Is a mantra repeated by Bronx Democratic Party chief Jose Rivera and his allies: Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz wanted the water filtration plant built in Riveras district at Fordham Landing.  

Just last week at a Council committee hearing, Council Member Maria Baez, a Rivera protégée, could only think to ask Dinowitz, who was testifying, one question: If youre so opposed to this project, why did you support putting it in my district at Fordham Landing? Of all the questions she could have asked, like, how can the Council be assured the jobs associated with the project will go to Bronxites?; or how will the DEP protect neighbors with asthma from the blasting?, she instead opted for a cheap political shot.

The Norwood News has been to every public hearing on the water filtration plant in the past decade. We have interviewed Dinowitz dozens of times. And we have never heard him advocate that the plant be built anywhere in the Bronx, including at Fordham Landing on the Harlem River.

The irony is that Rivera, who lives in Fordham Hill near the proposed Fordham Landing site, felt no need to attend a single meeting held by his fellow cooperators to plot their opposition to the facility. Nor did he attend a critical community meeting in October 2002 at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church. Baez, who sent a staffer, was also absent, angering the meetings organizers. Only State Senator Efrain Gonzalez attended the session. 

Jeff Dinowitz is certainly capable of fighting his own battles. But our elected officials must take responsibility for their actions. 

Blaming Dinowitz is just an excuse for doing a bad thing, which is the decision to 
jeopardize the health and well being of Norwood residents in favor of serving the political interests of lawmakers elsewhere in the borough.