Council Member Carline Rivera, the author (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)

Like most New Yorkers who lived through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am still reeling from the trauma and chaos we experienced this spring. But until I set foot on Rikers Island last week, I had an incomplete understanding of what the true horrors of COVID-19 were for some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers.

At the height of the pandemic, Rikers saw an infection rate seven times higher than the rest of the city. The Department of Correction (DOC) was forced to reopen a shuttered facility on the island to quarantine suspected covid patients when existing isolation wards and clinics reached capacity. Numerous incarcerated New Yorkers, Correction staff, and health care workers died as limited use of PPE and testing allowed the virus to spread like wildfire in closed, poorly-ventilated cell blocks.

Today, with low infection rates citywide, many may view the risk to those at Rikers to be over, but if a second wave does arrive this winter, as many scientists predict, Rikers will once again be directly in the disease’s crosshairs. It’s clear to me from the stories of whistleblowers and the conditions I just saw at the jail that there are many vulnerabilities that still exist - from inconsistent use of PPE and social distancing by staff, to sleeping situations that still place some incarcerated individuals just a few feet apart. 

Even if DOC commits to adopting solutions at a City Council hearing I am holding on this issue, there is only so much we can do to protect people housed in this decrepit facility.

The de Blasio administration already recognized that, when in April they began a dramatic increase in early release for incarcerated individuals. The Mayor’s Office and DOC worked quickly to identify individuals for early release, including older adults, those with underlying health conditions, those being held on technical parole violations, and those serving city sentences of under a year. In a few short weeks, we went from 5,557 people in Department of Correction custody to only 3,800 - a population drop that had previously been projected to take years to reach (the census has since crept back up to just over 4,100). And analyses show these early releases saw fewer repeat arrests than would be expected for normal release populations pre-covid.

Even with the rapid reduction, jails like Rikers have still been scrambling for space to social distance. Over the last few months, the city’s Correctional Health Services recommended more than 1,500 additional individuals be released, including hundreds who meet the same requirement that were provided for early release in April. Unfortunately, many of these recommendations continue to be rejected by DOC, which refuses to release the total number of approved releases. 

Continuing to release people in DOC custody, while implementing policy solutions to reduce arrests overall, will save lives not just on the inside but in New York City as a whole. Justice and public health advocates have identified the “jail churn,” the phenomenon by which people are cycled through jails for short periods of time, where they risk exposure to covid, and are then released back into their communities. 

But one day COVID-19 will come to an end, and with the plan to close Rikers and open four smaller borough-based jails delayed until 2027 by the city’s shrunken budget, we should take this opportunity to consider how we can safely reduce the city’s current jail population beyond the pandemic, while interrogating how the physical structure of jails negatively impacts public health, and what any new jails will look like in terms of safety and scope. 

This won’t happen overnight, but we can take steps while prioritizing safety and public health. First, we as a city and state must take every possible action to reduce the number of arrests made, remove officers with histories of police misconduct, and work to dismantle the system that enables the ‘blue wall of silence.’ The state can also pass laws to remove unnecessary criminal statutes (like the “Walking While Trans” Ban) and reinstate the portions of historic bail reforms that were sadly rolled back in the wake of pressure from police unions. And we can continue to redistribute funding from our police departments towards community programs proven to be more effective at reducing recidivism.

At the same time, the Mayor’s Office could work with DOC to compile an annual report on city jail populations and corresponding recommendations on how to reduce that overall population in a time-sensitive manner beyond the census projected for the post-Rikers borough-based jails. Since demolition work at the proposed jail sites has yet to begin, these reports could influence the size of the currently proposed local jails each year before construction begins. 

COVID-19 has completely changed how we view our society and work to address its failings, including the systemic and racist inequities that ravage communities of color. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t use this opportunity to ensure we are constantly reviewing our criminal justice reform efforts, from Rikers today and into the future. 

***
City Council Member Carlina Rivera represents the 2nd District in Manhattan and chairs the Council’s hospitals committee. On Twitter @CarlinaRivera.

Subway ridership (photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit)

We agree with the MTA that its fate hinges on the federal government, which must provide the MTA at least $10 billion in federal emergency funds through the end of 2021 to prevent the end of the New York City region’s mass transit system as we know it. 

The MTA’s options without federal aid from its August “doomsday” plan are all terrible. Worse, they are far from exaggerations and are a glimpse into a possible, very grim future. The parade of horribles range from service cuts and fare hikes to chopping major capital investments to wage freezes. Yet all the unthinkable options in the plan together won’t make up the entirety of the agency’s deficits. This means that all of the MTA’s doomsday scenarios together aren’t a complete picture of the possible devastation that would occur to our transit system without federal aid. 

If you take all the “doomsday” cuts together, they add up to nearly $15 billion through 2024. In the short-term, however, the MTA would still be short by more than $2 billion through 2021. Looking further into the future, with these cuts and reductions sustained for four painful years, the MTA is still short by more than $1 billion through 2024, given total COVID-related losses of more than $16 billion.

The MTA was clear in its August presentation that these are potential cuts and options, but not yet final proposals. Some board members noted that the plan didn’t make up the entirety of the deficit, and a final, balanced budget will need to be adopted by the end of 2020. Without federal funding, the MTA could be forced to turn these possibilities into real, ruinous cuts. In doing our own analysis of the plan, we are seeking to read between the lines of the MTA’s doomsday options and understand exactly what is at stake for riders. Our graph below shows all the MTA’s proposals together.

 Not included in the doomsday proposal is any deficit financing in the form of borrowing from the public markets or private banks for operating expenses. The MTA is, however, proposing deferring as many expenses as possible, such as the payroll taxes that would have been due in 2020 as authorized by the federal CARES Act. MTA CFO Bob Foran called the ability to delay this payment “basically an interest-free loan” from the federal government. The MTA is also seeking to defer payments to its employee pension accounts. Paying back these deferrals in 2022-2024 results in the negative values seen in the chart above. 

The MTA has already tapped $450 million in short-term bonds from the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF), which gave it a better rate than the public market. However, this is less than a nickel on the dollar of what it needs to bridge its deficit through 2021. Borrowing substantially more sums of money to make up the current deficit is a risky endeavor, however. The MTA already has huge debt loads reaching nearly 26% of its expected revenues next year (see below), and taking on more at a time when continual downgrades makes borrowing even more expensive risks crippling the MTA’s future.

Moody’s, in its latest downgrade, specifically noted the possibility of the MTA using deficit financing in its rationale for its downgrade, stating, “While MTA can access deficit financing to alleviate its near-term revenue losses, this solution would be one-time in nature and result in higher debt leverage. Reduced debt capacity would disrupt the timing and implementation of the authority's $55 billion capital program and potentially weaken asset condition and service quality.”

