Concerns in East Harlem over next phase of Second Ave. Subway

NY1

By Ruschell Boone

Many in East Harlem are ready for the convenience of having a Second Avenue Subway line ... RanDe Rogers owns a restaurant,and he was one of the many residents who took their concerns to a public meeting on the Second Avenue Subway expansion plan.Phase 2 of the plan will add new stations at 106th and 116th streets on Second Avenue, and connect to the Lexington Avenue line at 125th Street ...

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority held a meeting in East Harlem Tuesday night to answer questions about the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway.

Phase Two would extend the line from 96th Street up to 125th Street.

Preliminary engineering on the project is already underway, along with an environmental review.

At the meeting, the MTA acknowledged that the expansion won't come cheap or easy.

People who live and work in the area say they're concerned about the effect construction could have on the community.

"We have a lot of minorities and a lot of mom-and-pop stores and it's concerning to me that they are going to be displaced," said one meeting attendee.

"We lived a very close to where phase one was and we saw how the businesses were inconvenienced and really the hardship that a lot of the residents had because of the digging so hopefully there was a learning curve in phase 1 so they can avoid a lot of those pitfalls in phase two," said another attendee.

The first section of the Second Avenue Subway opened on January 1, 2017 after nearly 10 years of construction.

It's not clear when work on Phase Two will begin.

Proposed East Harlem Sanitation Depot Stirs Question of Fairness

Proposed East Harlem Sanitation Depot Stirs Question of Fairness

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Melanie Grayce West

A city plan to place a sanitation depot in a corner of East Harlem has local residents crying foul over what is the fair share of city services to shoulder and how much the city should spend on their facilities.

At issue is a crumbling New York City Department of Sanitation garage on East 99th Street that needs to be moved. The city says it has studied multiple sites in East Harlem and settled on a location nearly 30 blocks north on a midblock parcel at East 127th Street and Third Avenue.

On that site—now a car dealership and a parking lot—the city would build an open-air sanitation depot that would funnel garbage trucks onto streets adjacent to a popular park, schools, churches, a new high-tech cancer treatment center and the future location of a mixed-use development that will include the Harlem African Burial Ground Memorial.

“People feel like we’re being dumped on,” said Hallia Baker, secretary for the Harlem Neighborhood Block Association, one of several groups that oppose both the location of the planned sanitation depot and its design. “They feel like there is environmental racism.”

Battle Over Where to Put Sanitation Garages Reaches East Harlem

Battle Over Where to Put Sanitation Garages Reaches East Harlem

NY1

By Michael Scotto

NY1 VIDEO: A new front has erupted in the long-running battle over where to place city sanitation garages. This time the fight is in East Harlem, where residents say their community is becoming a dumping ground for unwanted city facilities. NY1's Michael Scotto reports.

City Using East Harlem as 'Dumping Ground' for Sanitation Site, Locals Say

City Using East Harlem as 'Dumping Ground' for Sanitation Site, Locals Say

DNAinfo

By Dart Clark

EAST HARLEM -- Locals blasted a city proposal to relocate a crumbling sanitation garage to the heart of Harlem, saying the city is using the neighborhood as a “dumping ground” for the unpopular plan.

On Tuesday, Community Board 11 once again reviewed a proposal from the city’s Department of Sanitation to relocate the current sanitation garage at East 99th Street and First Avenue to East 127th Street and Third Avenue.

The community board was nearly unanimous in voting against the relocation plan, after previously calling it a "piece of garbage proposal."  

Residents and community board members said the community would be overburdened with trash, as the proposed site sits a few blocks from another sanitation facility on 131st Street and Park Avenue that houses dump trucks from Central Harlem.  

“I just feel like our community has been the dumping ground for deleterious city projects,” said resident and business owner RanDe Rogers. 

East Harlem Quality-of-Life Problems Cripple Businesses

East Harlem Quality-of-Life Problems Cripple Businesses

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Melanie Grace West

The change in season isn’t just bringing warmer weather to East Harlem it is exacerbating persistent quality-of-life problems that alarm residents and decimate businesses.

Just ask Folasade Sade Tyler, who has run a small business for about a year selling skin-care products and cosmetics at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, a block from the Harlem Metro North station and steps from upscale new and planned commercial and residential developments.

Men, she said, who live in a shelter on nearby Randall’s Island regularly ride the M35 bus and congregate outside her glass storefront, smoking, fighting and sometimes exposing themselves to passersby.

“It’s the most dangerous block I’ve ever been on, especially for a business,” said Ms. Tyler, who has operated stores in different parts of Harlem, where she has lived for nearly 25 years. “There’s no one that seems to care what’s going on.”

NYC residents blast de Blasio plan to move sanitation garage

NYC residents blast de Blasio plan to move sanitation garage

THE DAILY NEWS

By Erin Durkin

East Harlem residents are blasting a de Blasio administration plan to move a sanitation garage used to store dump trucks to 127th St. and Third Ave.

They complain that the site is just a few blocks away from an existing garage on 131st St. and near two schools. Sanitation plans to move from a garage on 99th St.

“The new garage would expose thousands of nearby students, park visitors, and other community members to truck fumes and loud noise. This would exacerbate air quality problems that have already made children in East Harlem more susceptible to asthma than others across the city,” the New Harlem East Merchants Association wrote in a letter to Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

E. Harlem Restaurant Week Tackles 'Tough Task' of Lifting Area's Dining Rep

E. Harlem Restaurant Week Tackles 'Tough Task' of Lifting Area's Dining Rep

DNAinfo

By Gustavo Solis

EAST HARLEM — It's not easy to promote fine dining in a neighborhood better known for synthetic marijuana abuse, but small businesses on the east side of 125th Street are trying to change that with their first ever Uptown Restaurant Week.

“It’s a tough task ahead of us, but I always say we can build a mountain with one rock at a time,” said Gregory Barrett of the Uptown Wine Pantry.

The $8 food and drink specials may help.
 

East Harlem Group Wants Albany to Prioritize Anti-Methadone Clinic Bill

East Harlem Group Wants Albany to Prioritize Anti-Methadone Clinic Bill

DNAinfo

By Gustavo Solis

EAST HARLEM — As the legislative session kicks off in Albany, a group of El Barrio business owners want lawmakers to prioritize a bill limiting methadone clinics in the neighborhood.

The bill — A 0307 — would limit any new clinic from opening within 500 feet of a school, park, or church. It has been sitting in theMental Health Committee since 2012 and the New Harlem East Merchants Association thinks it’s time to move the bill along.

Harlem’s quality-of-life crisis: Time to contain homelessness, K2 and methadone clinics

Harlem’s quality-of-life crisis: Time to contain homelessness, K2 and methadone clinics

THE DAILY NEWS

By Holley Drakeford

The de Blasio administration has big future plans for East Harlem. But before ushering in new development, officials must do more to improve quality of life here on East 125th St., right now.

While some efforts have been made, the problems still linger: homelessness,K2 drug use and an unfairly high density of methadone clinics, to name a few. Uptown, we never got a highly touted “multi-agency task force” like Times Square did.