We hope you and your loved ones enjoyed a safe, fun and peaceful Thanksgiving! We are grateful to all of you who have signed our petition, volunteered with us, donated, and helped this all-volunteer organization fight back against the proliferation of tourist and commuter helicopters plaguing our city.
Announcing more Stop the Chop NY/NJ "In the News"!
Here is a selection of recent articles that were published after Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Congressman Jerry Nadler's historic NY-NJ Helicopter Task Force press conference. Please share this email widely and help us grow our volunteer movement to protect our skies, homes, parks and neighborhoods from incessant low-flying and loud helicopter traffic. We support a ban of nonessential helicopters in the NYC metro area, and we want to see the local heliports end their leases with nonessential helicopter companies - this means no tourist, sightseeing, commuter and charter flights.
This article is excellent and we recommend reading it in its entirety - https://www.city-journal.org/noise-threatens-new-york-post-pandemic-recovery-and-livability
Here is an excerpt if you are pressed for time:
"[Tanya] Bonner is now working across neighborhoods. She has helped launch NYC United Against Noise, a coalition of groups including the WaHI-Inwood Task Force and its neighbor, Moving Forward Unidos. It spans the Cedar Avenue Block Association in the northwest Bronx, the Chinatown Core Block Association and Orchard Street Block Association in lower Manhattan, and Stop the Chop, an anti-helicopter group. Noise concerns differ by neighborhood—the Lower East Side is plagued by bar racket, waterfront and park areas by sightseeing helicopters—but “there is power in numbers,” she maintains. “If we join together, it will be harder to ignore some of our communities.'”
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Here is an excellent West Side Rag article: https://www.westsiderag.com/2021/11/04/ban-tourist-helicopters-elected-officials-say-2-bills-could-force-limits
Excerpt: “But it isn’t just about quality of life, or the disruption of events like Shakespeare in the Park, a summer symphony, or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This is a safety issue, a security issue, a health issue, and an environmental issue—it’s a multi-faceted problem created by a niche industry that’s [causing] suffering for thousands, if not millions,” Melissa Elstein said. “It impacts our neighborhood except when it’s stormy or raining. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re praying for inclement weather!”
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Here is an excellent OpEd by UWS journalist Julia Vitullo-Martin:
https://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/10923-apocalypse-eric-adams-end-helicopter-onslaught-central-park-nyc
Excerpt:
"Can Mayor Adams intervene? He’s not the kind of leader to accept an ongoing, permanent assault on his city. It’s worth remembering that despite the territoriality of federal agencies and the egregiousness of federal judicial decisions declaring New York City powerless, anti-helicopter activism has had important victories over the last few years. Led by all-volunteer Stop the Chop, advocates in 2021 convinced New York’s tourist office, NYC & Company, to stop promoting helicopter flights. In 2016 activists helped negotiate a 50% reduction in tourist flights from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, from 60,000 to 30,000, and eliminated all tourist flights on Sundays."
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10/29/21 PRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING BI-STATE SUPPORT FOR FEDERAL HELICOPTER BILL:
Manhattan Borough President & Helicopter Task Force leader Gale Brewer along with Congressman Jerry Nadler hosted a well-attended press conference along with electeds from NY and NJ - all in support of passing The Helicopter Safety Act (the Federal bill introduced by Congressmembers Carolyn Maloney, Jerry Nadler, and Nydia Velazquez that, if passed into law, directs the FAA to ban all nonessential - tourist and commuter - helicopter flights over NYC and the adjacent waterways). Stop the Chop NY/NJ Board members joined our elected representatives from the Federal, State, and City levels as well Manhattan Community Boards 4 and 7 to speak in favor of passing the Federal bill H.R. 1643. At the press conference, MBP Brewer announced a letter in support of this bill had been signed by over 30 NY and NJ electeds and sent to US DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the US EPA Administrator Patrick McDonnell (and cc'd to Polly Trottenberg, Deputy Secretary at the US DOT).
To read this excellent dual-State, multi-elected 5-page letter to the FAA and EPA,please see: https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/helicopter-tf-letter/
See if your elected representatives have signed on to the letter, and if not, please forward to them urging them to join on as well.
Read the Press Release with statements from electeds as well as Stop The Chop NY/NJ and The Brooklyn Heights Association here:
https://mailchi.mp/manhattanbp/helicopterpr102921?e=6619b330fb
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For a very thorough overview of the press conference, please read this article:https://www.tapinto.net/towns/sutton-place-slash-lenox-hill/sections/government/articles/elected-officials-join-residents-to-call-for-regulation-of-tourist-helicopters
FOR TV and RADIO NEWS REPORTS, WATCH & LISTEN HERE:
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/10/29/new-york-new-jersey-helicopter-noise-pollution-legislation/
https://www.wnyc.org/story/local-lawmakers-want-ban-helicopter-sightseeing-tours-over-new-york-city/
HERE ARE MORE ARTICLES FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE:
https://patch.com/new-york/midtown-nyc/helicopters-over-nyc-are-tormenting-residents-new-group-says
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Thanks all for getting our petition to over 10K signatures! Please share this update with your friends, neighbors, families and help us get to 20K signatures soon. Happy holiday season, and here’s to more peaceful skies in the future!