If you live in New York City, you’ve probably noticed the growing plethora of noisy helicopters flying above our five boroughs, often taking wealthy people to area airports and to second homes in the Hamptons and Upstate. I engaged in some local civic activism on April 16, going to a rally and testifying at a City Council hearing, advocating the end of all non-essential helicopter flights.

I’m glad Spectrum News NY1 covered the rally and hearing. I’m pictured here in a screenshot from their coverage, with New Yorkers like me who testified about the damaging impact of non-essential helicopter 🚁 flights over NYC.

I was there with members of a group called @StoptheChopNYNJ. After the rally at City Hall, we attended and testified at a hearing chaired by City Council Leader Amanda Farias and other City Council members who presented details of six bills and resolutions they’re sponsoring to stop the choppers. Representatives of the aviation industry were there, as well as staffers for the Adams administration.

While the industry reps (no surprise) shilled for companies like Blade (whose celebrity pitchman is the actor Liev Schreiber, to his shame), Adams’ people came ill-prepared with no ready administration response to the proposed laws, wrongly claimed there’s no good way to measure chopper noise, touted an absurdly high figure for the supposed economic benefit to the city from the flights, and overlooked real damage to quality of life and the environment from the thousands of non-essential tourist and commuter flights that are taking place every year. Shockingly, though it’s been many years since lead was removed from automotive gasoline, many of the choppers are still powered by leaded aviation fuel. The hearing also discussed the possibility of electric-powered helicopters, which it is hoped would be far less noisy, the advent of such an alternative is still at least a couple years in the future, and meanwhile the noisy choppers could continue apace, if nothing is done by government officials.

If your tired of your peace of mind and quality of life being disturbed by these incessant flights, I urge you to let your NYC City Council member know how you feel, and urge them to vote affirmatively on the six proposed bills and resolutions shown here. You may also consider volunteering with Stop the Chop NY/NJ. Other people you can contact to voice your opinion include FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker; Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg; Rep Jerry Nadler; NY Governor Hochul; NJ Governor Phil Murphy; NYC Mayor Adams. Shoutout for their good work to City Council Majority Leader Amanda Farias, plus City Council Members Lincoln Restler, and Gale Brewer. #noisepollution