Letters to the Editor

More Rats to Come

You think you've seen rats on the Upper East Side now - wait till the city starts trucking in 1,860 tons of garbage on a typical day, (up to 5,280 tons in an emergency) six days a week with the proposed Marine Transfer Station. Think how easy the rats' commute will be throughout the East side thanks to the Second Avenue Subway tunnel, too.

It is beyond belief that candidate Quinn can defend between 372 and 1057 garbage trucks spewing diesel exhaust and smelling of refuse, right through a park and a playground, on the edge of the Riverwalk for Upper Manhattan and Gracie Mansion Park, where thousands of children play and picnic, adults run and bike and sunbathe. It's going to be ten stories tall. The smell in summertime will draw vermin throughout the Northeast!

Quinn's accusations of "environmental racism" (against, among others, Bill Thompson, the only African-American in the race) and cries of "environmental justice" ring hollow except to the developers targeting the Brooklyn waterfront. No other community is being forced to have a waste transfer-station directly in the middle of a park located in a residential community with the city's highest density. But then, Quinn is Bloomberg Lite. Who cares what the electorate think about things like term limits, or garbage or vermin and truck fumes pervading children's playgrounds and parks?

So, if you think you've seen rats on the Upper East Side? Just wait.

Virginia Randall

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