The Fed could substantially improve the MLF with longer-term and lower- or zero-interest loans. This is one way that a limited amount of borrowing wouldn’t put the MTA in an even worse financial situation. Only the federal government has the power to set this type of monetary policy and “print” billions in emergency aid.

Transit Service Cuts and Fare Hikes - $6 Billion through 2024
Possible doomsday service cuts include a 40% reduction on the subways and buses and 50% reduction on the commuter railroads. Yet what would be the most dramatic impact to MTA riders makes a surprisingly small dent on the MTA’s deficit: 40% subway and bus service cuts only amount to $880 million in annual “savings,” 50% commuter railroad service cuts only reduces expenses $160 million a year, and Access-A-Ride cuts would be $65 million a year, together only reducing the deficit by $1.1 billion in 2021. While these cuts together are the largest component of the doomsday plan, the MTA is expected to lose $6 billion in 2021 alone, so these devastating potential service cuts to mass transit are only a small part of the reductions that would need to be made.

The impact of service cuts cannot be minimized, however. Riders Alliance presented their own doomsday map in July, showing visually on the subway map what taking away half of subway service could look like and saying that cuts would be “a crime against the city and its millions of residents, and a deep, self-inflicted wound to the national economy.” These cuts would have real, negative impacts on riders’ commutes, with subway headways (the time between trains arriving) increasing by 8 minutes, and bus headways by 15 minutes. This means longer commutes, and more likelihood of missing job interviews and child-care pickups, and a much slower, worse economic recovery for the region. 

While no specific lines were identified for reductions on the subways and buses, the MTA identified two possible commuter rail cuts. Eliminating West of Hudson service on Metro North Railroad would reduce expenses by $25 million annually, and save the MTA $1.2 billion in planned capital costs. Long Island Railroad could also delay even further the start of East Side Access (ESA) service, which would reduce expenses by $250 million. East Side Access was anticipated to start in 2022 after decades of work on the troubled project. Pre-COVID, ESA’s operating costs were expected to be more than what riders would pay in fares for the service, making this choice logical in the short-term, but a head-scratcher in terms of the overall cost/benefit of the project. The State Comptroller said ESA operating costs will reach $205 million in 2023, but raise only $14 million in fare revenue.

The pain of these transit cuts could be exacerbated by a bigger fare hike than already planned. The MTA typically budgets for fare hikes every two years at 4% each, and the MTA’s August doomsday options float an additional 1% hike, meaning there could be fare hikes of 5% each in 2021 and 2023. To increase fares at a time when nearly 20% of NYC residents are unemployed would be another severe blow to the region’s recovery.

Fare hikes would mean a monthly Metrocard could increase to $140 a month in 2023 from $127 today, or a single-ride would rise to $3 from $2.75. Typically the MTA has sought to keep single-ride prices low, however, while increasing monthly and weekly card costs to limit the hardship for low-income individuals who tend to buy single rides. These fare increases would generate about $300 million extra through 2024. This means that riders would essentially be paying even more for much less. And with a system both less reliable and more expensive, concerns about a “death spiral” with more people choosing not to ride the system are real, and these “savings” projections may not fully factor in a large drop in ridership.

Bridge & Tunnels Toll Increases and Workforce Cuts - $2.7B
Additional workforce reductions and toll hikes are also possible for Bridges & Tunnels (B&T), which is a revenue generator for the MTA and will remain so with traffic on the bridges and tunnels down about 12% in September from 2019 as of the writing of this piece. Tolls of an additional $1 beyond planned 4% increases in 2021 and again in 2023 would bring in considerably more than the possible fare hikes for trains and buses at nearly $2 billion through 2024. Additional funds could be raised from eliminating resident discounts ($65 million annual) and implementing peak pricing ($100 million annual).

While B&T is the “cash cow” for the MTA, raising billions to subsidize mass transit service and increased tolls will help to offset the deficit, it is important to remember that the MTA doesn’t control all bridges into Manhattan. It therefore cannot effect the same type of outcome on gridlock reduction and air control improvement as congestion pricing would. “Toll shopping” is a continual problem for communities neighboring free bridges, and the current toll structures of bridges and tunnels across the region is not rational. Federal approval of congestion pricing remains essential. However, the MTA must consider robust toll increases as part of its deficit reduction plan, as it is one of the few revenue sources it controls on its own.

There is no real “service” equivalent resulting from B&T workforce reductions as would occur for mass transit. The 300-person workforce reduction does have consequences, like increased lane closures, delays in responses to non-critical incidents, less customer-facing maintenance such as painting and landscaping, and less frequent customer messages. (It is too late, however, to pull back on the $30 million in colorful tiles for B&T tunnels as ordered by Gov. Cuomo.) But it’s not like the MTA’s bridges and tunnels would be fully closed down to drivers 40-50% more like the service cuts that would be inflicted on mass transit riders, or the Whitestone Bridge would suddenly be closed to all traffic like the potential closure of West of Hudson Service. 

Therefore the “pain” felt by drivers of an additional $1 toll is largely at the pocketbook rather than the huge opportunity cost of waiting for unreliable and unaffordable mass transit service. (The New York City Comptroller quantified the economic cost of subway delays in 2017 at the recent height of subway meltdowns as $389 million annually, and it is reasonable to see a 40% service reduction having an even worse economic impact.)

Capital Plan Delays/Reduction - $1.5B through 2024
The MTA’s plans also include pausing or reducing the agency’s capital program, which for 2015-2019 is still unfinished, and for 2020-2024 had barely begun. While we have questioned the MTA’s ability to finish its capital plans on time, capital work is essential to keep the system running and there is more than enough decaying infrastructure to fix. The 2020-2024 plan included buying new trains and buses, as well as modern signals to keep trains on schedule, and the MTA’s August doomsday plan indicated that nearly all big-ticket items from the plan are at risk of being “paused”:

A “pause” on the capital plan is only one possible outcome, however, given that the capital funds may be used for operating costs. The Governor and State Legislature in April gave the MTA the ability to use “lockboxed” 2020-2024 capital funds for operating expenses rather than bonding them out for capital projects after sign-off from the MTA Board and the Director of the Division of the Budget (Robert Mujica, who also sits on the MTA Board). Under the current legislation, this would be allowed through 2021, and could be paid back if enough federal funds come through to both plug the operating budget gaps AND pay back money “borrowed” from the capital plan. 

Without congestion pricing, the amount of lockbox funds available is less than originally anticipated at just under $1 billion through 2024 according to the MTA’s August document. The MTA also floated spending $674 million in “pay as you go” capital funds on operations. Using capital funds for operating may be a prudent short-term solution, but eventually, the system will simply fall apart if it is not maintained. 

