April 13th, 2007 · Comments Off on Fifth Ave. Atlantic Yards "De-Mapping" is May 27, B63 Rerouted
Say goodbye to Fifth Avenue as it runs through the proposed Atlantic Yards footprint. The street is being “de-mapped” on May 27. This news was delivered at the Community Board 6 meeting in Park Slope on Wednesday night as part of an announcement that the B63 bus route is being changed. There was jeering at the meeting about the announcement, as New York City Transit had not consulted with anyone at the community level, other than to deliver a notice of the service revision.
CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman writes:
Currently, the B63 travels northbound along 5th Avenue and makes a left (westbound) turn onto Atlantic Avenue. Given the potential de-mapping of 5th Avenue between Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, the B63 riding northbound along 5th Avenue will now make a left turn onto Flatbush Avenue, then another left turn onto Atlantic Avenue to proceed westbound. DOT will be revising signage on northbound Flatbush Avenue at Atlantic Avenue, which currently prohibits a left turn, to read “No Left Turn Except Buses.” Also, the bus stop at the southeast corner of 5th Avenue and Atlantic Avenue will be eliminated.
(Had there been an opportunity to discuss this with either agency, I’m confident that someone would have pointed out that by eliminating the only B63 bus stop on the eastside of Flatbush Avenue they would now require all northbound B63 riders to have to cross Flatbush Avenue to get to the Atlantic Center, Atlantic Terminal, future Atlantic Yards, and any other destinations on the eastside of Flatbush Avenue.)
Even with litigation to determine the outcome of Atlantic Yards still in the courts, changes associated with the project, from demolitions to “de-mapping” of streets are starting. A copy of the letter and proposed B63 reroute map is available here at the CB6 website.
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Here’s Episode Four of the vbs.tv series on “Toxic Brooklyn.” This segment is an excellent one on the uniquely toxic horror and environmental disaster known as Newtown Creek. You can click over here to get to all of the episodes.
The Brooklyn Indie Market has a new home on Smith Street. The collective of emerging designers will set up shop starting on May 5 under tents and in kiosks at the corner of Smith and Union Streets, which is near the Carroll Street station on the F Train. The booths and tents were set up more than a year ago and have been largely vacant, so it’s great to know that the wonderful designers working with the group will have a home and that the space will be productively utilized. It’s potentially a great location and its under-use has been puzzling. The new market will run from 11AM until 7PM and will offer everything from fashions and accessories to pet gear and paper products. We’ve checked out the offerings of the 20 designers involved and can vouch that there’s some very cool stuff available. The market will run every Saturday and Sunday throughout the year.
During a nearly 3 1/2 hour meeting last night in Park Slope, Community Board Six disposed of the one-way proposal for Sixth and Seventh Avenues that had sparked an outpouring of neighborhood opposition. It also decided not to act on a surprisingly controversial plan to install bike lanes and other “traffic calming” measures on Ninth Street. (Contrary to an incorrect NY Sun headline proclaiming a victory for the plan.)
Small groups of protesters were in the audience, and an unusually large number of police were also in attendance.
The Board handled the one-way issue–which had resulted in a crowd of more than 500 people showing up for a March 15 Transportation Committee meeting–first. It unanimously passed a motion requesting the Department of Transportation “continue working in a meaningful way” with the Community Board on transportation issues such as reducing the speed of cars on Eighth Avenue and on Prospect Park West (which are one-way streets). Then, it unanimously passed a motion requesting that DOT not go forward with the Sixth and Seventh Avenue plans “period.” (There had been questions about earlier language being too vague.) The Board passed a third motion asking DOT to table plans to add turning bays to Fourth Avenue until further discussions with the community take place.
Then, the board moved on to the issue of bike lanes and other traffic calming measures on Ninth Street. Council Member Bill DeBlasio arrived while the meeting was underway and spoke in support of the proposals, noting that he’d gotten a commitment from the Police Department not to ticket cars that are double-parked in the bike lanes and from DOT to continue the bike lane down Prospect Park West so that bicyclists would enter the park at 15th Street rather than 9th Street. (The double parking issue emerged as the crux of neighborhood opposition to the plan, with residents fearing that a bike lane would interfere with their ability to double park while picking up people or running into a store.) The board, meanwhile, said it had gotten about 140 emails and faxes in favor of the proposal and 80 opposed. The Board’s Transportation Committee had voted in favor of the plan.
