Bronx united against FreshDirect

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Something is rotten in the South Bronx, and it smells like FreshDirect. 

FreshDirect, the online grocery delivery company, may seem like a good deal to Riverdale residents. What could be better than having fresh, organic produce delivered to your door by friendly folks in bright green T-shirts who arrive in trucks sporting photographs of bucolic country scenes and crisp, dew-drenched lettuce?

Turns out that what’s convenient for Riverdale residents may not be such a good thing for our neighbors just a few miles away. FreshDirect’s New York City operations are currently run out of facilities in Long Island City, Queens. But developers of luxury real estate have their eyes on the site. FreshDirect, whose groceries are not affordable to residents in poorer areas of the city, would like to move to an undeveloped area in the South Bronx called the Harlem River Yard. This rather wild spot, squeezed between a waste transfer station and a FedEx facility, beneath the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, also happens to be in an area that local residents have fought long and hard to turn into a waterfront park.

FreshDirect hopes to build a 500,000-square-foot warehouse and a fueling station on the site. If it succeeds, there will be more than 1,000 diesel trucks plying the streets of an area known as “Asthma Alley.” Men, women, and children live, work and play here. They also struggle to breathe. Mobilizing to fight FreshDirect’s plans two years ago, local environmental justice activist Mychal Johnson helped found South Bronx Unite. Mychal’s outstanding activism led to his selection as one of 37 civil delegates to the U.N. Climate Summit in September. 

On Monday night, Nov. 17, the Empire State Development Corporation held a public hearing on its proposal to use $140 million in public funds (yes, your tax dollars!), to subsidize FreshDirect’s move from Queens to the South Bronx waterfront, as well as on the company’s application for a zoning override. The override would allow FreshDirect to violate the constitutional requirement that the Harlem River Yard, as a state-owned property, provide a public benefit.

FreshDirect, Bronx Climate Justice North, Jennifer Scarlott
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