New York tyrants have teamed with the climate cult to target a staple of the city’s cultural cuisine as emissions standards are being aimed at pizzerias.
The latest from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) picks up where former Mayor Bill de Blasio had left off in 2015 tied into the broader Green agenda of leftists. With a target set at a 75 percent reduction in emissions, the New York Post spoke with a number of pizzeria owners and patrons for their take on the “common-sense rule.”
“Oh yeah, it’s a big expense! It’s not just the expense of having it installed, it’s the maintenance,” Paul Giannone, owner of Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn told the outlet. “I got to pay somebody to do it, to go up there every couple of weeks and hose it down and you know do the maintenance.”
A coal-fired pizzeria owner who chose to remain anonymous noted, “This is an unfunded mandate and it’s going to cost us a fortune not to mention ruining the taste of the pizza totally destroying the product.”
“If you f*ck around with the temperature in the oven you change the taste. That pipe, that chimney, it’s that size to create the perfect updraft, keeps the temp perfect, it’s an art as much as a science,” the owner continued. “You take away the char, the thing that makes the pizza taste great, you kill it.”
Giannone downplayed some of the criticism having already taken the steps to install an air scrubber at his business, a point neighbors had thanked him for.” My neighbors are much happier. I had a guy coming in for years complaining that the smoke was, you know, going right into his apartment and I haven’t seen him since I got the scrubber installed.”
“If someone is trying to say that putting the scrubber in changes the flavor of the pizza they’re just trying to save themselves $20,000,” he argued. “No, it doesn’t affect what’s going on inside the oven. No, it hasn’t changed the taste. It hasn’t changed the pizza. It hasn’t changed our product at all.”
Of course, Giannone’s take may have underestimated the cost of the new mandate that required the select pizzerias, estimated to be less than 100 citywide according to an official, to hire an architect or engineer to examine their location to determine whether the 75 percent cut was feasible.
If not, whether it is because the goal is too high or a control mechanism cannot be installed, a determination must be made whether at least a 25 percent reduction can be made or an explanation must be provided why the installation remains unattainable. Should that be the case, the owner has the option to apply for a variance or waiver that requires providing evidence to prove hardship.
In other words, the emission regulations could cost some pizzeria owners their businesses.
“And for what? You really think that you’re changing the environment with these eight or nine pizza ovens?!” the anonymous owner railed to the Post.
DEP spokesman Ted Timbers contended in a statement, “All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality.”
“This common-sense rule,” Timbers added of the rule presented through the 2015 Local 38 approved by then-Mayor de Blasio, “developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible,” he added.
Many weighed in about their experiences at restaurants like Lombardi’s, which claims to be America’s first pizzeria having opened in 1905, and Grimaldi’s where Brooklyn Heights resident Saavi Sharma said she took her parents and cousin during a visit from India.
“I’m all for responsible environmental practice but tell [former Vice President] Al Gore to take one less private jet or something. Give me a break! I’ve been bragging about this pizza to my family for like five years. Don’t mess with this!”
People who make these rules take their private jet to go anywhere past their city/country which emits more carbon than these pizzerias combined
— Apotheon (Fishtank.live enjoyer) (@Apotheonxiv) June 26, 2023
I’d guess the emissions from one NYC office building for one day exceeds all of the emissions from these pizzerias for a full year.
— Cliff Barnes (@CliffBa42649229) June 26, 2023
Solutions in search of problems
— AV1906 (@JHenry305) June 26, 2023
This is like the stupidest policy of all time. I swear that govt just looks around, sees something people like, and sets out to destroy it
— Joe Wallin (@joewallin) June 26, 2023
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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