City Council Foils Mayor's Trash Plan

It's not the best week for Mayor Bloomberg. His West Side stadium gets poo-pooed, and now the City Council doesn't like his plan for trash! The City Council, led by City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, voted against the mayor's trash plan. The Bloomberg administration's plan was to
ship the city's garbage via barges, in order to cut sanitation truck traffic, by creating/renovating marine transfer stations in the city. One was in Miller's Upper East Side district, making him primed to fight the Mayor on this. The interesting thing is that many politicians in poorer districts actually supported this trash plan (not to mention the NRDC), because many trash stations are located in their districts. The NY Times reports that many Council members were upset over the vote, with City Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn saying, "This is the most embarrassing day I've had since I've been on the Council."

Now the Mayor can veto the City Council's vote, and then the City Council would need to override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote; the Daily News says the Mayor doesn't think the City Council has enough override votes. Look for Mayor Bloomberg to take this vote to the streets, because supporting a plan that would right "environmental injustices" amongst poorer neighborhoods also helps him look less like the out-of-touch billionaire that wants an expensive Manhattan stadium. We think.

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By Jen Chung in News on June 9, 2005 8:28 AM

Comments [rss]

Ann

The (IHR) provides resources for historians. These resources include online articles, free event advertising, MA/PhD study, training courses, an open-access library and more.

Ann

The (IHR) provides resources for historians. These resources include online articles, free event advertising, MA/PhD study, training courses, an open-access library and more.

greenpointer

oh, dude, amit: that picture is totally from the nyc sanitation dept webpage. i know b/c i sometimes use the online forms there to complain about the smell of my neighborhood

Amit

politics aside, i'm curious to know where that badass picture w/ the city employees + heavy machinery came from

Sarah

Dear Greenpointer - You have my sympathy, sludge tanks are no fun. And "reasonably priced" in greater NYC is all relative, and can always be accompanied by finger quotes when spoken aloud. My point is that it's mischaracterizing the situation to suggest that objections to renovating the transfer station on the Upper East Side can be framed as a class struggle. It's just your garden variety NIMBY situation, a viewpoint that pretty much everyone seems to share when it comes to smelly sludge tanks.

bbcue

Greenpointer, I totally hear you--I live in Greenpoint too. A few weeks back, when it started getting warm, "that smell" wafted into our "reasonably priced" rental all evening. It's like the entire city just took a huge, messy crap in your living room. No candle or incense could cover it with the windows open. So much for throwing open the windows to enjoy the spring air.

I grew up in this neighborhood, smelling this reek my entire life, and, yeah, NIMBY!

greenpointer

Hey, Sarah: Life in my reasonably-priced ("reasonable" only if you ignore the smell) rental already is unbearable! I live next to a sludge tank where your pooh, distilled with that of the outer-borough riff-raff, is temporarily stored for transfer onto a Jersey-bound shit boat. Eat it, Manhattan!

Sarah

For the record, where they are proposing renovating the transfer station is NOT in a location that will greatly impact the wealthy residents (who live close to Central Park). It's on the east side, near the East River, which is one of the most affordable locations in Manhattan (at least below 96th Street) and beats a lot of the more gentrified outer boro neighborhoods for price and value. The specific location of the transfer station is very near a highly residential area. The noise (and possible smell!) will make life in my reasonably priced rental unbearable.

Tim N.

Hoo, baby, I can't wait to see if this one gets going! Mayor Bling, the richest kid in town, taking the side of the working folks in the outer boros against his fellow rich kids on the East Side who have a sudden attack of NIMBYism (Nola, where are you when your blog needs you?). Maybe he's not such a ham-handed politician after all.

Either way, he should thank God every night that this stadium thing has gone away.

This one's a loser for Miller and the Dems, and they should bail on it asap.

Kojak

"One was in Miller's Upper East Side district..."

Now Now, we can't have that and bring down their high property values. Best to stick those trash transfer stations in poor sections of the city, because their property is low valued already. They can handle a little more trash.

So by Gifford Miller's logic the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many?? But granted he is just looking out for his District, even though the plan would benefit everyone.