremate the unclaimed bodies ?
I can already see so many potential problems with "if they can't contact anyone" Phones aren't a right in this country. Internet access isn't a right in this country.
Shoutout to all of the "forgotten" souls buried here, and Roderick and Anita Perry.
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Always gotta turn into a race thing..
Are you surprised that race has had significant effects on American history?
Such a sad story about Roger. RIP
Isn't this like the perfect trope for a thriller/fantasy/horror story? Waiting for someone to use it...
Wasn't this video released a couple years ago?
These commenters would rather spend $5 on a dead person than $5 on a living person who actually needs it
This is easy to fix to a degree - Found families need to have the same priority as actual families. That's the Christian thing to do, that's the Muslim thing to do, that's the Jewish thing to do, that's the Buddhist thing to do...
Well the normal no-religion thing to do, is to make a memorial statue and make sure none of the bodies ever become unearthed.
Can you make a video on what's going on in Northern Ireland please would be an interesting subject
American mass graves. Its been along time since that’s happened
Watch top5s
My mother is buried here I found her grave after 27 years
So sad hun
I love stories like this so much. That's life at its core, most humane aspect it could be. As the US is escaping the horrors of Covid-19, these stories featuring the dark sides seem off, but still very much relevant to the lives of those amazing but often marginalized people in New York society. Thanks Vox for bringing this to worldwide audience like us. I really appreciate it.
Anita looks like aughra from dark crystal
This is so sickening. Why don’t they just do burial at sea
Why care for the dead when we don't care for the living
Island of Nobodies
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Why don’t they cremate them ?
@Dani Masterson how do you mean ? Burying bodies uses a lot of energy ?
Cremation uses a lot of energy
Why do I feel like New Yorkers have an island for everything. Like they got that one spooky island where they put infected ppl, they got a prison island...not to forget Ellis and Liberty Island. This one is just an addition to the collection at this point.
Ikr , they have islands as if its a collectible
i learned recently that they have an island where they send 1/3 of the cities waste and trash to be burned
Heard about Hart Island in Pose.
‘We need to change the way we bury the dead’
When Your dead it doesn't really matter were your buried lol
i wadctrehherfdn
I just gotta say this: RIP RODRICK & ANYBODY THAT WAS FORGOTTEN ON HART ISLAND. YALL ARE NEVER EVER FORGOTTEN.
Just cremate everybody.
cuomo needs to go, de blasio needs to go. id honestly rather a republican than them.
Heart breaking that they'll only let family members recognized by law claim someone's body. Roderick clearly left paperwork indicating that he saw Anitta as his next of kin, even if he didn't have the knowledge to realize that he should have had her made legally his next of kin. (I don't know if New York inherently has fees for this one. If it does, that's another systemic barrier reinforcing traditional family structures). Something for everyone to think about. Who is your legal next of kin? Do you have one? Would you trust them to make medical decisions while you're unconscious, arrange your funeral, or raise your kids?
this makes me remember how much I preferer cremation than burial at some point we will run out of burial places.
"it was a training ground and prisoner of war camp for the union army." What they mean is: "it was a training ground and a prisoner of war camp for captured confederate soldiers." Union - north. Confederate - south. New York - north.
what are you trying to say here? what does that have to do with anything? you sound like you might be a sore loser
All bodies should be cremated instead of injected with embalming fluid and buried, wasting land.
Waiting for the race claim.... ah there it is...
Are you a conservative because I am.
Rip
i hope one day to be "booried"