March 27th – Greenpoint
I started at my least favorite place in Brooklyn: Maspeth Avenue.
Equity Works
At the corner of Vandervort, there is a site that was a MGP and is now a recycling facility. A line of trucks waits outside to dump their loads. I felt very intimidated and didn’t try to shoot.
Greenpoint MGP
Across the street is a huge site that was also a MGP. It is largely empty though there appears to be a baseball field on the site and on the far end, the Greenpoint Little League has its field. I asked the owner of Brooklyn Rebar which is across the street if I could go up into his two story building to get a better view of the site.
ACME Steel Metal Works
The building at 72 Lombardy Street goes through the whole block. The site is contaminated with trichloroethene (TCE) a chemical used to degrease metal.
Meeker Avenue
I also walked to the end of Meeker Avenue at the Newtown Creek. a foul filthy spot yet you couldn’t tell at least the day I was there that there is both a huge quantity of petroleum spilled underground in this area as well as a plume of other chemicals that were usd in metal manufacturing and dry cleaning.
Toxi City: Exploring Brooklyn's Industrial Legacy 
on March 7, 2012 on 4:23 am
Over the last couple of years the area on Varick Street between Nassau and Meeker has been completely taken over by a group of Chinese businesses that have no regard for residents in the area. The area is filthy, trucks with graffiti all over them are double parked all day. HiLos go back and forth all day. The residents who live on Van Dam Street ( this is the block after Apollo) are forced to go through this slum every day to get to their homes. Add to this the transfer station and the lack of sanitation enforcement in the area and I wonder why my tax dollars help everyone else except greenpoint residents in this area who are constantly dumped on.