Balloon provides real estate developers with aerial views of the City, so they can assess the views from different floors of their planned projects.  Why can't another type of balloon - a silent hot air balloon - ferry people above the City?  It's a win/win situation!

I live on Riverside Drive overlooking Riverside Park- an Olmstead designed gem.
I'm also just a thickheaded working class guy that grew up playing stickball in Queens, a stones throw from LaGuardia.

I'm accustomed to noise.

That said, I was walking my dog in the park yesterday about noon and realized that there was an awful lot of noise over the Hudson.

So, I stopped and looked up at the noise source- helicopters. Lots of them.

Now, I've noticed this before, but for some reason it was more obnoxious than normal- maybe I was cranky , who knows?

So, I took a look at my trusty chronograph watch and ''timed" the intervals between fly overs.

Every 8 to 10 seconds a helicopter was passing either north or south.

Loud? Very.

Avoidable? Nope.

The line of tall apartment buildings on Riverside Drive acts as an amplifier - a huge line of megaphones increasing the volume.

I'm writing this at 10:42 AM from my apartment- and outside I can hear helicopters, making the same trip.

This is a residential area, not an industrial area or an area near an airport or military base..

We should not be exposed to this level constant noise.

Anyone ever checked what dB level this noise is? My bet is its illegally high.

Albert
Upper West Side

From John in Jersey City:

I saw this same helicopter fly North bound around 10:00-10:10 AM this morning. It came from NY Harbor and headed North flying around 500 ft by Battery Park City.  It flew back South bound around 10:35AM and it was the only reckless pilots I saw/heard this morning flying in this type of visibility. It looked like the one owned by Helicopter Flight Services, one of five NYC tour operators from the type and color. I want this pilot summoned and fined for flying in this type of bad weather and I want to hear back about the outcome. You have the radar and weather data since you are the FAA. Here is a video in HD as evidence. We are no longer going to tolerate this type of disrespectful and reckless behavior by cowboy pilots. 

From John in Jersey City:

Hey ERHC, FAA, NYCEDC, POLITICIANS,

Can you comment on this video please?  You think it is normal to see a helicopter in the air all the time? I shot this video this morning for 20 minutes [today - April 14, 2014] and over 95% of the time there is a helicopter in the sky! It continues like this daily and it will get worst as the weather improves. I would say that all of them in the video except for 2 (1 private and 1 training heli)  were NYC TOUR HELICOPTERS. The only time we get some peace and quiet is when the President is town and all helicopter air traffic is halted!

There were 12 - 15 tourist choppers on rotation today and the season is not even in full swing yet.  One was landing or taking off every 10 - 20 seconds.  This went on from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM without stop.  It was impossible to enjoy the beautiful weather and the esplanade and Hudson River Park because of the constant din!  Check out our video here.

New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, promises that grass roots will drive his policies.  Let's hope that he will stick to his promise when it comes to dealing with the issue of helicopter noise!

Bill de Blasio has named Michael Schlein, a close ally and former investment banker, as the new chairman of the NYC Economic Development Corporation.  Perhaps the EDC's wildly creative accounting for the tourist helicopter industry will now be subject to closer scrutiny.