Imagine a place where 20 barges come every day, each one discharging 650 tons of trash.
A place populated by dog packs, black gulls -over 20 000 of them-, and millions of rats…
Picture a couple of guys alone in the stink, operating cranes and bulldozers here and there, trying to prevent their ass from getting chewed by wild dogs. Imagine chemical waste, toxic dust and billions of burgers wrappers.
Close you eyes and smell the aroma of Fresh Kills, New York’s favorite shit hole since 1948.
Before it turned into the world’s biggest landfill, Fresh Kills was just 900 hectares (2200 acres) of rural land with a little factory in the middle, on the western side of Staten Island. It was supposed to be used for 20 years only, but the most beautifullest city in the world kept pouring more and more junk, to a point where the heap even exceeded the Statue of Liberty’s height.
The site was eventually closed down march 22nd, 2001, and rehabilitation started. An ambitious 30 years-plan got in motion : the largest expansion of the NYC parks since the late 1880′s… But flights 175 and 93 burst into the picture, and the rubble had to go somewhere.
So the landfill re-opened, and a rough third of Ground Zero‘s debris were sent to Fresh Kills.
Detectives and forensic specialists spent 1.7 millions hours (virtually 200 years of work) going through 2 millions tons of debris. Over 4200 human remains were found, and 300 people were identified here, in what used to be the earth’s largest dump…
To his day, the debris have never been removed. This part of the dump has been sealed with a plastic membrane and covered with grass. Fresh Kills Park won’t be that fresh, but at least it will be three times bigger than Central Park.
Seems strange, but this might be what new yorkers mean by “going forward”.
NY’s favorite shit hole
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