Editorial

Heck no to heliport

Posted

Imagine the sounds of a summer day at your favorite local park. Birds are chirping and children are playing; perhaps the wind is pleasantly rustling the leaves of the trees overhead. All of a sudden, a screaming comes across the sky, so to speak — one of dozens of helicopters per day taking off from Yonkers, flying over Riverdale and giving tourists a glimpse of the Statute of Liberty before transporting them back over the Bronx.

The community should do everything in its power to prevent this scenario from becoming reality. Unfortunately, HeliNYC is rapidly moving ahead with plans to build a heliport minutes north of the Yonkers line so it can launch helicopter flights 12 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round. By one activist’s calculations, that comes to a maximum of 26,280 flights per year.

Fortunately, there are steps we can take to prevent this threat to our environment, health and more.

Northwest Bronx residents should join forces with the growing anti-heliport movement in Yonkers. People there are lobbying the Yonkers City Council to pass an ordinance that would ban heliports. With summer recess for the legislature around the corner, it is imperative for the Yonkers City Council to pass the measure now.

Northwest Bronx residents can help by calling and emailing Yonkers elected officials who are still undecided about the ordinance. They are listed at www.stopthechopyonkers.org. While at the site, you can also make a donation to the Ludlow Neighborhood Association, which is on the front line of the fight against the proposed heliport.

Further, community members can look for lessons from the successful fight against LG Electronics USA’s plans for an oversized corporate headquarters that would have marred the Palisades. Over years, activists in the Bronx, Manhattan, New Jersey and beyond pressured LG into ultimately reducing the size of its facility by half of the original proposal. There were rallies, a billboard ad and intensive pressure from residents, environmental groups and elected officials.

Thankfully, our local politicians have started to take steps against the Yonkers heliport, which would be located on a barge next to land currently used as a bus depot, at 70 Fernbrook St. They recently wrote a letter to the chairman of the Yonkers planning board opposing HeliNYC’s plans. That is a good start. Councilman Andrew Cohen, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Rep. Eliot Engel and state Sen. Jeff Klein should closely work with their Yonkers counterparts to fight HeliNYC and organize rallies to mobilize residents.

Mr. Engel, who represents both Riverdale and part of Yonkers, is in a strong position to provide leadership on this issue. He should speak up for both sides of the Yonkers border in public forums. Further, since the Federal Aviation Administration closely regulates helicopters, Mr. Engel should examine steps that could be taken against the HeliNYC on the federal level.

Of course, it falls first of all to ordinary residents to protect their environment. The time to act is now.

HeliNYC, Eliot Engel, Yonkers

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