By Matthew Monks
They have a tradition of banding together against unpopular commercial and industrial projects, attacking them with letter-writing campaigns, public hearings and street protests.One politician said the area is bracing for what could be its most important battle yet: blocking a freight tunnel beneath the Hudson River that could flood the neighborhood with commercial trucks and trains in the Cross Harbor project.”This community, when pushed, will clearly fight back and Cross Harbor is the city pushing,” said City Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village) last Thursday. “You're talking thousands and thousands of trucks barreling through the communities all day and night.”Board 5, which governs Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale and Middle Village, unanimously passed a resolution last month against the proposed $5 billion to $7 billion Cross Harbor Freight Movement project, which city and federal officials contend would cut heavy traffic on highways around Manhattan.A New York City Economic Development Corp. report said the freight line would connect Greenville, N.J. to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where it would hook up with the Long Island Rail Road line that runs past Maspeth and Middle Village. Two local rail yards would be enlarged to handle the new rail traffic, which infuriates locals. The West Maspeth Yard expansion would displace as many as 50 businesses and calls for a 220-foot-high docking facility, where trailer boxes would be transferred to trucks. The line between that site and the Fresh Pond Yard would be modified for an additional 100 trains a day.”There would be uncoupling and coupling (of trains) all around the clock there at Fresh Pond Yard, and that would create all sorts of noise,” said John Schell, chairman of the community board's transportation committee. “I can't imagine what's going to happen to property values in that area.”But if history repeats itself, he will will never have to find out. Over the past three decades, residents have successfully stonewalled projects that threatened their quality of life. In the late 1980s they blocked a city Department of Environmental Protection-proposed incinerator near Newtown Creek. They muscled Mayor David Dinkins in the early1990s to rescind plans for a sludge plant in the Maspeth Phelps Dodge site on 56th Road. Most recently, they fought back a Home Depot, a self-storage facility and a restaurant last year at the old Elmhurst gas tank site in Maspeth.”They always want to dump something in Maspeth,” said Tony Nunziato, a CB 5 member. “We're quiet, very peaceful people, and all of a sudden they push us against the wall.”When that happens, he said, their politicians and civic groups take to the streets. It's a tight-knit, active community with more than a dozen small civics, he said, including Maspeth Town Hall, the Juniper Park Civic Association, 104COP and the West Maspeth Local Development Corp.The area is “the last of the small-town USA,” Nunziato said. “We have a long history, a proud history, and we have a lot of proud people that live here.”Expect them to take to the streets if Cross Harbor gains momentum, Gallagher said.The development corporation, which partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation on the freight line, released a $20 million environmental impact study in April saying that it would remove 1 million trucks from New York roadways. The corporation will decide the next step in the project in September after getting feedback from local governments in New York City and New Jersey.”If Cross Harbor goes through, absolutely I see (residents) fighting back and I see me leading the charge,” Gallagher said.He said he would organize rallies at the development corporation in Manhattan and at the office of U.S. Rep Jerrold Nadler (D-Brooklyn), a staunch supporter of the project. Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
