Longtime opponents of helicopters in New York City are hoping Mayor Zohran Mamdani will end their decades-old battle against noise by keeping a campaign promise to restrict flights from city-owned heliports.<\/p>\n
In a new twist, some are appealing to Mamdani\u2019s political identity as a democratic socialist willing to clash with billionaires. While many of the flights buzzing around Manhattan and Brooklyn cater to tourists, critics of the choppers cast them as vehicles for the elite.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mayor has demonstrated he is willing to stand up to the rich and powerful when it’s necessary,\u201d said Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents portions of Brooklyn where choppers routinely zip along the waterfront. \u201cWe shouldn’t have policies that are benefiting the top 1% at the expense of everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s what \u2018stop the chop\u2019 is fundamentally about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
During a mayoral debate<\/a> last year, Mamdani said he opposed nonessential helicopter travel after a tourist helicopter crashed into the Hudson River, killing six people.<\/p>\n Over a 12-month period ending in June, there were over 17,000 311 noise complaints related to helicopters, an increase that\u2019s persisted since the pandemic, according to city data.<\/p>\n Most commercial helicopters in the sky are carrying tourists looking for dramatic views of the skyline. But the number of wealthy commuters riding in style to the area\u2019s three major airports and the Hamptons has grown over the years. On-demand rideshares<\/a> that offer a $200 seat on a five-minute flight to JFK Airport have become popular. Long Island residents have fought for years to close East Hampton Airport because of chopper traffic.<\/p>\n Restler said Brooklyn residents saw a massive increase in chartered helicopter flights that lasted for multiple days during the Ryder Cup, a golf tournament on Long Island.<\/p>\n In a letter to the mayor last month, he and other lawmakers urged the mayor to prevent an increase in commercial flights during the World Cup. Blade Air marketed five-minute flights<\/a> from Manhattan to Newark starting at $195. It\u2019s unclear how many ticketholders took advantage of the service. But the New York Times reported<\/a> Wall Street types preferred an even shorter $6,000 chartered flight to Teterboro, a private airport that is 6 miles from the stadium.<\/p>\n Blade did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Those who live along helicopter routes liken the experience to an auditory assault.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine being in your apartment and having an earthquake all day long,\u201d said Andrew Rosenthal, who lives on the Upper West Side and is the president of Stop the Chop<\/a>, a grassroots group founded in 2014 that cites damage from noise and air pollution as a reason the city should limit helicopter flights. \u201cIt\u2019s not healthy and the science backs me up.\u201d<\/p>\n Councilmember Gale Brewer wrote Mamdani a letter in January requesting a meeting with representatives of Stop the Chop. They have yet to hear back.<\/p>\n The city owns two of Manhattan’s three heliports: one at Pier 6 and another on the East Side. Under legislation proposed by the Council, the city would restrict the use of those heliports to \u201cessential\u201d choppers taking to the skies for public safety, medical reasons or news gathering.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor seems to get it,\u201d Rosenthal said. \u201cSo we\u2019re a little mystified.\u201d<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. The city\u2019s Economic Development Corporation, which manages the two heliports, has previously said the helicopters generate $78 million in economic benefits.<\/p>\n In response to the latest complaints, EDC spokesperson Seth Schuster said in a statement that reducing helicopter noise \u201cremains a priority for the agency.\u201d He pointed to investments to have the city-owned heliport support \u201cquiet, zero-emission aircraft.\u201d Electric \u201cair taxis\u201d have not yet been fully approved by federal regulators for passengers.<\/p>\n Mamdani has appointed two new leaders<\/a> to the agency, Anthony Shorris and Lina Khan, who will respectively serve as president and chair.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a good challenge for the new leadership,\u201d said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at NYU. Moss, who has studied the industry, said the problem is that the city can\u2019t control flights outside its jurisdiction.<\/p>\n Brewer knows that fact well. She has worked on the issue since 2002 and even took a $400 helicopter tour of Manhattan<\/a> to sample the experience, which she described as \u201cmiserable\u201d and \u201ccold.\u201d She said mayors have consistently defended helicopters as an important part of the tourism economy. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a known chopper lover who once piloted lawmakers to Albany<\/a> for a press conference.<\/p>\n In 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio struck a compromise to cap the number of tourist flights from the city\u2019s downtown heliport to 30,000 per year, reducing the traffic by half, and restricting their routes to the Hudson River and New York Harbor. They are not supposed to fly over land.<\/p>\n But the rules don\u2019t apply to helicopters flying out of New Jersey. The EDC said many sightseeing helicopters cited for noise come from outside the city.<\/p>\n Brewer said she recently counted five helicopters flying overhead during a performance of \u201cRomeo & Juliet\u201d at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. She said annoyed members of the audience seemed to look toward her for help.<\/p>\n \u201cI can’t do a thing about New Jersey,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n