Copyright Staten Island Advance
Hi Neighbor, It was 25 years ago when a trip anywhere near the Fresh Kills landfill, whether it be to the Staten Island Mall or down the West Shore Expressway, took your breath away. In a bad way. The stench was so revolting, shoppers jogged from their cars – holding their breath, or covered their noses if they couldn’t find a good parking spot -- to get inside the mall. Today, that same landfill is breathtaking. In a good way. What’s the difference? It’s not a landfill anymore. It’s a park. A sweeping expanse, a 2,200-acre savannah of grassland, tidal and freshwater wetlands and woodlands. Add to that a voluminous wildlife population that continually grows. I know first-hand. I toured the savannah with a few friends last week. Freshkills Park, it’s called. I can sum the transformation up in a word. Wow. For the curious wondering why it’s now Freshkills and not Fresh Kills any longer, Mark Murphy has the answer. Mark is administrator of Freshkills Park and president of the Freshkills Park Alliance, a non-profit that advocates for the park both financially and increasing access and public engagement. “We changed the name to coincide with the transformation from landfill to park,” Mark tells us. “Every small change, including the combination of the two words into one, is a move forward, a move past what it was and into what it is now and will be in the future.” What it was, was an environmental disaster for Staten Island. Residents of the other four boroughs put out their trash a couple of times a week, and it magically disappeared on collection morning. Out-of-sight-out-of-mind. For them. Not us. One-hundred-and-fifty million tons of it over the years. For those who forgot or weren’t here, here’s the CliffNotes version of the Fresh Kills story . . . Staten Island kicked up a stink – sorry, couldn’t resist – about the dangers of the landfill, environmental and on our own health, for decades. Nothing happened, until the stars aligned with Guy Molinari as borough president, Rudy Giuliani mayor and George Pataki governor. All Republicans. Guy pulled them together to close it. Rudy and George gave their blessing. Meanwhile, Vito Fossella, when councilman, filed a city bill to close Fresh Kills. He had 26 members out of 51 with him. In Albany, more magic happened. Two legislators did what was once seemingly impossible. They got a state law passed that formally closed the blight on Staten Island. The charge was led by the late Sen. John Marchi and then-Assemblyman Eric Vitaliano, who’s now a federal judge. Now, Mark Murphy and his team lead the charge to make what was a blight in our community a magnificent park three times the size of Central Park and the largest park developed in New York City in over 100 years. Right now, North Park in Travis is the first section to open – just 1 percent of the 2,200 acres. As you’d guess, it will take a while to open the entire park – about 10-plus years. And a ton of money. But that 1 percent offers so much. Long walks. Biking. Birdwatching, Picnic areas. A bird tower 20 feet in the air offering stunning views of the wetlands. A peaceful place for anyone seeking solitude and the extraordinary beauty nature offers. Some have compared it to the Serengeti Plains. Already, people are kayaking through the park’s creeks, the cleanest tidal water estuary in New York, Christopher Ricker, the park’s program coordinator, told National Geographic. Numerous bird species call the park home, some endangered. Northern snapping turtles crawl the grounds. Ospreys have returned. Great Egrets, Little Brown Bats, Tree Swallows. Red-Tailed Hawks. Fish inhabit the waterways. As the park develops, there will be playgrounds and athletic fields. Listen to Mark’s vision for the park. “When I took on this role, I met with a number of leaders in Staten Island to discuss what should/could happen here,” he told me. “My friend Alan Bernikow and I really spent some significant time talking about the project, and he helped me articulate what Freshkills Park is. We talked about being able to do more than just plan a park, but to be a platform for doing good things for us as a community. And it has proven to be just that, a platform to help GED kids get job skills, a platform to launch science and environmental educational programs, a platform to help lead in our city and region on climate action, infrastructure and resilience. All of which we are doing on a shoestring budget . . . “ The day of our tour, a dozen or more students from Susan Wagner High School shared North Park with us. Staten Island is the Borough of Parks. True enough. You can enjoy Cloves Lakes. Silver Lake. Conference House Park. Clay Pit Park. Great Kills or Wolfe’s Pond. But Freshkills gives you the rarest opportunity to see a man-made eco-catastrophe some rank up there with 1978’s Love Canal, transformed into an environmental haven that Mother Nature intended. You can visit, anytime between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The entrance is a little tricky to find. There’s a parking lot at 350 Wild Avenue, behind the old movie theater just off the West Shore Expressway and just up the street from the hotels at the base of the park. There are many remarkable places for you to visit on Staten Island. Make Freshkillls Park one of them. Brian
