Ravenswood Generating Station (Photo: wikimedia commons Rhodo Dendrites CC BY-SA 4.0)
July 28, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Astoria residents are making plenty of complaints about the air quality of the neighborhood, according to a new study of 311 data.
Astoria residents logged the third most complaints among neighborhoods citywide for air quality issues, according to a study conducted by Amast, an online marketplace.
Residents sent in 132 complaints related to air quality to 311 from the beginning of 2020 through June 15.
The neighborhood follows the Greenpoint/Williamsburg area in Brooklyn and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which ranked first and second respectively.
Residents of the north Brooklyn neighborhoods submitted 175 complaints about poor air quality in 2020 through June 15. Many of the complaints concern fumes from idling cars and trucks, according to the report.
Upper West Siders filed a total of 151 air quality complaints to 311 over the same time frame. The bulk of those complaints were also related to idling vehicles and car exhaust fumes. It’s a significant decrease from last year, however, when residents logged 262 complaints, landing the Upper West Side in the number one spot.
Meanwhile, Astoria wasn’t even in the top 10 last year when residents filed just 91 complaints on the topic to 311.
The uptick in complaints could be caused by heavy development in the area which led to higher traffic and pollution and as a result, poor air quality, the report speculates.
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2 Comments
Indeed, air quality in Astoria is bad – that’s where you find Asthma Alley. Ravenswood Generating Station and the plants at Astoria Generating produce 50-60% of all electricity produced in the NYC metro area, and it’s all fossil: gas on good days, oil on bad ones. Real deaths are the result of the particulate emissions. Instead of shutting down these polluters (and climate killers), New York is shutting down Indian Point. Shutting down its two one Gigawatt reactors is killing more than twice the clean electricity than produced by ALL wind and solar power installed in the state to date. All in all, it has been accounting for a third or generation in downstate, and about 84% of downstate’s clean electricity. Much of this is now being picked up by our Queens fossil powerhouses, and urban pollution is getting even worse. Is no one fighting for health, climate, and environmental justice anymore? Where is the outcry?
The air quality is due to the laziness of sanitation workers picking up trash and all the people congregating outside.