The doomsday plan lists so many major projects that could be delayed or cut that it basically says nothing. The process for changing the plan will be rife with politics (much like the adoption of the capital plan itself) and advocates for each of these projects are likely to clash over which are crucial enough to remain in the capital plan. Additionally, changes to the plan will require the sign-off of the Capital Program Review Board, which has appointees from the Governor, state legislative leaders, and New York City Mayor. While the CPRB failed to be formed in December 2019, essentially approving the 2020-2024 plan “by default,” the stakes are even higher now with the possibility of a scaled-back plan, and it seems more likely that the CPRB appointers might want to exercise their votes this time around.

With a reduced capital plan, the MTA’s focus should be on keeping the trains and buses running, not embarking on costly expansion projects whose return on investment is questionable - take East Side Access for example, whose service is on the chopping block because the $11 billion project is going to cost more to run that it will bring in fare revenue, as noted previously. 

Workforce and Non-Service Impacts - $4.3 Billion
Given the workforce reductions that could happen with the massive service cuts -- 7,200 for New York City Transit alone -- the MTA has also listed possible reductions to headquarters’ costs like consulting contracts, something that front-line workers and unions have frequently called for. Cutting consulting contracts would save $310 million through 2024 (though consultants often do essential work on IT systems, for example, that would need to be taken up by MTA staff instead), and the MTA has floated other “non-personnel” reductions of $875 million through 2024. 

The MTA also listed the possibility of either postponed wage freezes (net of zero, but $536 million in deferred costs through 2022) or permanent ones ($1.1 billion in cuts through 2024). Additional workforce reductions of 1,000 workers would cut costs by $125 million annually. 

Overtime cost reduction has been a continual focus of the MTA and more is proposed in the plan at $975 million through 2024. However, with a gutted workforce and a wage freeze ($1.1 billion through 2024), overtime cannot be eliminated entirely and it will be difficult to cut back unless the current workforce is aligned perfectly with the MTA’s needs. With fewer workers available, the goal might be to reduce unplanned overtime, to ensure that the amount budgeted is correct.

Lastly, the MTA is floating deferring a number of employee-related costs. These include payroll taxes originally due in 2020 ($473 million, to be paid back in 2021 and 2022), and pension plan deferrals ($1.8B billion to be paid back 2022-2024). The MTA has also floated using other post-employee benefits (OPEB) trust funds in 2022, freeing up $336 million. However, MTA Chief Financial Officer Bob Foran noted at the August MTA Board presentation that “this is money that was set aside to be invested at a higher return to provide for future health care costs.”

The proceeds from this are unknown in terms of the higher costs MTA would pay without this investment. It is considered best practice to have OPEB trusts, as they will lower costs in the long-term. For all of these items, they are simply helpful for cash flow in the short-term, as the MTA seeks to keep the system running in the absence of federal aid. But eventually these costs will need to be paid back, and the longer the MTA waits for federal funds, the more it will have to resort to measures that risk its ability to provide the type of service that New York City needs for its economic recovery.

***
Rachael Fauss is senior research analyst for Reinvent Albany. On Twitter @RachaelFauss & @ReinventAlbany.

Mayor de Blasio at a budget presentation (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson are aggressively lobbying the state Legislature to authorize the City of New York to borrow billions of dollars from private financial markets by selling municipal bonds through the Transitional Finance Authority.

Governor Andrew Cuomo also recently announced that if the federal government does not step up with stimulus money for New York, he is also open to borrowing money for our state.

Unfortunately, most people stop paying attention once they hear any financial jargon; the private investors want to keep it that way. In fact, they want the public to think that they are generously swooping in to save thousands of essential government jobs.

This is wholly false, and in bailing out our city and state we must resist borrowing from Wall Street and private investors as much as possible.

Taking private money will make the ultra wealthy even wealthier as, over the next 30 years, they collect hundreds of millions in interest from our city and state revenues. Most of their capital gains won’t even be taxed. New York’s economy will inevitably bounce back, and the 1% will continue to enrich themselves during a global crisis. 

An alternative, more responsible route is to borrow from The Federal Reserve (the Fed). It is openly allowing the city to tap into their vast public resources with a simple “Add to Cart” mouse click.

For the first time in history, the Fed has created the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF), a new pot of money designed for unprecedented times such to attract borrowers and spark economic reinvestment in communities. The MTA, for example, just secured $451 million in early August at a 1.92% rate, almost 1 point more competitive (or roughly $12 million) than borrowing from private banks. 

Consider this: the Fed is our currency issuer, and it never runs out of money. It is the world’s largest public bank, and it is not lending money in order to profit from natural catastrophes.

Borrowing from the MLF is more like borrowing from a family member with a magical money tree in their backyard -- we don’t really have to worry too much about paying them back on time. Moreover, “debt” to the Fed is not the same. The Fed will never come down on New York to bankrupt us, privatize public services, or negatively impact our credit ratings because their deficit ultimately adds real value to our communities.

Conversely, if New York City opts for private investors and faces another economic downturn in ten years, they will still come to collect, and possibly force us to privatize more public goods to fulfill our debt. 

Opponents of this route, like Wall Street underwriters and investment bankers, will continue telling the city the Fed’s terms and rates are not as competitive. But this is thoroughly dispelled by cases like the MTA's, so what’s really preventing this obvious path back to economic solvency?  

Corporate Democrats are unwilling to draw the line against the rich. Being self-anointed managers of corporate power has narrowed their logic and imaginative capacities. They resist new taxes and public money, two obvious solutions during this economic downturn, because their campaign donors and potential future employers -- maybe Citigroup or Goldman Sachs -- will be cut out of the deal if we turn to the Fed. 

Now is precisely the time to take full advantage of the Fed’s willingness to open up its lending facility to local governments. Leaving new money behind is reckless and irresponsible. It is money we need to make our teachers and kids safe in school, keep our public transit system solvent, and avoid painful job losses. If the Fed is willing to inject new money into municipal bond markets -- at a time when state and local governments need to employ resources and people for much-needed public services and social programs -- we have a moral obligation to take it.

***
Assemblymember Ron Kim represents parts of Queens. On Twitter @rontkim.

NYPD officers (photo: @NYPDnews)

The protests following George Floyd’s murder have amplified two different, yet intertwined demands: to hold police officers accountable and to defund the police. In New York City, the NYPD’s continued use of predatory “buy and bust” operations, which target poor people of color and are conducted by detectives with long misconduct histories, exemplifies the imperative to divert funds away from policing to public health services. 

