Activity 10, Matt Blank

For activity 10, we got to go to Freshkills Park in Staten Island.

Admittedly, at first I was not very happy about having to make time to go to a park in Staten Island. It'd been years since I was on Staten Island, let alone the ferry. Still, I signed up for the second tour, got to the Ferry Terminal and met up with another student. We braved the Ferry together. I remain very impressed with the gentleman who had so much gel in his hair that his hair did not move when he was on the bow of the boat.

When we arrived on Staten Island, we met our tour guide, who was awesome. We all gathered and met up and drove to the Park. On the way, we learned more about the park. In case you don't know, I'll give you the quick update:
For years NYC shipped all it's garbage to a landfill in Staten Island. Everyone except Robert Moses hated it, especially the people who lived near it. The garbage is literally piled 200 feet high in some places. Then they decided to capping the landfills and plant a park on top of it.
So now that you know what it is, let me first tell you that it is incredible. It was inspiring to think about how effectively and creatively all that trash was dealt with. The park itself is gorgeous and I highly recommend going. They even put a system in place to siphon out the methane from the landfill gasses to heat houses in Staten Island.

While the site won't ever be what it was, it is a very green way of dealing with the garbage we spent years accumulating there.