Upper East Side Residents In An Uproar Over Planned Garbage Depot Near Asphalt Green
NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- Upper East Side residents are in an uproar over plans for a garbage depot in their neighborhood.
They have fought back with lawsuits, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn recently received an earful from local residents during a heated confrontation.
Quinn faced a mostly hostile crowd of Upper East Siders, who blame her and Mayor Michael Bloomberg for wanting to put a garbage dump in their paradise.
"To put a perspective of environmental justice into our solid waste management plan, where low-income neighborhoods did not have to absorb all of the uses," Quinn told crowd.
The city is planning to build a $240-million garbage transfer station through the middle of Asphalt Green, an oasis of Fitness and sport on the Upper East Side.
Quinn recently spoke a Democratic Candidate's forum as the only candidate who fully supported the garbage project.
"I wish we had a proposal that would make every neighborhood happy, that is simply not always a possibility," she said.
CBS 2's Steve Langford reported that trucks servicing the proposed dump would line up near the spot where children meet to go swimming, or attend soccer camps, with only a fence to separate them from truck exhaust fumes; this posed a particular concern for parents.
A garbage transfer station operated next to Asphalt Green for decades, but was closed down in the late 1990's. The city expects the new plant to be running by 2015.
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