Intro to Fresh Kills Landfill and Staten Island Politics:
Staten Island has many social issues similar to other suburban areas. Its problems include sprawl, overdevelopment, weak schools, heavy traffic, poor public transportation, etc. However, it lacks the resources and political power to address the issues. Staten Island is part of the New York City government and is not free to control land use and tax. This weakness would result in the use of Fresh Kills as a landfill for all of the Big Apple’s trash despite the local community’s many attempts to close and prevent the landfill’s operation. The next section will address the political struggles that Staten Islanders faced against the operation of the Fresh kills Landfill and how local politicians were able to finally find a way to close the landfill.
Interview 1:
During our neighborhood walk, our group joined a bird watch at the site of the former Fresh Kills landfill. There, we spoke with Abby Halperin of the NYC Conservation Corps. She gave us insight into the the history of Fresh Kills and how it became a landfill for several years.
Interview 2:
We interviewed Professor Flanagan of the College of Staten Island, who is the co-author of the book Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City. In this interview, he provides insight on the Fresh Kills Landfill, its political struggles within the Giuliani administration, its early political struggles and local politics after the construction of the Verrazano Bridge, its outlook on future projects at Fresh Kills, its the environmental movement, and more.
Immigration and ‘White Flight’ to Staten Island
Before the turn of the nineteenth century, it was mostly Africans Americans and new Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Slavic, Scandinavian immigrants that were settling in older shoreline villages and manufacturing areas. Most of Staten Islanders at the time, according to the 1880 census, stated that they were living on farms and in villages. Rapid growth from the the other boroughs influenced industrial growth in Staten Island. The Fresh Kills Creeks was one of the routes cargo ships would travel through. It was also an important site for fishing, hunting, and swimming. Development increased with the 1880 consolidation and expansion of the rail and ferry service. In 1931, the Goethals and Bayonne Bridges and the Outerbridge Crossing would provide the first vehicle transportations between Staten Island and New Jersey.
“White Flight” occurred after the opening of the Verrazano Bridge in 1964. At the same time, Irish and Italian Brooklynites were facing violent civil disturbances at the the 1960s and were moving into Staten Island. “White Flight” is also part of the American movement of whites from cities to suburbs. Whites desired living in less crowded communities, homes instead of apartments, and grass instead of concrete. At the time, most Staten Islanders were, again, Brooklynites escaping racial conflict, and was a community of racial homogeneity in a mostly white community. Perhaps, it was the increase of community members and demands that the City was finally pressured to close the landfill especially since development and homes were reaching towards the landfill area.
Political Actions to Start and Close Landfill
Fresh Kills – Then and Now Video
Prior to operation in 1945, Fresh Kills was a land of meadows, marshes, and woodlands full of wildlife. In 1938, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses needed to address waste disposal. NYC had been dumping most of its waste in the ocean. After a federal lawsuit brought upon by New Jersey on the grounds that the waste polluted it’s beach, NYC would have to find a new place for the city’s wastes. Sanitation Commissioner Carey proposed to create a ‘temporary’ landfill at Fresh Kills.
Unlike an actual suburb, Staten Island is legally a part of New York City and has no sovereignty or freedom of action. Even on the city council, it exercises little power – with three members out of fifty-one in the council. After Carey’s proposal to use Fresh Kill as a harbor for all of New York City’s waste, several attempts were made to protest and ban the proposal but had failed to pass through the City government. In 1939, state senator Ray Egbert introduced a measure to ban shipment of waste to Staten Island from other boroughs. In 1941, a similar bill passed in legislature but was vetoed at the mayor’s request. Post World War II, Moses still needed a site to dump all of New York’s trash and existing fills were reaching its limits. Moses proposed using Fresh Kills this time; citing that the goal is to create a park in the marshlands and the city’s trash would provide a foundation for the new park . Moses convinced Staten Island senator Robert Bainbridge to pass a bill in state legislature that would transfer the title of the marshland from the state to the city. Borough President Cornelius Hall and Mayor O’Dwyer agreed with the plan, assuming that the dump would be temporary as the city builds a highway in the area. The dumping began in April 16, 1948, and was supposed to last two years. To be sure, Staten Island representatives tried passing a bill that would require the city to close the landfill after two years, only to be vetoed by request of O’Dwyer – and dumping continued for decades more.
After the closure of Brooklyn’s Fountain Avenue Landfill in 1985, the garbage coming to Fresh Kills doubled from 11,000 to 22,000 tons a day. As a result, Staten Island secession movement was an everyday debate. It wasn’t until 2001 that Fresh Kills saw closure of the landfill. A bill, sponsored by Senator Marchi and Assemblyman Vitaliano, made its way through the state senate and brought an end to the operation of the landfill (Staten Island: Kramer, Daniel C., and Richard M. Flanagan. Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City).
The City Concealed: Freshkills Park Project from Thirteen.org on Vimeo.
The video gives an visual of one of Fresh Kills landfill – one of the largest man-made structures on Earth that is composed of thousands of tons of garbage – and how it will become a grand park project within 30 years.
Today’s Issue: Income Disparity:
Photo of Staten Island Broken into ZIP Code Districts: http://unhp.org/crg/indy-maps-statenzip.html
Analysis of ZIP Code Districts and Income Statistics:
Provided Analysis and Statistics By: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/how_much_income_does_your_zip.html#incart_most-read
Works Cited:
Flanagan, Richard M. Personal Interview 08 April 2014
Haplerin, Abby. Personal Interview. 23 March 2014.
Koeske, Zak. “Which Staten Island ZIP Code Earns the Most? Check out Our Interactive Income Map.” SILive.com. SI Advance, 18 May 2014. Web. 18 May 2014. <http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/how_much_income_does_your_zip.html#incart_most-read>.
Kramer, Daniel C., and Richard M. Flanagan. Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City. Lanham, MD: U of America, 2012. Print.
The Fresh Kills Park Alliance. “The Park Plan.” Freshkills Park. The Fresh Kills Park Alliance. Web. 18 May 2014.
