Assemblywoman's bill calls for environmental security blankets on cargo waste trains

  

QNS

Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar alongside state Senator Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. celebrated the passage of a bill that would require freight trains carrying waste to cover their cargo at the New York and Atlantic Railway location on 68-01 Otto Road in Glendale. 

The assemblywoman held the event on Friday, June 23, with other local leaders as well as Mary Parisen Lavelle, chair of Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions (CURES) to urge Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the bill (A4928/S2022) into law. 

Our legislation takes a major step towards overseeing waste by the rail industry, which has expanded for 15 years,” Rajkumar said. “As the waste by rail industry booms, expanding by 35% every year, it is time to take action to protect the health of the people of New York and our precious environment.”

Rajkumar’s office also fought to pass the bill in the legislature for seven years and those who’ve advocated for long-term action say they’ve been waiting for a lot longer. 

“It is with our deepest gratitude that we express our appreciation to both Assemblywoman Rajkumar and Senator Addabbo on their monumental accomplishment in getting state legislation passed to containerize waste on rail cars,” Lavelle said. “The victory we’re celebrating today belongs to them, it belongs to the residents, the civics, and Community Board Five. CURES has been working for the past 14 years to end this needless pollution in our neighborhoods, and in all neighborhoods, where this waste travels.”

Residents who live along the railway described the foul odors and general concern over the substances they were being exposed to by the uncovered waste freight.

Skipper de Blasio drops anchor on Stringer and spends 43 million for five more ferries

NY Post

The de Blasio administration plans to ram through another $43 million in ferry purchases for its money-pit fleet — in the face of objections from the city’s fiscal watchdog, The Post has learned.

The push comes just months after City Hall forged full speed ahead with another $84.5 million purchase over the worries of City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

It swells the total amount sunk into the program to $637 million.

The decision “to deem another City tax-payer funded vessel purchase registered without providing exhaustive data, metrics, reports, etc. to demonstrate the success of the citywide ferry program and justify the ballooning costs of this initiative is disappointing,” Stringer wrote in a letter Friday to the Economic Development Corp., a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

The $43 million covers the purchase of five new boats, according to purchase documents submitted to the Comptroller’s Office.

It marks the second time this year that City Hall has exercised veto power to torpedo Stringer’s attempts at oversight of the ferry system.

The East River system is among Mayor de Blasio’s biggest transit initiatives, despite carrying only a fraction of the New Yorkers who use the subways, buses or CitiBike.

Just 18,000 people rode the ferries on an average weekday during the spring, with those trips subsidized at a rate of $10.73 per ticket.

Here's an obnoxious example of those people who use the gilded commute.

NY Post


On Friday nights, revelers are turning a commuter ferry into a DJ-helmed dance party.
Helicopters buzz overhead as the East River churn bumps riders — businessmen and women just off work and metallic jacket-clad partiers alike — while beats blast from the boat’s stern.

“You see guys with suits on, chugging a beer and just dancing,” says NYC Ferry captain Ben Nedrick, as he steers the boat along the Lower East Side route.
From his booth on the boat’s upper deck, he watches as DJ Sheri Barclay mixes music for the weekly Rooftop Sounds Pop-Up.

The other week, Nedrick, 23, handed the wheel to his co-captain so he could join in the fun, breakdancing in his uniform as a soca jam played, to his passengers’ delight. There’s an almost palpable sense of cutting loose, especially on a hot summer night.

“It’s got that kind of lawlessness to it,” concedes Barclay, 36, the manager of online radio station KPISS.FM, which streams from an RV in Bushwick.

The dance parties did, in fact, begin illicitly.

“Last year, I threw my birthday on the ferry without their permission,” says creative director Franz Aliquo, 43. He and his guests rode for one round and finished all the booze on the boat before getting kicked off. This spring, he says, the ferry company reached out to him.

“They hit me up to be like, ‘You did it last year, and it was pretty dope,’ ” says Franz, who picks the DJs, and organized the events as a labor of love.
Now, the happy hours have the blessing of the ferry — and that of its concession stand, which sells a rotating variety of beer ($7), wine ($8) and snacks on-board all boats. (Passengers aren’t allowed to BYOB.)

“It gives a good vibe,” marketing coordinator Tiffani Samaroo tells The Post. She says the transit service is planning a host of other events it hopes will increase ridership, though only the Friday night 6:30 to 8 p.m. “happy hour” will have a DJ.

There’s no cover charge, just the price of passage: $2.75, the same as a subway ride — but you can’t use a MetroCard. NYC Ferry currently operates six routes and a summer shuttle to Governors Island.

 Remember, the city and you the taxpayer do not get a dime from the booze sold on these ferries. All monies go to the contractor, Hornblower.

NYC Parks Department is using Forest Park as a septic waste dump

 CBS New York


There’s a nauseating mess in a popular Queens park. 

 Trucks have been spotted pouring a whole lot of waste but the more shocking discovery is who’s behind it all. 

Chunky, murky sludge gushing at full speed directly into one of the most beloved parks in Queens. 

“Smells like a sewer,” one resident said. It’s creating a soggy, muddy cesspool of bugs, trash, and who knows what else on a strip of land in Forest Park near Union Turnpike and Myrtle Avenue.

 No word from Mitchell Silver about this, not only would he not allow this in Central Park or Prospect Park, but exactly what parks this waste is coming from (maybe this shit is coming from Flushing Meadows with the U.S. Open going on)?  And to our idiot mayor, doesn't Forest Park factor in your version of the Green New Deal?

Update:
QNS

  The location is the same section of Forest Park where the agency plans to create a new entrance where parkgoers from nearby Glendale can enter from Myrtle Avenue to other sections that will also soon be revamped.

“This is not hazardous waste. These trucks were used to clear soil and sediment from our clogged catch basins and spray shower drains to prevent puddling. Fresh water from the holding tanks is used to flush the sediment,” spokeswoman Meghan Lalor said. “Any large debris will be addressed this evening and then we will follow up by raking the sediment with machinery to address anything remaining.”
 
The dumping occurred near the northeast corner of the park where people are able to enter from Myrtle Avenue. The Parks Department has been looking to revamp the area which mostly serves as a route for motorists get on the Jackie Robinson Parkway.
 
But the scene was alarming for multiple people in videos captured as the smell was bad, according to those in the video, and garbage such as water bottles and wrappers could be seen.
 
“The smell of the discharge was abhorrent. There were gallons and gallons of muck, mud, debris and heavens know what else,” said Frank Schorn, who captured the videos. “The liquid flowed into a sewer entrance some dozens of yards away. The sewer grate is nearly completely blocked with debris from prior discharges of waste.”

The truck has Jersey plates. The city hired a private carting company to dump that shit.