monument to frontline workers

The recent Coronavirus pandemic, an experience entirely new to the global population, is facilitating a ubiquitous exhaustion. Healthy people are tired of staying at home; healthcare workers are working late hours to provide care for the infected; working adults who faced the 2008 financial crisis are tired of worrying about job security; the sick are tired of being bedridden… The list is neverending––groups are feeling the powerlessness rendered to them by the pandemic. In the face of international suffering arise those who keep society running as functionally as possible: essential workers doing mail, food, and medicine delivery among other necessary products. Without these hardworking, invested individuals, the economy would be crippled, more people would suffer from lack of resources, and more people would become infected. Essential workers are shouldering the fate and trust of all of those who rely on them to do necessary day-to-day work that goes along with proper welfare.

I feel that a monument to these workers, who are putting their own wellbeing on the line to aid the public, is essential to processing equity in these times. While delivery service usage has surged overall, many of the people who are able to afford delivery services for necessary and other goods and otherwise are in a relatively stable monetary condition compared to the majority of people who have lost their jobs or fear using extra money on delivery. The monument will serve to allow people who are privileged enough to order delivery to recognize their place in society and appreciate the essential workers who may not be in as secure of a position.

Being that public space is not being heavily used right now a monument may be hard to access. The monument should be in an area that essential workers would be able to see and appreciate it while engaging in their daily service. I believe that Riverside Park at W 106th St and Riverside Drive would be an appropriate location for the monument to reside. This location is right beside the Henry Hudson Parkway, which is a common route used to get in and out of the city, and is also in an wealthy area where people are able to afford delivery as their main method of procuring goods during the quarantine. The monument would ideally reside between the street and the park in an area where drivers coming into these affluent areas to delivery and local, wealthy residents who are at the park or can see it from their windows can visually access the monument. This creates visibility and promotes peoples’ appreciation of essential workers while also serving as a piece for self-recognition and appreciation for the essential workers that see it when they drive by.

Such a monument would take the shape of a 4 ft tall, 4 ft wide, 6 ft long rectangular cardboard box made of bronze, one of the most common receptacles for our beloved deliveries. The bronze will allow the monument to be a long-lasting piece with some similarity in color, also designed to resemble the texture of cardboard. Open at the top with the four sides of the box hanging open, one will be able to see some items peeking out and take a further look inside of the monument to discover more common items that people are having delivered in these times. Depending on the community’s input, the monument may depict fruits, vegetables, toilet paper, and disinfecting spray, all necessary items that are hard to acquire during the pandemic, made of painted bronze to reflect the physicality of each object.

The more realistic the monument can be, the greater capacity it has to be emotionally affective. Being that it would be placed within a specific community, it would be equally important to engage the essential workers making the deliveries as it would the community around Riverside Park in the decision-making process concerning the monument. Input on location would be valuable from both groups as delivery drivers can say themselves whether they drive through the area by Riverside Park more or less than other common delivery routes in affluent NYC neighborhoods. Local families, as well, would have insight as to where they believe the monument would be seen by the most people in terms of the specific location of the park. Both groups would be surveyed through an online form sent out by the NYC Parks & Recreation Department as a means of collecting such information with options to approve of deny the proposed location and a suggestion box to move the monument, if deemed necessary.

Another valuable aspect of community decision-making is what will be depicted inside of the box. Only the local community will know what they are ordering: another survey would be sent out by the Parks & Recreation Department to assess what people are getting delivered to their homes most frequently. With this data, the monument would be able to better depict the realistic conditions of the local community and how the locals’ actions current realities are made possible.

Since it would be located next to a children’s playground area, I feel that curious children would be among some of the first to investigate the monument, given the enticing factor of goods emerging from the box. Public interaction is therefore extended to the family members accompanying the children, who will be critically and analytically engaged as they attempt to explain the monument to the child. Other adults passing through the park will also likely recognize the monument’s presence due to its size, its concern with recent events, and distinction from other monuments throughout NYC. Essential workers may only pass by it for a few seconds as they drive by in a car or may be able to stop and analyze the monument if they are on their feet in the neighborhood. In the case that they are able to remain present with the monument to them for some amount of time, they would likely be curious to see what the local community has decided to represent inside of the box, especially since their work often leaves them curious about the content of delivery itself. After engaging with the monument, essential workers would hopefully feel supported, appreciated, and empowered in their work.