RE: Helicopter issue on the west side of Manhattan
Lucas Bernard
Dear Eleni,
I can see from the sequence of proposals you have offered that you are very new to this helicopter dispute. Those of us who have worked for large corporations or government bureaucracies are already familiar, through frequent mandated workshops sponsored by human resources departments, with the “Conflict Resolution” paradigm and flow chart. Step I – identification of the issues (you proposed an analysis of 311 calls), Step II – dialog with the parties to the dialog (you propose a “town hall meeting for the community to speak with NYCEDC and the helicopter operators.”) Etc. Etc. Thus, I think it would be beneficial if you would step back from this programmatic approach and consider the following facts:
1) The issue with tourist helicopters is not new. It dates back many years and was first fought by residents of the Upper West Side and Brooklyn Heights. They won their battle by forcing the helicopters out over the river and limiting their Manhattan fly-over to Washington Heights. We have already attempted to “discuss” and to “negotiate” with the players in this dispute.
2) Tourist helicopters are a small business. They are NOT a mission-critical activity, like a waste transfer station, or a big money earner, like the hotel industry. Further, we are not asking for them to go out of business. We are only asking them to eliminate that portion of one route that flies over our neighborhood. A typical helicopter flight carries 6 people, each paying ~$150, resulting in about $76 in tax revenues per flight. This is hardly the sort of cash flow that is likely influence NYC policy. Further, very few jobs are maintained by these flights.
3) The NYCEDC is NOT a New York City agency. NYCEDC is a NGO “that serves as the City’s primary entity for promoting and implementing economic development by leveraging the City’s assets to drive growth…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Economic_Development_Corporation They are advocates for business. They are NOT a law-making or regulatory body. Further, as anyone who has done business in New York, as I have, knows, they can be extremely helpful if you are trying to develop a business, a high-tech startup or a financial company, in New York City. However, they are not particularly concerned with tenants groups, etc.
4) The clientele of the helicopter companies are tourists, NOT residents. It is not important to them what a small group of Washington Heights tenants think. They have nothing to lose by ignoring us and nothing to gain by agreeing with us.
5) Step III in the “Conflict Resolution” paradigm you are apparently following would probably be: Compromise. Unfortunately, helicopters cannot “partially” fly over our area. Neither can they “reduce the noise” they make. If they do not fly over us, specifically, they will fly over someone else. Thus, there is no compromise possible. The only solution is for them to scrap that part of their flight that flies over Manhattan, as was already forced upon them in every other part of the city.
6) Assuming 100 flights per day during nice weather and assuming 150 such days per year, that equates to 15,000 flights per year, or ~$1 million per year in revenues for the city. Eliminating this segment of the flight might only reduce revenues by a fraction of that. How many tourists need to see the Major Deegan Expressway from the air??? They could just as easily fly up to 165th Street, take a look at the GW Bridge, and fly back, but stay over the river! They would save on gas. But, even allowing that such a restriction would cut flights by 25%, NYC would only lose $250K in revenues. Surely, in a city with an annual budget of $77,000,000,000 ($77 billion), this amount will not be missed! [Calculations are approximate.]
7) Also, assuming that helicopters are 99.999% safe, we can expect 1 or 2 helicopter failures over the next 10 years. Hopefully, it will happen while the helicopter is over the water, as has happened before, and only the tourists will be killed/injured. BUT, what if it crashes into PS-28, an elementary school directly under the flight path on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue & 155th Street during school hours? Who will be to blame? http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CEsQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fnew-york%2Ffatal-helicopter-crash-east-river-nyc-politicians-calling-ban-aerial-sightseeing-tours-article-1.961614&ei=CYoHU5eFGerA0gGP_4GoDA&usg=AFQjCNFKP3l8UOtFtxBvyo_kSYcxfMSb4A&bvm=bv.61725948,d.dmQ
So, to answer your question: No, I do not think “town hall meeting for the community to speak with NYCEDC and the helicopter operators” would be useful. It is only another delay, allowing another tourist season to get underway without interference. You are naïve if you think that NYCEDC and/or the helicopter owners have any interest in doing anything about this situation.
Best regards,
Lucas
From: Bourinaris-Suarez, Eleni [mailto:EBourinar...@council.nyc.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 4:13 PM
To: Bourinaris-Suarez, Eleni
Subject: RE: Helicopter issue on the west side of Manhattan
Hello everyone,
Following up on our discussion with the NYCEDC, it might be beneficial to have a town hall meeting for the community to speak with NYCEDC and the helicopter operators directly. We are hoping that together we will be able to reach a resolution. We understand that this is frustrating for the residents of the area, which is why it is an issue that is top of mind for our office.
Please let me know if such a meeting would be of interest to you. If so, also let me know if there is a time that would work best. If we are going to mobilize, we want to make sure that the operators are able to see and hear from the large number of residents being affected by this route.
Thank you,
Eleni Bourinaris-Suarez
District 7
Council Member Mark Levine
500 W. 141st St.
New York, NY 10031
Twitter: @EleniBourinaris
Follow CM Mark Levine @MarkLevineNYC
From: Bourinaris-Suarez, Eleni
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 5:49 PM
To: Bourinaris-Suarez, Eleni
Subject: Helicopter issue
Hi everyone,
You're receiving this email because you have reached out to our office with expressing your concerns about the helicopter disturbances. I have tried calling several of you and leaving a voicemail where possible.
