From: Finn Liss
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 9:08 PM
To: City Council <[email protected]>
Cc: Kris Austin
Subject: Analysis of PM data with Purple Air A&M BBQ
Mayor, Members of the City Council, City Staff, and Members of the Community, We would like to start by reemphasizing that as the owners of A&M BBQ, we are actively seeking a larger, more appropriately situated location for our restaurant. While we are committed to being good neighbors, relocation cannot happen immediately given permitting, cost, and availability constraints, and we must continue to operate in the interim.
There appears to have been some misunderstanding about the nature and scale of our operations. We are a small, Black-owned business operating a restaurant and catering company that serves and supports this community every day.
We respect that community members are entitled to share their concerns and personal experiences. At the same time, we believe it is equally important that our perspective, and the broader context surrounding these claims, are also considered.
We would like to respond to the public comments stating that the city determined that A&M BBQ is the direct cause of “PM2.5 routinely spiking to 100–200 overnight.” While it is plausible that PM2.5 peaks are associated with cooking activity at the restaurant, to suggest that this alone demonstrates a “serious public health issue,” overstates what the available data can reasonably support.
Three short-duration data snapshots were provided as evidence, which do not on their own establish a sustained pattern of elevated PM2.5 over time. And while it’s quite possible that brief nightly peaks are repeatable in the data, they do not necessarily suggest a public health concern. Population health risk assessments are typically based on longer-term exposure patterns.
Below is a screenshot from PurpleAir quality morning data that captures weekly average PM2.5 over the last several years.
You can see that from 2022–2026, the baseline weekly average remains relatively flat, and there is no sustained elevation across multiple years to suggest an upward trend of worsening air quality. If A&M BBQ were causing a major ongoing public air-quality problem, we would also expect to see consistently elevated readings across multiple nearby sensors and worsening long-term averages over time, which is not the case.
We do acknowledge that some individuals with underlying respiratory sensitivities may be more affected by short-term changes in air quality. At the same time, these conditions can be influenced by multiple environmental factors, and episodic changes in PM2.5 are not generally interpreted as evidence of sustained community-wide health concerns.
Isolated individual impacts do not necessarily establish the basis for regulatory action without evidence of sustained broader health impact.
We empathize with the concerns raised and do not wish to minimize anyone’s experience.
At the same time, we hope any response to this issue remains balanced, particularly given the impact that prolonged conflict can have on small local businesses, employees, and the larger community.
Given that the currently available data does not appear to establish evidence of a sustained community-wide air quality hazard, and considering that A&M BBQ is actively pursuing relocation to a more appropriate site while simultaneously exploring additional mitigation measures, including potential smoke filtration and emissions-control systems,