Board Member Bob Levine, who also heads the Ninth Street Block Association, led opposition to the plan, saying that steps needed to be taken to address the “bicycle problem” and that the plan was “idiotic and asking for trouble.” Several members, however, spoke strongly in favor of the proposal. One noted that “bike lanes will make cycling much safer” and that “If I were parking my car on Ninth Street, I’d rather step out into a bike lane than speeding traffic.” Another said that bicyclists are a public safety threat and that “bicyclists should be licensed.”
“I thought if there is going to be a good place for a bike route, this is it,” said member Louise Finney, who is also a Trustee of the Park Slope Civic Council. “This would be a great traffic calming device.”
Board Member Anthony Pugliese, who is an organizer with the District Council of Carpenters, got a laugh from crowd, speaking in favor of the proposal and saying, “What is this, Bensonhurst? These are bicycles. No gas.”
In the end, the Community Board voted to send the proposal back to its Transportation Committee for further discussion with DOT and to ask DOT not to act until the discussions are completed. (Today’s New York Sun has a mistaken headline and incorrect story saying that CB6 approved the Ninth Street plan, which would cheer supporters of the plan and give opponents fits, if it were true, which it isn’t. ) The Department does not need community approval to go ahead with the plan and there is strong support with the Department for it. In tabling the motion, however, the Community Board could well be allowing department to move forward. It has already announced its intention to go ahead with the plan in July. (For an excellent FAQ on the Ninth Street Plan check out Streets Blog’s intelligent and insightful coverage.)
The Board also voted unanimously to support significant traffic and pedestrian improvements to Grand Army Plaza.
Looks like Seventh Avenue in Park Slope is going to be getting more banking services. Gowanus Lounge has learned that D’Agostino’s, which is at the corner of Sixth Street and Seventh Avenue, will be closing on April 28. Gothic Cabinet Craft, which occupies the corner store in the same building will also close. They will be replaced by a full-service Bank of America branch. A children’s store, whose identity we don’t know, will occupy part of the renovated storefront as well. (Yesterday, OTBKB reported rumblings that the D’Agostino would be closing.) The Bank of America outlet would be its third Seventh Avenue facility within a year, the other two being ATM storefronts at Seventh Avenue and Union Street and a new one on Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street. GL has also been told that there is “banking interest” in the storefronts on Seventh Avenue north of Union Street that have been empty since they were hit by a fire more than two years ago. Signs indicating the property has been sold went up recently. Bankers still consider Seventh Avenue to be “under-banked” and there are no branches south of Carroll Street. Apparently, while both D’Agostino’s and Gothic Cabinet Craft were doing well, rent increases made staying in the space untenable. Bank of America has clearly come into the Park Slope market at a run.
April 12th, 2007 · Comments Off on A Walk Around the Atlantic Yards "Footprint"
GL took a photo walk around the part of Prospect Heights that would be mostly demolished to make room for the Atlantic Yards development. A sampling of the images are in the slideshow above. You can click over to our flickr set here if you’d rather view them that way.
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April 12th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Milk: Straight Out of Gowanus
Reader Steve Skollar, who has previously sent us photos of those Union Street trolley tracks being unearthed and of the remnants of the stone bridge on Third Avenue revealed by construction, sends us this photo of a bottle of cream that was found during a building renovation. You’ll note that it’s from the Brooklyn Milk Company, which was at 266 Bond Street.
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April 12th, 2007 · Comments Off on Duffield Street Underground Railroad Houses Redux
Council Member Letitia James‘ Chief of Staff posted a comment on our item about the Daily Gotham’s suggestion that City Council Members were trying to quash public debate about the future of the Underground Railroad Houses on Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn. It’s an important issue, and we think what Kate Suisman has to say is important. She wrote that the reason for the postponement was “so that community groups, preservationists, historians, the homeowners in question, and others have a chance to read the 500+ page document on Duffield Street and its history released last month. This was done to allow for MORE public input, not less. There is not waffling nor anything untoward going on.” You can find the lengthy and very controversial consultant’s report here. For some very interesting analysis of the Duffield Street issue, click over to this item on No Land Grab, which has been very on top of things.
In more Duffield Street news, Rep. Yvette Clarke has written a letter in support of preserving the homes. Rep. Clarke writes “The preservation of the Duffield and Gold Street blocks for historical purposes would benefit Downtown Brooklyn’s further development…Preserving the Abolitionist homes on Duffield and Gold Street is simply the right thing to do.”
