Brooklyn Heights Oppressed By Helicopters

Some Brooklyn Heights residents say the cacophony from helicopters using the downtown Manhattan heliport is ruining their nice little neighborhood, with eight to ten flights landing every hour at the downtown heliport, just across the East River. Resident Neil Calet tells the Post, "We can no longer sit on our balcony because even nose-to-nose conversation is impossible." (Which means they probably can't hear the tiny violin we're playing, either.) Some fear it's about to get worse, because in April the city will shift sightseeing tours from the West 30th Street heliport to the downtown heliport. You gonna take that, Brooklyn Heights?

Like their allies on the west side of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Heights Association is demanding that the city ban all sightseeing tours. "What we have now is best described as a free-for-all of helicopters criss-crossing over Brooklyn Heights, at distances no greater than a few hundred feet," the Association wrote in a recent letter to the city Economic Development Corp.

In the wake of the helicopter/airplane collision over the Hudson River, some City Council members and other officials called for a complete ban, but Mayor Bloomberg insists tourist flights are important for the city's economy. Also, he needs to take helicopters to U2 concerts.

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By John Del Signore in News on October 26, 2009 1:17 PM

Comments [rss]

Jef Christianos

these helicopters are a real noise problem, I don't understand why they are not shut down once and for all, what ever happened to Quality of life, i guess Bloomie doesnt really care about the citizens of ny

artbco

The very worst offenders are the TV news choppers. I have made multiple complaints about them to Carolyn Maloney, the FAA, my councilwoman, the police, you name it. I have called the TV stations themselves to complain. They don't care. They figure the city's neighborhoods are their own private TV studio. I had choppers wake me up a 7 am once so they could get a shot of bodies being dragged from a building collapse. They said this to me straight out. "The people have a right to know," they said. What was not mentioned was their need to get higher viewership ratings. Have a look at the TV stations' ads: they're very proud of their energy wasting, noise-generating -- and potentially very dangerous -- choppers. Amazing as it may sound, there is currently NO regulation of this air traffic over NYC in effect by the FAA. None. You can ask them. It's astonishing.

BklynsFinest

Bklyn Heights...? My ass. how bout the fact that those copters from Kennedy come down over Eastern Parkway like it's a arrow on the map (which it probably is for them) causing a helluva rawkus all the way from the airport to gentile brooklyn heights. oh right most of that tree top flight the copters take are over less influencial (monied) neighborhoods. make them go the long way over the water, it'll add 8 minutes to each flight.

emilydickinson

My standard line on this...It's New York City. No matter how wealthy you are, there are still 12 million people, and the cars, helicopters, dogs, delivery trucks, bullhorns, sirens, steam pipes it takes to keep this place running. Quiet can't ever be expected.

Kojak

The Brooklyn Heights Association can suck off a donkey. If you choose to live in the big city, then you chose to deal with a little noise, especially from helicopters.

youngpro

Agreed. Seriously, 12m people here. Poor little Brooklyn Heights, boo hoo. You live in New York City, deal with the noise.

bklynraised

Doubly agreed.

And come on, I grew up by the bridge and the helicopters have been like that for at least 15 years. Why is it a problem now? Anyway the helicopters wont stop, they'd just move the flight path to another less well heeled neighborhood or something.

Steven

Agreed. Living in the city one should expect noise and tons of it. If you need peace and quiet then move to the country.

whitecastlerock

no sleep til Brooklyn bitches

redhookreject

the tourist helicopters aren't even the real annoying ones... its the huge corporate ones that illegally sweep across Brooklyn and not over water buzzing rooftops. And my pet peeve living in Red Hook is the newscopters that just hover in place for hours getting that all important shot of the BQE backed up again. Tape it once and just replay it, its the same shit every day. traffic.

This morning a fox5 copter just sat there for a half hour over the air vent of the Battery Tunnel. It was loud.

And I can't sit out on my balcony and not see that damn Ikea bus go by spewing its rusted out fumes all over my apartment... didn't Gothamist do a story on that once?

MT

Those newscopters are the WORST! They do the same thing over Staten Island. At 6:00 in the morning it sounds like someone's shooting a machine gun continuously outside your window.

Mr. Shankly

JAFO

valeriob

Lived on Henry & Pineapple in 2006... Don't remember helicopters being a problem.

MT

I think a complete ban is a stupid knee-jerk reaction. However, they do need to get some designated air corridors established. These guys don't need to be banned. They need to be regulated like airplanes.