Yonkers, NY - Parking Lot Shared by Costco and Home Depot Build on Jewish Cemetery, A Year Later There Is Still No Memorial

Yonkers, NY - More than a year ago a developer in Yonkers agreed to build a memorial on the site of a former Orthodox Jewish cemetery that was to be moved to make way for the city's Austin Avenue retail project, for the remains of more than 100 graves on the site.

The deal came after a settlement with state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who in 2004 alleged that the development company may have defied a 1989 state Supreme Court order requiring it to relocate "all" remains from the half-acre cemetery before building the shopping center. The project off the state Thruway now houses Costco, The Home Depot and a Stew Leonard's supermarket.

Now Spitzer is asking for a court intervention to enforce the settlement.

The developer Morris, agreed to build the memorial in January 2005 after the two sides had argued in court over the disputed graves of 135 children, when it was discovered that the remains of only 12 or 13 identified children had been moved, while more than 100 graves for children were marked on the cemetery map.

In the settlement, Morris agreed to pay $100,000 to the Attorney General's Office for the memorial, which would commemorate the approximately 94 adults and 147 children who were buried there.
Morris submitted memorial plans that would place a monument near the rear of the parking lot. But Spitzer spokesman said that was an unacceptable location because the area is near a busy loading dock and Dumpster where trucks and garbage are situated.