Neighborhood, Flight 587 familes find peace

BY MERLE ENGLISH

6:02 PM EST, November 4, 2006

'Afterwards I want only peace."

Those five words, from the writings of Pedro Mir, the late poet laureate of the Dominican Republic, stand as a simple yet profound tribute to the victims of Flight 587. The memorial wall to those 260 victims will be unveiled next Sunday in the Rockaways, on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy.

But those words could as easily describe the conflict over where that memorial wall would be placed, a conflict that has engulfed two communities for years.

Families of the 251 passengers aboard the jet that crashed into a Belle Harbor neighborhood -- most of them Washington Heights residents from the Dominican Republic -- wanted the memorial built at the crash site: 131st Street and Newport Avenue.

Some residents of Belle Harbor -- where the crash demolished five homes and killed five people -- were adamantly opposed.

The community didn't think the crash site was appropriate, according to Jonathan Gaska, district manager of Community Board 14.

"It didn't make sense," Gaska said. "The plane crashed in the middle of a residential street." Belle Harbor residents wanted to "move on with their lives," he said.

"Our loved ones died in Belle Harbor," countered Belkis Lora, 39, executive vice president of the Committee in Memory of Flight 587, which represents the Dominican families. "The last minute of their lives was there. That's the reason we wanted the memorial to be in Belle Harbor."

Lora lost her brother, Jose, a lawyer from Santo Domingo who was returning home after attending a birthday party for an infant nephew.

Some attributed the dissension to racism.

John Baxter, a Belle Harbor resident for 33 years who lives four blocks from the crash site, said the memorial should have been built at the site "because that's where their loved ones were lost. ... We are that racist," he said, "and that's a damn shame."

But other Belle Harbor residents disagreed.

"I believe the reason they didn't want it at 131st Street is that it would be very disruptive to residents," Sandi Rose, a singer, said. "It's not racist, not at all, just peace for the residents of that area."

Shelley Ginis, an art therapist who lives at 147th Street and treated children traumatized by the accident, said, "No one in the neighborhood negated the importance of there being a memorial, but not to disrupt the community.

"I think the community has done a good job of trying to be sensitive," said Ginis, a Belle Harbor resident for 53 years. "Something horrible happened there, and nobody is going to ever forget that. But at what point do you sacrifice an entire neighborhood to put something in the center of town?"

Ginis noted that there is a city plaque on the sidewalk marking the crash site. To ease tension on both sides, the mayor's office, several government agencies and elected officials held meetings with the Chamber of Commerce of the Rockaways and representatives of both communities.

A compromise was reached to locate the memorial at the ocean end of Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, 15 blocks from the crash site.

A traffic circle there was reconfigured in an $8.5-million project -- $3 million will be contributed by the city and the rest raised privately -- to accommodate the memorial, which includes a tribute wall with the names of victims, landscaping, seating and lighting.

The Pedro Mir quote will be inscribed on the lintel over a doorway in the tribute wall. The quote will be in English facing the ocean and in Spanish -- Despues no quiero mas que paz -- facing the land.

"This site pleased the community as well as the families," Lora said. And she said the memorial, designed by artist Freddy Rodriguez, a Flushing resident from the Dominican Republic, "reflects the sensibility" that Rodriguez had for the families. "It's hard enough here now," said Rodriguez, explaining the quote. "So when we die we want to rest in peace."