You are going to die. Of the more than 8 million people now alive in New York City, all will be dead, eventually. That’s a lot of bodies:  44 million feet of cadaver when laid end to end, assuming average height. And in New York City, where space is always at a premium, there’s not enough earth to grant them all eternal rest.

Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn has interred almost 600,000 bodies in its 171 years of operation.  As its graves have filled, it has followed one of the tenets of good planning, build up, and developed large community mausoleums, which it markets on its website as “a choice once reserved for the wealthy, is now available to our families at prices comparable to that for in-ground burial.”

The price for in-ground burial has gone up, too.  A single, non-premium grave at Green-Wood now lists at $11,000.  The miscellaneous charges for burial, the foundation for the stone, having the funeral after 4 p.m. or on a Saturday will add an extra $2500 or so.  Gravestones, which the cemetery does not supply, cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the size and intricacy of the marker.

Richard Fishman, the director of the New York State Department of Cemeteries, said that the prices reflected more than supply and demand.  The cemeteries are heavily regulated non-profits and have to charge more as their capacity shrinks in order to keep themselves financially solvent in perpetuity.

“It costs $5 million a year to keep Green-Wood going as it does,” Fishman said.  “And it’s not as though those being served with that money can be charged.”

No, indeed.  So those now dying have to pay more for the upkeep of those who died before, just as those to die in the future will pay a premium for the upkeep of those now paying.  The similarities to a pyramid scheme are stark, though necessity rather than criminality is the source of the creativity.

While the department only has jurisdiction over non-denominational graveyards, those run by religious organizations have many of the same concerns.  St. Patrick’s Cathedral runs Mount Calvary Cemetery in Queens, the most populous cemetery in the city with over 3 million permanent residents.  They’re almost done, said Lyndon Roche, a spokesman for the diocese.  He said that St. Raymond’s, another Catholic cemetery in the Bronx, would have room for at least another 20 years.

“You look on either side of the Cross-Bronx, because St. Raymond’s is all around you, and there’s still plenty of space,” Roche said.

The nightmare scenario can be found in Ozone Park, at Bayside Acacia, a small Jewish necropolis.  The Upper West Side congregation, Shaare Zedek, doesn’t have enough money to pay for proper maintenance, and the cemetery has gone to seed.

Vines grow over tombs, headstones are toppled and broken, crypts and even coffins have been opened.  Calls to the Rabbi were not returned.

At Mount Olivet Cemetery, which has been pressed for space for a number of years, there haven’t been any issues of abandonment, nor have they dramatically increased their rates, nor are they completely full.  It’s just more of the same at Mount Olivet, said David Gigler, the superintendent.  They have been tearing up roads to make room for more graves and, like Green-Wood, has developed a large community mausoleum, which includes more and more niches for cremation urns.  Gigler said that there weren’t other reform options available.

“Maybe in 25 years, they’ll come up with something,” he said.  “But by then, I’ll be retired.”

In some crowded places around the world, they have come up with a broad array of somethings.  In Great Britain, where burial grounds are most often small, ancient churchyards, the government has permitted the reuse of graves that have been untended for more than 75 years.  The tiny nation-state of Singapore allows interment for 15 years, followed by mandatory exhumation and cremation.

Cremation is not allowed under Islamic law, which is why burials are still in demand, despite their impermanence.  The Italian Catholic Church, which had long opposed cremation as heretical, recently began allowing Mass for people whose remains were to be burned.  But cremation can be dangerous to the environment, as mercury from fillings is borne on the smoke.  So Sweden has permitted the use of a new method, promession, wherein the body is frozen in liquid nitrogen, shattered and then thawed, allowing the body’s water weight to evaporate and leaving a small amount of residue that can be safely recycled into the earth.

Will New York City allow these, or other new developments in the disposal of dead bodies like burying coffins upright?  Absolutely not, said Fishman, from the Department of Cemeteries.  He said there were plenty of cemeteries in Westchester County, Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island that had room and land to expand.
As in life, so in death: when the city gets too crowded, move to the suburbs.

“Hey, slow down,” said Bozak, pulling on 4-year-old Brinks’ collar.  “Hey, sit!” he said as he snapped his fingers.  The hyper white pit bull sat, and then they continued their walk.

What the public doesn’t know when they see Bozak is that he has owned and trained pit bulls for 20 years and written a children’s story to remind his readers that these dogs don’t necessarily deserve the bad rap they have acquired over the years.

“I understand why the basic John Doe hates them,” he said. “Why would you want something you picture as dangerous on the street?  They are bred to fight, it’s part of their genetic makeup.”
His 14-year-old dog, Demo, the model for the hero in his book, certainly doesn’t appear dangerous as he dawdled down the street with his salt-and-pepper coat and one good eye, the other lost to a mysterious illness a few years ago.  He more resembled an old man on all fours than a vicious killer, although several people on the street didn’t seem so sure.

Parents of a curious young girl with long black braids quickly pulled her past. A father whisked away a small, smiling boy in a puffy green jacket before he could reach out and pet the dogs.  A woman held her little Dachshund close as she anxiously passed.

“It’s not about judging something on how it looks,” said Bozak.  “Your dog is not going to cause problems unless you let him.”

Pit bulls, like any dog, can be violent.  For this reason people like Bozak and other experts suggest keeping them on a leash, being cautious in dog parks, and basically just learning to know your dog and its personality.  That’s a point Bozak and several dog breeders and handlers made repeatedly about the pit bull – it’s much more about their training then the traits they were born with.

“A pit bull can be incredibly gentle, almost child-like,” said Bob Marino, from NYCdog, an organization that represents dog runs and off-leash hours for public parks. The problem, Marino said, is that teenagers and young men acquire pit bulls but don’t know how to take care of them – or, worse, don’t want to.

“What we have now are miscreants that use the dogs as an extension of their anger and power,” he continued.  “It’s juvenile delinquency through the dog.”

The occurrences of pit bull attacks are higher than other breeds but still occur rarely – a fact largely ignored in media accounts. The last study on human deaths from breed-related bites by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported approximately 118 cases of pit bull attacks from 1979 to 1998, or about 6 incidents a year. Rottweilers (67), German Shepherds (41), Husky-types (21) and even one cocker spaniel all made the list.

In the glossy pages of “Demo: The Story of a Junkyard Dog,” Bozak’s self published children’s book, the hero breaks the mold of what the people in the fictional town of Newton expect.  After being kicked out of the junkyard for being too friendly, Demo must go out into the town and find a new home.   While Demo wanders the streets, the people of Newton run away, scared because he looks tough.  Finally, Demo finds a boy named Randy who doesn’t judge him and the two become quick best friends.  When a real threat comes to Newton, it’s up to Demo to show the people what he really is like.

“The crux of the story is that people can look at anything but don’t take the time to look at the whole picture,” said Bozak.

“I just wanted to put a book out there that would plant the seed,” he continued.  “Then maybe the kids would remember the story and not jump to such a negative image of the dog.”