Good Old Lower East Side

Public Hearing on Con Ed by Margarita Solivan

Feb 22, 2001

On January 24, a group of us from Loisaida arrived at the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) office located on 169 avenue B, between 10th and 11th streets. There we organized a group of people carrying poster boards with messages and wearing facemask to march to the hearing on whether Con Edison should be permitted to place another Steam generating plant at the 14th Street site.
During the Public Housing Residents of Lower East Side protest march we yelled verses against the plant Con Ed plans to bring and install in our neighborhood.
On our arrival at P.S. 34 we met other protesters who joined in the march, which steadily grow to about 100 people. We marched in front of the school as a sign of our disagreement to Con Ed?’s proposed plan.
In this demonstration the Lower East Side was represented by people of all ages: kids, teenagers, adults and seniors.
Once in the school, where there was a significant representation of the community, people in attendance provided testimony on the issue to the presiding judges representing the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Many of the participants questioned the three representatives of DEC.
I can tell you that if we take into account the spirit of fight that we demonstrated, the event was an overall success. The only thing, which we desire and need, is to be able to ?“BREATH HEALTHY AIR?” and what we DO NOT desire or want is our KIDS AND ELDERLY ACQUIRING ASTHMA.