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Subway Reefs for NYC?
By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 10, 2008
Modified Nov 10, 2008
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 10, 2008
Modified Nov 10, 2008
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Subway cars that spent their lifespan serving New Yorkers often retire at the bottom of a watery grave in Delaware and New Jersey, creating artificial barrier reefs. Why not dump the old cars in our own rivers and waterways? Technically, it's not allowed under current environmental codes, but just because the fish in the Gowanus canal likely have gonohorrea, doesn't mean they don't deserve a little reef love as well! NY1 reports that "Congressman Anthony Weiner held a news conference yesterday to call on the state to revise environmental codes to allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to dump retired subway cars into city waters." Not only will it help our marine life, but the MTA will save money, you know, the opposite of what they've been doing. Wiener says "the agency has spent more than $6 million to ship more than 2,000 retired cars" out-of-state. Currently the State Department of Environmental Conservation is taking his suggestion under consideration.
Tagged
marine life
MTA
reefs
retired
subway
subway cars
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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