One of the things that we have noticed in our two years of searching for articles on the funeral and cemetery professions is that there seems to be no shortage of articles about cemeteries which have been around for a long time but are now, for the first time, experiencing numbing financial stress.  We bring you this article and news video from NBC Los Angeles today that tells that same story about a 112 year old cemetery in Long Beach, California.

Sunnyside Cemetery was founded 112 years ago and has more than 16,000 people interred in it. However, cemetery spokesmen tell that the cemetery will be forced to close its doors come August.  Funds for maintenance will be depleted and if the City of Long Beach does not help, the cemetery board says it will have no where to turn.

A spokesperson for the cemetery says that they have had discussion with the City of Long Beach for 19 years letting them know that someday this will happen.  However, they say the city has re-buffed them on all occasions.  For their part, the city says it will not let Sunnyside close its doors and “degrade” itself.  As the article states, however, “nobody’s signed anything to make that happen”.

Funeral Director Daily take:  The “cause and effect” of this problem and the problems with cemetery financial stress across the country is not too difficult to determine.  Our belief is that it stems from the fact that “perpetual memorialization” of our loved ones is not happening in the cremation death care economy as it was in the earth burial economy.

When earth burial was the norm, there was no other option for the casketed remains but in a cemetery.  To that end the consumer was required to buy a lot, pay for an interment expense, in most instances buy a vault, and in almost all instances purchase a monument.  For every person that died in the earth burial society, most of those items were a necessity to purchase and that revenue helped cemeteries continue as going concerns.

In today’s cremation based death care society, the law provides that cremation is a form of final disposition and nothing else is required to be done with the cremated remains.  We know that permanent memorialization is not 100% of cremation. . . and it would be interesting to know what is the percentage of cremations interred, put in a columbarium, of paid to be part of a scattering garden with some type of memorialization is.  My guess is that it is not over 30% of all cremations. . . . which then indicates all the revenue that has evaporated from the cemetery business model.

Cemeteries do have opportunities. . . but not without capital expense outlay.  They can build new columbariums, scattering gardens, lawn crypts designed for cremations and the like.  However, many are not willing to do so, because they are not so sure that there will be the market to sell them in the future.  So, is the cemetery business as grim as this and other articles make it out to be?

Related Story:  Here is a story on how another California cemetery is planning to raise revenue in an unused portion of its cemetery.  It plans a pet cemetery.

Story Update:  Just last week we did a story on neglected government veteran markers found in an abandoned funeral home building.  This update lets you know that the county coroner has found almost all of the grave sites for those markers to be placed at.

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