To the Editor,
Re: CB2 unanimously approves letter of support for Hunts Point EV truck charging station
This is good news for the people of Hunts Point, who for years, have been host to the largest vegetable market in the U.S., along with meat, fish and groceries that are all delivered by diesel trucks — a major health concern for the residents. What if it were your child wheezing and spending hours upon hours with doctors? I am not a scientist, but many studies have been done in this geographic location and in scientific research regarding the concentration of juvenile asthma, with a concentration of commercial trucking.
Just three miles to the north on the same Bruckner Expressway truck route is a proposal to erect high-rise apartment buildings, almost on top of the junction of three major trucking arteries. Does this make sense? Car and truck exhaust take years to affect the health of surrounding communities, but the proof that it does is — in our neighbors’ community to the south at Hunts Point — is no question.
I am in full agreement with the notion that one’s individual responsibility to be a conscientious caretaker of our planet is a prerequisite of a successful society. The exponential changes taking place in our world and country now tend to focus our awareness, but all these proposed “solutions” seem to fail to take time into consideration, regardless of your perceived urgency. You cannot turn a huge cruise ship on a dime; it takes a gigantic circle to change course and that takes time. It doesn’t mean we should stop trying. We have to adjust our perspective in accordance with the passage of time. Someday we might see all electric vehicles, when one of the brilliant minds in our country (the repository of the largest gene pool ever assembled) or the world as a whole for that matter, arrives at an environmentally friendly, cost effective and safe technology.
Our planet circles our sun every day; it takes 365 1/4 days, it is relatively precise. Astronomers and scientists detect an almost unrecognizable billion-year adjustment. The planners of the universe were and are infinitely aware of the details and took into account the influence of time. So should we! We live in time and space. How could we not? Stay aware as an individual, unite to achieve progress, and judge your fellow man by his personality — we all have a unique one. Disregard appearances and search out the person.
Tom Hansen
