Fashion Week Is Pruning Its Diesel Generators

Fashion Week is back, minus two diesel-powered generators.
The event’s producers said they had plugged into Fordham University and the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center to help power their tents and get rid of two of nine portable generators that drew complaints about noise and fumes from Upper West Side neighbors last winter.
“We remain committed to being good neighbors and truly believe that our event has, and will continue to have, a positive impact on the surrounding community and local economy,” Zach Eichman, a spokesman for IMG Fashion, said in a statement.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which is scheduled for Sept. 8 to 15 but is setting up right now, was held in Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan before moving to Lincoln Center last year. The generators scattered around the fashion village erected at Damrosch Park burn diesel fuel to power the lighting, heating and blow dryers of a production that organizers compare to three Broadway musicals put together.
But the air — and smell — of excitement proved too much for residential neighbors when Fashion Week was last held in February. In a city that routinely fails to meet federal clean air standards, many residents said the event was too big to be held in a residential neighborhood given the amount of noise and pollution produced by the generators.
The organizers said they met with officials from the city and community representatives over the summer to find a solution and are still looking for more existing land-based power, which will entail upgrades to the electrical distribution system.
For now, the event has eliminated the two generators at West 62nd Street and Columbus Avenue that ran the longest because they were used to power the logistical underpinnings of the event — the warehouse and support vehicles — during and after the festivities. The generators that remain are new, upgraded versions, the producers said, that are less noisy and run on a cleaner biodiesel fuel blend. They said they expected to run only five of those.
Gale A. Brewer, a City Council member who represents the area and helped broker the changes, said she expected the neighbors to be “much happier.” She added, “These were the oldest and noisiest generators.”
But Ms. Brewer said she was looking at possible legislation to address the generators that are a fixture of the city’s outdoor life — the ones used by food trucks, streets fair and other special events — but that pose noise and air quality issues. “It’s something that needs to be looked at,” she said. “It’s not just these generators.”