Queens borough president clears the air on controversial ‘pizza bill’
/
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.File photo by Jeff Reed/City Council Photography
By Ryan Schwach
Pizza recently became a hotter topic than usual in New York after some believed that a new city edict aimed to help air quality would create a crackdown on the city staple, unfairly punishing pizza slingers and lovers alike.
Now, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who authored the bill as a councilmember in 2015, is looking to clear the air.
Though the bill doesn’t ban wood-fire or coal-fire pizza from being served in the five boroughs, it does require that the owners of such pizza establishments retrofit their ovens to help make the city’s air cleaner.
The bill, which Richards wrote while he was the chair of the Environmental Protection Committee, updated the city’s air code and was intended to help diminish small amounts of potentially harmful particulate matter that comes from everything from ovens to school buses.
“This is about ensuring that we can preserve workers’ and customers' lives,” said Richards in a phone conversation with the Eagle. “We're being told to mask up again because of the wildfires in Canada. We have that responsibility also to protect and to ensure that no matter what your socioeconomic statuses or your ZIP code that you have access to clean air.”
“Every little bit counts,” he added.
Part of the bill, which the Department of Environmental Protection is soon going to begin enforcing, requires the retrofitting of wood-fire and coal-fire ovens, which are used in some pizzerias, but according to Richards, not many.
“Pizza is such a minute part of the bill,” he said. “This is not going to have some widespread impact on the pizza industry across the city.”
According to Richards, only around 60 pizza places may be affected citywide. Richards added that classic “New York-style Pizza” is not made with wood- or coal-fire grills, but rather with gas or brick ovens.
“When people say this is just all about trying to take away our pizza, no, this is about addressing smaller pieces of particulate matter which absolutely do have impacts, especially at a local community level,” Richards said.
Pizza from new park pizza in howard beach, queens. eagle photo by ryan schwach
Although some businesses will be affected, Richards argues it is worth the burden to make an impact on air quality in New York City and to cut back on the number of residents impacted by poor air quality.
“We are all going to pay for this, so I would say $20,000 to retrofit…for those 50 or 60 [places], but the price tag of $20,000 for them or $20 billion for the federal government,” he said. “Taxpayers are going to pay for this regardless.”
Richards also hopes there are ways to help the businesses as well, including through Small Business Services grants or low interest loans.
“Maybe there are tools we can do to ease that a little bit,” he said.
Richards has spent the past several weeks defending the bill to a number of people, including a presidential candidate.
Florida Governor and Republican candidate Ron DeSantis chowed down on a Grimaldi's slice and criticized the city’s bill on FOX News recently, causing Richards to fire back via Twitter.
“It’s turned into political theater, as if somebody's coming for pizza,” Richards told the Eagle. “All these MAGA Republicans who are climate deniers, who at the end of the day, deny climate change but when their states or cities are hit with natural disasters are the ones coming to the federal government, asking for money and trying to deny New York City its money.”
“This guy [DeSantis] is in no position to talk about the government trying to regulate everyday people's lives when he is doing that in Florida,” Richards added. “He is going to need more toppings to win his presidential election.”
