Four projects are underway along a 2.7-mile stretch of Arthur Kill Road on the deep South Shore that could lead to an explosion of truck traffic on the Island.<\/a><\/p>\nThat\u2019s right: traffic here could get even worse. <\/p>\n
Included on the list are a mega-warehouse on Nassau Place; a massive industrial warehouse in Rossville; a large vehicle storage space for the city Department of Transportation, and a spacious terminal that will provide short- and long-term truck parking for a variety of businesses. <\/p>\n
The development of these sites somehow flew completely under the radar. But they could have a huge impact on life across the borough.<\/p>\n
If you drive on the Staten Island Expressway with any regularity, you know that an enormous number of trucks already use our roads. Now we can expect to see many more. <\/p>\n
Borough lawmakers last month called for a widening of Arthur Kill Road.<\/p>\n
Sadly for us, the horse may already be out of the barn. <\/p>\n
BESS sites<\/p>\n
Yes, battery energy storage system sites are still coming to a neighborhood near you. <\/p>\n
And, yes, they\u2019re still dangerous.<\/p>\n
A BESS site in upstate Warwick just went on fire for the second time since 2023. The prior fire at the facility burned for days and led to community evacuations. <\/p>\n
BESS fires can\u2019t simply be doused like other conflagrations. They must be left to burn themselves out, spewing toxic fumes all the while.<\/p>\n
The safety of BESS sites just hasn\u2019t been tested over time. <\/p>\n
That would be bad enough. But what makes the threat even greater is that a provision passed under, yes, City of Yes again, allows these industrial facilities to be built cheek-by-jowl with homes in residential neighborhoods and next to mom-and-pop shops in commercial districts. <\/p>\n
BESS sites may indeed be needed to prevent future rolling blackouts as artificial intelligence and overall development continue to burden the electrical grid. <\/p>\n
But it\u2019s simply dangerous and patently unfair for BESS sites to be placed next to homes and along Main Street-style shopping corridors. <\/p>\n
They are unsafe and could drive down property values. They belong in remote areas or industrial zones. <\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/p>\n
Democratic socialist Mamdani let you know exactly where he stands by choosing lefty U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and anti-Trump Attorney General Letitia James to swear him in as the new mayor. <\/p>\n
Socialism and top-down, centralized government control don\u2019t work on an industrial scale, including in American cities. Just ask the folks in Chicago. <\/p>\n
But New Yorkers voted to give it a try anyway.<\/p>\n
Mamdani has promised nothing short of a revolution for the five boroughs. <\/p>\n
The new mayor has pledged free mass transit, rent freezes and the creation of additional affordable housing. <\/p>\n
Who could be against any of that? <\/p>\n
But Mamdani as mayor won\u2019t have the power to deliver on his promises all by himself. He\u2019s going to need the state and the feds to help. <\/p>\n
So, is he a bold visionary charting a new course for New York? Or just another politician making feel-good promises he knows he can\u2019t keep in order to get elected? <\/p>\n
We\u2019re about to find out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staten Island could be entering one of the most pivotal years in its history. There are big changes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-86647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}