Results tagged “erinbrockovich”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: falling debris on W 47th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, a shooting on Broadway on Staten Island, and a suspicious boat at the Verrazano Bridge near Brooklyn.
• For a reason unrelated to terrorism, the U.S. Parks Dept. is going to keep the crown of the Statue of Liberty closed because it's a fire death-trap.
• Iranian President Mahmoud Amahdinejad's wish to visit Ground Zero was blocked due to security concerns.
• Leaping Labradors! Dogs competing for top dog dock jumping honors were jumping into a pool at Bryant Park.
• Money should start flowing quicker than spilled oil now that Julia Roberts stand-in Erin Brockovich has jumped into the Greenpoint oil spill pool.
• Despite objections from transit groups and the state comptroller, the MTA is prepared to propose a fare increase for commuters.
• Are New Yorkers in store for a second taxi strike?
• Filmmaker brothers Ethan and Joel Coen are attempting to pass off Brooklyn as the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, DC. Mutual outrage will likely ensue.
• The vigil for recently deceased carriage horse Smoothie has been moved to the southeast corner of Central Park at the northeast section of Grand Army Plaza. It'll take place Thursday from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

That's what State Comptroller Alan Hevesi is asking. He advised the Department of Environmental Conservation not to negotiate an agreement with Exxon over the Greenpoint oil spill clean up because the spill needs to be thoroughly examined. Back in 1978, a Coast Guard pilot noticed an oil plume off Newtown Creek: It turned out that 17 million gallons (more than the 11 million from the Exxon Valdez spill) of oil had been spilling since the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1978, the spill covered 55 acres. We've found it odd that the Greenpoint oil spill hasn't been a bigger deal - maybe that's because there aren't any photographs of Alaskan animals in an oil slick - but it's possibly scarier, as it the oil has been seeping into the soil and exposed in an urban area.

When most of us think of oil spills, we think of cute seal pups that end up coated with the stuff, with scruffy Greenpeacers on bended knee trying to scrub them clean. But some Brooklynites have had only one thing on their mind thanks to a 55 acre oil spill that took place over 50 years ago: cancer. A 1950 tanker explosion that leaked almost 17 million gallons of oil and gas into the ground has given Greenpoint, Brooklyn a lingering smell that many longtime residents say lets them know that they're close to home on the BQE. But according to the NY Times, a lawsuit was filed in October against 3 oil companies on the behalf of several residents who claim the accident has caused increased cancer rates in the neighborhood immediately above the contaminated ground. And as none other than Erin Brockovich is consulting on the case, a little surrounding media circus is to be forgiven.