Ice Cream With Exceedingly Bad Taste

This is the Fresh Kills Landfill now after being treated and cleaned up. A park larger than Central Park is in the works. The air is fresh and clean. Its creeks and wetlands have been designated a Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat by the New York State Dept of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Fresh Kills and its tributaries are part of the largest tidal wetland ecosystem in the region:
This is the troublesome ice cream:
I hesitate to give this ice cream company more press. It will only entice more people to buy the ice cream and it will bring them more name recognition. I have wriiten to them and while they were nice, they are not planning on shelving Land Fill. They said that they want to show all of New York City, including its "warts." So, if this is true, I propose that they make one negatively-named and one positively-named flavor for all five boroughs. I also propose that they add positive information on the backs of the containers with urls. For Land Fill they could have a funny blurb about how the site is visible from the moon but now there is a world class park in the works and its creeks and wetlands have been designated a Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat. Let's try to compromise. Maybe we can use this to educate people.

UPDATE: The owners of 5 Boroughs have agreed to my plan. They already have a certain number of pint containers printed but I'm trying to see if they can make educational stickers until they sell out of the already printed containers. They are also going to put links and educational info up on their site. This a good compromise. Everyone reads the backs of ice cream pints and cereal boxes. Read their letter at the bottom of this post.

It is true, Fresh Kill was once a landfill visible from space. When the landfill became full it was closed and the city created an ambitious plan to turn the area into a city park. Plans for the park include a bird-nesting island, public roads, boardwalks, soccer and baseball fields, bridle paths and a 5,000-seat stadium. Today, freshwater and tidal wetlands, fields, birch thickets and a coastal oak maritime forest, as well as areas dominated by non-native plant species, are all within the boundaries of Fresh Kills. Already, many of the landscapes of Fresh Kills possess a stark beauty, with 360 degree, wide horizon views from the hills, over 300 acres of salt marsh and a winding network of creeks.

Go HERE to read more about the project, listen to the beautiful birds who now call these man-made rollling hills their home, and see plans for the park.

Perhaps when this new park is complete Staten Island residents will find the ice cream flavor quaint or funny but until then feelings are being hurt and compromises should be made. - CvB

Here is a New York Magazine article by Amy Zavatto, our friend and neighbor:

"Ice cream and politics don’t mix: Just look at the strange case of Staten Island Land Fill, a new flavor sold in stores by 5 Boroughs Ice Cream, and the source of a major hassle on the other side of the Verrazano. Things came to a head last Friday when Staten Island borough president Jimmy Molinaro urged an all-borough ban of 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. “Initially, we considered changing the name,” says Kim Myles, 5 Boroughs’ co-owner, “but then we realized we didn’t get into this to take direction from everybody else. And it’s our number-one seller!” What the two did not count on was what a very sore toothache the dump has become to most Islanders, long weary of being the Abbott to the-rest-of-NYC’s Costello.
Fresh Kills’ 2,200 acres shut down six years ago, and the Department of City Planning is well on its way to turning the former blight into a park, part of the reason Myles and her husband, Scott, thought borough residents would laugh it off. But so far, the controversy over the year-old flavor has been a big, drippy mess. “As a native Staten Islander and proud resident of the borough, I won’t buy any of the company’s products until they change the name,” says Staten Island Advance food critic Pamela Silvestri. Myles, however, who’s got Staten Island Cherry slotted as the next Island flavor to come off the conveyor belt, seems to get what a big nerve 5 Boroughs has irritated: “It’s really a sociological mirror. We got a funny e-mail from one Islander saying Staten Island should be glad we made a flavor for them and then suggesting a new one called Fake Tan Pecan. But I don’t think we’re going to use that one.” —Amy Zavatto, New York Magazine"
Fresh Kills Park Plans:


Letter from 5 Boroughs:

"Cynthia,

What a great idea! Kim and I both think this could work. What a great way to advertise what the island does offer and what the future looks like for it. The only problems I see are these:

1. There is not much space on the pints, but there is enough for a small intro that could be flushed out on the website page.
2. We have already bought and had printed the first 5000 pint cups. So we'll need to get through all those before we can add anything to the back of the pint. Not sure how long this will take.

Thanks so much for such a wonderful compromise/solution. Let's keep in touch and as we get closer to the time when we can change the pints we'll work it all out. In the meantime, I suppose we could link to a few Staten Island websites on our links page. These sites could have all the info you just sent me.

Scott"