The World in Brooklyn by Judith DeSena & Timothy Shortell

Author:Judith DeSena & Timothy Shortell [DeSena, Judith & Shortell, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 9.1. Map of Newtown Creek. Source: Image courtesy of Google Maps.

Historically the shores along the creek were crammed with oil refineries and manufacturing but as deindustrialization set in, the industrial nature of the area shifted and gradually emerged as a vital part of the city’s growing waste-based economy. As waste transfer stations began to proliferate, residents were exposed to potentially adverse and environmental health impacts. The land adjacent to Newtown Creek constitutes the largest contiguous industrially zoned area in New York City and has been designated as a SMIA.

The unequal distribution of noxious waste-facilities that serve the entire city is a major environmental justice issue in the city (Angotti 2008; Gandy 2002; Sze 2007). While working class and low-income communities around the creek have dozens of waste-transfer stations that are serviced by hundreds of highly polluting diesel trucks per day, resulting in constant noise and extreme odors, low air quality and high asthma rates, the wealthy borough of Manhattan has none.

Despite the fact that Newtown Creek is considered to be an ecological wasteland, the adjacent waterfront neighborhoods are undergoing gentrification and major demographic changes. During a press conference addressing local efforts to involve the federal government in the remediation of the creek, a local environmental activist from Greenpoint told a reporter that, “The hippest place to live in America is also one of the most toxic places.” The first wave of gentrification in the 1980’s coincided with the emergence of a waste-based economy that began to reshape the waterfront and has intensified with each successive year, thus blurring the boundaries between and residential uses. At the present time, gentrification is very intensive on the Brooklyn and Long Island City waterfront near the East River mouth of the creek. In 2002, the city broke ground on the Hunter Point South Project, a 5,000 unit, mixed income housing development. The promotional literature for this new sustainable waterfront development stresses its spectacular views but consistently fails to mention that it is located on Newtown Creek. Gentrification is also occurring at a slower but steady pace in the inland section of the creek. This hidden, industrial backyard of the city has been called a “polluted heart of darkness.”

According to Marwell (2007:91), “Greenpoint/Williamsburg’s decline, rehabilitation and gentrification begins and ends with the growth machine: its abandonment of the neighborhood in the 1950’s and its voracious return half a century later.” The 2005 rezoning of Greenpoint-Williamsburg has been part of one of the biggest transformations of the city landscape since the rezoning of 1961. Four hundred fifty blocks were rezoned as part of the Bloomberg Administration’s long-term vision for the waterfront that includes replacing what it refers to as inappropriate uses such as waste transfer stations and power plants with high-end, high-rise residential housing and parks.

In the early 1990s, much of the Brooklyn waterfront that would eventually be rezoned, became a battleground for environmental justice struggles over noxious and health threatening LULUs such as power plants and waste transfer stations (Angotti 2008; Gandy 2002; Maanaty 2001; Sze 2007).

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