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Presented to Manhattan Community Board 7

November 17, 2025

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The Citizens Air Complaint Program:

An Environmental Success Story

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The Problem: Local Air Pollution

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The Problem: Air Pollution Kills

Source: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/eode/eode-air-quality-impact.pdf

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The Solution: Citizen Enforcement

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1971: City Council passes the Air Code, banning all idling over three minutes

Includes citizen enforcement provision

2018: City Council strengthens citizen enforcement of anti-idling laws

CM Helen Rosenthal’s bill, drafted by Samara Swanston and advocated for by George Pakenham, requires DEP to encourage citizen enforcement

2024: City Council again strengthens anti-idling law

Bans idling over one minute adjacent to parks

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The Solution: Citizen Enforcement

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CACP Basics

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The CACP Is Working Well

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The CACP Is Working Well

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The CACP Is Working Well

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The CACP Is Working Well

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Here’s one just one of the CACP’s huge successes, which is clearly shown by the data. Out of the tens of thousands of complaints issued each year in 2021 and 2022, one Amazon contractor called Merchants Fleet stood out. CLICK They owned gigantic box trucks that idled all day, every day while double-parked throughout the city. In my own neighborhood, which is a Disadvantaged Community, my kids and I passed 3-5 Merchants Fleet trucks every day double parked on Broadway–always idling. CLICK That truck on the right is from a recording my 13-year-old son made outside our home on Broadway. Straus Park is in the background.

So citizens sprang into action, and the CACP worked. CLICK As shown on this chart from the City’s OpenData site, beginning in late 2021, we made at least 80 complaints per month against Merchants Fleet trucks, rising to 300 reports in December 2022. Merchants Fleet was one of the single worst idling offenders in 2022, with thousands of reports. And while DEP took quite a while to issue those initial violations, resulting in a delay in them being issued to Merchants Fleet, over the course of 2022 those thousands of reports had a dramatic effect. CLICK As you can see in early 2023, Merchants Fleet shut off pretty much overnight. There is something of a lag in the data, since as I mentioned DEP takes months to review most citizens’ complaints, but by May 2023, complaints against Merchants Fleet had dropped from 300 per month to 20. And then they dropped to single digits for the rest of 2023 and into 2024.

The program works, and this is just one of many examples.

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The CACP Is Working Well

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The CACP Is Working Well

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The CACP Is Working Well

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The CACP Is Working Well

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The CACP Is Working Well

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CACP Has Many Supporters

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Ongoing Dangers to our Air

Dangerous Academy bus variance
DEP’s discrimination hurts participation
DEP loopholes hurt enforcement
DEP budget shortfalls cause delays

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Dangerous Bus Variance Request

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Dangerous Bus Variance Request

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Academy Variance Opposed By

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DEP Discriminates Against Non-English-Speaking New Yorkers

Council Intro. 5 would fix DEP’s discrimination
Successful hearings in 2022 and 2024
Super-majority cosponsorship

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NYC Still Needs More Participants

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NYC Still Needs More Participants

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Dangerous Loophole: Is this a Truck?

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Not according to DEP!

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Dangerous Loophole: Poor Tracking of Prior Offenses

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Dangerous Loophole: Poor Collections

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Address Delays in the Program

Increase pay for DEP workers
Increase number of DEP reviewers

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November 17, 2025

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www.nycair.org