August 7, 2018
Five of the 10 community districts citywide with the highest number of Voluntary Cleanup Program sites are gentrifying neighborhoods that have seen increases in median household income compared to other districts, the NYU Furman Center reported.
Greenpoint/Williamsburg in Brooklyn alone is home to 24.6% of VCP sites.
Introduced in 2009, the VCP is the city’s leading mechanism for brownfield cleanup. The number of sites under remediation citywide, 560-plus, compares favorably with statewide tallies in Illinois and Ohio, according to NYU Furman’s report.
“The cleanup of contaminated sites is important for the health, safety, and vitality of communities,” said study author Luis Inaraja Vera. “While more work is needed to understand the effect that the city’s VCP is having on redevelopment rates in the city, our research shows that the program does a good job attracting owners to participate, which is one important measure of a program’s success.”
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Tags: Economy, Renovation, Research