There is a chance that hearings could still be rescheduled for April 17. Stay tuned.
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VBS correspondent Derrick Beckles continues with the tale of toxics in Williamsburg and Brooklyn. Watch Episode Three, especially the material that deals with activist Laura Hofmann’s backyard garden and with the low-level radioactive threat known as Radiac, which is on Kent Avenue. Fun stuff.
We’re not sure what has motivated Whole Foods to blatantly give a cold shoulder to Park Slope residents requesting that it consider a transportation plan and a green roof for its planned Gowanus store. Yet, the food retailer–which prides itself on being environmentally friendly–continues rejecting requests for improvements at the store, which would be built on a toxic site at Third Avenue and Third Street about which there are serious lingering safety questions.
No one is entirely sure what is going on at the site. No work has gone on there in months, and the piles of contaminated soil covered by tarps have not moved. Groundwater still sits in large pools on the parcel. (There are quiet rumblings, here and there, that a wave of expansion has left the retailer a little strapped for cash.)
Whole Foods has “yet to respond in any meaningful way to anything the community has put forth,” says Eric McClure of Park Slope Neighbors, which has mounted a petition drive to convince the retailer to make the Gowanus mega-store a “greener” enterprise. The retailer, in turn, has been pretty consistent in saying ‘no way.’
The 64,000 square foot store is tentatively slated to open in Summer 2008, which could be a very ambitious schedule given the complexity of construction on a site adjacent to the Gowanus Canal with a variety of groundwater and toxic issues including carcinogenic benzene leaching into the site from an unidentified source. Council Members David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio are said to be supportive of neighborhood efforts to sway Whole Foods to do more transportation planning plan and to create a green roof. Because Whole Foods is building most of the store below street level, it requires no city approval to move ahead with construction.
April 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on The Return of Ikea’s "We Are Preservationists" Sign in Red Hook
A couple of weeks ago, we wondered what had happened to Ikea’s sign promoting the retailer’s role in preserving Red Hook history by documenting remnants of a Graving Dock filled in the 1970s, while a few yards away, it fills in the waterfront’s last surviving Graving Dock for parking. The sign disappeared, leading to some neighborhood speculation about what had happened to it.
We can report that it’s back, and has been relocated to a place closer to the entrance. It is now secured by nailed strips of wood. (You can find your way to a readable image of the sign if you go to one of our earlier posts about it.) All of which leads us to conclude that the Pissed Off Red Hooker Ripping It Down Theory was probably the correct one to explain its disappearance. So, how many people will hear, “Hey, what you doing over there?” shouted at them by site security guards when they walk up to read the sign or photograph it?
April 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Back When North Brooklyn Had Gas
A former North Brooklyn resident sent us the shot above, which pictures the old gas holders in Williamsburg near McCarren Park. The tanks are particularly interesting because the old Manufactured Gas Plant left behind a toxic underground soup (as they do everywhere) in Williamsburg that was never cleaned up. (The “tar plume” from such plants, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, can travel underground up to 1,000 feet, or about 1/5 of a mile–meaning easily to Berry Street and possibly as far as Bedford Avenue. For a primer on the environmental mess these plants leave behind click here and here.) Our reader’s email also included some interesting information about the stream that maps show originally flowed directly beneath the current site of the Roebling Oil Field at N. 11th and Roebling. He writes:
I’m a former resident of the ‘burg. I was born on Lorimer near Frost, and also lived in a rear house on Richardson St near Union. We left the area in 1991…aside from the tidal flow that existed in Bushwick Creek, the area abounds with underground springs which at one time fed the kills. Evidence that they are still flowing underground can be observed in the subway on the “G” line, which also runs close by. There is a perpetual stream of water that flows in the trough between the tracks between Nassau & Metropolitan Avenues. A friend of mine who used to work for the Transit Authority mentioned to me that they were a natural stream that runs through the area and they were unable to stem the flow. There’s a lot of history underfoot.
Yes, there is much history underfoot, the trick in North Brooklyn is getting someone to pay attention to it.
