It stinks to be a public figure sometimes

July 27th, 2009 at 06:06am Jennie Pollock

Like for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been caught violating his own anti-idle initiative.

According to the AP story:

In spot checks over the past week, The Associated Press timed idling periods for the mayor’s city-owned SUVs, which shuttle him around the city or trail him when he takes the subway. The parked vehicles idled at least eight times for periods of 10 minutes to over an hour.

This is coming from a mayor who wants to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 because the Big Apple was responsible for nearly 1 percent of the nation’s in 2005. So the reaction?

Bloomberg’s SUVs are exempt from the law because they are considered emergency vehicles, but the city is trying reduce idling, spokesman Stu Loeser said Wednesday.

The SUVs have devices enabling heat and radios to run without the engine. The devices don’t allow the air conditioning to run, but the vehicles are supposed to be parked in the shade when possible, Loeser said. Nearly every time the AP noted the idling vehicles, temperatures were mild and they were parked in the shade.

If you catch me idling, I expect you to bust me. I sure try not to do so, ever since the ball got rolling on our own local No Idle Zone.

Entry Filed under: No idle, In the news