-Let’s Keep Our Community Green-

STOP THE $125 MILLION FUNDING* OF THE NEW 77,815 square foot  MARINE TRANSFER  GARBAGE STATION  @ e. 91^ST Street

STOP SPEAKER Christine Quinn & THE CITY COUNCIL FROM BULLDOZING OUR DENSELY POPULATED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY WITH  

5,280 TONS OF TRASH PER DAY

*The City Council will vote Wednesday, June 29 on the funding for the construction of the Marine Transfer Station (garbage truck to barge transfer)

JOIN THE RALLY 

TUESDAY, JUNE 28TH @ 6PM

Spread the word and bring your neighbors,families & children let your voices be heard !!!!   

Center garden at Isaacs/Holmes Towers

93rd Street & 1st Avenue

Assembly Members

Dan Garodnick & Jessica Lappin will speak

SPREAD THE WORD AND JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORS ON TUESDAY  

GO TO FACEBOOK IMPACTNY against the building of the East 91st Marine Transfer Station

June 24th, 2011

Dear Speaker Quinn – 

The more than 360 + signatures which accompany this letter represent residents from every walk of life: low, middle and upper income, children, adults and senior citizens.   We are a multi-cultural and racially diverse neighborhood.  As upper east siders we do not consider ourselves “elitist” but rather we are  proud of our diversity. We are equally proud of the renaissance that we are witnessing in our neighborhood.  In the past few years we have added public schools, as well as a school for the handicapped, senior citizens homes and many new apartment buildings. We have two hotels which cater to international and domestic visitors, a diversity of food shops as well gourmet stores, restaurants and even a local green market on Sundays between 92^nd and 93^rd Street offering the neighborhood organic vegetables and other farm fresh produce, locally caught fish, freshly baked breads and fruit directly from orchards in upstate New York.  This is a densely populated residential neighborhood which surrounds Asphalt Green which is the proposed site for the Marine Transfer Station at East 91^st Street.  The aqua center, play ground and playing fields of Asphalt Green serve more than 100,000 people a year with many free programs for low income children.  Asphalt Green is our “backyard”, this is a place where both children and adults can participate in a variety of programs as well as excel athletically.   This is what you would see if you WOULD VISIT OUR COMMUNITY!  As an elected official don’t you have a responsibility to visit your constituents who elected you – how can you mandate and judge what is right for a community if you do not want to come and see with your own eyes and understand who we are. 

When we hear the words “environmental justice” we literally cringe.  Is this not environmental injustice to mandate the construction of a garbage dump in the middle of a children’s playing field, athletic complex and in the heart of a residential neighborhood  less than 300 feet from low and middle income public housing?     Do we not continually question why third world countries force their people to live next to toxic waste dumps or a nuclear reactor – is this not the same thing.  We do not live in a dictatorship but a democracy which entitles us to have a voice.  You as well as the Mayor refuse to understand that we are a densely populated neighborhood with a high incidence of asthma and very poor air quality. Why do you wish to site a garbage facility next to a children’s playing field which serves low income families. Running garbage trucks through our neighborhood 24/6 will create an environmental catastrophe – toxic fumes, vermin, rats and scavenging birds (the bird excrement covering our local parks and playing fields).  This will destroy a tranquil residential environment.    You are acting as though we were living in a third world country by telling us that we are mandated to accept a toxic garbage dump.  To make it even worse you state that you will make it “environmentally safe”.  Does that mean that you will take care of us when our children, seniors and other at risk adults become seriously ill.   You tell us that there are ways to make a garbage dump more “environmentally” safe in a flood zone and in the middle of a children’s playing field.  Not having ever set foot in this district I am surprised that you would want to give these assurances.  When our neighborhood has been destroyed by the ineptitude of a few politicians who are no longer in office – who will rebuild our neighborhood?  Many of us who have signed the petition have lived in this neighborhood when the transfer station was active. We know what it is like to have garbage trucks lined up and idling in front of our buildings and the continuous foul odor which emanated from the site.  We are told in the first page of the proposal that the East River will need to be dredged to accept the garbage barges and that the eco system will be damaged. These are not our words but a statement of fact in the official proposal for the construction of the MTS.  We are told that the Esplanade along the East River is not a Park and that Asphalt Green is not Park.   Even though Asphalt Green appears on the Parks & Recreation website.

