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Comments

• [1] hjs from 11211 June 26, 2008 - 10:17AM

  are they all vegetarians in this part of queens?

  
  
• [2] bas from brooklyn June 26, 2008 - 11:10AM

  I live on a residential block in Williamsburg and on the corner of Grand and Berry there is Empire National ( of the hotdogs) and they boil meat, and the stench is horrible. We see pails of meat standing open, containers with bone and brain standing open, blood on the sidewalk. It shares the wall with a residential neighbor... we are dying to get the place out of there. Its also across from a school.

  
  
• [3] Gene June 26, 2008 - 11:10AM

  Jeez, it wasn't that long ago--10 years or so-- that there were at least 2 such stores in Soho, 2 blocks south of Houston, around Thompson St.

  AND they were great places to get fresh duck, goose, etc. And many people went there and bought live.

  We are getting so finicky!

  
  
• [4] mc from Brooklyn June 26, 2008 - 11:14AM

  #3,

  Yeah, and as soon as those neighborhoods got fancy, away those places went. Can you imagine a place like this opening in a white middle-class neighborhood?

  
  
• [5] bas from brooklyn June 26, 2008 - 11:20AM

  good point- lets get the trash transfer station and slaughter houses open on the upper west side for a change- there they would be able to use barges as well and less trucking- then they will have to do cleaner business, leave less garbage and have less of an impact- because of the way that they would be pressured by the political powers surrounding them.

  
  
• [6] Laura from Brooklyn June 26, 2008 - 11:28AM

  I live on a block with a slaughterhouse - it is absolutely disgusting. The animals are suffering in pain, screaming; it stinks up the whole block; the workers sweep blood and guts into the street, and then dump gallons of bleach into the gutter to "take care" of the problem; the trucks block the street and sidewalk, which is already slippery with blood - it is truly horrifying. There is nothing quaint and homey about this, as some of the other comments seem to suggest. It is a hell on earth.

  
  
• [7] jen from brooklyn June 26, 2008 - 11:30AM

  #1 - hjs,

  What about the people who need the jobs and paychecks they get from the slaughterhouses?

  As a life long Brooklynite, I believe the slaughterhouses have been there for years and years, way before the wave of new residents.

  Why move there if it smells bad?

  
  
• [8] jen from brooklyn June 26, 2008 - 11:32AM

  oops sorry hjs, i meant #2 Bas

  
  
• [9] eligit from astoria June 26, 2008 - 11:44AM

  whew.

  glad to be a vegetarian yet again.

  
  
• [10] Elle Smith from Brooklyn June 26, 2008 - 11:47AM

  I didn't call in because people who care about the massive suffering inflicted upon animals are treated as aggressive crazies, and I am sane and not aggressive but rather pessimistic about the nature of human beings.

  Does the treatment of these millions upon millions of animals ever matter? Does their agony ever make a difference to people? The bestiality of humans is the inevitable sad conclusion of how we treat cows, chickens, lambs, etc.

  At least that upstate NY farmer is one small voice for humane animal farming. The hunter who called in with the ludicrous old saw that shooting an animal shows the utmost respect for the animal is willfully blind beyond my comprehension.

  
  
• [11] joyous from Earth June 26, 2008 - 12:06PM

  re:10

  Elle, slaughterers have feelings too, and your concern about the animals deprives them of the universally uplifting activity of mass killing.

  Unless you feel humans have the divinely given right to make other species suffer, you are just a maniac.

  
  
• [12] Joe from Clifton NJ June 27, 2008 - 11:55AM

  The Assemblyman didn't mention the following hugh issue related to zoning and neighborhood character:

  For middle and lower middle class homeowners, their homes are generally their largest personal asset. Homeowners rely on the value of and, over time, the appreciation of, this asset in order to retire, borrow against to send kids to college, use as an emergency nest egg..etc. While a 2 family home in Queens will never appreciate as quickly as a townhouse on the Upper East Side or 12,000sf mansion in Greewich CT, it "should" to some degree and owners are relyinging on this. Having said this, property values in "outer ring" neighborhoods of color (even with a high percentage of resident hoe owners)are very fragile. A new slaughterhouse in this type of neighborhood will hurt property values and should be faught against. Homeowner's pockets are being picked. Also, community activism against this will probably yield additional benefits such as bringing neighbors together to tackle other problems that can, in the end, improve the quality of life and increase property values.