c. 2007 Religion News Service
PORTLAND, Ore. _ If you wanted to be crass about it, you might explain River View Cemetery’s dilemma this way: People just aren’t dying to get in there anymore.
They’re still dying, of course. But more and more, particularly on the West Coast, consumers are choosing cremation over burial.
That slow, steady change in the market _ in the works for several decades _ has cemeteries scrambling for new ways to turn a profit or ensure they can pay for future maintenance.
In River View’s case, the cemetery’s board of trustees wants to turn 120 acres of vacant graveyard land into houses, apartments or perhaps an annex to Lewis & Clark College. They note that at the current rate, it would take 400 years to use up all the potential grave sites at one of the city’s premier historic burial grounds.
“This is a very traditional business,” says David Noble, the cemetery’s executive director. “But it’s like anything else: Markets change and you adjust.”
Forty years ago, fewer than 5 percent of Americans who died opted for cremation. In 1987, it was 15 percent. This year, more than 32 percent of U.S. deaths will end in cremation, and the experts at the Cremation Association of North America expect the national total to pass 50 percent within 25 years.
Perhaps it’s the “Six Feet Under” factor _ more people are thinking about how they want to go. It certainly helps that several religions, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, have decided in the past few decades that cremation is an acceptable alternative.
“You can talk about sex and all that stuff, but really death used to be the taboo topic,” says Bob Fells, external chief operating officer for the International Cemetery and Funeral Association.
That’s changed, Fells says, as baby boomers have begun to bury their parents.
“They’re giving Mom and Dad what they want: traditional funerals and memorials,” he says. “But as they do, they’re becoming well-educated consumers about this, and they’re thinking, `Well, maybe I want something different.”’
Cremations are generally cheaper, starting at about $1,500 compared with the $6,000 or so you’ll shell out for a basic burial. Many people also consider them more environmentally friendly. And they provide a dead person’s loved ones more flexibility about how and when to memorialize.
The procedure can be boiled down to this stark reality: four hours at 1,600 degrees.
The rise in cremations has affected every aspect of the “death industry.” Some funeral homes now sell urns alongside coffins and rent out space for business meetings, reunions and even weddings. For those who opt for cremation, many mortuaries will organize the same types of events they offer people who choose burials _ a viewing of the body beforehand.
Cemeteries have an even tougher sell to make. Most now offer some version of a “cremation garden,” where urns can be buried or ashes legally scattered. Despite the freedom with which many people scatter their loved ones on bodies of water or in state and federal parks, there are actually strict laws about where cremains can be placed.
Cemeteries lucky enough to have spare land _ and even some without _ are looking at other uses for their real estate or other options for customers.
As a final resting place, River View would be hard to beat. Beyond the birds, the only sound in the cemetery on one recent sunny morning was the soft panting of a neighbor out for his morning jog and the steady whick-whick-whick of sprinklers.
Plenty of prime spots are still available. And that’s the problem.
Noble estimates that the cemetery association sells 225 graves a year. He expects that to be halved by 2021.
The cemetery now uses about 37 acres, with expansion plans for 62 more acres, according to papers filed with the city. That leaves 120 acres, some of it down hard-to-reach slopes, that will probably never be needed.
Making a profit isn’t an issue here. But maintaining the cemetery takes time and money. Right now, the cemetery’s endowment sits at several million dollars. The financial reality is that upkeep costs will probably stay steady even as the number of burials each year drops.
The cemetery’s board of trustees wants to let a developer find another use for all or part of that extra land.
Some neighbors have balked, arguing that turning any of the cemetery’s property over to developers would dramatically change the feel of their quiet community.
Cemetery leaders and their lawyer say the myriad land use laws enacted since the graveyard was created _ a time when there were no restrictions on how the property could be used _ have cost them between $17 million and $24 million.
That’s a lot more money than you can make burying people, especially as fewer and fewer people opt to wind up underground.
(Anna Griffin writes for The Orgonian in Portland, Ore.)
RB END GRIFFINA photo and graphic are available via https://religionnews.com
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