New Yorkers know what happens when City Hall runs experiments on real people, from the wastefulness of Thrive NYC to the dangers of in-school “restorative justice.”

Today the experiment involves industrial lithium-ion battery storage sites wedged onto residential blocks.

Queens. Brooklyn. The Bronx. Staten Island.

Families get the risk. Bureaucrats get the press release.

I won’t let it slide.

In pursuit of greener energy, City Council zoning changes have opened the door for energy-storage systems across far more neighborhoods, making many sites far easier to approve.

The City Council’s fire and emergency committee is meeting this week for a hearing, but the message to the outer boroughs has been loud and clear: Sit tight, take the risk and be grateful.

No. New Yorkers are not guinea pigs.

Walk with me. In Middle Village a big battery site is proposed at 64-30 69th Place, across from PS-IS 128 and next to a day-care center. Parents are right to be furious.

In Marine Park, neighbors learned massive systems are coming to Flatbush Avenue.

On Staten Island, residents are fighting multiple locations and asking why one borough should carry so much of the load.

I have stood with these communities and I will keep standing with them because they are right.

The sales job says these sites are safe and the Fire Department is ready — and while I want clean air like everyone else, I also want honesty.

When these batteries fail, they fail big.

In Moss Landing, Calif., when the world’s largest battery plant burned in January, people were evacuated and Highway 1 was shut down because of the toxic smoke. Firefighters had to let it burn.

In Arizona, a storage site blew up and seriously injured firefighters.

In Australia, a giant system burned for days after a coolant leak.

When multiple trailers went up in flames in Upstate New York, people were told to shelter in place.

These are not rumors. They are the record.

Upstate towns got the memo: Carmel in Putnam County moved to prohibit larger battery systems, and Duanesburg has barred commercial-scale storage under its local law.

These are practical communities. They looked at plume modeling, setbacks and the reality of fighting a lithium-ion fire — and they said not here, not now.

New York City should show the same caution, but it is not.

So how did we get here?

When the City Council passed City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality in 2023, it changed the zoning playbook to encourage energy storage and make siting much easier.

Then, the broader City of Yes agenda that passed in 2024 got the development conveyor belt moving even faster.

Result: The same communities already dealing with illegal smoke shops, shelters placed without local buy-in, and a sliding quality of life are now being told they must live next door to battery depots.

That is not equity. That is neglect.

Here is what I will do as mayor.

First, a hard pause on sites near people.

No large lithium ion facilities within a significant radius of schools, day-cares, senior centers and tight residential blocks. Draw bright lines and stick to them.

Second, firefighter veto power.

No project will move until FDNY and independent experts have signed off on a site-specific plan for thermal runaway, plume modeling, water runoff, ventilation and cleanup.

Give the men and women who run toward danger the actual authority to say this site is safe or that site is not.

Third, real community control.

For anything bigger than small accessory systems, bring back a real special permit and real hearings, ending the rubber-stamp culture that City of Yes created around this technology.

If City Hall could fast-track it, City Hall can restore guardrails.

Fourth, fairness. The outer boroughs are not a sacrifice zone.

If City Hall insists on this infrastructure, it cannot be stacked on a handful of blocks. Set strict caps and balanced siting rules across boroughs.

Fifth, state partnership.

Albany should study the upstate bans and moratoria and apply those lessons statewide.

Hit pause where the fire service says response is not ready. Set stronger setbacks and plume buffers.

Learn from Moss Landing before we repeat Moss Landing on our streets.

New Yorkers are practical. We want lights that turn on and air that is clean.

We also want common sense.

Do not tuck industrial battery depots next to schools and living rooms.

Do not tell working families to trust a promise when the track record says otherwise.

As mayor, I will fix the excesses of City of Yes, put safety first and protect the neighborhoods that built this city.

That is the job. And I intend to do it.

Curtis Sliwa is the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City.