The city's Vision 2020 waterfront plan is an attempt to make the waterfront more accessible for recreation, more welcoming to industry and more liveable for residents. Underlying those age-old claims on the coastline are new fears about rising sea levels and natural disasters, such as those that hit waterfront industry in Japan last month and the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005.
A new city plan addressing competing claims on New York’s coastline draws praise. But there’s still plenty of debate over the details, especially over the risks that come with waterfront industry.
Weather: Nasty, cold, windy, drizzly. I think I saw my breath this morning. If we can make it through today, tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful – warm and sunny. Story of the Day: Environmental Injustice!The Bronx has long fought against the idea that it is simply a dumping ground – for city-funded homeless shelters, massive (and over-budget) water filtration plants in our parks and, of course, actual garbage. Some 60 percent of the city’s garbage is dumped in two areas saturated with waste transfer stations: Newton Creek in Brooklyn and Hunts Point here in the Bronx.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and Council member Annabel Palma, the head of the Bronx Council delegation, joined up with other Council members and environmental justice advocates at City Hall today to rail against Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to shelve the building of four new waste transfer stations – three Manhattan and one Brooklyn.As it stands now, some 60 percent of the city’s waste is taken to transfer stations in Newton Creek (Brooklyn) and Hunts Point in the South Bronx. The new stations would have eased this saturation, which residents say leads to foul odors and heavy truck pollution. “If approved, this proposal [to not fund the new transfer stations] almost exclusively concentrates the burden of handling NYC’s solid waste in a handful of low-income communities of color in Brooklyn and the Bronx – yet again,” it said in a press release sent out by the New York Environmental Justice Alliance. The release also warned that the city was considering creating “waste to energy” facilities, which would use incinerators and “whose siting may be restricted to environmentally overburdened communities of color” – like Hunts Point. “It is only fair, and environmentally responsible, that each borough handle its own garbage.
City Councilman James Vacca is the only Bronx member of the Council who has yet to throw his weight behind the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act-the bill that would require developers of retail projects receiving taxpayer subsidies to pay workers $10 an hour with benefits, or $11.50 without.This week, his spokesman Bret Collazzi said the councilman is waiting for an official hearing to be held on the legislation before he takes a stance. “He’s open to the idea, but he’s not there yet,” Collazzi said. “He’s met with both sides, he’s interested in it, but he won’t make a decision until the hearing.”The fate of a hearing lies in the hands of
Lots of quality free entertainment coming out of the two neighboring northwest Bronx hospitals tomorrow. As we mentioned yesterday, North Central Bronx will be holding a lunchtime concert. And at 5 p.m., Montefiore Medical Center, in honor of World Voice Day, will be hosting a screening of the Oscar-winning film, “The King’s Speech,” which recounts the story of the King of England overcoming his stuttering problems. See details below in our oft-updated Bronx Events calendar. Editor’s note: What did we miss? Send details to bronxnewsnetwork[at]gmail.com.
Ahead of this week’s Regional Plan Association annual assembly on “Innovation and the Global City,” an environmental thinker says more data is needed to direct efforts at greening New York and other cities.
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