As we reported yesterday, New York State has proposed the prioritization of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront plan. The issue has been picked up by Curbed (with a readership of over 1.5 million visitors a month) and The Real Deal (with a readership of over 1.375 million a month).
For those on twitter, make sure you tweet the following and let’s have our voices heard!
This is an amazing big step forward for the residents of the South Bronx as never before has this area received such a priority designation by the State of New York. The waterfront plan as described below is a direct result of what the residents envision their waterfront to look like after the announcement over 2 1/2 years ago that FreshDirect intended to plop down on the last, largest remaining parcel of open land in the area.
Together, our voices can make an impact and be heard.
Please submit your public comments and make your voices heard even louder!
See below from South Bronx Unite, an organization which Welcome2TheBronx is a proud member of.
South Bronx Unite Against FreshDirect, buildOn The Bronx, and La Finca del Sur were some of the organizations that led the historic People’s Climate March this past Sunday down Manhattan’s West Side which saw over 400,000 people in attendance (days earlier, People’s Climate March estimated that about 100,000 people would participate). These Bronx groups were part of the first wave called ‘Frontlines of Crisis, Forefront of Change’ which consisted of ‘…the people first and most impacted and are leading the change’ led by Indigenous people, Environmental Justice, and other Frontline communities.
For the first time in history, the issue of environmental justice in The Bronx, particularly hard impacted communities in The South Bronx were pushed to the front of the global consciousness as we meandered our way down the March route through the canyons of Manhattan. Although many diverse groups were representing the Bronx, one common theme was seen among them: Stop FreshDirect from creating an environmental catastrophe in the South Bronx.
Join dozens of Bronxites (and the legendary pleneros – Artesanos de la Plena) who will be gathering at La Finca del Sur to travel together to Manhattan to join the historic People’s Climate March Bronx-style.
Mayor de Blasio has not yet responded to over 200 calls/emails asking him to stop the proposed $137M subsidy of 1,000+ daily diesel trucks trips through South Bronx Asthma Alley. Instead, his office announced the monumental redesign of downtown Brooklyn – to include a 21 acre greenway connecting downtown to the Brooklyn waterfront.
The Tale of Two Cities will not change until we insist it changes. If you have not yet contacted the Mayor, please do so today. If you have not yet received a response, please call and email again (and ask 5 friends to do so as well.)
The Environmental Defense Fund stated last week that Latinos are 3x more likely to die from asthma than any other racial or ethnic group.
We must ask ourselves why, then, our Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr and other Bronx politicians aren’t demanding an environmental impact statement be done on FreshDirect’s planned move to the South Bronx — and instead are relying on an outdated environmental impact statement.
Yesterday, on Thursday, March 27th, the Appellate Division of New York ruled in favor of FreshDirect and, “Bloomberg-era Industrial Development Agency decision to provide $80 million in subsidies to Fresh Direct to move its trucking operation to a South Bronx waterfront flood zone…without any requirement to assess or address the environmental impact of an additional 1,500 daily diesel truck trips on our asthma-plagued community.”
Dear Mayor De Blasio, Council Speaker Mark-Viverito, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr, New York City Council members:
The Center for Disease Control has just published a study in the April 2014 issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine citing a deep connection between a rise in incidents of childhood leukemia and pollution in high traffic areas — traffic pollution which already exists in the South Bronx that contributes to children having 8 times the national rate of asthma.
Can we afford FreshDirect with thousands of more truck trips barreling through our roads in the South Bronx, worsening the traffic situation? Is the empty promise of jobs worth the risk of exposure to our children — a company with dubious labor practices where they are currently being sued by their own drivers? Do we sacrifice our future over corporate greed and over $130 million in tax breaks and subsidies?
Join our culinary ambassador and the Cooking Channel’s, Baron Ambrosia, as he hosts the FIRST Annual Hunts Point Slam Bake cooking competition featuring the “bounty, talent, and tastes of Hunts Point.”
An article in Takepart.com has singled out the Bronx and the Bronx River Alliance, giving us global recognition on our conversation efforts, particularly in relation to reintroducing wildlife into the Bronx ecosystem.
We are also the ONLY American city on the list!
This week, Mayor De Blasio’s ambitious plan to reduce pedestrian fatalities, Vision Zero, began in the Bronx with Operation Move Along on 138th Street (between Third and Jackson Avenues) by cracking down on double parking. Officers from the 40th precinct slapped educational flyers on double parked cars but on March 16th they will begin issuing summonses for illegally parked vehicles.
The East 138th Street corridor is one of the South Bronx’s busiest roads with trucks and traffic already roaring across it to get from one end of the borough to the other.
Hunts Point, home to the largest food industrial distribution center in the world and home to thousands of residents, sits precariously on the coast as a peninsula within the Bronx peninsula.
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