By Scott Sieber
Days after his West Side Stadium plans were shot down, his citywide trash proposal to use barges rather than trucks to export garbage out of the city also received the ax from the City Council in a 29-19 vote June 8.The plans called for the renovation of four marine transport stations throughout the city, one in College Point, two in Brooklyn and one on 91st Street in Manhattan. However, due to Community Board 7's prior approval of College Point's transport station, the Queens site was not voted on by the City Council.Supporters of the mayor's plan are concerned, though, since the use of the College Point site is contingent upon the passage of the mayor's entire plan.City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said he believes the Council denied the trash plans because of political squabbling between Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan), a mayoral candidate whose Upper East Side district contains one of the proposed sites and who lobbied against the mayor's plan.On Tuesday, the mayor vetoed the Council's vote. The Council now has 10 days to gather a total of 34 votes to override the mayor's veto.”The speaker is going to lobby very heavily,” Avella said. “There is going to be some arm-twisting involved. We've been discussing this for over a year. If all these excuses were valid, why did they suddenly come up at the last minute? To me, I have yet to hear one substantial argument.”Miller's office did not return calls for comment, but Newsday quoted Miller as saying that he is not pandering to his district.”My problem is that building a transfer station on 91st Street doesn't help anybody else in any of the other boroughs and if it's not going to help anybody, why are we locating it in a densely residential neighborhood in the middle of a park?” Miller told the newspaper.Both Avella and Bloomberg touted a substantial improvement to the city's environment and air quality as reasons to approve the plans. “The Solid Waste Management Plan that I presented to the Council last year has the support of nearly every major environmental organization in New York City,” said Bloomberg in response to the Council's vote. “It takes thousands of trucks off our city's roads and treats every borough in our city equally.”Avella said the veto will probably prevail.”Provided we keep the votes we got, Gifford could not override it,” he said.Reach reporter Scott Sieber by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
