Elected officials on the City Council are seeking to blunt the proliferation of “last-mile logistics” warehouses run by Amazon and other large companies, arguing the rapid package deliveries they facilitate have caused an epidemic of truck traffic, and with it air and noise pollution, in communities of color.
Such facilities have rapidly popped up in the Big Apple since the pandemic, as the demand for extremely rapid delivery of goods has grown. Amazon opened its first fulfillment center on Staten Island in 2018, but as of 2022 the e-commerce giant had placed more than 20 last-mile hubs in New York, according to researchers at the Center for Resilient Cities & Landscapes. And Amazon is far from the only company utilizing such facilities.
