Garbage Dump Protest
Lou Reed, James Gandolfini and Laurie Anderson at Tribeca Protest. Photo by Scott Gries"Enough is enough", said Tribeca resident Kirsten Dunst. After all, the neighborhood already has over 400 UPS and FedEx trucks and a garbage garage. Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, James Gandolfini, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Michael Stipe, John Slattery and Talia Balsam agree. Last week, these folks along with 600+ people gathered at the Saatchi & Saatchi building on Hudson Street to protest the Bloomberg Administration's plan to dump a three-district, 120' high garbage depot, a 34,000 gallon fuel storage facility and a 5,000 ton salt shed onto the neighborhood.
This is not a "not in my backyard" situation. The city wants to truck in garbage from all over Manhattan. It's a terribly ill-conceived proposal. And we all know that New York City has seen its share of downright stupid proposals. Just imagine if Robert Moses had had his way. He wanted to level what's now Soho and portions of Washington Square and run a super highway through it? Thankfully, one woman, Jane Jacobs, galvanized support and stopped him.
Local activist and Tribeca Community president Carole DeSaram says, "the City's plan is total insanity -- to take billions of dollars of development rights and literally build a garbage garage".
"Where the city is going to find $500 million in this time of fiscal austerity is beyond me," said Richard Sloan, professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. That's a half-billion dollars to ruin the neighborhood and reduce property values (and property tax revenue) and compromise the health and safety of the area residents.
Lou Reed, always succinct, says, "To take that kind of facility and put it right across the street from two parks is beyond my comprehension and environmentally irresponsible."
Fortunately, The Tribeca Community Association has a better plan. They propose accepting garbage from two adjacent districts, but not with the unfair burden of trucks and garbage from as far north as 59 St. and Lexington Avenue. The community plan, dubbed "St. John's Park at Hudson Rise!" integrates publicly accessible green space with critical sanitation services without devastating the neighborhood.
I am currently reading Russell Shorto's amazing book, The Island at the Center of the World, and so Laurie Anderson's remarks really hit home. "Is this really what the coast of Manhattan should look like? When you see what other cities do with their riversides, it's startling to see how long it is taking New York to realize we live next to this national resource, a national treasure. The Hudson River is an inspiring and beautiful part of our city."
I agree. For more information or to help fight the dump...
Visit the web site
Email
Sign the online petition
Make tax deductible donations to 501.c.3 non-profit: Tribeca Community Association, 533 Canal St., NY, NY 10013
Protest to Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler: 212-788-3191
Protest to Speaker Christine Quinn: 212-564-7747
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Or as in the post.....open space.
I'm just surprised that they even think they can still do something like this on Manhattan. I thought it was too expensive to locate something like this there, seems like you would want to put something more profitable there like a condo or an office tower since that's what most all of Manhattan is.
The real question is...Why won't ANY OF THEM listen? SOMEONE has to be getting something for this outrage.
There are so many reasons to be infuriated with Bloomberg, Quinn and most of the city council on this plan. Wasting half a billion taxpayer dollars on a riverfront sanitation facility and salt shed is beyond irresponsible on an environmental, city planning and fiscal basis. And then of course, there are the 36 parking spaces for city employees, encouraging them to drive to work. Green Mayor? huh? When I spoke with a member of Christine Quinn's office about this, the response was essentially, well it used to be more spaces. This is almost on the same level as taxpayer funded bonuses to AIG employees.
Why isn't composting (city-wide) being discussed? Eliminating compostable garbage from the general collection would substantially decrease the amount that has to be trucked out of the city. It would cut down on pollution and Sanitation costs. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Other cities do it.
Unhealthy, inequitable distribution of Sanitation facilities decimating a growing NYC residential, coastline community.
Groups fighting to protect and green their communities know that placement of toxic, dangerous facilities, is nasty back room business, with selfish, sordid solutions. Historically environmental racism prevails, thrusting disproportionate concentrations of facilities onto poor communities of color, without resources to fight the onslaught.
In the case of this 3-district mega-facility, 5000 ton salt shed, 34,000 gallon fuel depot for Hudson Square---a neighborhood with the worst congestion and highest asthma rates in NYC, and 2nd worst air quality in the northeast --- other unholy alliances and contaminated designs drive the dump. This community is expendable because they aren't a robust voting block. Ultra-ambitious Speaker Quinn, elected to represent them, long ago abandoned them, their health and well-being. Mayor Bloomberg's loaded cabal, privileged to overpower anyone who opposes him, is another scary story. Pernicious posse lusting after 3rd terms?
