Sunday, June 19, 2005

Daily News Evolution

While the Daily News continues to hammer away at Gifford Miller, we’re detecting some movement in their analysis of the mayor’s garbage plan. Writing in yesterday’s paper they poke fun at Millers proposal to open 91st street to only non-putrescible garbage. As they pointedly remarked: “Rotten fruit has its proper place. In neighborhoods like the South Bronx, it seems.”

Now our own view is that rotten fruit should not be trucked and stored anywhere in the city. The reduction of this organic waste is a fiscal and public health necessity. And finally, the Daily News admits that the mayor’s plan leaves the garbage literally on the table. Why doesn’t it make more sense to develop a comprehensive waste reduction plan for all of the city’s garbage before deciding on the transfer station locations?

What’s more, no one has ever bothered to analyze the fiscal implications of the following:

1) Building expensive marine transfer stations designed to export garbage to landfills

2) Doing so without proposing any sensible waste reduction policy

Here is where the editorialists and policy makers need to focus all of their attention in the coming months.