Mayor: ‘Disaster' If Trash Plan Fails

If Mayor Bloomberg's trash plan gets tabled in Albany next week, it would mark a second stinging defeat on a major economic development project.

Mr. Bloomberg, whose proposed West Side Stadium died in Albany in 2005, is again ramping up efforts to get the green light for a key portion of his 20-year plan for dealing with the city's garbage.

Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg gathered with supporters to call on the Assembly to approve legislation next week that would allow the city to reactivate a recycling plant at the Gansevoort Peninsula on the Hudson River.

The mayor, who held a nearly identical news conference in June, said it will "be a disaster" if the proposal doesn't pass.

The debate over the Gansevoort transfer station has grown ugly in recent months, as Mr. Bloomberg and the City Council have attempted to clear the final hurdle for implementing their new barge-based system of carting away garbage.

Those who support it have painted the issue as injustice to low-income, minority communities, which under the current system are disproportionately burdened with garbage-hauling truck traffic. Approval of the Gansevoort piece of the plan has been stalled because three key members of the Assembly are against it.

Yesterday, Speaker Sheldon Silver said that if an alternative site on 36th Street doesn't work economically he would get behind Gansevoort, but he said the other site seems better.

"They seem to be ignoring the questions that they were asked, which is what does it cost to do the alternative site," Mr. Silver said in Lower Manhattan.

Mr. Bloomberg said, however, that, "every single question the speaker asked has been answered."

He said the 36th Street site would cost $11 million more to open.

Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, one of the opponents, said those numbers are inflated because the city's claim that it needs to demolish the existing pier is false.

Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, the leading supporter in the Assembly, called the battle a "15-round fight."

"Muhammad Ali did some great things in that 13th round in that ‘Thriller in Manila.' I think we can go back to Albany and this may be the ‘Thriller in Albany,'" he said. Mr. Bloomberg, who grew irritable yesterday when asked about the defeat of the West Side Stadium, said he was optimistic Mr. Silver would get behind the plan.