By Adam Janos

The 92nd Street Y and the New York Observer hosted a forum for mayoral candidates last Thursday to discuss their visions for the city. Joseph Lhota, John Catsimatidis and George McDonald attended the forum on the Republican side; on the Democratic side, Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio, Bill Thompson, John Liu, and Sal Albanese were in attendance. The two sets of candidates took the stage separately and took distinct sets of questions on a range of topics. One that came up for both sides was on the proposed Marine Waste Transfer Station (MTS) on the Upper East Side.

The station in question is part of a five-borough plan signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg in 2007, which aims to address an undue amount of waste being processed in the outer boroughs in low-income community of color and to shift waste transportation from truck-based stations to barge and rail. Opponents of the station, however, say that by placing the station in a high-density residential area (as well as so close to neighborhood community center Asphalt Green), the city is being tone-deaf in its approach and disproportionately affecting Upper East Side residents.

On the Republican side, the three candidates were fairly unanimous in their condemnation of the station. Lhota, who answered the question first, talked about closing the station along with Fresh Kill in 2007 and said that when elected Mayor it would stay closed. He also stated that the five-borough solution was based on a false premise, because Manhattan already ships its garbage to New Jersey, not to the outer boroughs. The other two candidates jumped on that idea, unanimously agreeing that the trash would keep going to New Jersey, with Catsimatides going so far as to say that under his administration there’d be no plant anywhere in Manhattan.

While it’s true that Manhattan sends all of its residential waste to New Jersey to be incinerated, that waste only accounts for a fraction of the total trash the city produces. 15,000 of the 26,000 tons of waste handled by New York City each day qualifies as commercial waste, and as such is handled by large-scale commercial contractors. These commercial contractors converge trucks in the outer boroughs, dump their trash, and have it re-hauled out on light rail and trucks to landfills in far-flung locales such as South Carolina and Virginia. These facilities do, in fact, exist almost exclusively in low-income communities of color such as the South Bronx, North Brooklyn, and southeast Queens. Since the MTS on East 91st Street would handle both residential waste and commercial waste, its re-opening would, presumably, be a boon to outer borough residents.

When questioned about that discrepancy, Catsimatidis said, “I was partially joking. Maybe we don’t send 100 percent of our waste to New Jersey. But it sounded good at the time, didn’t it?” He then reaffirmed his commitment to eliminating transfer stations in Manhattan, saying that real estate development would draw far better revenue streams to the city.

On the Democratic side, Christine Quinn drew boos for her commitment to the five-borough plan, asserting that she helped shepherd the plan through the city council. Thompson, meanwhile, was applauded when he said that, “The more I see this sight [Asphalt Green], the more questions I have.” De Blasio split the baby by reaffirming his commitment to the five-borough plan but remaining vague on whether he’d push to re-open the station on East 91st, stating that “city hall hasn’t listened to the community.” Sal Albanese suggested that – given the devastation Superstorm Sandy brought to the city – he wouldn’t support marine-based stations anywhere, given the flood risk. “I’m worried about storms,” Albanese later told Our Town. “I’d hate to be the guy who didn’t do anything about it.”

Comptroller John Liu told Our Town that he had plenty of reservations about the East 91st Street site. However as the comptroller, Liu registered the contracts this December which allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to begin bringing the East 91st street MTS back into operation. “It’s not my job [to deny a contract], just because I don’t believe in it,” said Liu. “I can’t reject it, when they’ve perfected it.”

When asked if it would be his job as mayor to do so, Liu said he’d have to re-assess the site, but that it was “smack in a residential neighborhood.”

Representative Carolyn Maloney, whose opposition to the MTS dates back to 2004, recently endorsed Christine Quinn in the Mayoral race despite their polarity on the issue. When asked about that contradiction, Maloney responded, “We don’t agree on everything. But put any two New Yorkers in a room together, and they’re going to disagree on some things. But a waste transfer station shouldn’t be a flood zone.”

Still, Maloney maintained her endorsement for Quinn, saying, “It’s the talent, the experience level, and the vision for all our citizens,” that caused her to give her support to the Speaker’s campaign.

Gomez’s letter was one of around 1,000 testimonials delivered by schoolchildren to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s official residence at Gracie Mansion last Thursday, Dec. 13. Led by adult protesters, several of the young letter writers marched to the mansion to oppose the controversial construction of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, a $240 million project that will renovate an inactive station at the far end of East 91st Street to transfer Manhattan’s garbage onto barges for transport along the river.