As a public defender, I have handled dozens of these “buy and bust” cases. These “operations” occur daily and follow a familiar playbook. Typically, an undercover officer approaches a person in the street and attempts to purchase a “baggie” of crack or heroin. At times, the person sells the undercover drugs directly. Other times, the person directs the undercover to a street seller, hoping to receive a small tip in return. Once a buy is complete, a police “back-up” team arrests the person, whether they had completed the sale or only introduced the undercover to a seller. The whole police enterprise then proceeds to replicate the process elsewhere, often conducting six or seven “operations” per day. Public data reveals that over the past five years, these operations led to approximately 43,878 arrests — an average of 8,775 arrests a year, or 24 arrests a day. 

In an unsurprising pattern for the NYPD, these operations target people of color. NYPD data reveals that between 2015-2019, 87% of people arrested in these operations were Black or Latino, a total of 38,290 arrests. Through these operations, New York City arrests, jails, and punishes poor people of color, some of whom are struggling with substance use disorder. Often these operations intentionally target people with substance use issues, one of the most vulnerable groups of individuals in our city. Even prosecutors recognize that substance use underlies many of these arrests and thus routinely extend pleas that incorporate substance abuse treatment programs.

These predatory “buy and bust” operations epitomize a failure to recognize the ineffectiveness and harm of policing — and to shift funding accordingly. Across the country, local governments have begun treating substance use disorder as a public health epidemic. Some of the new approaches address substance use itself, such as providing methadone, clean syringes, and safe injection spaces; others address homelessness and access to alternative pain reduction treatments; and still others are preventative, providing much-needed employment opportunities, child-care, and counseling services. Yet Mayor de Blasio has chosen to continue to police and imprison Black and brown people, rather than to provide assistance and opportunities. 

Drug treatment pleas, which often result from buy and bust arrests, demonstrate the harm caused by attempting to solve a public-health problem through policing and the courts. Many of the individuals who are swept in by these operations are not mentally or physically prepared to cease substance use and to engage productively in a 12- to 24-month program. Instead, they often opt to take treatment pleas because they fear the alternative — a prison sentence. As a result, relapses are common, and even with the help of dedicated, supportive, and caring program staff, clients too often end up imprisoned for long periods of time when they fail to complete their program. Moreover, treatment pleas encourage courts to leave unexamined the police’s conduct, a process slowly eroding constitutional due process protections. Thus, treatment-by-threat is far from the public health-focused approach recommended by experts, and implemented elsewhere. 

Defunding buy and bust operations will free up millions of dollars that could be invested in community-based approaches. Up to ten officers participate in each operation, many of whom are detectives earning high base salaries. Moreover, many of the involved officers collect substantial overtime pay for each operation — booking and jailing six or seven people takes the officers well past the end of their shift. The financial costs associated with these operations are further inflated in the courts. Data from the Bronx Defenders indicates that in 2015-2019, buy and bust cases were pending in court for an average of 97 days, while 1,107 of those 3,201 cases (an enormous 34%) were dismissed. Throughout the litigation of these cases, city funds pay the salaries of public defenders, prosecutors, judges, and court staff — instead of funding community-based services. 

Unsurprisingly, officers involved in serious and repeated misconduct are the ones often conducting these predatory buy and bust operations. Misconduct allegations, including planting and fabrication of evidence, as well as the rape of a teen woman, have dogged Narcotics officers for years. A recent analysis found that 8 of the 10 most-sued officers for misconduct were from Narcotics, the command that conducts these operations. Yet these are not just single “bad apples”: 6.9% of substantiated civilian allegations were made against Narcotics officers and involved a total of 254 different officers. No wonder, then, that prosecutors have ended up dismissing 34% of these cases in the Bronx; the prosecutors themselves do not trust Narcotics officers and the arrests they make. 

Buy and bust operations do nothing to address the needs of the community or help people with substance use issues. It is a self-serving enterprise that helps dirty cops rack up overtime by targeting vulnerable people. 

The mayor has so far failed to heed the calls to defund the police and hold officers accountable. The recent, insufficient cuts to the NYPD budget have all but disappeared amidst sky-rocketing overtime costs propelled by now-debunked claims, while officers with lengthy, violent misconduct records still prowl our streets. If the mayor ever chooses to begin to stand for progress and justice, defunding predatory buy and bust operations, and the bad cops who run them, can be a start. 

***
Oded Oren is a Criminal Defense Attorney at The Bronx Defenders.

Outdoor dining is proving successful (photo: @NYC_DOT)

With the City’s popular Open Streets and Open Restaurants programs, the de Blasio administration has taken important steps forward to support New Yorkers during the pandemic, helping to ensure that people, not just cars, have much needed access to our streets. 

Meanwhile, the success of these programs have been amplified by the continued growth of biking as a safe, socially distanced form of transportation, and by bikeshare’s ongoing expansion into the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. In New York City and elsewhere, restaurants have a long history of prospering in areas that prioritize walking, biking, and mass transit (studies show that restaurants in New York increase sales after Citi Bike stations are installed nearby, and bike lanes have shown to increase retail sales by up to 49%). This current moment is no different - if anything, the complementary nature of good street uses has never been more important.

It’s heartening to see that the city’s outdoor dining program is expected to continue into 2021 and we believe that the Department of Transportation (DOT) can make it even more effective. Specifically, DOT should develop policies addressing curbside space as part of the growing Open Streets and Open Restaurants programs that ensure all new users of our streets, whether restaurants, retail, cultural institutions, and schools can co-exist in limited space, and, most importantly, not disrupt our critical transportation system, including Citi Bike stations. 

While the city’s current approach to outdoor dining approvals and regulation has come with the benefit of flexibility and speed, it has also left a dearth of guidance on how to resolve complicated and unique situations that some businesses and residents may face. Over the last few weeks, as outdoor dining has continued to thrive, and as cyclists use bikeshare more and more, there have been a few instances where these popular users of streetspace have come into unnecessary conflict with each other. Restaurants found themselves unable to take advantage of the outdoor dining program because they were told by the city that the existence of transportation infrastructure like Citi Bike docks, loading zones, or bus stops precluded their ability to participate in the program. 

Combined, outdoor dining and bikeshare stations take up a small fraction of our city’s curb space: Citi Bike docking stations account for just 0.5% of curb space within the footprint of the bikeshare system’s service area. And according to Meera Joshi at Sam Schwartz Engineering, curbside dining eats up a similarly miniscule piece of the streetscape pie, occupying only 0.3% of curbspace.  

