Jessica Elliott, chair of the environment, open spaces and parks committee for Community Board 11 in East Harlem, argues that the neighborhood is oversaturated with sanitation facilities. It also hosts a garage for Manhattan District 10, the Manhattan Cleaning Lot and various parking lots.
The lot on East 123rd Street is taking up land that the city promised to consider for affordable housing. The District 10 garage on East 131st Street is not fully functional, so workers park trucks beneath the nearby Metropolitan Transportation Authority tracks instead. “We have to smell that foul stuff,” said Derrick Taitt, 60, president of the non-profit Community Association of East Harlem Triangle.
In 2017, the city agreed to explore options for an enclosed, state of the art, environmentally advanced, consolidated facility to house garages for Districts 9, 10 and 11. A similar facility opened in 2015 at Spring Street for Districts 1, 2 and 5.
Five years later, the new garage will serve District 11 vehicles only, with brick walls to screen trucks from the street and sidewalks.
To read the full article, see: http://theuptowner.org/despite-local-opposition-new-sanitation-garage-about-to-open-on-east-127th/
The Holidays in Marcus Garvey Park
(a great photo from @lynn-lieberman and her wonderful blog)