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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Gloria Boyce-Charles, Springfield Gardens Brookville Community Resident
2:37:20
·
6 min
Gloria Boyce-Charles, a long-time resident of Springfield Gardens Brookville, testifies about the environmental challenges faced by her community due to air pollution from JFK Airport, trucking traffic, and warehouses. She supports Intro 1130 and suggests improvements to the legislation to address air quality, safety, and quality of life issues in her neighborhood.
- Advocates for including smaller warehouses and clusters in the legislation, not just those over 50,000 square feet
- Emphasizes the need for enforcement, monitoring, and community involvement in the ongoing feedback process
- Suggests using the legislation to address illegal 53-foot truck usage by requiring reporting on truck sizes and routes
Gloria Boyce-Charles
2:37:20
Alright.
2:37:25
Okay.
2:37:26
Good afternoon, morning to all and thank you so much for holding this hearing today.
2:37:34
My name is Gloria Boyce Charles, and my family has resided in the Springfield Gardens Brookville community since 1975.
2:37:43
Because of our co location with JFK Airport, our community has been plagued by the burdens of airplane noise and air pollution, and increasingly within the last ten to fifteen years, with the trucking traffic associated with an ever growing air cargo industry.
2:38:00
We
Jim Gennaro
2:38:01
live
Gloria Boyce-Charles
2:38:01
in an environmental justice community.
2:38:04
Southeast Queens is also home to several waste transfer stations, which are sources of trucking activity and emissions that I think should also be covered under this legislation.
2:38:16
My testimony will focus in on air cargo warehouse emissions, and you will hear testimony from others regarding waste transfer.
2:38:26
Now, the trucking warehouses within the off airport business industrial district and those embedded in residential communities wreak havoc on the air quality, safety, and quality of life of our residents.
2:38:40
And in our community, you see one newly constructed Amazon last mile warehouse, but mostly what you're seeing is we have a business industrial district, and we have other warehouses that are embedded within residential communities.
2:38:58
We don't know the sizes of those warehouses.
2:39:01
In fact, we don't really know the owners.
2:39:04
We don't really know the operators.
2:39:07
We just know that we are plagued with the heavy traffic, the 53 footers that we've fought about for a long time with NYPD and DOT, and I'd love to talk with you more about that, council member Holden.
2:39:21
We know that we're plagued with those those things, and we know that the air pollution in particular that this addresses is is a real serious problem.
2:39:31
By engaging directly with the warehouse owners and operators, Intro 11:30, I'm hopeful we'll begin to bring some of the much needed regulation, transparency, and accountability to the warehousing interests that are operating within our community.
Dawn Miller
2:39:48
Gonna use the
Alexa Avilés
2:39:49
time for questions.
Gloria Boyce-Charles
2:39:49
Warehouses
Alexa Avilés
2:39:50
Just a minute.
2:39:50
Yeah, yeah.
2:39:51
Take it.
Gloria Boyce-Charles
2:39:51
Should be required to meet stated truck size, weight, and emission standards.
2:39:58
And information identifying their owners, their operators, their businesses, and points of contact should be made publicly available, perhaps even via a designated central website.
2:40:10
I think that we can begin to address the issue of 53 footers illegally traversing our streets by this legislation, there's an opportunity here because if we're requiring them to report on their daily activity, the numbers and the sizes of the trucks coming in and out for each operator and the truck routes that they are using, these statistics should be able to be in compliance with legally documented truck routes and size and weight requirements.
2:40:42
And and that should help to just to to address some of those 53 footers.
2:40:48
Right?
2:40:48
In addition to which, these warehouses should be charged with finding ways to minimally disrupt disrupt the communities.
2:40:59
Right now, they just they just do what they want.
2:41:03
Homes shake and and and rattle underneath these these trucks that travel along streets that are not built to accommodate those weights and sizes.
2:41:16
Just as importantly as making sure that we know who and what is going on there, it's it's critical that this legislation really have some measures for enforcement, monitoring and enforcement of the legislation.
2:41:36
Too often, we put all these wonderful regulations out there, and and they make sense.
2:41:43
But there's no one who's really accountable for for monitoring and for enforcing for compliance.
2:41:52
And and that is just absolutely so critical in the reason why we find ourselves in the predicament that we're in today.
2:41:59
There are laws, but nobody is taking accountability for monitoring or or enforcing compliance.
2:42:07
And when the general public tries to hold someone accountable, it goes like this.
2:42:13
One person points fingers at the others.
2:42:16
So I'm going to say, lastly, and I thank you for I thank you.
2:42:23
It's it's important to consider that 50,000 square feet should not be the thing that we're using to determine if the warehouse ought to be included in this program.
2:42:35
In Southeast Queens, there are clusters, and there's research that's been done by Natalie Bumpfena, one of the professors out of Queen's College, to show that there are clusters of these warehouses in our communities.
2:42:52
And I don't know what sizes they are, but imagine the residents who live in the surrounding community.
2:42:59
Churches, daycare centers, shelters, parks, we're all being impacted by the quality the poor air quality that's and and the traffic, quite frankly, and the illegal parking that's coming out of these warehouses.
2:43:17
So this needs to be considered when you're looking at what warehouses need to be engaged in this or held under this regulation.
2:43:26
I'm gonna ask that, you know, the designers of the legislation look at ways to include communities in the ongoing monitoring and ongoing feedback that you're getting about this program and how it's working.
2:43:43
Because without that, you know, your community members continue to be frustrated and underserved.
2:43:50
And so that's it.
2:43:55
Thank you for your time.
2:43:56
I appreciate it.
2:43:56
Thank you so much.
Alexa Avilés
2:43:57
Thank you so much for your testimony.