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The Bronx River (not to be confused with the Bronx Swamp) used to be famous for the smell, which, in the immortal words used by journalist Guy Trebay, "could gag a maggot." It always made me wonder what might be beneath the surface. Well, the people at the Bronx River Alliance know: they've been dredging things up from the bottom of the river since the 1970s. And in quantity: "Our tire count is around 70,000," said Anne-Marie Runfola, Deputy Director of the BRA.
Seventy thousand tires—how was there room for water in the river? Apparently it was the appliances that caused more of a problem: "at East Tremont Avenue you used to be able to walk across the water on refrigerators—people literally didn't know there was a river there. It was completely clogged with appliances." Many of those have now been removed from the riverbed too, along with the usual hypodermic needles, broken glass, shopping carts, guns, knives, and the like. "A lot of the stuff we find goes to the precinct as evidence," Ms. Runfola continued. "Once we found a human skull. It wasn't fresh, but it wasn't ancient history either." The most random thing found to date was a winepress (if you don't know what that looks like take a peek here). Who goes to the trouble of throwing a winepress into the Bronx River?
You can imagine that dragging 70,000 tires out of a river changes it somewhat (see photo, though not all of it looks like that); and this one has now become habitat for herons, snapping turtles, alewives (brand-new to the area), muskrat, deer, eels, and of course Jose the Bronx Beaver. Ms. Runfola reports that Jose is still healthy, but alas still single. Well, he wouldn't be the first to move to New York and not find love.
The BRA is having its "Upstream Soiree" fundraiser this Thursday. It's not free, but they do have plenty of other free events (check the website), and maybe you'll help pay for the next car to get craned out of the river. Perhaps similar work is being done in your neighborhood—try the Gowanus Dredgers or the Newtown Creek Alliance.
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Get the impression that the people of the Bronx are a bunch of filthy slobs with a third-world mentality and zero respect for the environment?
Way to generalize
I generalize about things that are generally true.
yeah, because the hudson and east rivers are so clean.
the thing with the bronx river is it's barely a river, more of a creek. so the stuff that piles up in it is more obvious. there is far more trash in the hudson river than could fit in the bronx river.
Now some people would read this article and take away "Oh, that's nice... some people out there are trying clean this river up and make the Bronx a nicer place."
Others will simply jump at the chance to make ridiculous assumptions about communities they have never visited and know nothing about.
Each to his own.
Oh yeah, it's southern white rednecks driving all the way up here to ditch their garbage in the Bronx River, no it couldn't be anybody in the Bronx. I've been the the Bronx plenty of times so I write from personal observations.
You're a sanctimonious reactionary, Ides. Find me a community in this city that doesn't junk up its own neighborhood. The only difference is that the folks in Manhattan get better sanitation clean-up. Dump a fridge in Central Park and guess how long it would be until its removed.
I'm one of those people that immediately thought 'good on them.' It's nice that people are doing something good with their time. I hope karma rewards them in kind.
You hit the nail on the head, the Gowanus is just starting to get clean after decades of neglect. Now these people want to do it for the Bronx River, it's a start to a hopefully cleaner city in the future.
The Passaic River in NJ is no better. What could be a lovely line of water is sludged with trash and chemical runoff, not to mention human bodies. People suck.
but then there are other people, who clean up after strangers :-)
If you read the Guy Trebay piece (linked under "not all of it looks like that"), which was written in 2000, he describes the plans to clean up the river, make parks, establish a greenway, etc. - all things that have happened - as "optimism worthy of Candide." Yet a lot of it has happened, and more is on the way. Best of all possible worlds.
I recently purchased "Canoeing & Kayaking New York," which lists river paddles throughout the state. Included is a paddle down the Bronx River. He didn't mention the stench or whether the prostitutes helped him take his kayak out of the water (or the money out of his wallet) at Hunts Point.
I never had a problem with the smell of the Bronx River. Flushing Creek, on the other hand, always smelled like raw sewage.
If they dig deep enough they should find the U.S. Constitution buried somewhere down there too.
Heh, good one.
They can erase the memories, but they can't erase the pee:)