Only Council member Charles Barron with a history facing off against hogs-wild wielding power, had the guts to vote with the community ---not even his district --- and didn't even flinch.
Check out Hudson Rise: A beautiful alternative green design with 2-district garage above 2-acres of parks. Encouraging that intelligence and vision are alive within the community. Why won’t their elected officials wake up --- Or just roll over and get out of the way.
Some years back some folks were trying to build a Trash To Steam plant here in Bucks County
(Suburban Philadelphia) ...they succeeded.
I was under the impression that NY was still sending their trash to Bucks County....
NYC is still sending trash well outside city limits (I don't know about Bucks County specifically)--this structure under discussion is a garage for storing, refueling, and servicing garbage trucks as well as road salt.
Lest we all forget that this garage had a solution at 29/30th Street that was APPROVED by their community board that mysteriously then moved to the Spring Street site. The Rose Organization (Joe Rose), a big supporter of Mayor Bloomberg just HAPPENED to own a piece of land adjacent to this 29/30th Street site... HMMMMMMM Let's benefit one developer / friend to destroy a neighborhood. Some investigative reporting needs to be done here in my opinion...
With all of the money and effort that has gone into creating a people-oriented Hudson River park, it is truly bizarre to set it back by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on an industrial facility which will sit on the river for decades. It will inspire "what were they thinking?" comments as long as it exists. The project smacks of an expedient compromise that is designed to satisfy centralization demands by the Sanitation Department at a location whose residents were not expected to have much political clout (unlike other sites which were considered). I think the reaction is proving this wrong.
The question is: why isn't the city looking at the excellent "GREEN" plan the community has taken such great pains and expense to develop as an alternative.
The community plan, dubbed "St. John's Park at Hudson Rise!" integrates publicly accessible green space with critical sanitation services without devastating the neighborhood. The plan is incredible, beautiful and GREEN. And that's what we all want for our downtown community, we have such little GREEN space as it is.
WHY is the Sanitation Dept., being so bull headed about accepting something the community is behind and they still can have their facility? Makes no sense. The Commish and the mayor's office need to wake up and see how to make this alternative plan work. Otherwise we all need to get out and march on city hall, seems that's the only way to get attention these days.
PS. Don't let anyone tell you having a Mayor with tons of money frees them from "outside" influences. Sometime, having someone with Bloomberg's billions, "freezes" the opposition. Nobody wants to take him on. It's truly scary how much work it took to beat back his crazy plan to bring the Olympics into midtown New York (yikes). He spent millions, millions of his own dough. I know we can list many of the good things he has done in his 8 years. But too much money, too much power, and, worst yet, LITTLE or NO opposition, creates despots. Please help us fight for Hudson Rise!!
Christine Quinn stopped listening to her district when she became Speaker and she sided with the Mayor against term limits. Lots of her fellow Democrats did the same when they realized their King (excuse me, Mayor Mike) would watch their backs by finding a way to allow them to give him and themselves a third term, despite NYC voters who said no, twice. You can bet, if the Mayor was facing the door, Quinn would be all over this in outrage because she'd be after his job. But now she needs the mayor so she screws her voters. But to remain Speaker she still has to be re-elected. As do all the others. Voters will remember.
I've always liked the fact that Bloomberg was an independent because he didnt have to answer to any party. the problem I've learned is when he wants something that is totally ridiculous, no one has the balls to stand up to him. How can Quinn turn against the people that elected her and not support their wishes? This is a completely unnecessary waste of taxpayer money. How about 500MM for police, schools, fireman?
New York City hasn't been for New Yorkers for quite some time. We're the actual residents who pay the taxes, yet we're treated like second-class citizens -- no, make that THIRD-class citizens, since we're behind the top 1% *and* the tourists...
(Not that I'm complaining about tourists -- they help keep this city going, too! Please, come visit us! See our beautiful salt piles and garbage garages!)
And of course, the alternative plan presented by the community is not only a terrific amenity available to all the residents of NYC, it is also far less expensive to build.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
