New York City to unveil memorial to AIDS victims

World Today

Thirty-five years after the start of the epidemic, New York City will unveil its first memorial to the 100,000 people who died from AIDS in the city.

The six year project cost more than $6 million.

CCTV’s Nick Harper reports.

The memorial has been built on what is considered to be Ground Zero of New York’s AIDS epidemic – a symbolic epicenter.

Across the way is the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, what was the east coast’s first and largest AIDS ward, where many with the virus spent their final days.

Developers are now turning St. Vincent’s into luxury apartments – a move that spurred on the idea of needing a memorial.

The hospital itself is now gone. But the memorial stands in its shadow in one of New York’s public parks. And the architects hope that because it’s open to the public it’ll give people an opportunity to interact with the memorial and to remember.

And while acknowledging the past, they also want the memorial to serve as a reminder of a fight not yet won.