March 1, 2021
Honorable Mitchell Silver
Commissioner,
NYC Department of Parks and Recreation 830 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10065
Dear Commissioner Silver:
We are writing to express Community Board #2's strong support for the BIG Reuse composting facilities that have been located under the Queensborough Bridge for the last 10 years, and it is our hope that they can remain in place going forward under a long-term lease with DPR.
Over the last ten years, the Long Island City community has grown substantially in population and it is very much in need of new and enhanced public park space. CB #2 appreciates DPR's intent to make capital improvements to Queensbridge Baby Park and fully supports the proposed upgrades to active recreational areas for residents' use. However, the site currently occupied by BIG Reuse is being proposed for expanded DPR parking and maintenance, not use by the general public. The BIG Reuse facility now serves surrounding residents, who can deposit their compostable materials in the absence of a citywide pickup program and obtain compost for their individual use, as well as serving the NYC DPR system, through composting leaves from many parks and providing finished compost for landscaping and soil enrichment in those same facilities.
BIG Reuse is an extraordinarily effective non-profit organization. They have provided invaluable services to the City in revitalizing and upgrading this formerly derelict site, in educating many New Yorkers about the importance of composting to the city's environmental health, in mobilizing local volunteers, and in servicing the NYC Parks system with a leaf composting facility that was maintained without public expense. CB #2 supports BIG Reuse's continuing operation in their current location and believes that they provide a greater public benefit than would an
expanded maintenance / parking area for DPR, which could be located elsewhere in western Queens. Given the funds, materials and labor that have already been invested in the site, it would be a profound waste of resources to demolish what they have created and force them to move, particularly when their mission is so aligned with that of an environmentally friendly and sustainable NYC Parks system.
At CB #2's last full Board Meeting on February 4, 2021, a motion was passed with 34 in favor of the motion; none opposed and no abstentions to provide a letter of support for a new long- term lease for BIG Reuse. We sincerely hope that the Parks Department will recognize the importance of this facility, as evidenced by the support of both CB #1 and CB #2, and modify their currently proposed site plan to allow them to remain.
Yours truly,
Lisa Deller
Chairperson, Community Board 2 Queens
Letter of Support from Community Board #2, Queens