Politics
Scrap Metal Thieves Steal Plaques From Historic Cemeteries
On the Lower East Side, plaques celebrating famous Americans were stolen in broad daylight.
Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll find out about a rash of thefts of metal plaques on the Lower East Side and in Greenwich Village. We’ll also get details on an audit that said the city failed to stop overspending on hotels where migrants were housed under a big no-bid contract.
Credit…Aaron S Cheung for The New York Times
The heist took 13 minutes 58 seconds, from the moment the man in the gray T-shirt appeared to the moment when he walked away, having slipped the loot into a backpack he slung over his shoulder.
The haul was a 15-inch-wide metal plaque from the iron gate of a cemetery on the Lower East Side. Andrew Berman — the executive director of Village Preservation, an architectural preservation group that focuses on the East Village, Greenwich Village and NoHo — said it was the latest theft of a plaque in the area, apparently because scrap metal is in demand.
At least two commemorative plaques placed by Berman’s group have disappeared. One celebrated the writer Anaïs Nin. The other, installed with a grant from a foundation started by the Two Boots pizza chain, recognized Fillmore East, the “church of rock ‘n‘ roll” where the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin performed.
Yet another plaque, honoring Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to graduate from an American medical school, was damaged last month, Berman said. The website evgrieve.com has reported on the disappearance of others.
