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
