Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy and Mary M. Wallinger, the designer of Gateway-Liberty Plaza, have created an unnecessary and prolonged controversy over Schenectady’s beloved Statue of Liberty Replica, which sits in storage rather than being returned (as promised) to Liberty Park, more than a year after the completion of the Park’s reconstruction project. In contrast, a group of immigrants in Amsterdam NY have used resilience and perseverance to show their “admiration and support” for a damaged Lady Liberty statue and all she represents. Despite a sometimes rocky relationship with the City of Amsterdam, the Chinese Buddhist World Peace and Health Organization commissioned and installed a beautiful replacement for the damaged Liberty statue, in a lot located across from two of their key properties, on the 200 block of East Main Street in Amsterdam. The unveiling ceremony for the new Statue of Liberty was held on May 22, 2018, with the general public invited to the festivities.
I only recently learned about Amsterdam’s new Lady Liberty, and I finally got to visit Her and have a photo shoot a few days ago (Thursday, July 25, 2019).
The Amsterdam Lady Liberty Statue is located in “Health, Peace and Friendship Square”, between Swan and Kline Streets, across from 262 E. Main Street and the former St. Casimir’s Church, now known as Five World Buddhas Temple. It is 16 miles up Rt. 5 from the 67-year home of Schenectady’s Lady Liberty, at Liberty/Gateway Park. Mayor Gary McCarthy and Chairman Wallinger exiled our Lady from Her park with the “explanation” that our Timeless Lady is not contemporary enough to fit in the revamped version of Liberty Park.
. . here’s an annotated version of the block from Google Maps . .
The following slideshow contains my favorite shots from this week’s Amsterdam photoshoot.
- You can see more images of Amsterdam’s Buddhist community and their Lady Liberty at Jerry Skrocki’s The Grove Street Photographer photo-blog. For example, check out “Buddha’s Birthday 2019“.
- Share this post with this short URL: https://tinyurl.com/AmsterdamLiberty
- P.S. I found a nice explanation at Merriam-Webster for those who are not sure of the difference between an immigrant and an emigrant or emigré. It should be no surprise whose imagine accompanied the article.
snowmen at the gates 