You’ll Be Able to Frolic in a Staten Island Dump Sooner Than You Thought
That plan to turn Staten Island’s Fresh Kills landfill — the city’s enormous garbage dump, shuttered in early 2001 by Giuliani and briefly reopened to warehouse World Trade Center detritus — into a giant park will take a decade to complete, the city is now saying. (And, hey, take your time, guy. Last thing we want is to dig up a patch of benzene with our cleats.) But we can’t help a little giddiness to learn that we’ll actually be able to play soccer on Fresh Kills in a little more than a year. According to park administrator Eloise Hirsh, the 2,200-acre project will go through intensive environmental review this year — but one soccer field, Owl Hollow, sits outside the actual landfill and is currently being bid out to contractors. Park officials are still designing the bathroom (insert stupid gas jokes here), but construction should begin — with tours of the site — by spring. —Alec Appelbaum
numbers game
Dumpster Diving• Pounds of food waste the average New York City household produces each week: 7.1
• Pounds of food waste the average American household produces each week: 4.1
• Pounds of garbage the average New York City household produces each week: 40
• Pounds of garbage the average American household produces each week: 45
• Pounds of garbage “rich people in high-density neighborhoods” — e.g., Manhattanites — produce each week: 28.4
• Percentage of the city’s current waste that can be recycled: 36
• Percentage of the city’s waste that could be recycled in 1989: 45
• Tons of recyclables the Department of Sanitation is required to pick up daily, under a 1989 City Council law: 4,250
• Tons of recyclables the Department of Sanitation currently picks up each day: 2,000 to 2,200
• Tons of mixed paper — including junk mail — thrown out each year instead of recycled: 200,000
N.Y. Throws Away Heaps [NYP]
the morning line
We Ain’t No State Senator’s Son
• Joe Bruno’s lobbyist son emerges as the crucial link between the embattled State Senate GOP leader and pony-loving businessman Jared Abbruzzese. The Feds allege an unsummarizable roundelay of sweetheart deals, lobbying stints, and commission fees. [NYT]
• Three central New Jersey high schoolers are dead after a head-on collision between their car and a van less than a mile from campus. The van’s driver was also killed, and her unidentified teen passenger hospitalized with serious injuries. [AP via amNY]
• A Brooklyn principal barred a special-ed student from entering a district spelling bee, telling him, “You don’t have the brains to do it.” This after organizing a special schoolwide bee seemingly aimed at eliminating him. [NYDN]
• City firefighters are putting up flag decals on their lockers in defiance of Fire Department’s order to remove all personal adornments from department buildings. Expect an interesting debate on whether a locker is a private or a public space (and a staggering amount of porn in the trash bins behind firehouses). [IHT]
• And speaking of trash, New Yorkers generate a lot of it. Almost twice as much food waste, in fact, as any other city. Best recyclers? No surprise there: Park Slope. [NYP]