Speaker Quinn how do you define a residential neighborhood, an athletic complex, a playing field or even a park?  Why are you arguing semantics – please come and look at our neighborhood  and listen to the voices of  the young and the elderly and all  the people that live here  – please take a hard look at the alternatives and find a solution that is truly environmentally safe before you vote 125, 000 million dollars to fund this seriously misguided and politically motivated project.

Yours sincerely,

Tara K. Reddi

President

East 93^rd Street Block & Neighborhood Association

www.east93blockassoc.org

The Gracie Point Community Council

RALLY AGAINST

THE GARBAGE!

Proposed Marine Transfer Station site at E. 91st which will bisect the Aqua Center and Playing Fields of Asphalt Green

DON’T LET CHRISTINE QUINN AND THE CITY BULLDOZE OUR COMMUNITY WITH TRASH!

PROTEST THE $125 MILLION EAST 91ST STREET MARINE TRANSFER STATION

10 MILLION  POUNDS OF GARBAGE EVERY DAY!

Featured Speaker:

City Council Member Jessica Lappin

Date:    Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Time:    6 PM

Where:  ASPHALT GREEN Basketball Court

                 90th St. Between York +East End  Aves.

Dear Neighbors-

This is an important follow-up on the proposed Marine Transfer Station (MTS) for garbage truck-to-barge transfer at East 91st Street – please sign the online petition 

As a result of Monday’s meeting at the Stanley Isaacs Center with members of Community Board 8 and more than 250 neighborhood residents in attendance, we learned that we have once again been caught off guard. In Council Member Jessica Lappin’s May Newsletter the success in thwarting the development of the Marine Transfer Station (due to lack of funding as a result of the City budget crisis) was the lead story. Everyone was lulled into a false sense of security. The ink on Lappin’s Newsletter was still wet when $125 million was found in the city’s Capital Budget and the MTS at 91st St. was back for a vote. Mayor Bloomberg wants the MTS and Speaker and Council Member Christine Quinn is supporting the Mayor. The effort to stop this development MUST be initiated and successfully stopped by the time the city’s budget is voted on JUNE 30th.

We are racing against the clock! The City Council has to be convinced to vote against the MTS at East 91st Street.

Should the City succeed in building the MTS it will negatively impact our diverse and densely populated neighborhood both economically and environmentally. The proposed plan has the MTS open 24/7 to both city sanitation trucks and private carters. The already poor air quality in our neighborhood will be further compromised by the toxic fumes from the idling garbage trucks as they wait in line. The garbage will attract rats and other vermin as well as scavenging birds that will negatively impact adjacent parks such as Carl Schurz, various neighborhood schools, local businesses, residential buildings and homes as well as the playing fields of Asphalt Green. The   MTS would be built adjacent to the not for profit athletic complex, Asphalt Green (and its entrance will bisect the Aqua Center and the playing fields  that serves more than 100,000 people a year and offers many free community programs. In a city which promotes Green programs and encourages our children and adults to partake in sports and exercise – why would the Mayor take one of New York’s best sporting areas for children and expose them to a toxic environment of a garbage transfer station right next to a high usage sports field. There is something very wrong with this scenario! Alternative sites in Manhattan, that are cost-efficient and do not abut densely populated residential areas, have been repeatedly proposed to the Mayor, as well as rail transfer methods which would be environmentally safer and far more cost effective. The Mayor will not listen to any alternative suggestions. This project will not only cost hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when the City is cutting funding to already overcrowded schools and closing firehouses, but will completely change the neighborhood as we know it!

While we have the support of a number of elected officials including Council Member Lappin and Garodnick and State Assembly Member Kellner, we need every neighborhood resident and business to sign this petition which will be sent to the Mayor’s office, Speaker Christine Quinn, and Council Member Letitia James, Chair of the Sanitation committee, Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., New York City Council Finance Chair.

We also URGENTLY need you to please send emails opposing the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station to: 

Christine C. Quinn

New York City Council Speaker

speakerquinn@council.nyc.gov

212-788-7210 or 212-564-7757

 Domenic M. Recchia, Jr.

New York City Council Finance Chair

drecchia@council.nyc.gov

212-788-7045 or 718-373-9673

EVERY SIGNATURE &  LETTER  COUNTS to help preserve the health and the economic well being of our residents and our entire community. Pass this information on to your friends and neighbors as well as local businesses. Please go to our website and sign the online petition: www.east93blockassoc.org

Together we can stop the garbage dump, but we need your help!

Sincerely,

The East 93rd Street Block and Neighborhood Association

Watch Jennifer Ratner on WNBC with Chuck Scarborough – click this link Jenifer Ratner on WNBC