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City council meeting over air quality
Many city council members are accusing the Adam's administration of reacting slowly to the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. FOX 5 NY's Morgan McKay has the details.
NEW YORK CITY - The Adams administration doubled down on Wednesday, insisting that they did give New Yorkers enough of a heads-up before the sky became a dystopian orange haze last month due to fires in Canada, plunging the city’s air quality to dangerous levels.
"That’s just not true," New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams retorted.
In a heated exchange with Commissioner Iscol, Williams continued to insist at the hearing that the Adams administration could have warned New Yorkers sooner about the rapidly plummeting air quality and says their refusal to admit this is concerning.
"I'm just saying that it took too long, that should not be a statement that is somehow controversial," Williams said. "And that's what frustrates me with the administration."
But Commissioner Iscol contended that forecasting air quality is almost impossible until 24 hours in advance.
"I can’t predict the future other than what the forecast is predicting," Iscol said. "I think we also have to operate with the understanding that these forecasts are very unreliable."
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But the city did warn New Yorkers about the declining air quality days in advance, according to the Adams administration, on an app called NotifyNYC, which they say 1 million people have downloaded.
The first alert about poor air quality went out on the NotifyNYC app on June 1st.
But many people didn’t really start to smell or notice the smoke until June 6. However, by 10 p.m. that day, the air quality had reached level 218, which is dangerous for children and those with underlying health problems.
Then it took almost until midnight for Mayor Eric Adams to issue a statement canceling all outdoor public school activities. He then held a press conference the next day.
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Mayor's response to Canadian wildfire smoke scrutinized
FOX 5 NY's Morgan McKay has the details.
City Councilwoman Gale Brewer made the point that if they were sending out these alerts early on the app, they should have been doing the same in the press.
"To be honest with you, I don’t think people paid as much attention as you think they should or did," Brewer said about the NotifyNYC notifications.
But the Adams administration insists it did notify New Yorkers publicly in the press when the air quality reached hazardous levels - making the distinction that air quality was only at very dangerous levels on June 6 not hazardous.
Mayor Eric Adams shrugged off the council’s criticism on good day this morning.
Another reason the Adams administration says their smoke preparedness plan was a success is because only around 100 New Yorkers were hospitalized as a result of the poor air quality.