Protesters jeer celebrating officials at Port Morris ceremony
Elected officials and Bronx business boosters huddled in a heated tent on the Harlem River Yard in Port Morris on Dec. 22 to celebrate the groundbreaking for FreshDirect on the site of its proposed new facility. After they hailed the move, predicting a boost for the borough’s economy, the company’s CEO, Jason Ackerman, joined the officials with shovels and hardhats in a pose for the cameras, to mark the start of construction.
But a stone’s throw away, some 50 protesters stood in the cold outside the gated entrance to the waterfront property, shouting slogans, holding signs and jeering the revelers who drove past them. Opponents want the city to reverse course on its pledge to provide about $90 million in tax exemptions and subsidies to help the online grocery company’s move from its cramped quarters in Queens. They have argued since the project was announced in February 2012 that the truck traffic it would generate threatens to worsen the area’s asthma epidemic.
The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Julio Pabon, a former candidate for City Council, and Mychal Johnson of grassroots coalition South Bronx Unite, led chants of “El pueblo nunca yerra, estan en nuestra tierra” (the people are never wrong, you’re on our land) and “We need to breathe.”
Officers from the 40th Precinct stood by to ensure the rally remained peaceful. The precinct’s commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Lorenzo Johnson, directed a steady stream of sanitation trucks entering and leaving the waterfront facility at the corner of 132nd Street and St. Ann’s Avenue.
“They need the police to protect them from us?” said Mychal Johnson. “This is our public land.”
Ruben Reyes, 33, an eight-year resident of 136th Street and Willis Avenue, said he was diagnosed with asthma a week ago. Reyes said he found out about the rally from his neighbors.
“It was never made public,” Reyes said of the groundbreaking “They want to keep us in the dark. It seems like money dictates everything.”
Inside the tent, the mood was upbeat as elected officials took turns at the mic. The company’s vice president of government and community affairs, Larry Blackmon, advised the attendees to “pay no attention to the background noise we hear out there,” from the protesters’ bullhorns.
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was jubilant that the project is shovel-ready after what he called “years of unnecessary delays and frivolous legal maneuvering. There’ve been protests and there’ve been naysayers but we’ve addressed them” with promises of “1,000 additional jobs” to add to an initial estimate of 600 jobs, he said, including work for Mott Haven residents, expanded FreshDirect delivery to the entire borough and promises to replace diesel trucks with an electric fleet.
One of the speakers, Harry Velez, said he works as a shipping supervisor at the company’s Long Island City plant, but as a South Bronx native, welcomes the move closer to home. Opportunities at the plant will help the area’s many unemployed find work, he said.
Assemblymen Marcos Crespo and Jeffrey Dinowitz, whose districts do not include Port Morris or Mott Haven, attended the event and lauded the move, but several elected officials who represent the neighborhood and oppose the project were conspicuously absent. City Councilwomen Maria del Carmen Arroyo and Melissa Mark-Viverito, State Sen. Jose M. Serrano and Congressman Jose E. Serrano sided with opponents shortly after the move was announced in 2012 and sent a joint letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo urging the state to declare a moratorium on development along the congested, polluted waterfront. None of them attended the tent party.
As a member of the New York State Empowerment Zone, Rep. Serrano in 2013 blocked a $3.5 million subsidy the company sought. In November, the Empire State Development Corp. took testimony at a heated public hearing at Hostos Community College to decide whether to provide a $10 million grant. Dozens of company employees praised the company’s loyalty and flexibility while 50-some local residents and advocates denounced the move, citing asthma concerns and a lack of transparency, among other complaints.
After the protesters had dispersed, Mott Haven resident and South Bronx Unite member Corrine Kohut, said she remained hopeful that the state would weigh in and halt construction and that Mayor Bill de Blasio would douse the city’s deal, which was announced by his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. Asthma rates, particularly among children, are among the highest in the city.
“When you have that kind of health crisis, you have a right to a moratorium,” said Kohut, adding she is seven months pregnant and concerned for her unborn child. “I’m doing everything right, but I don’t have any control over environmental pollution.”
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Isn’t it telling that no local officials attended this charade? Its even more telling that Jason Ackerman refuses to do an environmental impact study and that those who are falling over themselves to support this project don’t require him to do so? Ackerman would never move his family to an area that is overrun by this truck traffic!
What a great event for the whole community! Glad to see this is moving forward – despite all the setbacks. People love to complain, and find fault with these events. Really its just fear of change and an ignorance of how this groundbreaking will positively affect the neighborhood. This has happened in many neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs and those neighborhoods are now actively thriving and benefitting. This is no different. Lets accept reality and move forward with our lives. Fresh Direct is here to stay!
Clearly you are somehow involved with FreshDirect. This is by no means good for the community. We fear for our health and the health of the children in the South Bronx. We are aware of the real danger and the real intentions of FD moving in to the South Bronx. MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Money which no one but the high executives of FD will benefit from. ALL other boroughs enjoy access to green areas and to the water as well, but not the South Bronx.
No other community in the city is known as Asthma Alley.
I don’t believe any other part of the city has 1-4 if it’s children with asthma. Our children have extremely high rates of infant mortality due to air quality issues. I don’t any other part of this city would celebrate or enjoyed this sad distinction, we don’t want. This isn’t economic development”, it’s environmental racism. The rest of the city enjoys quality of life improvements while our elected officials plan for trucking businesses to move in. We need different leaders, with common sense.
In this latest issue of the Mott Haven Herald, I noted that
assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz attended the Fresh Direct Groundbreaking Ceremony on December 22d. Can anyone guess at what benefit for his constituents he might have perceived, that motivated him to attend this event?