The Council Member had a conversation with the head of NYCEDC and right now they are closely monitoring calls to 311 to gauge if there are peak times when the disturbances are worse. We are weighing several options.
NYCEDC has requested that we give them 2 weeks to review the data. At the same time, we are requesting the data from 311 so that we're also able to review the materials.
Please continue to file your complaints with 311, especially in the next few weeks. Since each of you has expressed the same concern and there's power in numbers, I thought it might be beneficial to begin a thread where we can continue this conversation to keep each other in the loop. In this case, I would 'cc rather than bcc. Please let me know if you do not want me to share your email address on this thread. Also feel free to give me a call.
Thank you,
Eleni Bourinaris-Suarez
District 7
Council Member Mark Levine
1638 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10031
Twitter: @EleniBourinaris
Follow CM Mark Levine @MarkLevineNYC
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DeWayne A. Powell
Susan Heaney
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Doris Holloway
It seems obvious that when no one else wanted the helicopters crossing over "their space" that the answer appeared to be...."Oh just send them UPTOWN; no one there cares enough to do anything about the challenge of the brain busting, ear shattering, child waking, anxiety producing waiting for "the next one come" helicopters that drain our energy and the very being out of us as they come up the river and cross over and over and over and over.....and over and over and..........over.
Maybe Mark Levine can actually move mountains ...or should I say flight paths...and make a real difference in the quality of our currently noise challenged lives.
Rita Reidy Lennick
Dear Eleni,I can see from the sequence of proposals you have offered that you are very new to this helicopter dispute. Those of us who have worked for large corporations or government bureaucracies are already familiar, through frequent mandated workshops sponsored by human resources departments, with the “Conflict Resolution” paradigm and flow chart. Step I – identification of the issues (you proposed an analysis of 311 calls), Step II – dialog with the parties to the dialog (you propose a “town hall meeting for the community to speak with NYCEDC and the helicopter operators.”) Etc. Etc. Thus, I think it would be beneficial if you would step back from this programmatic approach and consider the following facts:1) The issue with tourist helicopters is not new. It dates back many years and was first fought by residents of the Upper West Side and Brooklyn Heights. They won their battle by forcing the helicopters out over the river and limiting their Manhattan fly-over to Washington Heights. We have already attempted to “discuss” and to “negotiate” with the players in this dispute.2) Tourist helicopters are a small business. They are NOT a mission-critical activity, like a waste transfer station, or a big money earner, like the hotel industry. Further, we are not asking for them to go out of business. We are only asking them to eliminate that portion of one route that flies over our neighborhood. A typical helicopter flight carries 6 people, each paying ~$150, resulting in about $76 in tax revenues per flight. This is hardly the sort of cash flow that is likely influence NYC policy. Further, very few jobs are maintained by these flights.3) The NYCEDC is NOT a New York City agency. NYCEDC is a NGO “that serves as the City’s primary entity for promoting and implementing economic development by leveraging the City’s assets to drive growth…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Economic_Development_Corporation They are advocates for business. They are NOT a law-making or regulatory body. Further, as anyone who has done business in New York, as I have, knows, they can be extremely helpful if you are trying to develop a business, a high-tech startup or a financial company, in New York City. However, they are not particularly concerned with tenants groups, etc.4) The clientele of the helicopter companies are tourists, NOT residents. It is not important to them what a small group of Washington Heights tenants think. They have nothing to lose by ignoring us and nothing to gain by agreeing with us.5) Step III in the “Conflict Resolution” paradigm you are apparently following would probably be: Compromise. Unfortunately, helicopters cannot “partially” fly over our area. Neither can they “reduce the noise” they make. If they do not fly over us, specifically, they will fly over someone else. Thus, there is no compromise possible. The only solution is for them to scrap that part of their flight that flies over Manhattan, as was already forced upon them in every other part of the city.6) Assuming 100 flights per day during nice weather and assuming 150 such days per year, that equates to 15,000 flights per year, or ~$1 million per year in revenues for the city. Eliminating this segment of the flight might only reduce revenues by a fraction of that. How many tourists need to see the Major Deegan Expressway from the air??? They could just as easily fly up to 165th Street, take a look at the GW Bridge, and fly back, but stay over the river! They would save on gas. But, even allowing that such a restriction would cut flights by 25%, NYC would only lose $250K in revenues. Surely, in a city with an annual budget of $77,000,000,000 ($77 billion), this amount will not be missed! [Calculations are approximate.]7) Also, assuming that helicopters are 99.999% safe, we can expect 1 or 2 helicopter failures over the next 10 years. Hopefully, it will happen while the helicopter is over the water, as has happened before, and only the tourists will be killed/injured. BUT, what if it crashes into PS-28, an elementary school directly under the flight path on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue & 155th Street during school hours? Who will be to blame? http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CEsQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fnew-york%2Ffatal-helicopter-crash-east-river-nyc-politicians-calling-ban-aerial-sightseeing-tours-article-1.961614&ei=CYoHU5eFGerA0gGP_4GoDA&usg=AFQjCNFKP3l8UOtFtxBvyo_kSYcxfMSb4A&bvm=bv.61725948,d.dmQSo, to answer your question: No, I do not think “town hall meeting for the community to speak with NYCEDC and the helicopter operators” would be useful. It is only another delay, allowing another tourist season to get underway without interference. You are naïve if you think that NYCEDC and/or the helicopter owners have any interest in doing anything about this situation.Best regards,Lucas