(NY) New York Times - Raj Kottamasu, 29, is a community coordinator for Freshkills Park, which is built above the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. Raised in West Bloomfield, Mich., he is the only member of his family who is not a doctor and thus describes himself as a black sheep.

Park or a landfill? Freshkills was a landfill from 1947 to 2001. At that point, then the city held an international design competition to re-envision the site as a park. It’s a 2,200-acre site, and 45 percent was active landfill, and the other 55 is made up of creeks and wetlands. It hasn’t opened yet. We have started construction on a 20-acre piece of the 2,200 acres. We hope to have 70 acres open within the next two to three years. It’s a 30-year project to build out the entire park. More