Justin Bernstein shares homeless perspective and supports the complaint program

All right.

Yes, sir.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I just want to introduce myself.

My name is Justin Bernstein.

I'm a participant of the Idling program.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn.

As a Brooklyn native, I've always noticed there was a problem with trucks and buses idling, especially in the city.

I always thought it was just part of life being in the big city.

My story is probably going to be a little bit different because I was homeless for quite some time in the lower Manhattan area.

I saw firsthand how there would be buses and trucks of all sizes idling nonstop.

You could not walk down Canal Street without seeing a fleet of coach-sized buses idling.

There was really nothing you could do about it before.

There has always been a law against idling, but it was not enforced.

This is the first of many examples that made me want to take action when I discovered the idling program.

Once this program had begun, it did not take long before I noticed change.

I saw firsthand how this program changed the driving habits of a lot of drivers.

Companies were being held accountable, and through that accountability, change was being achieved.

I am proud to say I have helped in this process and the opportunity the city gave every citizen to do what they can do.

I am honored to work with all the good people involved to make this a positive change in this city.

I am just one New Yorker, and a lot of people besides myself have put in a ton of work into this project, and it would be soul-crushing for all of our hard work to be possibly tossed out.

I believe there are tools available to make this program more efficient and easier for all parties involved.

Just being able to participate in this program helped me tremendously when there was no other opportunities.

I say no to 561 as we already have a lot of stipulations with refrigeration units, lift gates, buses picking up and dropping off active.

processing devices and it uses all these excuses as trucks I see use these lift gates they turn them on and off to avoid

to reset basically reset the timer reset the clock so you would have to start your three minutes over again all these are already being used to abuse the system

I've seen this happen in the field.

Once drivers are aware, they're able to cheat the system.

From what I've seen, they will cheat the system.

Thank you very much for your compelling testimony and personal history and life story.

We're grateful to have you here today.