The city’s administration proposed the transfer station—which technically is not a dump—as part of its Solid Waste Management Plan in 2006, with the aim of reducing garbage truck emissions and street traffic by allowing more trash to be moved by barges. Proponents praise the future station’s state-of-the-art technology and potential for decreasing the city’s pollution, and have argued that Manhattan, which currently is the only borough without a waste transfer station, must share the city’s burden of waste management. Opponents in the Yorkville community that will host the station, however, contend that the station’s supporters have overlooked a key factor: the station’s proximity to Asphalt Green, the popular sports complex next door between East 90th and 91st streets.

“Putting a garbage dump near Asphalt Green will not only ruin the atmosphere of this place, but it will also serve as a health and safety hazard to all its users,” said Michael Domagala, 16, reading from his letter to the mayor at a rally in the green before the march. Domagala, a prodigious swimmer, trains at Asphalt Green, and recently set the national record in his age group for the 200 meter freestyle.

Matthew Resnick, a 17-year-old senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, said that when he moved to New York five years ago, he thought it was “a city where leaders put the demands and health of a people before politics,” but today he “question[s] the values and intentions of the city administration.”

“I insist, Mayor Bloomberg,” he read, “that you do not put our futures out with the trash.”
Other students from around the city who use the park submitted letters at the request of Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, a volunteer community-based organization that has filed a lawsuit against the city for the approved construction project. Asphalt Green has filed a separate lawsuit with Assembly Member Micah Kellner and City Council Member Jessica Lappin against the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who approved the project’s safety.

“This is about the worst place you could put a dump,” said Carol Tweedy, Asphalt Green’s executive director, before she led the charge to Gracie Mansion. “Kids have little lungs. Until the age of 10, their lungs aren’t fully developed. They breathe more heavily than adults, especially when they’re physically active. So the diesel emissions and all the other pollutants that would come make this a very dangerous site [for a transfer station]. We can do better. The city can find a better place. This is a bad choice.”

Tiffany Bolling, after-school program coordinator at Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center, a social service agency two blocks away on East 93rd Street, shared Tweedy’s concern for the health of the children in the neighborhood.

“Our kids are thinking very critically about their environment, and about their neighborhood and their community,” she said. “Places they’ll play and places they’ll grow up, their friends—they’re thinking about more than just themselves.”

Jamil Brown, a 7-year-old in one of Bolling’s programs, said that the station “is a bad idea because it pollutes the air.” He scrunched his face. “And there will be lots of rats.”

Wight seized on a statement that Maloney made during a rally protesting the presence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, at the United Nations.

“In the last year, Iran has grown ever closer to developing a nuclear weapon—we’re no longer talking about ‘if’—instead we’re wondering ‘when,’” Maloney said at the event. “Just last week, Iran’s vice president and head of its nuclear program admitted in an interview given to Al-Hayat that Iran gave foreign officials misleading facts about the state of their nuclear progress.”

Maloney went on to outline the reasons she believed that the UN should reject Ahmadinejad’s legitimacy at the assembly.

Her opponent was apparently riled by her statement and issued one of his own, saying that he has a much clearer and better plan for Israel.

“Carolyn Maloney is emboldening Iran and sending conflicting messages to the international community,” Wight said in a statement. “Instead of insisting that the U.S. stand by our policy of not allowing a nuclear Iran, Maloney conceded that it is only a matter of time.”

CONTRACTOR NAMED FOR MARINE TRANSFER STATION
The Department of Design and Construction awarded a contract to rebuild the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, a project the city continues to move forward with even as residents and lawsuits attempt to throw up delays and roadblocks. The DDC announced that it will give the $181,640,000 contract to a joint venture between construction companies Skanska and Trevcon. A spokesperson reiterated that this is the first step in a process to retain final approval for the contract. It must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget and then move to the Comptroller’s office to be registered.

Meanwhile, local groups are keeping up the fight. On Thursday, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m., the East Side Democratic Club is hosting a meeting at Brown Gardens Community Room, 225 E. 93rd St., with Assembly Member Micah Kellner and attorney Albert Butzel to inform residents about the lawsuit Kellner has brought against the MTS plan. For more information, call 212-861-2014 or email esdemclub@gmail.com.

GARODNICK PROPOSES SICK LEAVE COMPROMISE
Upper West Side City Council Member Gale Brewer has been pushing to pass the paid sick leave bill that she authored, but has been thwarted thus far by Speaker Christine Quinn’s refusal to bring the bill to a vote. Mayor Bloomberg has made it clear that he would veto it, citing a negative effect on small businesses.

But now a new version may make its way to the floor of the council and could win over critics. Council Member Dan Garodnick proposed four amendments to the bill that so far have been well received, as the New York Times reported last week.

The biggest change would be to lower the number of paid sick days required for businesses with 20 or more employees. Currently, the bill requires businesses with more than five employees to provide five paid sick days annually, and businesses with 20 or more employees to provide nine paid sick days. Garodnick’s amendment to “remove the cliff” and simply require all businesses with over five employees to give five days quells small businesses’ concerns that the higher number would keep businesses from hiring more workers to avoid bumping up to nine days.

