Pitch Black Mourning: Pulse Mourners Who Show Up at Night Must Mourn in the Dark

This is a screen grab from a video I shot at the Pulse site on July 12. The rest of the screen grabs below are from that same video. 


By Mark Baratelli
Writer

UPDATE 5:32pm: Commissioner Sheehan emailed me saying she has put her team on seeing if they're able to get lighting for the site.

People are visiting the Pulse tragedy site in Downtown South in the evening. Did you know this? They are coming to the former club and mourning. But they're forced to do it in the dark because there's no lighting for them.

They're walking slowly around the displays, looking at object others have placed there, taking pictures and mourning in the dark.

How does that make our city look? "We will let you put your memorials on the fence and we will let you walk during the day. At night? You can walk. You'll just be in the dark."

To be fair, there is a bit of ambient light coming from street lights across the street on the property of a Wendys. It's not a dangerous dark. But if you get out of your car and walk at the memorial wall, it's dark.

It's disrespectfully dark.

Locals who waited for months to visit on their own. Tourists who take a break from their vacation to pay respects. It's a sacred site.

And it's our city's only site.

The one at the hospital was taken away from us once month after the tragedy by the hospital. They're going to replace it with some bricks on the ground that you can walk on.

The other one at the Dr Phillips Center for the Performing arts was taken away from us around the same time.

All the wooden crosses and memorabilia are now hidden in the History Center's off-site storage facility. We ask them if they had plans to at least display the 49 wooden crosses as a group.

They don't have immediate plans to do so.

I asked Commissioner Patty Sheehan for help with lighting the site 4 days ago. She responded today that the City isn't allowed to light public property:
"I had our staff check the lighting. All of the street lights are fine, that is what the city maintains. Any other lighting would need to me on the Pulse site, which is private property. We can't provide lighting for private property owners."
I responded with a possible solution and some additional thoughts: 
"You can place city-owned mobile lighting onto the right-of-way that points onto the private property. I feel the city should provide lighting for the mourners regardless of who owns the land. This is an international event and people from all over the world are coming to see this property. To not provide lighting, to make mourners walk in the dark, makes our city look like we don't care about the mourners."
Frank Billingsly responded:
"Mark. I have reached out to OUC"
I just think we as a City have done our mourners a great disservice. We have to show respect to those who choose to mourn when they choose to mourn, day or night. We do not have to take important sites away because a hospital has to get back to work and a theatre has to show some touring musicals.

And we don't have to make people mourn in the dark.