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Decades back, few — if any — would oppose a plan to open a concrete plant in industrial Red Hook. But today, it's a different story. Residents of the quickly gentrifying neighborhood have petitioned and picketed in attempts to stop U.S. Concrete from opening a factory this month that they fear will scatter airborne particles "to the yellow-and-blue Ikea next door, heavily used baseball fields across the street, and a 2.75-acre farm nearby on a former playground," according to the Times. Community activist John McGettrick laid it out for the paper of record: “There’s a certain irony that we have a mayor talking about no smoking in parks, but he has no problem allowing the construction of a concrete plant that would shower cement dust on children in the park,” he said.
But with the plant operating within one of the city's industrial business zones, there is little that anyone can do to stop it. Mike Gentoso, a vice president of the U.S. Concrete, said that with his plant's high-tech dust collectors, there's no reason for neighbors to be concerned about airborne particles. “We don’t feel we will have an issue of dust.” Let's see what happens towards the end of the month, when as many as 20 concrete mixers start visiting the plant three times each day.
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It kind of sounds like the same mentality that the idiots downtown use for the reason that Hudson Square needs a three district sanitation garage.
Perfect location for a cement plant though: Manhattan-close, mob-convenient.
I don't see what the big deal is. Red Hook has always been an industrial neighborhood. That's why the rent was so cheap when all those "artists" started moving down there. What did they think was going to happen when they knowingly chose to move into an industrial zoned area? I'm mean come on, it's a concrete factory, not a paper mill. I used to live next to one in East Williamsburg and it really wasn't a big problem. I had to dust a little extra. It certainly wasn't the erupting Mt. Vesuvius they're making it out to be.
You activists keep gentrifying the neighborhood and before you know it you're going to attract real estate developers. Then you'll be paying $3000 a month to live next to a concrete factory!
the big deal is, that there are types of industrial use... you have to consider environmental, traffic generated etc etc etc... Look, what will happen is some full concrete truck will crash into some black kid from the projects, kids dies. makes the news, blows over cause Red Hook has the weakest representation of any district in the city. its not just artists you knob, its one of the largest public housing projects in the world.... but who cares about them.
and for the white people, your volvos will have a layer of crap on them when you visit Fairway or Ikea ( to dump your kids off at the free child care as you shop the cheese aisle at Fairway), and your tacos from the ballfields will taste just a wee bit less fresh.
ohh yeah and the community farm, Added Value, is across the street.
THIS is a total Bloomberg sell out
THAT is the big deal, but that doesn't make for a snarky comment now does it.
I don't think you understand what an industrial zone is and the purpose of urban planning. A child has a better chance of being ran over by a drunk soccer mom than a cement mixer. And the dust. . . well you're just pissing and moaning about a problem that plagues every part of this city. It's called pollution and it's one of the hazards of living in a large city. I don't see how Bloomberg is selling out by allowing a concrete factory to be built in an INDUSTRIAL ZONE. And if you don't like it move. . . oh wait, this isn't about you. It's for the poor little black kids, right?
Meanwhile, half their apartments are filled with questionably manufactured Chinese drywall, covered with highly toxic paints and coatings.
I thought I read that Red Hook was degentrifying.
I thought the mayor blocked the no smoking in parks idea?
And then they complain about unemployment and high rents and high construction costs.
Spaces need to be kept for industry in this city. If we can't have industrial uses in Gowanus, Red Hook, Bushwick, etc., traffic and prices for everything will continue to go through the roof as materials will need to be trucked in from Jersey/Staten Island.
No one denies that the city need have industrial zones. But the problem is where you put them. The corner of Columbia St where this plant is going is right next to Ikea plaza. The new waterfront area that was meant to spur growth in the micro area. The other side of Red Hook by the Canal is some of the most industrial in the city, as well the water front moving towards to Sunset Park.
But add is a large truck based business to streets already not designed for them, the dust, the loss of what was promised at big box retail and the jobs that would have followed...
Its just stupid. there are places for industrial, nd just cause a place was zoned for it 40 years ago doesn't always mean that its applies today or going forward.
This isn't a nimby issue, its just poor planning.