[CPEO-BIF] New York City school-site leasing

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

NYC toxic school fight hits Albany

by Patrick Arden
Metro New York
June 20, 2007

MANHATTAN. Over the last seven months the City Council has vetted plans 
by the Bloomberg administration to build five new schools on polluted 
sites in the South Bronx and Queens. Through public debate, the plans 
changed, calling for stricter cleanup efforts.

Now the Council wants to extend its authority over approving new school 
sites to include leased buildings. The city’s School Construction 
Authority is looking to put more than 30 schools in existing structures 
within the next five years. But unlike new construction, leased sites 
don’t require formal environmental assessments or public approval.

Councilman Robert Jackson, chair of the Education Committee, recalls the 
city’s mistake in opening P.S. 141 in a former dry-cleaning plant in 
Harlem. Soon after it had opened in 1997, the school was shut down when 
tests showed high levels of the chemical perchloroethylene. More recent 
controversies have swirled around opening schools in leased factories in 
Ozone Park and Soundview.

...

For the entire article, see
http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/NYC_toxic_school_fight_hits_Albany/9057.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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