During the weekend from Friday, September 26 through Sunday the 28th, as the Eagle reports, and as many Brooklyn Heights residents may painfully recall, helicopters, almost all owned by either of two companies called BLADE and Zip Aviation that were ferrying passengers who paid about $1,250 per seat from various locations in New York and New Jersey, including the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (photo) directly across the East River from the Heights, to the Ryder Cup golf tournament, in Farmingdale, Nassau County, created intolerable noise for many local residents. According to the Eagle:
The helicopters buzzed over homes from Park Slope to Carroll Gardens and Brooklyn Heights at all hours — with the racket waking locals up as early as 4 a.m. Friday. Making things worse, the aircraft sometimes hovered for as long as 20 minutes over residential neighborhoods before moving on.
Local elected officials, including State Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, City Councilmember Lincoln Restler, City Councilmember Shahana Hanif, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, and Congressman Dan Goldman, sent a letter to the presidents of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, which controls the Downtown Heliport, and of the Hudson River Park Trust, which controls the West 30th Street Heliport. The letter provides:
We strongly urge the EDC and HRPT to take immediate action to ban nonessential flights from heliports in the city. There is no benefit to New Yorkers from these flights. At minimum, EDC and HRPT should commit to banning flights for special events, and explore and enforce flight paths that exclusively fly over waterways, thereby leaving residential areas largely free from the harmful noise of non-essential helicopters.
While this seems helpful, as we noted last year, also citing the Eagle, banning tourist flights from two heliports in Manhattan may not have much effect in eliminating noise pollution. Many flights that pass over or near the Heights originate at other heliports, some in New Jersey. An effective solution may have to be at the Federal level. Given the attitude of the present administration, this seems a very long shot indeed.
Photo Credit: Stop the Chop NY NJ
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