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April 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Mr. Sitt’s Bulldozers Come to Coney Island
Check out Neal deMause’s great rundown of the state of things in Coney Island in the new Village Voice (and we’re not just saying this because one of our Coney pics, above, is used with the story). Mr. deMause manages an excellent sketch of a complicated issue. Here’s a sample, which get to the core of the concerns of many people:
But what’s at stake is far more than a view of the Parachute Jump unobstructed by balconied towers. While Thor denies it, denizens of the amusement district fear the developer is preparing to raze and leave fallow as much as two-thirds of Coney’s amusement district. The idea would be to hold the heart of Coney Island hostage to force the city to rezone and let Thor cash in on condos.
If Sitt follows through with stated threats to wait for a new mayoral administration in 2010, Coney Island’s already diminished amusement district could spend years as a torn-up wasteland, leaving only the Cyclone, Dino’s Wonder Wheel Park, Sideshows by the Seashore, and Nathan’s standing amid a vast empty plain…
Meanwhile, the biggest game being played on Coney Island is the game of chicken between Sitt and the city. Privately, many Coney Islanders say that if Bloomberg really wants to call Sitt’s bluff, he’ll threaten to swoop in and seize any vacant land by eminent domain. But no one thinks that’s likely. More realistically, the best-case scenario is that once the city starts the rezoning process in June, Sitt will realize his condo dream is a non-starter and either quickly agree to build something that fits the CIDC’s vision or sell to someone who does. In the worst, the stalemate drags on for years, with Sitt shuttering every building he owns—or flipping the land to another developer who likewise sits on the property while deciding how to develop it.
There’s a tremendous amount of background on the history of the current plans and on Mr. Sitt, so it’s a definite must read for anyone intrested in Coney Island.
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April 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Collecting Cans in Gowanus
If there’s one way to cut through the clutter of information with which we deal, headlining a story “Collecting Cans in Gowanus” is one of them. Call it instant click bait. In any case, the story is about the people you see collecting deposit bottles and cans every day, in this case, collecting them in Park Slope and bringing them to the Pathmark in Gowanus. This is from NYC Pavement Pieces, which is produced by journalism grad students at NYU. Here are a few excerpts:
Jose Rivera jingles and clangs as he walks west of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, armed with five bulging heavy duty trash bags. He’s a regular in this area, always cheerful and pleasant. Rivera is known for bending down to say hello to children in strollers and petting the neighborhood dogs. He takes pride in his notoriety and his genial relationship in the community where he works as a local bottle and can collector.
On a Sunday or a Monday, just before the Sanitation Department picks up the curbside trash and recycling, collectors like Rivera can net as much as $70 or $80 for the day’s work. Added to the average of $40 or $50 he makes on other days, Rivera manages to just barely eke out the rent for his one room apartment near the upscale Windsor Terrace neighborhood. For fifteen years, Rivera says his scavenging has kept him out of trouble and more seamy lines of work.
“It’s better than hurting someone, or getting hurt or going to jail for trying to make a living,” he says.
Like most of the collectors in the area, Rivera uses the topography to his advantage, starting near Prospect Park and working west. The hill slopes away from the park, helping roll the carts and ease the weight of bags off the shoulders of collectors, to the plateau where the redemption center in the parking lot of the Pathmark lies under the Gowanus Expressway…
According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 87 billion beverage containers have been returned since the Container Act went into effect. In communities like Gowanus, professional bottle pickers are responsible for the bulk of those redeemed containers. Men and women tearing through garbage bags with their bare hands have become an integral part of the urban ecosystem. The society relies on can collectors to recover and salvage its refuse, and the collectors retain their autonomy.
You know that spring and summer are only a matter of time when the Celebrate Brooklyn summer schedule starts to leak out. We found early and very partial listing on Kensington Brooklyn, which got it from Brooklyn Vegan, and someone who’s even slower than us, will get it from here, making the circle complete.
Thu 06/14 – The Neville Brothers (opening night) Sat 06/16 – Joan Osborne Thu 06/21 – Richard Thompson Fri 06/22 – Ralph Stanley Tue 06/26 – Manu Chao Tue 06/27 – Manu Chao Fri 06/29 – Ravi Coltrane, Groove Collective Sat 06/30 – The Stills, Sam Roberts Band, Malajube Thu 07/05 – Isaac Delgado Wed 07/18 – Ani Difranco Thu 07/19 – Morley, Blackmail with Alloy Orchestra Fri 07/20 – Catherine Russell & Bobby “Blue” Bland Thu 08/09 – The Hold Steady, The Big Sleep, The Teenage Prayers Sat 08/11 – African Festival w/ Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
April 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Cool Vid: A 95-Year-Old Talks About Coney Island
Here’s an interesting video (it’s a rough cut) that someone posted of his grandfather talking about Coney Island and edited with archival footage. He was 95 years old when the video was shot and had worked at Luna Luna Park, spent time at Steeplechase and dinned at Feltmans. Click on the embed or click here. We found this, of course, through the creator’s post on the Coney Island Message Board.
