By Rick Thomas
In New York City they call themselves ‘Idle Warriors.” Gasoline and diesel trucks that sit still just idling. They don’t move with emissions causing the air quality to be unbreathable. Like we see every day here in Los Angeles. So, let’s talk about these ‘Idle Warriors’ because these people are really doing something positive in New York.
‘Idle Warriors’ go out with their cameras recording Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and other trucks that idle for more than three minutes in any part of the city and more than one minute near schools.
Great idea, right? In New York, it’s the Citizens Air Complaint Program, an anti-idling law created in 1971, but of course, never enforced.
Never enforced.
“So, it’s kinda like when white people do drugs,” joked Desi Lydic on ‘The Daily Show’ during a comedic segment on these “Idle Warriors.”
Yeah, Desi, kinda like that!
Now, New York is enforcing the Citizens Air Complaint Program, 50 years after this law was put into place. And average stakeholders can get compensated for reporting these idling offenders. A cool 25% commission out of the $250 plus fines put on the owners of those idling vehicles. Now, I’m not a math major but on the low end of the $250 fine, which nets out to $62.50 take home.
Not bad, right?
OK let’s do more math. Let’s do 4 of those a day. That banks $250 a day.
I can do that!
As a person who spent way too many years working on commission 25% is a good payout and “Idle Warriors” in New York are making…wait for it…six-figure annual commission payouts on reporting these offenders.
It’s working in New York. Way to go Big Apple.
Fast forward to Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker.
Tim heard about this program and immediately instructed his team to put together a motion calling for the same Citizens Air Complaint Program concept to be put in play right here in Los Angeles. Now here’s the best part. Us ‘Idle Warriors’ would get a commission on the fines assessed to trucks idling in our city.
YEAH!!!
Now this is the kind of creativity we need from our politicians. Putting the power of enforcement back into the hands of Los Angeles stakeholders. And generate revenue for the City and generate revenue for residents.
That’s a cool side hustle I say!
Obviously, Tim McOsker’s interest is important here as he represents Council District 15 which houses two of the biggest ports in America, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Lots of idling going around there.
But then move around the Harbor Gateway South and other areas of the CD15. Look at all of the idling trucks parked in the middle of the street, just sitting still and well, idling. Engines on, putting pollutants in the air, killing us all. Drive around Normandie Avenue and Torrance Boulevard and see for yourself. My neighbors had the same issue on Denker with a new freight company in the hood and idling trucks.
Fortunately, we had great cooperation from DCW on the corner of 205th and Denker. We had a quick conversation with management, and they’ve become fantastic neighbors and managed the idling issue immediately.
Well…OK along with the LAPD chatting with them and the threat by some neighbors to use spike strips for trucks coming down residential streets in and around that location, that kinda helped as well.
I’m being serious now as the air in our communities from idling trucks is killing us. In Tim McOsker’s motion to Council, he writes, “The American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2024 report ranked Los Angeles as the sixth most polluted metropolitan area…idling emissions from motor vehicles, especially those powered by gasoline or diesel, are a known source of these harmful pollutants.”
Only “sixth?” I don’t know but after those wildfires as we used to say in the music business LA might be ‘Number 1” with a bullet.
It’s a mess. Areas near and around the Port of Long Beach have been sadly named “ the “diesel death zone” and “asthma alley.” This is reality. This is a real problem. It’s gotta be resolved and this motion to create this concept of ‘Idle Warriors’ works for me. Let me repeat…this motion would compensate stakeholders in our communities for reporting idling vehicles that are killing us.
Why not stop them before they kill us and make some Moolah at the same time?
Why not?
That is what Tim McOsker’s motion does.
“Implementing a Citizen Idling Complaint Program in Los Angeles could help address the City’s persistent air quality challenges while empowering residents to take an active role in reducing pollution,” he wrote in the Motion to the Energy & Environment and Transportation Committees in Los Angeles City Council.
So, WE now are empowered should the City Council approve this. We can participate in cleaning up the air quality in all of Los Angeles. They did it in New York. We can do it here.
And get compensated for it.
We pay our tax dollars, why not get some of it back?
But now let me mention the bigger issue here. Enforcement. It must be enforced.
And collection of fines must be active as well. In New York a few years back fines were still not collected. Amazon owed $250,000, UPS owed $70,000 and FedEx owed $60,000. The California Franchise Tax Board should be hired to do some collections for New York noting how quickly they drained all my assets a couple of years ago!
Automotive Fleet Magazine calls the ‘Idle Warriors’ vigilantes. No, these people just want to keep their kids alive and able to breathe normally without having to carry an oxygen tank on their shoulders or roll it around behind them when they play Dodgeball at recess.
Time for us to all become “Idle Warriors.”