“For years I have supported cleaning up the Gowanus Canal but I
believe to make real progress we need to involve the community. The
health and safety of the surrounding residents has always been my
number one concern. I still believe local economic projects are an
essential part of the cleanup effort. As the public offers feedback
over the next two months, the Federal and Local Government must work together with the community to find the best way to clean up the
canal," said Councilmember Bill de Blasio.
Since our councilmember was not in attendance at last week's forum on the E.P.A.'s proposed clean-up of the Gowanus Canal, many in the community wondered what Mr. DeBlasio's position might be.
If DeBlasio has a position, it is difficult to decipher from the statement his office released. In typical fashion, it is masterfully vague. What else can we expect from a politician during an election year?
But if DeBlasio has aspirations of becoming our next Public Advocate, it would be nice to know exactly what he is advocating for the Gowanus Canal area.
Here is what some of you thought of his statement:
Bill is going to listen to the community as long as its his community of developers. Why would he now listen to the residents of the community who live/work and play in Carroll Gardens, only because its an easy way out. He can sit on the sidelines and let the Feds do what is needed and then take the credit. Just like he has done for the past seven years.
de Blasio has laid out the opposition game plan here: "over the next two months, the Federal and Local Government must work together with the community to find the best way to clean up the canal," said Councilmember Bill de Blasio.
Now we know he isn't asking the EPA to come up with a cleanup plan in the next two months because the EPA doesn't start the planning until after designation. What he is calling for is some kind of compromise plan other than Superfund to be agreed on before comment period closing. The current tactic now is to drum fear into all the local residents so that they believe they will get a better deal out of the "compromise cleanup plan" than they will under Superfund.
It's so interesting to now see the city scramble to make a cleanup plan after years of avoiding any comprehensive approach to cleaning the canal. The city has had more than 30 years to bring the Gowanus into compliance with the Clean Water Act--and the current mayor has had 8 of those 30 years--and now we are to believe that they will pull together a workable plan over the next two months? And more galling, the city’s opposition to Superfund cleanup is over how long it might take!
He is going to join the City and the Toll boys in pressuring EPA not to finalize the listing. Anyone who wants to know how well a site gets cleaned up when it is held back from getting listed on the Superfund national priority list can look to some recent examples in NJ. Usually a few years pass, nothing happens, and it ends up getting listed anyway. Then everyone complains that it took EPA too long to do the cleanup. Meanwhile, the politicians who meddled with the listing in the first place are long gone, either in jail, on wall street, or some such other locale.
This posted statement of DeBlasio does not say anything. Its wishy-washy double-talk which doesnt answer the question it allegedly addresses.
If the City really had a plan there would have been a press conference or a big presentation. Neither Bill nor Mike are ones to miss a photo op.
I too think Bill De Blasio is trying to play it safe to see where the chips fall, but hey, at least he isn't actively opposing the listing of the canal, like the shameless Bloomberg administration. The Toll Brothers contingent has been SO heavy handed and thuggish in their attack on the EPA that they've put their politician-supporters like Bill in a tight spot. How can he argue that development comes before protection of human health and the environment, which is essentially the Toll Brothers' position? Eventually the canal will probably be listed since that is the only rational outcome, and the only way the canal will actually get cleaned up, and then Bill will run around holding meetings and so forth, to show that he's keeping an eye on the EPA to make sure it doesn't screw things up.
DeBlasio is so wishy-washy and unprincipled, he won't even stand behind the developers who have donated to him, let alone the actual community who live here now.
What do you think?
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Bill its simple - SuperFund status, yes or no?