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El Piraguero #1
Finally, the monument to William Mercado, at William Mercado Plaza on Jersey & Newark has been unveiled. The unveiling took place on Thursday apparently. Mercado was a neighborhood snow cone man who died a victim of violent crime. Anything I could say would be copped from this excellent piece on the man. The renovation of this corner happened to take place during the first year of the “blog project,” and it happens to be a corner I encounter during the course of most my days. I blogged about it before. As some “news” sources have reported, they replanted the trees that were removed. The veracity of this statement depends on how generously you define the word trees. Personally, I would rather the original trees were retained, not replaced by shrubbery and a dirt garden. But, so what, you know. The benches are nice and I find this monument profoundly touching. It is a stately memorial and resembles similar monuments to politicians or military leaders, and then you read it and see that the warm visage is of a working guy, a neighborhood guy, a guy who sold flavored ice by pushcart, there’s a poignancy you can’t escape. It’s endearing this city commemorates and in spite of all the corruption, all the new money, the new influx and displacements of populations, we can all recognize that this is something very New Jersey. It may not be peculiar to our state but we seem to do it better – remembering our “Local Heroes” – our friends & neighbors. Downtown may be getting less working class and less Latin. Change is inevitable. But what doesn’t change is that some of the human race lives in cities and we need corners where we can pause and linger and reflect, or more likely merely briefly relax. Some place more pleasant than other places to just pass through on our way home. Instead of a war memorial –we have enough of those – we get to think about el piraguero #1. It’s the rare monument that induces a smile.
Finally, the monument to William Mercado, at William Mercado Plaza on Jersey & Newark has been unveiled. The unveiling took place on Thursday apparently. Mercado was a neighborhood snow cone man who died a victim of violent crime. Anything I could say would be copped from this excellent piece on the man. The renovation of this corner happened to take place during the first year of the “blog project,” and it happens to be a corner I encounter during the course of most my days. I blogged about it before. As some “news” sources have reported, they replanted the trees that were removed. The veracity of this statement depends on how generously you define the word trees. Personally, I would rather the original trees were retained, not replaced by shrubbery and a dirt garden. But, so what, you know. The benches are nice and I find this monument profoundly touching. It is a stately memorial and resembles similar monuments to politicians or military leaders, and then you read it and see that the warm visage is of a working guy, a neighborhood guy, a guy who sold flavored ice by pushcart, there’s a poignancy you can’t escape. It’s endearing this city commemorates and in spite of all the corruption, all the new money, the new influx and displacements of populations, we can all recognize that this is something very New Jersey. It may not be peculiar to our state but we seem to do it better – remembering our “Local Heroes” – our friends & neighbors. Downtown may be getting less working class and less Latin. Change is inevitable. But what doesn’t change is that some of the human race lives in cities and we need corners where we can pause and linger and reflect, or more likely merely briefly relax. Some place more pleasant than other places to just pass through on our way home. Instead of a war memorial –we have enough of those – we get to think about el piraguero #1. It’s the rare monument that induces a smile.
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