Excited to share our latest NYC policy answer from Council Member Ben Kallos presiding over District 5. Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island, addressed the controversial Marine Transfer Station planned for East 91st street in Manhattan.
The proposed facility was approved in 2005 and was integral to Mayor Bloomberg’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which aimed to decrease the use of trucks for the transportation of waste, and place the burden on boroughs to handle more of their own waste.
Citing high cost and vulnerable East Harlem neighbors, Kallos believes the future station “turns good urban planning on its head…” and “represents poor policy-making that must be reversed.”
Click here for the full Q+A:
http://www.askthem.io/ny-new-york/questions/53029350f92ea11df5000016
Kathryn Garcia, Mayor de Blasio’s new sanitation commissioner, is moving forward with the plan to open the waste-transfer station. Neighborhood activists and residents’ organizations have sued to halt the station out of concern for health risks, while supporters of the plan – like Council Member Antonio Reynoso– champion it as a step towards environmental justice because they believe it will enforce the district to take on a proportionate share of the city’s solid waste system.
Thanks to Ben Kallos for responding to his constituents on a heated policy issue! Surface your local concerns with all of the NYC City Council members here: http://www.askthem.io/ny-new-york
Ask Ben Kallos your own follow-up question:
http://www.askthem.io/ny-new-york/people/52e6e8c7f92ea18a45000007
Ask Antonio Reynoso for his take on NYC’s waste management plan:
http://www.askthem.io/ny-brooklyn/people/52e3e3b6f92ea1272b00000d
Ask Mayor de Blasio about community concerns over construction:
http://www.askthem.io/ny-new-york/people/52e3e3b6f92ea1272b000011