City Will Spend $130M To Move Sanitation Garage That Parks Trucks by Kids' Playground

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS – A sanitation garage so overcrowded that trucks are forced to park next to a neighboring Queens playground will be replaced, the city said.

The problem had got so bad that Ravenswood Playground was renamed Department of Sanitation Park by locals.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced $130 million would be spent to replace the Queens West garage, currently at 34-28 21st St., after the garage's neighbors voiced concern at a town hall meeting with the mayor in Long Island City last week.

"The trucks that are now on the street in the area will be moved off by this fall," de Blasio said.

Department of Sanitation spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins told Patch the city was looking for a new site for the facility, likely in the confines of Community Board 1 which covers Long Island City and Astoria.

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The DSNY has been using the facility since the 1930s to store garbage trucks and other equipment.

"This is an issue of environmental justice that has plagued the Ravenswood community for decades and decades and decades," said Queens Councilman Jimmy van Bramer.

A spokeswoman for the Ravenswood Community Center said that the sanitation garage led to worries about environmental safety and health of the kids playing at The Ravenswood Playground.

While a replacement is found, the city is planning to move some of its vehicles and personnel to a nearby facility on a privately-owned lot, Dawkins said.

Lead image via Google Maps