Garodnick also proposed exempting seasonal employees, allowing employees in the service sector to swap shifts if they’re sick without having to utilize a paid sick day, and limiting the time in which an employee could sue for paid sick leave benefits.

“I certainly speak for the group when I say it’s a misguided plan and we’re going to do everything we can to fight this plan,” said Jed Garfield, a local who is also the president of Residents for Sane Trash Solutions (RFSTS).

The grassroots nonprofit was formed last year in response to the city’s pressure to get the MTS up and running, as more and more residents became aware of just what that might mean for their community. Garfield said that over 7,000 people have signed on to join their cause, with hundreds of active members like him who volunteer their time to get the word out to their neighbors and advocate against the MTS.

“I have at least a dozen individuals in the group who are prepared to chain themselves to the fences if the city tries to move ahead with this thing,” Garfield said.

He and the other opponents are quick to point out that the people who will be affected by the MTS aren’t the stereotypical Upper East Side residents that many people call to mind automatically.

“Those who support it say that it’s only fair that the Upper East Side should do its share. It’s not the Upper East Side; the Upper East Side is where Mike Bloomberg lives on 79th Street and Madison Avenue,” Garfield said.

Dale Cohen, an architect who lives in the neighborhood, said she felt like outsiders don’t understand who is actually living near the proposed dump site, which is why there isn’t more outrage from the rest of the city.

“It’s not impacting the wealthy part of the Upper East Side, it’s impacting the middle class,” she said. “I was told directly by real estate agents that I work with to move, because it will completely devalue my apartment. [But] I have no interest in moving, I love Yorkville, I like being close to East End and the park; it’s a very quiet and affordable neighborhood.”

Some people in the area are seeing this latest development as a sign to cut their losses, said Garfield, but most aren’t prepared to or don’t want to leave the neighborhood they call home, even if it means it will drastically change.

“Residents are very concerned—they were very disappointed that the Army Corps granted the permit,” said David Mack, another local who founded RFSTS. “The way the city is portraying it, and I guess it’s their right to do so, is as if this is a done deal and shovels are going to get set to dig. This is definitely not the end of the fight.”

Some are banking on legal channels to work against the city. Garfield said that RFSTS has raised over $500,000—much of it from small donations—that is being focused on public relations to get the community’s message out to the whole city and on legal efforts. They are looking into filing lawsuits and are also supporting the lawsuit that Assembly Member Micah Kellner currently has before the courts, which alleges that the city has to revise its environmental impact statement for the MTS based on increased estimates of trash capacity before they can move forward.

Garfield said he’s encouraging people not to lose hope.

“You’re always losing until you win. That’s part of the battle that I deal with,” he said. “Bloomberg says it’s going to get built. Well, it’s definitely going to get built if you don’t do something about it.”

Still, residents are concerned.

“I feel it’ll create a lot of noise; it’ll create a lot of filth; it’ll create a lot of congestion; it will endanger the health of children,” said Alison Grillo, a nearby resident who attended the rally. She added that if the MTS opens, she might have to consider leaving the neighborhood.

Pols say Danger in MTS Plans
This Saturday, local politicians joined Upper East Side residents to yet again protest the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station (MTS), citing the recent placement of the Atlantic sturgeon on the endangered species list as another reason to trash the plan. Opponents also seized upon FAA regulations that strongly advise against placing trash facilities within five miles of an airport in order to lessen the threat of bird strikes on planes taking off.
“Today we are urging the federal government to block the city from constructing this facility just three miles from LaGuardia Airport, in violation of federal regulations intended to prevent bird strikes from endangering air passengers and communities near airports, and to consider this site’s impact on the Atlantic sturgeon, which was recently added to the endangered species list and is known to live in the East River,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney. She released letters she had written to the FAA, as well as to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, asking them to carefully weigh the environmental factors before granting the federal permits the city needs to construct the expanded dock for the transfer station.
Maloney, along with all of the East Side electeds, has been fighting tooth and nail against the garbage transfer station—she appropriated a quote from Winston Churchill that was originally about fighting the Nazis in World War II to demonstrate how hard she will fight the MTS, if that’s any indication of how much she thinks is at stake. She was joined on Saturday by State Sen. Liz Krueger, Assembly Members Micah Kellner and Dan Quart and City Council Member Jessica Lappin, and the fish and aviation puns flew with abandon (the plan should “sleep with the fishes,” the city should “go fish,” the proposal is “fishy,” the whole thing “isn’t going to fly”) as each issued forceful statements against the MTS, hoping that these new factors will hold sway with the right people in government.

