This just in from the Josh Skaller For City Council campaign. Josh has consistently been on the right side of this issue and has been clear about his support for the designation and for the community right from the start.
Statement from City Council Candidate Josh Skaller (D-39th District) on the Ending of the Public Comments Period Regarding the Proposed Gowanus Canal Superfund Designation
"I am proud that many Brooklynites took the time to express their support for an EPA Superfund designation of the Gowanus Canal. The most important thing is to get the Canal cleaned up. The City has had its chance, and look how things ended up. The City still does not have a plan, and it didn't even think about a plan until the EPA announced it was considering a Superfund designation.
"I support development in the neighborhoods around the Gowanus Canal, but it must be responsible development -- ensuring the safety of tenants and recognizing the concerns of the community. Before we build on the banks of the Canal, we must make sure that it is clean. If not, we risk another Love Canal. People will get sick. That can't happen on our watch.
"I am confident that Brooklynites will reject the propaganda put out by both the developer, Toll Brothers, and the Bloomberg administration. The people will choose a thorough federal cleanup. This will benefit the property values around the Canal, which have long been depressed by the Canal's infamous toxicity, and it will bring green jobs to Brooklyn.
"I hope we can use this conversation as a chance to move forward from the Canal's murky past to a vibrant future with a clean canal, responsible development on its banks, and a new economic engine to empowering our community."
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Just got back from the first debate for Public Advocate and Norman Siegel pushed Deblasio on his position on gowanus, hope it makes the papers. In the mean time this is what our Peoples advocate Norman Siegel submitted in support of Super Fun yesterday.
FROM NORMAN SIEGEL:
www.normansiegel.com
I am writing this letter to applaud the Environmental Protection Agency for its proposal to designate the Gowanus Canal a Superfund Site, and voice my strong support for going forward with this cleanup. This is a crucial, common-sense proposal; it has been clear for many years to anyone who lives or works in the Gowanus vicinity that the area is environmentally unhealthy as a result of the state of the Canal. As such, it surprised few when the EPA’s investigation revealed that there are alarmingly high levels of PCBs, tar, arsenic, and mercury in the water. What has surprised many is that there is a concerted effort, championed by local real estate developers, to resist the EPA’s offer to clean up this dangerously polluted site.
It is very difficult to understand the reasoning of those who oppose Superfunding the Gowanus Canal. Some of them have claimed that the EPA cleaning up the Gowanus Canal would “stigmatize” the area, thereby reducing its attractiveness for future development. But the word “Gowanus” has already carried a stigma for decades, and when certain pollutants are more than 10,000 times as common in Gowanus water than other listed emergency sites, this worry about “stigma” is simply laughable. The opponents of Superfund status have also claimed that they can perform the cleanup faster than the EPA. We the people reserve the right to be skeptical. If they are really such experts in cleaning up potentially toxic sites, then why haven’t they taken the initiative to clean the very area they wish to develop? Certainly, nobody would have stopped them.
Where urban development is concerned, New York City has not been served well over the past decade. We’ve suffered from a laissez-faire attitude, a lack of political leadership, and minimal attention paid to environmental concerns. Now that the housing bubble has popped and the economic recession is pressing on, we are reeling in the wake of past short-sightedness. The negative responses to the Superfund proposal are a particularly egregious example of how this short-sightedness continues unabated among certain special interests. But I, for one, look forward to welcoming the Environmental Protection Agency to do something we should have done long ago – clean up the Gowanus Canal. And I know that South Brooklyn residents and concerned New Yorkers throughout the city are with me on this one.
Regards,
Norman Siegel
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