Pollution is dangerous to New Yorkers’ health, yet it is becoming rampant. Some 8,900 citywide buildings burn #4 or #6 heating oil, representing about one percent of the city’s building stock and accounting for more than half of its soot pollution, according to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who released a report on Tues., June 7 entitled “Tenants and Toxins: Converting Dirty Boilers in New York City’s Affordable Housing Stock” that proposes changes to the current system.
Two-thirds of the dirty boilers are located in rent-controlled buildings, which have tight restrictions on funding capital improvements such as new boilers, according to Stringer. The most alarming numbers in his report are in Manhattan, where more than 2,200 rent-regulated buildings release toxic soot.
Under the city’s current plan, boilers will not have to be replaced until 2030 — a huge environmental risk for the people who live there, according to Stringer. “We need to provide rent-regulated buildings with access to the cheap capital they need now, not 20 years from now,” he said. “And we need to do it in a way that protects tenants from having to carry the burden of more major capital improvements.”
“Over the long haul, the recommendations in my report will save buildings from spending money they don’t have, and save tenants from painful rent increases,” Stringer continued. “More importantly, they will save lives.”