Kips Bay Day
This Saturday, May 26, the Kips Bay Neighborhood Alliance, along with the Department of Transportation and Community Board 6, is hosting a community celebration at the Kips Bay pedestrian plaza. The plaza is located on the service road between 30th and 33rd streets, on the east side of Second Avenue, and is closed to traffic through July 31 to allow for community events and create more open space in the neighborhood. The events on Saturday run from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and include live jazz music, chess games for kids, a puppet show by Repertorio Espanol, belly dancing with the Stein Senior Center, pet training from Walter’s Pets, bike training from Sids Bikes and NYBikes and other activities for kids and adults. For more information, email mholli@nyc.rr.com.

The proposed garbage dump that will go next to Asphalt Green.

Opponents of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station (MTS) planned by the city are joining forces with a seemingly unlikely ally, the Friends of LaGuardia Airport. What residents against a trash facility in their neighborhood have in common with a group that advocates for safe conditions at an airport in Queens is that both groups want to halt the transfer station in its tracks.

Air safety experts have begun to speak against the Upper East Side transfer station, as well as another planned for College Point in Queens, pointing to both planned facilities as wildlife attractants that will increase the number of dangerous collisions between flocks of large migratory birds and airplanes taking off from and landing at LaGuardia Airport. Last week, a Delta flight leaving JFK made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff when it struck a flock of birds and one of its engines was damaged, an incident that has reignited attention to this particular avian problem.

“This is a known risk, one that the aviation community has been dealing with for decades,” said James Hall, a transportation safety consultant and former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. “The New York airports sit in the middle of an area that is surrounded by water. They are already an area that provides wildlife attractants and challenges in order to provide for safe flight.”

Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the now-famous pilot who safely landed his plane on the Hudson River after a bird strike crippled its engines in 2009, has spoken against both transfer stations. He told CBS This Morning last week, “It’s a bad idea to build near an airport anything that’s likely to attract birds, including trash facilities,” mentioning the East 91st Street and College Point stations by name.

While locals and politicians in Yorkville have been fighting the transfer station for a myriad of reasons, it seems like their best hope for actually stopping it lies with the lawsuits that the Friends of LaGuardia airport have filed against the FAA.

“Most people don’t associate our community in Yorkville with LaGuardia Airport in Queens,” said David Mack, one of the founders of the group Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, formed to oppose the Upper East Side MTS. “But as the crow flies, literally, the FAA has a mandated perimeter where they don’t want any wildlife attractants, and we are within that distance.”

Ken Paskar, president of Friends of LaGuardia Airport and a former lead representative for the FAA safety team, said his group is only asking the FAA to do what their own regulations require them to enforce.

“The FAA is very specific about what it means to be a fully enclosed transfer station, and the transfer station at East 91st Street does not meet that criteria,” Paskar said. The FAA recommends that any potential wildlife attractant be located at least five miles from any airports to protect their approach, departure and circling airspace, and has strict requirements that those located within that radius must meet that essentially prohibit any trash or odor escaping the enclosed station.

City officials have said that the transfer station will be built to ensure minimal exposure of the trash to the outdoors, and that its operations will be conducted under the covered facility. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which has issued permits for the facility, did not respond to request for comment on this story.

Opponents contest that there is no way the city can guarantee that the transfer station will operate without attracting additional birds.

“This is not rocket science here, this is something that everyone understands—birds and airplanes don’t mix,” Paskar said. “When you build something on the water with a new food source, which is garbage and waste, for birds, you’re going to have a hazardous situation.”

State Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Micah Kellner, who have both been vocal opponents of the transfer station along with other East Side elected officials, released a joint statement pointing to the recent bird strike as another reason to halt the East 91st Street facility.

“While this bird strike occurred on a flight path out of JFK, it’s a reminder that we need to work on mitigating the risks for all our airports,” read the statement in part. “We agree with the Friends of LaGuardia Airport, former FAA officials who think that putting bird-attracting sanitation facilities in major flight paths is a bad idea.”

Bird strikes have been increasing over the past several decades, a phenomenon that experts attribute to changes in migratory patterns due to climate change. According to the FAA’s database, there have been 960 wildlife strikes near LaGuardia Airport in the past 10 years, 10 of which resulted in substantial damage and one—Sullenberger’s “Miracle on the Hudson”—that resulted in a destroyed aircraft. While it’s common for birds to collide with planes in the air, large fowl like Canadian geese can cause enough damage to ground a flight.

“To me, it’s just a horrible precedent to be set nationally,” said Hall. “For the city of New York, the Port Authority and the FAA to take an action like this, to add to an area that is already an attractant, to add to that with these waste disposal units is just irresponsible.”