UPDATED, 11:45 a.m., July 22: One opponent of the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station has accused one candidate of using children as “human shields” to support the site, DNAinfo reported.
On Wednesday, Manhattan Borough President hopeful Julie Menin wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily News defending the controversial station as “the right thing to do.” In the op-ed, Menin said that: “the facility will be visually barricaded from the surrounding residential community by Asphalt Green.”
Carolyn Tweedy, the director of recreation complex Asphalt Green, wrote a letter to the editor the next day, asking: “Is Menin really suggesting that the thousands of children who visit us will be human shields blocking the MTS’s impacts?”
Asphalt Green then sent out a mass e-mail attributed to Tweedy reiterating the same ideas.
“She made an outrageous claim, saying Asphalt Green will serve as a ‘barricade between the MTS and the surrounding neighborhood,” she wrote.
“Our facility and the thousands of children who use this sports and fitness center yearly should not be used as human shields to block the garbage trucks’ asthma-causing carcinogenic fumes from the rest of the neighborhood.”
“I respect the community’s concerns and stand by my op-ed,” said Menin in response to Tweedy. “Leadership is about making tough choices and solving problems. The plan the city developed relies on two solid principles that I support: borough equity and environmental justice.” [DNAinfo] – James Comtois