Aviles presents Intro 48 as language-justice measure

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Gennaro, for always being very generous and lovely with your comments.

Thank you to the members of the committee, members of the public who have joined us here today.

Today, the committee will hear one of my bills, Intro 48, which brings language justice to the fight for clean air in New York City.

Idling vehicles are a major contributor of air pollution in our city.

Cars and trucks idling on New York City streets produce 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

The consequences of this pollution are deadly, resulting in 2,400 deaths each year in New York City.

We see a disproportionate impact in communities like mine, environmental justice communities that bear the brunt.

Of an enormous amount of siting of polluting infrastructures and certainly trucks.

The Citizen Air Complaint Program has been a critical tool to boost enforcement capacity for the city's idling law.

This program allows everyday New Yorkers to take on

corporate polluters who harm their communities.

Early this year, the city recovered $9 million from Amazon alone for one year, one of the city's most flagrant polluters.

In a time where the federal government and the state government are rolling back

environmental protections, it is a moment for the city to lean forward, 10 toes down, to strengthen and expand our programs that protect our residents.

The Citizens Complaint Portal is a vital tool for improving our city's air quality,

But the fact that complaints must only be submitted in English

limits its ability to deliver true environmental justice for our city, where nearly a quarter of the residents have limited English proficiency.

In fact, in my district, we are a majority foreign-born.

district.

70 plus of my residents speak Spanish or Mandarin or Cantonese.

They are effectively locked out from caring for their neighbors in this program.

My bill, Intro 48, would require DP to translate the portal into each of these cities'designated citywide languages.

This bill is a step forward in addressing the deadly inequities of environmental justice communities that they currently face.

I thank the 38 council members who have signed on to Intro 48 and encourage my colleagues to join in the fight for language justice and co-sponsor this bill and ensure that we have the strongest

citizen complaint program and can do everything in our power to hold polluters accountable in our city.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.