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Renowned muralist and sculptor Sol LeWitt died on Sunday at the age of 78. Among other things, Mr. LeWitt was famous for his wall paintings. Develop Don’t Destroy notes that there are at least two wall paintings by Mr. LeWitt at 644 Pacific Street, which is slated to be demolished by Forest City Ratner in coming weeks. DDDB writes:
In that building, once occupied by one of Mr. LeWitt’s studio assistants, are at least two wall paintings by the artist. The building is in the list of the first round of demolitions the developer intends to begin in the coming weeks. Yesterday we spoke with Sol LeWitt’s art business manager who told us that the works need not be preserved but really should be photographed. So, these wall paintings should be photographed for historical documentation and the Sol Lewitt catalogue.
We call on Forest City Ratner to ensure that this happens and provide the photographs to the LeWitt collection.
April 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Park Slope Group Comes Out in Favor of 9th Street Bike Lanes
With a Community Board 6 meeting coming up on Wednesday, Park Slope Neighbors has come out in favor of the plan to add bike lanes and turning lanes to Ninth Street. Last week, with vocal opposition from Ninth Street residents, the Park Slope Civic Council voted to oppose the plan. Yesterday, PSN sent a letter in favor of the plan to CB6 and to Council Member Bill DeBlasio. Here’s an excerpt:
On Thursday, March 29, the transportation committee of Community Board 6 voted in favor of the Department of Transportation’s redesign plan for 9th Street in Park Slope. Park Slope Neighbors believes that this plan provides significant safety, quality of life and environmental benefits for all of the users of the 9th Street. As such, we urge you to support this plan and hope that you will let the full Community Board know of our support.
Park Slope Neighbors supports DOT’s plan for 9th Street because it provides the following benefits to the neighborhood:
1. It significantly improves pedestrian safety along one of the most dangerous “side streets” in all of Park Slope.
2. It provides proven, effective traffic-calming on a street with a notorious speeding and reckless driving problem.
3. It enhances cyclist safety and convenience along one of our area’s key bike routes.
As I am sure you are aware, DOT’s plan is causing a certain amount of anxiety among some 9th Street residents. While we agree that DOT needs to do a much better job of bringing community stakeholders into the planning process, we believe that some of this concern has been generated by misinformation and misunderstanding…
This plan is not being dropped on the community from out of nowhere. We see this plan as a thoughtful response to community concerns. In the summer of 2004 a sedan went through the front door of Dizzy’s restaurant on 8th Avenue and 9th Street. That began a public process during which area residents collected more than 1,200 signatures urging DOT to address the long-standing pedestrian safety and reckless driving problems on 9th Street. Rather than ignoring the request or installing some street signs and calling it a day, DOT put thought and creativity into the issues raised by the neighborhood and came up with a thorough, detailed plan that will significantly improve pedestrian safety, calm traffic and provide much needed facilities for bicycling.
You can read Streets Blog’s coverage of the Civic Council’s vote here.
What’s up with the Underground Railroad Houses on Duffield Street in downtown Brooklyn? The snarky answer and the short one are the same: Who knows?
The public hearing on the top has been rescheduled many times and the date is still unclear. It could be May 1. Or it could be April 17. But we’re pretty certain it won’t be April 11. This leads Daily Gotham to label the shifting schedule “a stunning move of extreme waffling” by Council Member Melinda Katz. Daily Gotham writes:
In their messy attempt to help squelch any further exploration of this history, the City Council has in the space of about three weeks rescheduled the public hearing on this three times. The Economic Development Corporation, with AKRF (a private entity dedicated to destroying communities in the way of big development plans), spent two years studying the historical record. The 500+ page report was released 3/13/07 and the first public hearing was scheduled 3/20, giving the public no time to review the report. After some pressure from Tish James and others, they rescheduled the meeting to 4/11. On April 5 at about 5:00 pm, Council Member Katz’s office let word out that the meeting will be delayed until May 1. Or maybe not.