Given how integral both services are to our city, and how little space they take up, the city needs to make more space available and be more creative about the footprint of outdoor dining. Specifically, the city should look to take more free parking, which currently occupies around 75% of curbside space in New York City, as a lifeline to struggling businesses and critical transportation modes like biking and buses.  

Moving forward, we encourage the city to change the rules that limit outdoor dining to the spaces immediately in front of a restaurant’s building frontage. Instead, restaurants that may be currently limited or blocked from outdoor dining space due to the placement of critical infrastructure, should be able to access adjacent and available curbside space. We believe that this simple addition will both support our hospitality industry and keep New Yorkers moving. 

The future of New York City requires our leaders to reimagine our assets, including street and curb space, in support of tools that can benefit all New Yorkers.

***
Tom Birchard is the Owner of Veselka Restaurant. Danny Harris is Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. On Twitter @veselkanyc and @DannyHarris_TA.

Industry City (photo: @IndustryCity)

City Council Member Carlos Menchaca’s July announcement of his intent to vote no on Industry City’s controversial “special innovation zoning district” because Jamestown Properties and investor owners were “ramming through their proposal unchanged,” catalyzed a deluge of appeals to the City Council and Speaker Corey Johnson to break the long-standing tradition of ‘member deference’ on matters pertaining to land use and real estate development.

The New York Daily News followed with three editorials urging Industry City to “build bigger” and “The Council must vote yes” because the stakes for the city are to “build or die.” Members of the City Council - Robert Cornegy (Brooklyn District 36), Ritchie Torres (Bronx District 15), and Donovan Richards (Queens District 31) - penned opinion pieces stating that as a “steward of the public good,” they plan to “do what I believe is right” and vote to approve Industry City’s massive special district and rezoning application. With no direct neighborhood ties or experience, their support is “personally offensive” to Alexa Avilés, Community Board 7 member and candidate in City Council District 38 to replace the term-limited Menchaca.

Amid the ongoing economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rezoning of Industry City has taken on heightened urgency as an engine of job creation in a city facing “a severe blow” to its local economy and “distressingly high” unemployment rates, particularly among immigrants and communities of color. A Chinese language news article reposted in City Limits reported on a letter to City Council Speaker Johnson from Sunset Park’s Chinese immigrant growth coalition, comprised of Community Board 7 members, business and property owners, and local developers expressing their support for an Industry City expansion. Community Board 7 member Kenny Guan, owner of Guan Realty Corp. located in neighboring Dyker Heights, said, “We need to build up locally and in the city and the entire country with jobs especially with the Coronavirus here in Sunset Park.” Mr. Guan also makes an appearance in an Industry City video touting opportunities for local small businesses.

“There are zero public dollars at stake here”
Supporters of Industry City repeat and perpetuate the false notion that as a “purely private investment,” Industry City, therefore, does not benefit from public subsidy. In a 2015 Crain’s article, Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball noted city and state investments of $115 million for infrastructure upgrades to the sprawling 16 building complex. The city also invested in ferry service and a fiber optic broadband network along Third Avenue to provide high-speed connectivity, and as former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen noted, “If we were not doing all this other stuff, [Industry City] wouldn’t be as successful as they’re going to be.” 

Furthermore, a Partnership for New York City letter signed by 17 organizations including labor unions, local chambers of commerce, and the Real Estate Board of New York, claimed rezoning Industry City “will generate $100 million a year in desperately needed local tax revenue.” Real property taxes are the largest source of city revenues to fund essential public services such as education, housing, transit, and health services. The truth, however, is Industry City has long been a beneficiary of the city’s costliest commercial real estate tax exemption program, the Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program (ICIP), which significantly lowered the amount of tax owed on a commercial property by reducing the property’s assessed value for up to 25 years.

Due to its high cost in foregone commercial property tax revenues, which the Independent Budget Office estimated at $500 million in fiscal year 2008, ICIP was replaced by the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program in 2008. But, properties with previously approved ICIP tax exemption benefits (such as Industry City) were not affected. 

Despite the perception that Industry City does not benefit from public subsidies, three Industry City buildings have been paying significantly reduced property taxes for nearly two decades. In the case of 639 2nd Avenue, which is one of Industry City’s nine city block-long “finger buildings” connected by a public corridor of boutique retailers dubbed Innovation Alley, its current estimated market value is $36,331,000 but the 2020/2021 taxes will be based on an assessed value of a mere $9,446,240. The 25-year ICIP benefit period for 639 2nd Avenue will end on June 30, 2027. For 882 3rd Avenue, a 12-story building with commercial office tenants, Industry City’s 2020/2021 tax bill will be based on an assessed value of $21,827,520, which is significantly less than half the property’s market value at approximately $60 million. Industry City’s commercial property tax exemptions are, in fact, a public subsidy.

“To Bring 20K New Jobs to Sunset Park” 
City Council Member Ritchie Torres’ statement in his co-authored New York Daily News opinion piece, “..Industry City’s application is not about skyscrapers that displace people. It is about jobs that employ New Yorkers in a time of depression-level unemployment,” is particularly myopic and disappointing. As Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Committee, Council Member Torres led a March 2019 joint oversight hearing with Council Member Paul Vallone, Chair of the Economic Development Committee, to demand an account of Mayor de Blasio’s New York Works jobs plan. Describing the mayor’s plan to create 100,000 “good-paying” jobs by 2027 as “glorified wishful thinking,” Council Member Torres was a fierce advocate for accountability of the mayor’s “pretty promises.”

Community concerns about Industry City have long centered on the questionable promise of entry-level, good-paying jobs for working class New Yorkers. Despite the fanfare about an Innovation Lab to connect Sunset Park residents to employment at Industry City, the only account of workforce training and placement outcomes showed paltry gains for individuals seeking employment. In a one-year period between May 2018 and May 2019, the Innovation Lab helped place 114 individuals of whom 91 secured employment in Industry City “innovation economy jobs” such as maintenance/building services, security guards, dispatchers, food production, and retail.  

One of Council Member Torres’ chief criticisms of New York Works focused on the “uncertain at best and woefully inaccurate” method of tracking job creation. It was during the March 2019 joint oversight meeting that Council Member Torres’ questioning of job projections versus actual numbers of jobs created led to the discovery that in the one year since the New York Works implementation, $300 million was spent to create a mere 300 actual jobs at that point. It is, therefore, especially disappointing that Council Member Torres endorsed Industry City’s rezoning application without studying Industry City’s track record in job creation for working class New Yorkers. Regulating land use and zoning are key tools the city leverages for economic development and job creation, and as tools that should advance public interest and welfare rather than private investor profits, job creation claims based on a rezoning deserve the highest level of scrutiny and accountability.  

