TriBeCa residents, furious over a sanitation garage and salt shed the city wants to build in their neighborhood, are taking their anger out on Council Speaker Christine Quinn as she seeks a third term.
On Sept. 15, as District 3 votes in the primaries, TriBeCa property owners will present oral arguments in a lawsuit to stop city construction of a 400,000 square foot sanitation garage and adjacent 5,000 ton salt shed at Spring and Washington streets.
Quinn, who some political analysts believe is next in line for the mayor's office, voted in favor of the proposed sanitation facility—and that has residents seething.
“The only bacon she’s bringing home is in yesterday’s trash,” said Rosemary Kuropat, a longtime TriBeCa resident and a vocal opponent of the proposal.
Development foes, including celebrities like Lou Reed, believe the salt shed could harm local greenery, including Hudson Square Park, and that sanitation trucks driving in and out of the garage are dangerous for neighborhood kids.
Quinn has raised community concerns to the mayor’s office, according to a letter she received from Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler. But the city decided there was no better alternative. In response, the city reduced the height of the building by approximately 30 feet and agreed to plant 17 trees around the site.
Some Quinn constituents say her declining poll numbers are due in large part to her support of the sanitation garage. A NY1 snap poll Wednesday night found that 76 percent of city voters feel that Quinn should not be re-elected.
Quinn’s district, which runs from TriBeCa to Hell's Kitchen, already houses sanitation garages for six out of the 12 community board districts in Manhattan. The new facility will serve three additional board districts, even though a City Charter law requires each district house its own services.
“Our community is willing to accept our fair share, but we feel like three districts is unfair,” said Stas Zakrzewski, the architect of a rival sanitation plan that serves two districts that he says is environmentally friendly.
Quinn's office said Zakrzewski's plan was inadequate — the city would still have to build another sanitation garage somewhere else.
The salt shed is another contentious point. The city plan puts the shed directly in front of a ventilation tower that pushes air into the Holland Tunnel, and residents worry about the impact on the approximately 100,000 cars that pass through the tunnel each day.
The site is also in a designated flood zone, raising concerns that the salt could wash out into the Hudson River.
Yetta Kurland, a civil rights attorney and one of Quinn’s opponents in the upcoming primary, has made the fight against the sanitation shed one of her central campaign issues.
If you think the city is a “playground for the rich with luxury condos everywhere,” the plan makes sense, Kurland said. But from a neighborhood point of view “it doesn’t make any sense.”
Come Sept. 15 lawyers for the TriBeCa Community Association, the Canal West Coalition and the Canal Park Conservancy will go head to head with the Sanitation Department, the City Planning Commission, and the Hudson River Park Trust. But the city will push forward regardless, collecting Requests for Proposals.
“We all expected that there would be development,” said Kuropat. “But never, in a million years, did any of us ever expect that the city would try and impose a 138-foot-tall garbage facility.”
