Petition to close NYC-owned heliports to nonessential flights
Mayor Eric Adams & NYC Council
Please sign this petition to urge the NYC Council to pass bill Int 0026 or bill Int 0070, either of which would significantly reduce helicopter traffic over NYC. We need your help to persuade City Council members who have not yet signed on to support these bills, and to encourage Mayor Eric Adams to sign them into law.
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Sponsored by
To:
Mayor Eric Adams & NYC Council
From:
[Your Name]
I support the passage of New York City Council Int. 0026, introduced by City Council Member Amanda Farías, or Int. 0070, introduced by Council Member Lincoln Restler -- which, if passed, would ban nonessential* helicopter flights from heliports owned or operated by New York City, including the Downtown Manhattan (Wall Street) and East 34th Street heliports.
HELICOPTER NOISE POLLUTION PUTS PUBLIC HEALTH AT RISK
The excessive noise from helicopters disrupts New Yorkers’ work at home and our enjoyment of parks, public spaces, outdoor concerts, festivals, and other public events. Helicopter-related noise complaints to 311 have increased in New York City by more than 2300 percent in the last five years.
Studies show that exposure to noise pollution also poses threats to physical and mental health, including hearing loss, sleep disruption, cardiovascular disease, and exacerbation of anxiety and depression. In addition, with more than 30 serious helicopter crashes in NYC since 1980 -- resulting in major injuries and fatalities -- the danger to residents and tourists in this densely populated city is unacceptable.
HELICOPTERS CONTRIBUTE TO AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Non-essential helicopter flights are needlessly adding to the global climate crisis with excessive carbon emissions. One helicopter idling at a heliport has the same impact as more than 40 cars idling. Helicopters can burn as much as 180 gallons of jet fuel per hour, and some still use leaded fuel, worsening toxic air emissions as there is no safe level of lead exposure.
New York City is extremely vulnerable in the face of climate change; prohibiting fossil fuel-guzzling nonessential helicopters is the logical next step towards mitigating CO2 emissions and creating a safe, healthy and equitable urban environment for all. Many commuter flights headed to the Hamptons and JFK Airport fly repetitively over communities of color, usually at very low altitudes, creating an environmental justice issue.
For these reasons above, I urge my City Council member to cosponsor Int. 0026/0070 (and any other related successor bills seeking the same) if he/she/they has not already done so, and call on Mayor Adams to sign this bill into law.
To learn more about the campaign to end non-essential helicopter flights in the New York region, see www.stopthechopnynj.org.
*Non-essential flights are those used for tourism or commuting, and do not include helicopters used by police, the military, emergency and medical services, government, news and media.