I soon came to respect and appreciate the variety of people in the solid waste field X ■ PREFACE for the work they did, and I reveled in the small but growing field of urban environmental history (which included my good friend and mentor Joel Tarr) interested in city services and urban technology. Colleagues dubbed me the “garbage historian”-a moniker I was not very happy with. As the book made the academic and public rounds, I got to know many engineers, city officials, lawyers, and business leaders associated with the waste management field. Yet Fresh Kills was going strong and remained a marvel of large-scale engineering for many more years, much to the frustration of most Staten Islanders. By the 1980s, landfills were becoming too expensive to build or facing increasing criticism as environmental failures. In Garbage in the Cities I briefly discussed Fresh Kills, mostly as a “gee whiz” example of a massive dumping ground for Gotham’s never-ending stream of solid waste. I did not venture to Staten Island, nor did I visit the wastescape at the time. I mined what documents were available, and I met a few people associated with the department, including a former commissioner. On the research trip I became acquainted with the work of the Department of Sanitation, which was responsible for the collection and disposal of refuse for the city. At that time I was doing research in New York City for a book project that ultimately became Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment, 1880–1920 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1981). A 1991 op-ed piece in the local newspaper noted that Staten Islanders “live side by side with a landfill that’s larger than some cities.”1 My awareness of the site, however, goes back to the late 1970s. Crossroads 520 Conclusion 547 Notes 557 Index 759 275 PREFACE T he idea for this book began a more than ten years ago as a narrative history of the largest landfill (or one of the largest) that the world had ever seen-Fresh Kills on Staten Island, New York. Now What? 422 PART VI: THE POST- CLOSURE ERA 18. A New Plan 350 PART V: THE ROAD TO CLOSURE 15. Futile Protests 169 123 VIII ■ CONTENTS PART IV: LIVING WITH AND SURVIVING THE LANDFILL 8. The Garbage War 87 PART III: SEEKING A DISPOSAL SINK 5. Wasting Away 15 38 PART II: STATEN ISLAND: BOROUGH OF LAST RESORT 3. © Diane Cook and Fotosearch/Getty Images and Len Jenshel/Getty Images Cover design: Lisa Hamm For Gianna and Angelina CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: The Dilemma of Consuming 1 PART I: THE BACKDROP 1. Printed in the United States of America Cover image: Digital composite. | Fresh Kills Landfill (New York, N.Y.) | Freshkills Park (New York, N.Y.) Classification: LCC TD788.4.N (print) | LCC TD788.4.N72 (ebook) | DDC 628.4/45640974726-dc23 LC record available at LC ebook record available at Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2020. Title: Fresh Kills : a history of consuming and discarding in New York City / Martin V. MELOSI FRESH KILLS A HISTORY OF CONSUMING AND DISCARDING IN NEW YORK CITY Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2020 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Melosi, Martin V., 1947– author. MELOSI A HISTORY OF CONSUMING AND DISCARDING IN NEW YORK CITY FRESH KILLS MARTIN V. Crossroads Conclusion Notes Index Citation preview Now What? Part VI: The Post-Closure Era 18. A New Plan Part V: The Road to Closure 15. Futile Protests Part IV: Living with and Surviving the Landfill 8. The Garbage War Part III: Seeking a Disposal Sink 5. Wasting Away Part II: Staten Island: Borough of Last Resort 3. Table of contents : Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: The Dilemma of Consuming Part I: The Backdrop 1.
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