A 7-year-old South Bronx girl in Melrose dies tragically from asthma yet you, our Borough President along with your machine cronies still think it’s ok to move FreshDirect and their dirty, truck intensive company into our borough where we have some of the highest rates of asthma in the nation.
This is why we fight against such dirty deals.
We’re exhausted from the senseless deaths. We are over saturated with choking and deadly diesel fumes.
Last week, members of South Bronx Unite met with Mayor Bill de Blasio, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and senior members of the city’s Economic Development Corporation to discuss the environmental and health crisis in the South Bronx. The neighborhood, surrounded by an 850 acre industrial area and three highways, suffers from asthma rates eight times the national average, and such disproportionate rates of respiratory illness were cited last month as among the causes of the deadly Legionnaire’s outbreak that claimed 12 lives and infected over 100.
Within the last month alone, residents of the over-industrialized nabe have been challenging the re-permitting of two fossil fuel power plants (with routine violations of emission levels) and the expansion of a 3,000 ton per day waste transfer facility (also with routine permit violations).
The first thing we were told when New York City’s largest Legionnaires Outbreak in its…
Unlike our April Fool’s satirical posting to raise awareness on the issue of FreshDirect and how their move can and will harm our communities if allowed to do so, this really did just happen.
Around 8PM, while Mayor Bill de Blasio was visiting La Morada, local restaurant in Mott Haven in an unannounced visit, a local resident quickly alerted South Bronx Unite members who within 10 minutes had gathered and mobilized with over 25 people including their children to protest against FreshDirect and de Blasio’s promise to end a tale of two cities—something which allowing FreshDirect to move into South Bronx will continue to perpetuate.
Citing recent studies showing that the South Bronx is suffering a clear burden from dirty industries leading to its residents having 8x the national rate of asthma and 21x the hospitalization rate in New York City for the ailment, New York Governor Cuomo and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr said in a joint statement that they will be pulling all support and funding from FreshDirect’s Bloomberg-era sweetheart deal.
“After years of overwhelming community outcry against this project and their demand and right to a new environmental impact statement instead of relying on a 22 year old one, my office cannot support this project in good conscience any longer,” said Diaz, Jr.
Emails between FreshDirect lobbyist Harry Giannoulis and New York City Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, Alicia Glen raises a number of questions including whether or not Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration were pushed into ceasing any attempt to derail FreshDirect’s proposed move to The Bronx — a campaign promise de Blasio was quite vocal about.
Mayor de Blasio was so vocal, in fact, that on March 10th, 2014, Harry Giannoulis sounded the claxon calls of panic on behalf of FreshDirect
Join Us
for the Empire State Development RE-VOTE
on $10 Million in FreshDirect Subsidies
Thursday, February 19, 9:30 am
633 Third Avenue
37th Fl Conf Room
RSVP: CLICK HERE and call 212-803-3794
Media Advisory
South Bronx Residents and South Bronx Unite Rally Against FreshDirect
Groundbreaking at the Harlem River Yard
Proposed relocation of Fresh Direct to South Bronx would add over a thousand
diesel truck trips each day to a community with sky-high asthma rates.
Monday, December 22nd at 9:45am
FreshDirect once again had an opportunity to purchase new electric trucks as they promised to do but instead they chose to purchase ten brand new diesel trucks, Welcome2TheBronx has learned.
We went over to Milea Trucks Sales & Leasing on 149th Street and Austin Place to investigate after a local concerned citizen took some photographs and sent them over. What we saw really shocked us at how FreshDirect continues to lie to our community about their intentions. Sitting on their lot were 10 brand spanking new diesel trucks. I checked each and every truck and all of them were diesel with “certified clean idling” stickers. I asked one of the workers at the office what that meant and they said, “All that means is that when they stop, they don’t pollute but as long as they’re driving around, they still are spewing diesel fumes.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. What about all the promises to convert to electric?
Many people often ask why we fight against the proposed move of FreshDirect move to the South Bronx — an area that is already plagued by asthma where 1 in 4 children have the life-threatening ailment. The truck intensive and polluting industry that is FreshDirect will only exacerbate such ailments in our community, something which many studies have clearly shown is a health problem.
Now, just after last month’s announcement about Columbia University’s study linking pollution to childhood ADHD, Harvard has released a study which indicates that pregnant women are at almost TWICE the risk of giving birth to a child with autism due to smog spewed by vehicles, or smoke stacks: something which the South Bronx has been a dumping ground for.
#WeNeedToBreathe
It’s been almost a 3 year battle since FreshDirect sweetheart deal was announced as a done deal to dump a trucking and pollution intensive industry in the growing residential neighborhood of Port Morris directly impacting those living in the immediate area including Mott Haven. The deal would bring over 1,000 trucks and trips a day adding to an area with 8x the national rate of asthma and now FreshDirect has hit a new low.
Word has been received that the company is planning a “secret” groundbreaking at the Harlem River Yards on Monday, December 22nd at 10AM so we are calling all those who have been fighting against environmental injustice and racism to join us on this date to rally against this move.
The following is an opinion piece syndicated from The New York Association of Grocery Stores (NYAGS):
This month , Empire State Development will decide whether or not to grant Fresh Direct a $10 Million-dollar loan to assist in its move from Queens to the Bronx. This move will devastate small businesses and bring an extremely negative environmental impact to New Yorkers living in the area.
The New York Association of Grocery Stores (NYAGS) is a coalition of local New York City grocers fighting to stay alive as special interest and big chains continue to encroach on the businesses our families have maintained for decades.
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