In the words of one participant, “The 135th Street MTS community visioning meeting was one of WE ACT’s finest moments.” It was indeed one of the finest moments for the partnership between WE ACT and Community Board 9 (CB 9) as we worked to empower residents to transform the Marine Transfer Station.
On a cold, rainy Saturday in May 2010, over 70 residents from Northern Manhattan brought the hope of a brand new day to the MTS by developing ideas on how to re-use and redesign the old, ugly, abandoned trash facility. After an informative and wonderful presentation from Savona Bailey-McClain, Chair of the Economic Development and Waterfront Committee at CB9, participants broke into facilitated groups based on possible re-uses for the site. These breakout groups on re-uses were: Ecology Center and Eco-Tourism, Green Wall Manufacturing, Aqua-farming and Hydroponics with a restaurant, Sailing and Kayaking, and Trade Show with Exhibition Space. In addition, there were two breakout sessions on New Ideas. Members of each breakout group than presented their ideas for re-use and design to the entire participant body with an opportunity for questions and answers.
An important highlight from the event occurred when Derval Thomas from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed that the EPA would give the City funding to conduct an assessment of environmental contaminants at the site.
As next steps for the project, Roland Whitely, principle of Neighborhood Planning and Architectural Design, will produce a draft report on the ideas that came out of the event. The draft report will be disseminated for feedback to everyone who came to the event via email and snail mail for comment. Following the comment period, there will be two steering committee meetings between June and August 2010. After those steering committee meetings, we will have a large community meeting in September 2010.
We give special thanks to Pat Jones, Chair of Community Board 9, Savona Bailey-Mclain, Chair of the Economic Development and Waterfront Committee at CB9, community residents who participated, City Council Member Robert Jackson and Assemblyman Herman Denny Farrell for attending, Anthony Achille at City College, and our facilitators for all their hard work.
If you are interested in joining the steering committee, please contact James Subudhi via email at james@weact.org, or by phone at (347) 465-8484.