TESTIMONY
John Wilkins, Member of the Public on the Excessive Helicopter Noise Disrupting Park Slope, Brooklyn Neighborhood
3:26:56
·
124 sec
John Wilkins, a resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn, testifies about the disruptive impact of frequent and low-altitude helicopter flights over his neighborhood.
- Wilkins lives with his family in Park Slope and the constant helicopter noise is making the neighborhood uninhabitable
- On a recent Sunday, his son could not read a book outside due to 8 helicopters flying overhead in 15 minutes
- The noise from the helicopters, which is common on summer weekends, disturbs hundreds of families in the area
- Wilkins questions the $28 million economic benefit estimate from helicopters cited by the NYC Economic Development Corporation
- He believes the health impacts and damage to real estate values from the helicopter noise outweigh any claimed benefits
- Wilkins and his neighbors are considering moving away because the excessive noise is making their once vibrant neighborhood uninhabitable
John Wilkins
3:26:56
I'm John Wilkins.
3:26:57
I live with my family in Parkslip, Brooklyn.
Amanda Farías
3:26:59
Is the mic on?
3:27:00
Do you see the red light?
John Wilkins
3:27:01
Oh my god.
3:27:02
Is it on?
Amanda Farías
3:27:02
Click the button.
3:27:04
There
John Wilkins
3:27:04
you go.
Amanda Farías
3:27:05
No.
3:27:08
There.
3:27:08
Yeah.
3:27:08
Maybe it's Charlotte Post.
John Wilkins
3:27:10
I'll be brief.
3:27:11
I'm John Wilkins.
3:27:12
I live in Parksville, Brooklyn with my family, and I just wanna thank the council for all the hard work you're doing.
3:27:17
It wasn't until today that I realized that the EDC actually worked for the helicopter industry.
3:27:21
I thought they were working for us.
3:27:24
Their $28,000,000 estimate of the economic benefit of helicopters is frankly bizarre, and I hope to God, whoever did that math isn't doing my taxes because I would have made a $100,000,000 this year.
3:27:37
I live with my boy and my wife in in Park Silicon, and I'll just relay one anecdote.
3:27:43
This Sunday, it was a nice day All he wanted to do was sit on the stoop and read a book.
3:27:48
Grabbed Pete the cat, his favorite book, sat on the stoop,
Christopher Woodgrin
3:27:53
Before we
John Wilkins
3:27:53
were able to read one little Pete De Cat story, there was 8 helicopters flying over, as others have said, extremely low altitude, deafening not just my family, but hundreds of families in each direction for dozens of miles all the way to the hemp where we live on the the main drag between Manhattan and the Hampton.
3:28:11
So 8 flights in 15 minutes isn't unusual.
3:28:15
It was unusual for April its commonplace for July afternoons, Friday evenings, and Saturday, and and Sunday evenings are essentially making our neighborhood uninhabitable.
3:28:28
The economic benefit of the 28,000,000 fails to include the significant cost of the health damage that the helicopters are doing, the damage to real estate.
3:28:37
Now my neighbors and I are we're we're all fed up.
3:28:40
We're thinking of moving.
3:28:42
We no one wants to move.
3:28:43
We'd want raise our families in in what was a short time ago, a beautiful, fantastic vibrant neighborhood.
3:28:50
That is becoming in uninhabitable because of the noise.
3:28:54
So thank you for all you're doing, and hopefully we can do something to ban these flights and and to turn things back to what they were.