Upper East Siders have been fighting tooth and nail against a waste transfer station that will soon debut on East 91st Street near the East River, and this week they were awarded a concession—the mayor's office has agreed to reroute a sanitation truck ramp that neighbors said would ruin a playing field frequented by local children.
The city will spend $30 million to move the ramp from 91st to 92nd Street—previously, it was designed to run through Asphalt Green, a recreational facility that is very popular among UES residents and local children. Activists complained that the truck route would cause environmental problems, endanger pedestrians, and potentially harm children in the area. "It really was after a lot of consultation with the community,” Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia told the Daily News. “We’ve always been very aware that we were in the middle of a dense area.”
The new ramp, which Garcia has warned will create significantly more traffic on the FDR Drive, won't be ready by the time the waste transfer station debuts in 2017, and the original ramp will serve the area temporarily. Asphalt Green said yesterday that they were relieved by City Hall's decision to move the ramp, although other local groups who disapprove of the waste transfer station altogether say they'll continue to protest it.