Acknowledging the lack of Industry City job creation data, Council Member Menchaca appealed to his colleagues in a September 9 letter, writing, “Industry City’s argument boils down to a promise. That they will create thousands of jobs during an economic recession. This argument is also their greatest liability.”

“The Ultimate Cash Cow” 
A few months after Jamestown Properties and their investor partners acquired an ownership share of Industry City and hired Andrew Kimball, who transformed the Brooklyn Navy Yard into "an economic engine of craft whiskey distilleries and film studios," working artists were displaced in favor of hosting art and design festivals such as the NYCxDesign. At the May 2014 NYCxDesign, Chilean artist Sebastian Errazuriz created a cash cow piñata stuffed with $1,000 bills. Festival attendees took turns swinging a stick at the piñata in an effort to break it and grab for the dollar bills. Errazuriz stated his cash cow symbolizes “...a golden calf from the Bible, a false idol, the Bull of Wall Street" and years later, the cash cow piñata remains an apt metaphor for the “false idol” of job creation based on a massive private investor and developer-led rezoning.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored deep and persistent racial inequality but approval of Industry City’s rezoning proposal to establish an innovation district will not generate the jobs desperately needed by working class New Yorkers.

***
Tarry Hum's family moved to Sunset Park in 1974, and her father continues to reside there. She is Chair of the Urban Studies Department at Queens College, CUNY and author of Making a Global Immigrant Neighborhood. On Twitter @TarryHum.

Latino lawmakers & others getting out the 2020 Census count (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

In this unsettling and disturbing time of high uncertainty and racially-motivated hate, one of the most important -- and easiest -- ways Americans can ensure their own protection is by completing the census. When brown Americans fill out the census, it is an act of protest. Even in 2020, many still believe filling out the census is as though we are taking what isn’t ours, and that is exactly the point. As residents of this country, we have a right to take advantage of the federal resources that our taxes pay for, but we won’t get them unless we are counted.

When President Trump says he is concerned with undocumented people filling out the census, he isn’t talking about Canadians sneaking into our country, he is talking about those of us who have every right to complete this 10-question, 10-minute form. His language aims to intimidate my fellow Latino neighbors from our constitutional right to being counted. Participation in the census is the most powerful thing we can do to ignore the fear-mongering, xenophobia, and hate.

In the 2010 census, just 50.5 million people responded as Hispanic, hugely misrepresenting the United States’ population of 59.9 million Latino citizens. The George Washington Institute for Public Policy found that an incomplete census form denies an individual $4,000 in social services. Latino Americans have missed out on $37.6 billion in federal funding over the past 10 years due to incomplete and inaccurate census data.

While white people are overcounted in the census by 1%, Latinos are historically undercounted, due to a number of barriers including language, education, and immigrant status. These barriers aren’t worth remediating to a government that was created for, by, and of white people. Overcoming these intentionally exclusionary systems protects Latino people’s constitutional rights. While failure to fill out the census threatens Latino voices in Congress, limits access to Medicaid and food stamps, and prevents Latinos from reaping the benefits of investment in infrastructure, schools, public works projects, and more.

St. Francis College is one of the most diverse private colleges in the nation. Of our 2,292 undergraduates, 28% self-identified as Hispanic. We are committed to serving all of our students with the highest standard of care and respect, regardless of what harmful and hateful rhetoric and systemic oppression marginalizes our non-white students. We instill in our students the importance of being vocal and active in their communities, inside the classroom and beyond, and involvement in the census is a key component.

We are committed to teaching civic duty as well as academics. As part of this work St. Francis College has been encouraging students and community members to take advantage of their right to be counted this year, setting up events that include census and voter registration tables to drive up numbers and encourage students to take what they are rightfully owed, and to demand our country’s representation truly represents us.

President Trump announced in July that the census will be ending earlier than previously planned, a move that serves no purpose other than to limit brown people from being counted and accessing our rights. We, students and faculty of St. Francis College and beyond, must protest and reject this exclusionary and hateful move by taking the 10 minutes required to be counted in the census. Do it today at my2020census.gov.

Every person in the United States -- not just every citizen, every resident -- has the right to be counted and considered. This is our country, too. Let’s ensure we are part of the count.

***
Miguel Marinez-Saenz is President of St. Francis College. On Twitter @SFCNY.

NY Attorney General Letitia James (photo: @NewYorkStateAG)

It’s been over six months since my younger brother Matthew Felix was unjustly and needlessly murdered by the Nassau County police. Over 190 days of those officers not being held accountable for robbing him of his life the week before his 20th birthday. On February 25, 2020, the Nassau police department believed my brother to be the alleged perpetrator of a carjacking and proceeded to stake out our Queens home. But he was never to be arrested or have his day in court.

After Matthew exited our home and entered his personal vehicle, undercover officers followed him for a few blocks. It’s not clear what happened next, but the end result? A hail of bullets that killed my brother and caused him to crash his car. 

To this day, we do not know why the Nassau police chose to undergo an undercover operation or what led them to brutally kill my brother. We do not even know who the officers were, who decided to take my brother’s life, nor how many bullets ripped through his car to cause his death. Due to Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 147, the investigation into my brother’s death was immediately placed in the hands of the New York State Attorney General’s office. 

Though I want to assume that the executive order was well intentioned, meant to provide justice for those killed by law enforcement, the Governor and Attorney General Letitia James have so far failed in that regard. 

As recent events in Rochester reveal, we are not the only family dealing with the unresolved death of a loved one currently under investigation by New York’s Attorney General. 

In a statement regarding the murder of Daniel Prude, another Black person killed by police, the Governor said that “justice delayed is justice denied.” My family and brother have been denied justice for over half a year now. The Attorney General’s office told my mother that they worked for the people and that we could trust them. But after six months of not being provided the most basic information, how can we even believe the results of their investigation if and when it finally concludes? 

It is not lost on me that Rochester’s Mayor Lovely Warren, Attorney General James, and Governor Cuomo only just acknowledged and sprang into action to provide accountability and justice after the family of Daniel Prude fought to secure and release the video of his death. Footage that the Attorney General’s office itself allegedly sought to keep quiet. So despite the Attorney General’s office investigating his death for months, it seems a public outcry is the only way to drive those in power to take these investigations seriously.

In a statement, Attorney General James said, “we will work tirelessly to provide the transparency and accountability that all our communities deserve.” Attorney General James, I am still waiting for any information related to the death of my brother early this year.

While her words may bring some comfort to those shocked by what happened to Daniel Prude, they are a slap in the face to my family, which has held rallies and repeatedly reached out to the Attorney General’s office seeking answers concerning its investigation into Matthew’s killing. 

