The Lower East Side Ecology Center had been facing an uncertain future in trying to secure a suitable alternative for its 30-year-old composting program. In June, the city announced that the Compost Yard could return to its current location after the demolition/rebuild of East River Park over the next 3-5 years.
Here's an update via the LES Ecology Center website on what is happening...
Our priority is to continue operating the existing drop-off sites during this transitional period. With the loss of the Compost Yard, we have begun hauling food scraps from our drop-off sites to the Staten Island Compost Site. This shift in our operations also means we’re using a new green bin at our drop-off sites.
We are working with the City to build out a temporary compost site so that we can compost the food scraps we are collecting again in spring of 2022.
Our compost yard volunteer workdays, compost donation appointments, and compost site tours are suspended until further notice. Our 24/7 Compost Yard drop-off will be moving. More details soon!
You might be curious what is happening with all the compost currently at the Compost Yard. The freshest, active compost piles are being moved to the Staten Island Compost Site where they will finish their composting process. The finished compost will also be moved, we hope to donate as much of this material to neighborhood Parks as possible.
Meanwhile, the LES Ecology Center will be working from Seward Park over the next few years.
Workers are expected to start razing the 57.5-acre East River Park in the weeks ahead, cutting down the 1,000 mature trees and eventually rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill.
East River Park Action and other advocates say there are better ways to preserve the park and provide flood protection, such as the one mapped out in the years after Sandy. In late 2018, the city surprised community stakeholders by announcing a complete overhaul of a plan discussed over four years of local meetings.
During a weeklong series of protests outside City Hall last week, the advocates (finally) got the attention of Council Speaker Corey Johnson to ask for him to hold an oversight hearing on the East Side Coastal Resiliency project. PIX11 and The Village Sun covered the advocates' impromptu meeting with Johnson.
You can also watch a video of the exchange right here... it's not clear what, if anything, might transpire from the conversation...
Wow someone woke up Corey from his slumber in the Hamptons!!!
ReplyDeleteThis video is enlightening in many ways. Thank you so much to the activists who have worked so hard and are not giving up. This video needs to be shared more. If Corey Johnson isn't aware of what's happening with East River Park, it's easy to assume no one above 14th St or west of 2nd Ave does either.
ReplyDeleteWhat will transpire? Nothing, because Corey Johnson doesn't give a (insert poop emoji here). He's a placeholder, just collecting his paycheck and waiting for the end of his term.
ReplyDeleteA thousand thanks to the activists in this video.
ReplyDeletewatched the video---IMO---a lot of 'senseless complaining'---the park is NOT going to be destroyed---it is going to be REPLACED---why has the argument been centered around 1000 trees that are going to be replanted ?
ReplyDeleteThey are going to put 1000 trees on ice for 5+ years and then replant them? The city has impressive technology.
DeleteI don't get it!
ReplyDelete- Person who never uses the park
While I will be long dead, I hope my yet to be born grandkids enjoy the reopening ceremony for the East River Park. Imagine the number of tiny trees they will be able to sit next to!
ReplyDeleteThe East River Park destruction and then eventual reconstruction project is a done deal too many NYC power players like our Mayor have supported the project and have used all their influence to see it go forward for it to be stopped now. This project will require the cutting down of all those great trees and tearing up the park with years of messy construction work while eliminating the main access to the river that the people of the LES/EV have is a real tragedy and a failure of urban planning.
ReplyDeleteTo AFBP @ 1:59p.m.
ReplyDeleteMature trees act as windbreakers, their roots absorb storm water and these 80 year old trees absorb 40 tons of carbon dioxide/year protecting our health.
The replacement trees won't provide that same protection for decades.
A 10 year old tree absorbs only .10 pounds of carbon/year.
https://www.treeplantation.com/tree-carbon-calculator.html
"Exposure to Pollution Has Long-Term Effect on Multiple Generations"
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/02/air-pollution-diminishes-future-generations-economic-opportunities.html
How much funding did Corey's campaign get to push this boondoggle forward?
ReplyDeleteInteresting how NY1 is enthusiastic about the city's current plan.
ReplyDeleteI wished they'd done a better job of highlighting the beauty of the park in its full glory instead of showing old footage from winter.
They didn't mention anything about the redacted report and our actual community concerns
Air quality - the city wants to destroy 1,000 mature trees that clean our polluted air or
The amount of time - 80 plus years until we have a park full of shading, cooling, water absorbing, oxygenating trees... or
Animals, insects, birds... habitats destroyed, or
Excavation - digging 2 feet under to expose our neighborhood to toxic chemicals...
The lower east side has only 2,000 mature trees, we are losing half of them.
For people living with asthma and other respiratory illnesses along the FDR Drive this current project is a dangerous, unhealthy toxic solution. Battery Park City, Rockaways, Brooklyn... were all affected by Hurricane Sandy and none of those areas lost a 50 acre park full of water absorbing mature trees.
There is an alternative flood plan.
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/10/13/east-river-park-project-shows-city-s-steep-resiliency-learning-curve
When It Comes to the Climate, Older Trees Do It Better
ReplyDeletehttps://science.time.com/2014/01/15/study-shows-older-trees-absorb-more-carbon/
"Scientists long assumed that as trees got older, they grew slower—just like us. But a new study underscores the climate benefits of the oldest, biggest trees"
"elderly trees are carbon vacuums. That’s one more reason to appreciate—and conserve—these ancient, majestic forests."
https://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/about/forest.shtml
When some people on this blog comment that they want less noise at night others say move to the burbs. You want mature trees, mature or otherwise, move to the burbs. This is happening, right or wrongly.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to believe we've turned into a "love it or leave it" culture where it is dismissed as naive when people try to fight to keep or make things better.
ReplyDeleteSuper sad :(
Puzzling and troubling that he Speaker admittedly has NO knowledge of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe that Speakers NEVER gets involved in other districts business, by he insists that's the way it's always been.
Kudos to the advocates for getting his attention, keeping his attention, and making your case.
You'd probably would have had a LOT more influence if you had "contributed" $2000 for each of the 1000 trees...
I encourage everyone to contact Council Member Carlina Rivera or your Council person to at the very least ask for an oversight hearing in the Council on the destruction of East River Park, ESCR. And while you're at it ask her how she responds to the NYCHA petition opposing this crime against the people of the Eastside. Thank you to the activists in this video with Speaker Johnson for speaking for us.
ReplyDelete