Fallen Angels

 The images of angels and cemeteries have long been linked. Ornaments of guardian or mourning angels often adorn the gravesites of beloved family members. In fact, the website of the Cemetery Operations division of PARD used this elegant image of angel, at least up through June 2, 2023, to illustrate it's link to the Cemetery Master Plan (this link has been removed, now renamed "Cemetery Vision Plan" and tucked under "Related Links" near the bottom of the page; considering the last update to the "Vision" site was November 8, 2022, it is fair to conclude that the Master Plan, which cost Austin Taxpayers almost a quarter of a million dollars, is effectively defunct).

However, while angels may be welcomed on the Cemetery Operations website, they are being banished from the cemeteries themselves. These angels were earlier pictured on this blog; the pictures, taken January 21, 2022, show these sculptures, as well as urns, planters, benches, and other grave ornamentation that PARD had ripped off of gravesites at Austin Memorial Park and had shoved behind mounds of waste in a work yard. 

By November 17, 2023, the angels and other ornaments, after sitting undisturbed for months, had simultaneously disappeared, but another pair of heavenly hosts were banished by PARD behind the same waste pile. Again, they sat there for many weeks, but when I visited on March 10, 2024, they two were gone. 

But what was their ultimate fate? When I questioned a PARD employee, I was told that "maybe" they had been reclaimed by the families who had once lovingly placed them in AMP. "Maybe" is the operative word, as PARD had admitted in response to a January 22, 2023, Public Information Request to PARD (reference number C166480-012223) that it maintains absolutely no records regarding the removal or disposal of any grave ornamentation. According to PARD, there is not a single document, memo, letter, note, notice, or photograph regarding the removal of any item of grave decoration or ornamentation at AMP. There is nothing documenting when and from where a item was removed, who authorized the removal, whether there was any consideration given to the historic or other value of the item, the reasons for the removal, any notice provided to the plot owner or stakeholder regarding the removal, whether the item was stored, and the final disposition of the item. There is no way to ascertain whether these angels were reclaimed, destroyed and discarded, sold, taken by a PARD employee or other person for their personal use, or perhaps even stolen. There is wrong on so many levels:

• these angels were placed on gravesites by families in mourning to commemorate their loved ones. Removing them desecrates the gravesites and dishonors those families; 
• AMP has been designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery by the Texas Historical Commission and is the final resting place for many notable Texans. It is an important part of Austin's and the state's history. Yet, PARD continues to tear out and discard artifacts throughout AMP, as well as other Austin cemeteries. regardless of how long those items have been in place or their historic significance; 
•  PARD is a city agency; under both state and local law it is required to be open and transparent with the public and all its procedures and actions should be carefully documented;
• These angels and other gravesite ornamentation are the property of the families that placed those items there. Under the takings clause of both the federal and Texas constitutions, a government agency cannot take private property without just compensation;
• these items were not only costly when first purchased, on the antiques market, these large elaborate sculptures can sell for many hundreds of dollars; and
• there is no valid reason for the wholesale removal and discarding of such gravesite ornamentation. Although PARD has claimed that removal of grave ornamentation is necessary because  mowers running over objects left on gravesites can cause injury to employees or citizens and potential buyers have expressed distaste for the "unsightly look" of city cemeteries and purchased lots elsewhere, resulting in lost revenue, it has no documentation backing up these assertions. The real reason behind PARD's obsession with stripping the cemetery grounds, as admitted by PARD personnel, is that they want be able to drive through the cemetery unimpeded on large riding lawnmowers and other heavy equipment, even though this results in deep ruts and tire tracks defacing graves throughout the cemeteries (in fact, the Master Plan commissioned by PARD describes damage done to markers and monuments by riding lawnmowers and recommends that PARD avoid using riding mowers and metal core trimmers within twelve inches of markers and plot enclosures). So in other words, PARD is removing and disposing of hundreds of grave ornaments with significant sentimental, historic, and monetary value simply because it is too much trouble to drive heavy equipment around them.

I admit that I have let this blog slide for a while. After over a decade fighting with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) to prevent them from destroying my parents' and niece's gravesites at Austin Memorial Park (AMP), I was exhausted and dispirited. But recently I have been contacted by other people who have seen their loved ones' final resting places desecrated by PARD and I realized that it is important to keep up the fight to save Austin's historic cemeteries from PARD's continuing horrendous neglect and mismanagement of these cemeteries.