Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Former Bloomberg Operative Larry Scott Blackmon Lands At Controversial FreshDirect

"And now he's working against community interests including parks in the South Bronx." 
 - South Bronx resident 



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Access Denied.  For decades the Mott Haven waterfront in the South Bronx has been inaccessible due to commercial industry.  


In March a woman placed a sun flower on the locked gate leading to the Harlem River Railyard along the water front while protestors sat in front of the gate. Nine South Bronx residents were arrested in the peaceful civil disobedience action when a blocked gate prevented them from entering the public brownfield land, the proposed location of controversial FreshDirect relocation. The charges against those arrested were later dropped.    
(Photo: By Leah Kozak via Twitter)

The DOT NY State-owned land has been leased to the Galesi group for 99 years.

Bronx

By Geoffrey Croft

FreshDirect has hired Larry Scott Blackmon,  the former "Deputy Commissioner for Community Outreach" at the Parks Department  who reportedly specializes in African-American outreach to head up Community and Government Affairs for the controversial online grocer.



He is being charged with "deepening and expanding the company's community involvement,"   according to a press release. 

Blackmon, a former Michael Bloomberg operative on two consecutive re-election campaigns  landed a high-paying job in the Parks Department with zero park experience after Bloomberg was elected to a third term.  

For the past several years South Bronx Unite,  a coalition of over fifty groups has been fighting the online grocer's planned subsidized re-location and truck facility move along the South Bronx waterfront.  

Long cut off from the waterfront the community is fighting for the land instead to be developed into open space and parks with green job and educational opportunities.



"And now he's working against community interests including parks in the South Bronx," said South Bronx resident Jennifer Rivera.   


Boycott FreshDirect
FreshDirect, if allowed to proceed, would bring 1,500 additional daily truck trips through the South Bronx.  Critics argue that the plan is a Bloomberg-era relic attempting to give the diesel-intensive on-line grocer nearly $130 million in public subsidies to move to this public waterfront land from Queens. 

Read More:
PR newswire - July 22, 2014 


Nine Arrested Protesting FreshDirect Relocation To South Bronx - Waterfront Access Denied

A Walk In The Park -  March 23, 2014 - By Geoffrey Croft


A Walk In The Park - January 12, 2010  - By Geoffrey Croft

4 comments:

  1. What an opportunistic creep.

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  2. I thought it was 1000 trips daily. And I thought they agreed it would be an electric/natural gas fleet. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely against Fresh Direct on the waterfront of the Bronx, but I'm wondering about the data.

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    Replies
    1. the numbers are confusing because there is very little data not available except through freedom of information requests. Whatever the number it is thousands of additional truck trips and further congestion in an area with the highest rate of asthma in the nation.

      they have promised so called clean fleets for over a decade. yet after the hurricane damaged half their fleet they went and bought all diesel trucks, not very convincing of a commitment to a clean fleet.
      —look up southbronxunite.com, my church group on the upper west side is joining them because all of the trucks are too much and they pay so horribly the workers

      Fancine

      Delete
  3. Its an industrial site and should remain an industrial site.

    ReplyDelete