What prevented them from taking action to provide justice for Daniel Prude before the video was released to the public? What keeps them from concluding their investigation into my brother’s death after six months? Should we continue to expose the deaths of Black people at the hands of police for the world to see, in order for them to be taken seriously? Is our only option to use video footage to cause enough outrage and pressure that elected officials finally stop treating Black life with apathy? 

While the Governor and Attorney General pat themselves on the back for just beginning the process of justice for Daniel Prude, my family is still waiting. We are still demanding the Attorney General’s office conclude its investigation and provide us with the truth. Every second, day, and week they continue to take with their investigation, they rob my family of our grieving process. 

They told us that they worked for us, the people of New York, and it is long overdue they prove it. 

***
Samantha Felix is a resident of Queens. Her brother Matthew Felix was killed by Nassau police in Queens in February.

The authors write about opportunity for Queens (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

The last several months have taken a tremendous toll on our local economy. Over 20 percent of New York City residents were unemployed in June, a level not seen since the Great Depression. Thanks to our frontline heroes and the leadership of our elected officials, we’ve flattened the curve and New York is winning its battle against COVID-19. Now it’s time to get New Yorkers back to work.

Through a community-centered process, with buy-in from local community boards to the Borough President to the City Council, we can take the restarting of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) as a moment to reinvigorate our economy, get Queens back to its pre-pandemic booming levels, and help the thousands of New Yorkers looking for a job or an affordable home. 

Prior to the pandemic, a number of projects to open up waterfronts, expand industries outside of traditional business zones, and bring jobs and opportunity to Queens were in the works. Project sponsors were in deep dialogue with their communities, hosting workshops, inviting ideas and making adjustments well in advance of the formal approval process. We need to support and speed up these efforts so we can begin creating jobs and revitalizing our local economy right away. 

Below are some projects that will benefit the local community and overall economy.

Flushing is one of our most vibrant communities, but it was one of the first Queens neighborhoods to feel the economic impact of the pandemic. The special Flushing Waterfront District is a project that would revitalize 29 acres of waterfront land, kickstarting the neighborhood’s economy with $2 billion in local, private investment, creating close to 3,000 jobs and generating $28 million in annual property tax revenue. The project includes an extensive road network that will alleviate traffic congestion, a comprehensive environmental remediation plan, affordable housing, and a publicly accessible waterfront with an extended shoreline and promenade.

Recently, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Silverstein Properties, and BedRock Real Estate Partners unveiled “Innovation QNS,” a $2 billion plan to remake an underdeveloped five-block section of Astoria. The plan, more than 25 percent of which is set aside as public open space, calls for 2,700 units of mixed-income housing (including 700 that will be permanently affordable) and space for neighborhood-focused shops and restaurants, community health and wellness facilities, and startups, small businesses, and nonprofits in the creative industries. This substantial private investment in Astoria will create 3,700 construction jobs and 1,700 permanent jobs.

It was recently reported that City Hall would be pulling out of plans to revitalize 28 acres of underutilized waterfront land along Anable Basin and the East River. The YourLIC project would create a resilient, seven-acre waterfront park, commercial space for new and growing industries, up to 5,700 apartments (including up to 1,400 permanently affordable units) and abundant community space like new public schools, a workforce innovation center, and space for arts and culture. The developers for this project, MAG Partners, Plaxall, Simon Baron Development, and TF Cornerstone, were brought together to create a comprehensive plan with community input. They should be applauded for this proposal that will bring significant public and private investment and up to 26,000 permanent new jobs in diverse industries into the neighborhood. We cannot let this opportunity slip through our fingers.

Regional transportation projects are also one of the biggest job creators in New York. In particular, the redevelopment of JFK and LGA airports are expanding economic opportunities for both Queens and the region. The ongoing $8 billion transformation of LGA has already created thousands of local jobs, will unify the airport with new facilities and, most importantly, provide a reliable and convenient public transit alternative with AirTrain LGA. On the horizon, it is critical we also complete the development of JFK, which invests $13 billion in new and expanded terminals and supports over 15,000 jobs.

The longer these projects are delayed, the longer it will be before we can begin creating tens of thousands of jobs and generating millions in tax revenue for the city. These projects will catalyze economic activity that supports existing small businesses at a time when so many of our mom and pop neighborhood establishments are hanging by a thread. As our city and state budgets are being slashed due to declining revenue, we cannot walk away from billions of dollars in private investment. 

We have an opportunity to not only rebuild our local economy, but to make it stronger, fairer, and more resilient than it ever was before. And we can do it in a way that creates affordable housing, makes our roads less congested, helps us combat global warming, and contributes to our thriving arts and culture scene. The time to act is now – let’s get Queens and all of New York working again. 

***
Tom Grech is the President and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. Carlo A. Scissura is the President and CEO of the New York Building Congress. On Twitter @QueensChamber & @CarloScissura.

FlyNYON open door flight (photo: Michelle Young, Untapped New York)

For New Yorkers living below the flight paths of what helicopter companies consider to be photogenic or interesting neighborhoods, Labor Day weekend was sheer hell. And, ironically, very few of those noisy, polluting, low-flying helicopters flew from New York-based heliports.

Our New York City skies are being colonized by New Jersey. When I was writing a story on helicopters in 2012, helicopter pilot and then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg scoffed at the popular reform proposal to ban heli-tours from New York City-owned heliports. The flights will just move to New Jersey, he said. Indeed they have.  

The incessant low-flying air traffic tormenting parks and neighborhoods is nearly all coming from outside New York’s boundaries. Helicopter companies headquartered across the Hudson and suburban locations in Connecticut—but mainly New Jersey—have taken full advantage of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s covid policies that prevented New York-based heli-tours from reopening until late August — and then under restrictions, with the Downtown Heliport only open to tours on Fridays and Saturdays. 

But New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy had no such scruples.

And not just any New Jersey helicopter company is flying above us—but FlyNYON, the sightseeing company whose doors-off tour crashed into the East River in March 2018, killing five passengers. There are other heli companies to be sure, but FlyNYON is famous for evading federal safety regulations by classifying its doors-off tours as photographic in purpose rather than for tourists. In today’s world dominated by social media, photography doesn’t mean a few pros, it means lots of tourists taking selfies to post on Instagram and other sites. The flights are fun, says Untapped New York, combining “photography, adventure, and one of the best ways to see New York City on its doors-off helicopter tours.”

