City Approves Fresh Direct Subsidies
Mott Haven Herald
By Anacaona Rodriguez Martinez
The city’s Industrial Development Agency voted overwhelmingly on Feb. 14 in favor of subsidies that will bring the food delivery company FreshDirect to Port Morris, as about a dozen South Bronx residents sat and fumed that the agreement was rammed through without sufficient public input.
Critics cite environmental harm, denounce backdoor deal
The city’s Industrial Development Agency voted overwhelmingly on Feb. 14 in favor of subsidies that will bring the food delivery company FreshDirect to Port Morris, as about a dozen South Bronx residents sat and fumed that the agreement was rammed through without sufficient public discussion.
The agency ignored a letter from Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito asking it to postpone the vote because there “appears to be the lack of transparency and public input.”
Instead the agency confirmed the $130 million in subsidies that city and state officials announced a week ago to sway FreshDirect, which has outgrown its current home in Queens, to remain in the city rather than move to New Jersey. “I cannot sit quietly through the lies that I’m listening to,” Harry Bubbins, director of the Mott Haven group Friends of Brook Park told the board before walking out of the agency’s conference room shortly after the meeting began.
