Dude. This won’t fly!
New York City Department of Environmental Protection has new rules to force pizzerias using coal and wood fire ovens to cut emissions up to 75%. From The New York Post:
“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,” DEP spokesman Ted Timbers said in a statement Sunday. “This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”
It does not mean the pizzeria has to shut down. The owners have to buy an expensive filter along with a lot of maintenance:
Under the mandate, restaurants with coal-and-wood-fired ovens must hire an engineer or architect to assess the feasibility of installing emission controls devices to achieve a 75% reduction in particulate emissions.If this report concludes that a reduction of 75% or more cannot be achieved, or that no emissions controls can be installed, it must identify any emission controls that could provide a reduction of at least 25% or an explanation for why no emission controls can be installed.The restaurant will be allowed to apply for a variance or waiver, but must providence evidence to prove a hardship.
Pizzeria owners are not happy about the possible new regulations:
The rule could require pizzerias with such ovens installed prior to May 2016 to buy pricey emission-control devices — with the owner of one Brooklyn joint saying he’s already tossed $20,000 on an air filter system in anticipation of the new mandate.“Oh yeah, it’s a big expense!” said Paul Giannoni, the owner of Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint. “It’s not just the expense of having it installed, it’s the maintenance. 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.”
Giannoni said the filter has made his neighbors happier since it’s not filling up the apartments above the joint with smoke and smells.
Giannoni claimed that the air scrubbers don’t affect the pizza. He claimed if someone says otherwise, they’re trying to save $20,000.
Yes, how dare they not want to spend $20,000 on the vent.
The New York Post mentioned the rule would impact fewer than 100 joints in the city. Those include “Lombardi’s in Little Italy, Arturo’s in Soho, John’s of Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Patsy’s in Turtle Bay and the Upper West Side and Grimaldi’s near the Brooklyn Bridge.”
One person told The Post the government needs to mind its own business. These people know how to make a proper pie:
“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,” the restaurateur, who has a coal-fired oven, fumed.“If you f—k 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. You take away the char, the thing that makes the pizza taste great, you kill it,” he claimed.“And for what? You really think that you’re changing the environment with these eight or nine pizza ovens?!” the restaurateur added.
Brooklyn Heights resident Saavi Sharma had a great response: “I’m all for responsible environmental practice but tell Al Gore to take one less private jet or something. Give me a break!”
Sharma brought his cousin and parents from India to Grimaldi’s after raving about it for five years.
Sharma told the city, “Don’t mess with this!”
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