Christian Bear Lopez testifies on EMS response times and budget cuts

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Christian Bear Lopez, and I'm a paramedic born and raised in Queens.

Councilmember Lee, I live and work in your district.

I also serve and I worship in your district of the Knights of Columbus at St.

Robert Bellarmine Parish.

You chair the Finance Committee and under the fiscal 2027 preliminary plan back in July, FDNY EMS's budget was cut by $3 million and your own council report called this an EMS staffing crisis.

This past Tuesday, I transported four critically ill patients.

Two were from your district.

All four of them waited at least 30 minutes for an ambulance.

30 minutes.

This is everyday council.

Yet we call New York the greatest city in the world.

When NYPD, sanitation, or fire suppression needs investment, you find the money.

Many of us work multiple EMS jobs just to make ends meet.

I know because I'm one of them.

In the greatest city in the world, you can make more delivering food rather than delivering patients.

FDNY EMTs start around $18 an hour, and the people who pay the price for that underinvestment are often the most vulnerable.

Older adults and disabled New Yorkers who often depend on 911 the most are on our agenda every day.

When they fall, have a stroke, or cannot breathe, we are supposed to show up.

But when there is no one available to send, I have walked through that door 30 minutes, sometimes hours later.

Sometimes that asthma attack is now someone dead.

And we have to stand in that family's home, look at them in the eyes, and explain why.

Help took 30 minutes.

Not you, we do.

So do not tell us that EMS is a priority.

I need you to prove it.

And understand this, I will be back with more EMTs and paramedics.

When patients and their families ask why help took so long, I will tell them where these decisions are made and who represents them.

I am done hiding behind the word system.

Budgets are decisions.

Staffing is a decision.

Investment is a decision.

EMS may not have been on your agenda when you walked into the room this morning, and excuse my French, but after today, it better fucking be.

What are you all going to do about it?

With that, I yield my time.

Let's chat after this.

Okay.

Excuse me?

So as a representative of your district, I would love to sit and chat with you more because I think we actually share a lot of the same concerns, and so let's figure this out.

I can tell you, Council Member Chair Lee, actually working very hard internally, trying to push more funding for EMS.

We all, the people sitting here, we all understand this is the issue, and we are working on this issue.

You approach the quieters.

Next one.