bargeparkpals

Marker Contributions | Marker Subscriptions

I'm a Catholic female who's lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn all my life. I'm a mother of six and a grandmother of three beautiful interacial children. My husband & I are the founders of Barge Park Pals which is a community committee member of the Open Space Alliance and a member organization of the Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks & Planning. My husband and I are both members of the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee, Newtown Creek Alliance, Kosciuszko Bridge Stakeholders Advisory Committee & O.U.T.R.A.G.E. I chaired the Brooklyn Community Board 1 Rezoning Task Force Parks & Open Space Sub-Committee during the Greenpoint / Williamsburg rezoning. And I served as a GWAPP co-chair for about 2 years. My husband & i are also co-plaintiffs in the Riverkeeper lawsuit against the offending oil companies of the Oil Spill located in Greenpoint. My family's medical health history reads like an Area 51 report. My father died from a rare brain disease called Progressive SupraNuclear Palsy. My mother died from a rare CNS Lymphoma ( Brain Cancer ). My brother & sister were born with a genetic blood birth defect called Congenital Spherocytosis. In addition my brother has also been diagnosed with an unidentified autoimmune disease. I have also been diagnosed with a mild Lupus ( an autoimmune disease ) as well as Fibromyalgia and a mild asthma. In addition a couple of my children suffer from undiagnosed symptoms and syndromes. I believe with all my heart that my family's health problems are a direct result of the environmental degradation that surrounded us all our lives. My parents always lived in Greenpoint or on the border of Newtown Creek where numerous environmental offenders waged environmental war on residents. Amoung those offenders are the former Greenpoint Incinerator, the Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant, the Greenpoint Oil Spill, numerous waste transfer stations, numerous chemical spewing facilities such as PVC manufacturers and smelting plants. The little protection we found in our neighborhood trees was severely depleted by the Asian Long Horned Beetle Crisis. These days, I stay active in my neighborhood's struggle to reverse our neighborhood's environmental health condition by educating, planting trees, creating green open spaces and waterfront access and working toward a comprehensive health & environmental study that may help identify health issues related to our present and/or past environmental exposures.

Maps (select: all / none) view >

Action Alert Network