Aaron Jacobs opposes 561-A and supports Intro 48

I'm a teacher.

I don't have to be that loud, but I'll use the mic.

Good afternoon.

My name is Aaron Jacobs.

I've been a New York City public school teacher for the past 16 years, and I live in Manhattan.

I teach ninth grade in the Bronx near Fordham.

My school's neighborhood is hit very hard by heavy traffic all the time, and a huge number of my students suffer with asthma, and they miss school a lot throughout the year because of that.

My classroom sits on the second floor, right on the front lines.

Too often my students smell toxic exhaust in the room, and on these hot days we're stuck between sweating or breathing in fumes with the windows open.

Air pollution, as you know, kills over 3,200 New Yorkers every year.

For 50 years, city agencies failed to enforce anti-idling laws.

The Citizen Air Complaint Program is the only thing that finally worked.

I know it works because where I live on 36th and 5th in Madison, there is way less idlers than there were three years ago when I started doing this.

It's difficult to find them at this point, to be honest.

It used to be like all the time.

Yeah, it's great.

It actually works.

So the program is doing its job.

I testified today in strong opposition to Intro 561A, sponsored by Councilmember Gennaro, which relates to regulating engine idling and citizen complaint enforcement.

This intro threatens to wipe out all of our progress and give a massive free pass to corporate polluters.

Intro 561A legalizes diesel generation idling, a dirty practice that DEP and OATH have already ruled is illegal and unnecessary.

It also cuts back.

pay for everyday New Yorkers doing enforcement work, replacing the 50-year-old 25% award with a flat fee, which honestly kind of kills a lot of the incentive for some people, I would think.

It squeezes everyday people reporting pollution the same way delivery apps squeeze gig workers.

In my 16 years of teaching, I've always taught my students to question everything.

So I asked the council today, who actually benefits from Intro 561A?

It's definitely not my students.

So the problem is pollution, not the people reporting it.

Please reject Intro 561A and instead pass Intro 48, sponsored by Councilmember Aviles, which translates the Citizen Air Complaint Program into designated citywide languages.

Intro 48 opens up the program to non-English speakers so every New Yorker can help clean air.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

This was good.

And so I really appreciate everyone's input.

And, you know, we go forward from here.

And I'm a different guy from when I started this hearing.

So thank you for all the input.

Appreciate that.

Thank you as well.