By Doug Miller
But Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi would not disappoint the assembled television cameras. Instead, he hopped on board a backhoe, donned a white hardhat and, under the close eye of the machine's regular operator, knocked down part of the incinerator's south wall in a hail of falling concrete and dust. North Park neighborhood activists, led by Linda King and the Rev. Carlton Mobley, cheered.
The demolition of the incinerator, which has stood dormant for nearly a decade, is being funded in part by the Nassau County environmental bond act. There are no definite plans for the site, but the city is in talks with developers to build a high-end, mixed-use residential and retail complex on the barrier island's north shore that would include the site.
"This is waterfront property in Nassau County," Suozzi said before donning his hardhat. "It's some of the most valuable real estate in the U.S.A."
More important to the North Park residents, its removal signifies a step forward in the effort to bring some of Long Beach's economic boom to North Park. The neighborhood has long been blocked off and dumped upon, the residents say, forced to play host to such bad neighbors as the incinerator, the waterworks and other heavy industry while neatly hidden from the rest of the city behind the Walbaum's plaza. While the artificial border remains, the incinerator's removal means one fewer toxic neighbor. The city spent most of July removing asbestos from the site.
"There are a lot of activists who fought for this who aren't here today," King told the assembled crowd. Whether they were lost due to the health consequences of living near the incinerator could never be known, she acknowledged, but, she said, they might have lived richer lives out of its shadow.
At Tuesday night's City Council good and welfare session, Sarah Nicholas, the former president of the Coalition to Close the Long Beach Incinerator, expressed her disappointment at not being invited by the city to the event. Beyond that, many former members of that committee were also excluded, she said, including Beth Anderson, Matthew Dwyer, Ann Kayman, Marlene Bachan, Christopher Fry, Gary Wexler, Frank McQuade, Patty and Greg Nyman and MaryLou Monahan. City Council President Leonard Remo pointed out that Linda King was invited and spoke at the event.
Nicholas further alleged that Nassau County sent out a blanket invitation to all of its employees to attend the event, which a county official later denied.