Whether this is a purposeful attempt to confuse the enemy, or simply a glorious fit of disorganization, the effect is the same: The City Council is stifling public input. It is not too much to ask the City Council to stick to one date.
The city is proposing to demolish the properties for an underground parking lot. Hotels are under construction across the street.
If you’ve been down Third Avenue between Third and Fourth Streets recently, you’ve noticed that the bridge over what was once a branch of the Gowanus Canal is being rebuilt. Resident Steven Skollar, who has a very sharp eye–he also brought those unearthed trolley tracks at Union and Smith Streets to our attention–captured these images. They show the original stone bridge that ran over this part of the canal. He writes:
On Third Avenue just below Third Street a construction project has exposed the bridge’s stone foundation. The stone, I suspect, is Manhattan schist. Note the relatively ornate cap stone. It looks looks as if at one time it was above grade.
The stone is very similar to the walls that surround Central Park and that can be found in places in Prospect Park. Very cool stuff.
A few weeks ago, we had a great time wandering around Williamsburg on a Sunday afternoon with Derrick Beckles and Trace Crutchfield two very, very smart, funny and cool people from vbs.tv, which is part of the Vice family of products. Vice is headquartered in Williamsburg, which is one of the things that got the Vice team interested in the state of things underfoot and in the air. In any case, the first episodes of Toxic Brooklyn are now online, and are absolutely worth checking out. The reports will hit all the, um, hot spots, so to speak: Radiac (the company on Kent Avenue that works with low-grade radioactive waste), Newtown Creek, the Greenpoint Sewage Plant, the Roebling Oil Field and lots more. This was actually our third time in front of cameras in the last month or so talking about environmental issues in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, others having been a News 12 segment last on the Roebling Oil Field and an appearance on WNBC’s News Forum last week during which the subject came up.
You can read a about the series from Trace here. If you have a few minutes, you should also check out Derrick’s reports on environmental issues from West Virginia and follow Trace as he travels to Bolivia to report on its famous Marching Powder and interview President Evo Morales. Hilarity ensues. (It’s off-topic in terms of GL, but great gonzo TV.) It’s all excellent, excellent stuff–reporting with an edge and a sense of humor, which is our favorite.
April 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Toxic Brooklyn: Are Current Clean Up Methods Safe?
The toxic cleanup strategy of choice for polluted sites in New York and elsewhere is “capping,” a method whereby some toxic soil is removed and the remainder of the problem is sealed beneath a membrane. It is the way the Public Place site in Gowanus (which is profoundly contaminated) would be cleaned and the way Whole Foods says it will make its toxic Gowanus site clean. It is also the method being used at the Roebling Oil Field (AKA McCarren Park Mews) in Williamsburg. But, is it safe?
Environmentalists have long said that capping is cheaper than a full cleanup, but not terribly safe. In New York, where state-supervised cleanups done by developers were in vogue during the Pataki years, there’s been little controversy. In New Jersey, though, the method is raising questions. There are even proposals to ban or severely restrict the cleanup method, which raises some very interesting–if not deeply troubling–questions about living, working and recreating above capped sites.
We turn to an article in The Record–which actually appeared a week ago–but is very, very interesting in the context of Brooklyn and of New York City where so-called brownfields are targeted for heavy development in coming decades. If you read one article this week, this story should be required reading. Here’s a sample:
In North Jersey, this is the new definition of clean: Thousands of people living, working and playing on properties where pollution has been “capped” — buried under pavement or dirt rather than removed.
As many as 540 sites statewide have been capped. More are on the drawing board ready to sprout million-dollar town houses, senior citizen complexes, strip malls and office buildings.
Developers love caps because they save millions when they don’t have to dig up contamination and haul it away.
But caps also raise sticky questions: Is life atop a toxic tomb safe? Could chemical vapors seep out of the ground? Who’ll make sure no one sticks a shovel in the wrong spot, unleashing poisons through the simple act of planting a tree?
And if they did, who would know? New Jersey has one inspector — the “cap cop” — to check these sites. Environmentalists have long maligned caps as “pave and wave” for what they say is the shoddy quality of the cleanups. Now, state officials are also concerned.
“Many would argue that … the quality of the remediation is poor,” the state’s environmental commissioner, Lisa Jackson, told a committee of state legislators last fall, “and that developers pursue the cheapest solutions in order to quickly get a profit.”
There’s a long discussion about whether the caps are safe or not, and a lot of people think they are not. Read this article.
