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DIG IN: Mayor Michael Bloomberg (2nd R) and Councilwoman Deborah Rose (R) cut Staten Island's birthday cake on the esplanade Tuesday evening. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—Staten Islanders celebrated the 350th anniversary of European settlement of their beloved homeland Tuesday night with singing, dancing, and a big birthday cake.
As a guitarist strummed out Bob Dylan and Rolling Stones tunes, a man in full Native American traditional dress danced, jangling the bells around his ankles with every step. It was a meeting of cultures likely quite different than what passed between the Dutch and Native Americans in 1661.
Nestled between the esplanade along the shore and the Richmond County Bank Ballpark, the celebration had the feel of a country fair—crafts, preserves of all flavors, children dancing or blowing bubbles, and the older folk reminiscing about the good old days.
“I went to school with people from Sandy Ground,” said Suzy Adams as she passed by The Sandy Ground Historical Society booth. Sandy Ground was a community founded on the southern shore of Staten Island by formerly enslaved people in 1828. It served as an important stop on the Underground Railroad.
The loss of the oyster industry due to pollution, and a ravaging brush fire in 1963 decimated the community.
“They were wonderful people,” reminisced Adams. “We used to buy asparagus there, and corn; they grew a bunch of crops. They had goat farms and would sell the milk to hospitals for mothers who couldn't breastfeed. It's all changed there now. It's all big houses,” said Adams.
Some historic buildings remain as well as a museum where people can learn about the once-thriving community.
De facto poet laureate of Staten Island, Marguerite Rivas, pointed out another poignant change. As she stood on the esplanade near the ferry terminal, she pointed to the “omni-present skyline.” Missing are the twin towers, though One World Trade rises ever higher.
Some of Rivas's poems are on display at the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum. The following excerpt captures the aftermath of 9/11 as seen from the island's shore, “Thousands streamed, evacuees over the ferry ramp: a human river of ash, shoeless, and dazed.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would return to the island in a few weeks to visit the Staten Island Sept. 11 Memorial. More than 270 islanders died that day; the scar is marked by a memorial in this particularly hard-hit community.
As Bloomberg prepared to take the stage a marked shift came over the celebration.
The little dancing girls in sundresses were replaced by television cameras and men in suits. The long-haired musician wearing sunglasses and jeans gave a last shout-out to some of his favorite spots in his home-borough: Lee's Tavern, The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, and The Red Spot night club were among them.
The mayor approached the podium and proceeded to list some of the gifts Staten Island has bestowed upon the world.
“Staten Island gave us chewing gum. Staten Island gave us the Wu-Tang Clan,” began Bloomberg. It was also the site of the first tennis game, noted the mayor.
No borough is an island unto itself—unless it's an island
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which links Staten Island to Brooklyn, was the longest suspension bridge when it opened in 1964, though it enjoys that glory no longer. The bridge is so long engineers had to take into account the curvature of the earth when designing it.
As Bloomberg pointed out, nearly 50 years later some people still aren't too happy about the bridge due to the traffic and other environmental impacts.
It changed the face of Staten Island when it opened the connection with Brooklyn, its only point of contact by land with New York City save driving through New Jersey. Residents maintain, however, that the borough still has a country feel to it.
“Everyone knows each other,” commented Bob Coghlan, the president of SI350, which organized Tuesday's celebration. “It still has that country affect,” said his wife, Cathy, as she handed out fliers by the ferry terminal.
Amid all the wonders and joys of Staten Island—St. George's Theater, Richmond Town historical district, the free ferry ride, and unique culture of each neighborhood—Mrs. Coghlan admitted, “We're kind of the forgotten borough when it comes to certain things.”
Next…Cleaning up toxins, getting buses going, making the island a destination
