I was enjoying a stroll on a sunny day, walking down 60th Street from Eliot Avenue down to Flushing Avenue. As I passed by the Metropolitan Oval, a blue cloud of smoke enveloped me. I started coughing and my eyes started burning. A GATX engine was pulling a freight train down the Bushwick line and emitting this noxiousness. CURES inquired but received nothing but shrugs from NY&A.
A few weeks later, a resident reported that black acrid smoke was being emitted from an engine near Villa Erasmo. This is on the CSX line, next to where they are planning to build the IBX and rip out thousands of trees, exacerbating environmental concerns. CURES stepped in again to inquire. They were told that the engine was found to be defective. Golly gee, why was this defective engine operating when it clearly should not have been in service? Why does it take complaints from community residents to protect the air we all breathe?