NYC’s Ambitious Composting Initiative Has Decomposed
arrow The Big Reuse site under the Queensboro Bridge will be forced to move over the next few months. Audrey Carleton / Gothamist
One of the last community composting sites in New York City can be found under the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City. Mounds of mulch piled five feet high sit next to stacks of green bins and construction materials. The piles of organic matter are divided into phases by their decomposition stage. Some are composed of banana peels, orange rinds, and egg shells, while others resemble something closer to soil. These mounds are tended to by volunteers for Big Reuse, a non-profit composting site responsible for converting over one million pounds of food scraps to nutrient-rich soil each year.
Lower East Side Links
–Small businesses knew they got shortchanged by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the federal government’s Covid relief initiative. A new analysis supports that conclusion, showing that a little more than half of NYC micro-businesses (with 10 employees or less) received loans. On the Lower East Side, 47.7% of small businesses secured loans. The analysis shows that more affluent neighborhoods got a larger share of PPP loans. [The City]
–Second generation Chinese New Yorkers are stepping up to help devastated Chinatown businesses but there’s widespread agreement that the only thing that will save most local small businesses is a massive federal bailout. [WNYC-Gothamist]
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It’s been more than a year since the New York City Council approved a $1.45 billion plan to protect Manhattan’s Lower East Side from future flooding, but challenges to the plan have been recently reignited by some who remain opposed to the project.
Work on the northern portion of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, at Asser Levy Playground at East 23rd St., started earlier this month, to get the area ready for construction, according to the New York City Department of Design and Construction. The city said it plans to begin work on the East River Park section of the project, south of East 14th St., by early next year, once bids come back from contractors.