To many New Yorkers below, however, FlyNYON helicopters sound worryingly dangerous. They’re all old—they average 30 years—and loud. They rattle ominously as pilots maintain them at slow speeds hovering over residential neighborhoods and Central Park, then flying down the East River before heading back over Manhattan, especially Chelsea and Ground Zero, right before they hit the tourist trifecta of the Brooklyn waterfront, Brooklyn Heights, and Governors Island. There are also popular spots for hovering in Queens, such as the Noguchi Museum and Gantry Plaza State Park. Helis head back to New Jersey by crossing the Hudson to Newark (some to Teterboro) or flying down to Staten Island and over to Kearny. The point is to keep tourists as close to the ground as possible, regardless of noise and pollution. These days FlyNYON freely advertises: “Take the Perfect Shoe Selfie over NYC,” accompanied by a photo of bare feet hanging outside the heli. 

To the FAA Central Park is a Road for Helicopters
To make sense of what’s happening in the skies of New York, it’s helpful to remember that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the federal regulatory agency overseeing flight, simultaneously asserts its jurisdiction aggressively and refuses to act. "Any helicopter may fly over Manhattan," an FAA spokesperson told Our Town newspaper. "The FAA has designated a specific route over Central Park to allow flights from either side of Manhattan or to reach destinations outside New York City. This corridor is known as the Central Park Route and runs from West 72nd Street to the northern tip of Roosevelt Island." There’s something slightly obscene about a federal agency regarding New York’s cherished Central Park as a traffic corridor, but that’s the attitude.

Restrictive Agreement in Shreds
FlyNYON’s relentless flights over New York make a joke of the hard-won 2016 agreement by which helicopter companies based at the Downtown Heliport agreed to (1) avoid flying over land, (2) reduce the number of flights by 50% on a tight schedule, (3) not fly on Sunday, (4) ban flights over Governors Island, and (5) turn around before the George Washington Bridge when flying up the Hudson, which in practice meant 79th Street for most flights.

Since FlyNYON operates out of New Jersey, and not the Downtown Heliport, it is free to defy the agreement’s restrictions, as are all tour companies flying from any non-NYC helipad. Heli-tours now operate on Sunday, and pilots fly where and when they want with abandon.

Perhaps even worse, many flights violate common decency, continuing to fly hours after dark, which means they turn on powerful searchlights so that their passengers can see the ground. Some tour companies fly until midnight, especially in Lower Manhattan.

How do I know? FlightRadar tells me so.

Technology Uncovers What Government Hides
For years Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and other elected officials tried to get helicopter companies to display their identification numbers clearly, much like city buses or police cars. Yet the city’s attempts to force identification of helicopters and to control quality-of-life issues like noise and pollution were preempted by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 1997. As a district judge in National Helicopter v City of New York, she permanently enjoined the city from imposing a mandatory 47% reduction in helicopter operations at the East 34th Street Heliport, designating tourist sightseeing routes, excluding heavy Sikorsky S-58Ts from sightseeing flights, and mandating that all helicopters be marked for identification. A federal appellate court subsequently allowed the city to restrict operations while permitting Sotomayor’s ban on markings to stand.

But now technology has effectively preempted the courts. FlightRadar lays it all out for us: the helicopter call sign, registration, serial number, age, route at any given time, calibrated altitude, vertical speed, squawk, and more. When Sotomayor ruled against the city, she effectively blocked us from the information that FlightRadar now routinely gives us.

Not only do many heli-tours regularly fly the forbidden routes over land, Central Park, Ground Zero, and Governors Island, they do so with complete impunity and at extraordinarily low heights, such as 300 feet. And they hover wherever they like.

The agreement specifically forbade flying over Staten Island, which many pilots now do because it’s an efficient route home to New Jersey

You can check this for yourself using FlightRadar’s app or its computer site, either of which will quickly find your current location and display the aircraft above you. A helpful feature is the color scheme. The trail behind an aircraft changes with altitude. Below 100 meters the trail is white, above 100 meters, the trail switches to yellow, and then to green up to 2,500. The categorization gives you a fast, visual idea of who’s flying too low. 

Commuter Helis Fly Fast and Low
Many anti-heli-tour advocates stop short of protesting commuter flights, perhaps figuring that it’s hopeless since the FAA classifies transportation as essential, and the FAA fights like a tiger for its turf. Yet commuter flights can be among the noisiest, huge Sikorskys thundering like freight trains across the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn into Manhattan at 400-1,000 feet. 

What’s more it’s pretty clear looking at FlightRadar and other tracking sites that so-called commuter flights often take low-flying side trips over forbidden landmarked sites, presumably by pilots responding to requests from customers.

Given the covid shutdown of its economy, New York has had far fewer commuter flights this August, and few of the Hamptons flights that drove crazy those in the flight path last summer. Nonetheless New Yorkers should be thinking of the future, and what happens as life starts to return toward and to ‘normal.’

New Jersey Also Suffers
Intrusive as the helicopters are for New Yorkers, they’re also bad for New Jerseyans in heli paths because they fly ever lower as they move across the Hudson. This can be seen readily on @SkyCirclesNYC’s Twitter feed, which tweets about aircraft flying in circles over the New York metro area. Many of the same helis that loiter over Central Park return home and loiter over Hoboken, Jersey City, and other pretty waterfront areas — and they fly at a truly scandalously low height of 300-500 feet.

Any effort to reconfigure New York’s nightmare in the skies will need to join with New Jersey, as the rejuvenators of the old coalition, StoptheChop, well know. Both states are part of the name: NY/NJ. Many eminent New Jersey officials support the coalition, including both senators, but Gov. Murphy is missing.

Can Legislation Save Us?
The most recent proposed bill is a local law to amend New York City’s administrative code to reduce noise by chartered helicopters, prohibiting any helicopter not meeting stage 3 noise levels from taking off or landing at city-owned heliports. The bill was introduced in July by City Council Members Paul Vallone (Northeast Queens), Ben Kallos (Upper East Side, Manhattan), and Margaret Chin (Lower Manhattan), who represent areas subject to heli blitzes. 

The federal Improving Helicopter Safety Act of 2019, introduced in October by Congressional Rep. Carolyn Maloney and co-sponsored by Reps. Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velázquez, would prohibit nonessential helicopters from flying in covered airspace of any city with a population of over 8 million people and with a population density of over 25,000 people per square mile (that’s New York City, of course) — including waterways within the city’s jurisdiction. The bill would be a start, but it’s basically gone nowhere.

The next demonstration of heli onslaught may be today — 9/11. Will helicopters be prohibited from continuing their pattern of hovering over and buzzing Ground Zero, once collectively acknowledged as sacred ground? Or will the federal government persist in their position that any helicopter may fly over Manhattan unimpeded today and beyond?

***
Julia Vitullo-Martin is a long-time editor and writer on cities. On Twitter @JuliaManhattan.

Note: this article has been clarified with up to date information about the 2016 agreement and which companies run which heliports.