| Issue 249 | December 17, 1999 |
Activists Stick it to Stinking Tour Buses
City residents and environmental justice advocates joined forces last weekend to protest NY Apple Tours' continuing defiance of the Federal Clean Air Act. The company's open-top, double-decker buses exceed federal standards for diesel emissions and are likely the most polluting vehicles on city streets. Wearing surgical masks, representatives from the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and We Can't Breathe, a Lower East Side group, distributed flyers in front of the Apple Tours bus terminal at Eighth Avenue and 47th Street that urged the company's customers in six languages to demand that its buses comply with the law. Until recently, Apple Tours has been able to retain its operating license by claiming its buses ¾ imported from Britain ¾ are "historic vehicles." However, in September, the company pleaded guilty to defrauding the City regarding its buses' age. A NYC Department of Consumer Affairs hearing scheduled for last Wednesday that would have reviewed these developments, possibly in anticipation of revoking NY Apple Tour's license, was abruptly cancelled and has not yet been rescheduled.
