In January, the Mayor secured City Council approval to build four schools on a brownfield site in Mott Haven. Today, Metro reporter Patrick Arden describes the City's latest plan to reclaim a toxic site for a school, this time in the former Queens County Morgue. Here's what people in the neighborhood had to say:
"The site is contaminated,” said Robert Trabold, president of the community group Hillcrest Citizens for Neighborhood Preservation. “Over the years chemicals were dumped on the soil, and it’s in the groundwater. We said, ‘Well, what will parents think?’”
Mr Trabold asks "What will parents think?" but we know that's never a concern with the Administration that will build twice as many new stadium seats as school seats. Queens has the most overcrowded crowded schools in the City. But that simply means Queens parents will face another of the Mayor's false choices: crowded schools or schools on toxic sites. Here's a link to the full article.
Last November, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff's staff issued strenuous denials when the NY Times reported that reclamation of toxic sites for school construction was a major component of the Mayor's sustainability effort. This school-in-a-morgue news doesn't make those denials any more believable. If Mayor Bloomberg can move heaven and earth for big real estate developments, why is it so hard to build schools?
