Governor Airhead

Times Union 

 On Oct. 4, Gov. Kathy Hochul flew from Albany to New York City on a state-owned airplane. She went to Brooklyn to sign a bill, then in the afternoon held three, back-to-back campaign-related “events” before flying back to Albany in the evening.

Although a major part of the day was dedicated to Hochul winning a full term of office in November’s election, her political campaign did not reimburse taxpayers for any portion of the day’s travel.

During Hochul’s first 45 days in office, on at least three separate days, the governor’s use of state aircraft has raised questions about whether there has been any misuse of taxpayer resources, according to a Times Union review of public records.

During that time, Hochul attended 64 “private events” related to her gubernatorial campaign, including donor meetings and fundraisers, allowing her campaign to raise a record-setting $10 million during her first three months in office.

Amid a whirlwind schedule juggling governmental and campaign activities, Hochul used state-issued aircraft for 45 flights over the first 45 days in office. None of the trips were considered “mixed use” by Hochul’s office — consisting of both government and campaign-related activities — despite a busy campaign schedule on many of the trips. And none of the flight costs for using either a state-owned Beechcraft King Air 250 or a state helicopter were reimbursed to taxpayers by Hochul’s campaign.

David Grandeau, the state’s former top lobbying enforcement official, said Hochul’s campaign should have reimbursed taxpayers for several of the trips.

“She has to reimburse for the non-state business portion of the trips,” Grandeau said.

On Tuesday, the governor’s press secretary, Hazel Crampton-Hays, said the governor’s ethics counsel would re-review the flights at Hochul’s direction.

“Gov. Hochul works around the clock to deliver for New Yorkers and visits all 62 counties every year to hear directly from her constituents,” Crampton-Hays told the Times Union. “The governor is committed to the highest ethical standards and only utilizes state resources, such as the state aircraft, when it is legally and ethically appropriate. In accordance with Gov. Hochul’s commitment to transparency and adhering to the highest ethical standards, the governor has directed her ethics counsel to re-review all aircraft usage and make any appropriate reimbursements.”

On Wednesday, during her first State of the State address, Hochul unveiled a plan for ethics reform, while also acknowledging that politicians might still “stumble and make mistakes once in awhile.”

On her official government website, Hochul’s office recently posted schedules showing Hochul’s government meetings and the attendees between her inauguration on Aug. 24 and through Oct. 9. The schedules detail when and where Hochul took flights, and in all 45 cases, it indicates the flights were fully funded by taxpayers. The schedules also list the myriad “private events” related to her campaign, though no other details are included beyond the times the events occurred.

Crampton-Hays said the “private events” included campaign fundraisers, political meetings, political events for other candidates and groups, or any other event that the “governor attends primarily in a political capacity.”

Whitestone asks FAA to reroute helicopters

From PIX11:

Neighbors in Queens are sounding an alarm after a helicopter with two people inside made a water landing off the south shore of Long Island on Wednesday.

"We Love Whitestone" is a group created a number of years ago. Members joined with some other neighborhoods and people in Astoria, Queens to bring attention to the air traffic above their homes.

Alfredo Centola is a founding member of the Whitestone group. He has shared videos with PIX11 of helicopters flying over their homes. They run a website where neighbors can file reports and they also say they have set up sensors that track aircraft.

They're asking the Federal Aviation Administration to review the official flight plan that brings choppers and sea-planes over northwestern Queens. The neighbors point out the same path requires aircraft to fly along the water farther south in certain parts of Long Island's North Shore.

NYPD won't let public know where mayor goes in their aircraft

From DNA Info:

The NYPD has formally declined to provide any information about Mayor Bill de Blasio's use of helicopters, including the time a department chopper nearly crashed with the mayor aboard when it landed on Rikers Island or when the police flew him and his wife to a presidential debate on Long Island.

Brushing aside a Freedom of Information request by DNAinfo New York, the NYPD’s Legal Bureau claimed its FOIL Unit was “unable to locate responsive records" — although the department keeps meticulous logs on the NYPD Aviation Unit's daily use of its fleet of choppers.

NYPD lawyers went even further, asserting that, even if they could find the applicable records on when the mayor was aboard an NYPD chopper, the department would not turn them over, anyway.

“If such records existed, they would be exempt on the basis of Public Officers Law or Section 87(2)(e)(iv), as such information, if disclosed, would reveal non-routine techniques and procedures,” the NYPD claimed in a brief three-sentence response.

City and state experts on FOIL, however, say the NYPD is completely wrong — and officials “obviously” know where flight records are located, and turning them over would not disclose anything unusual about “techniques and procedures.”

De Blasio has landed a helicopter in a park before

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio shut down a Little League baseball game in a Harlem park for more than an hour in August so police could ready a field for his helicopter, The Post has learned.

The chopper landing was then abruptly canceled after an angry dad started griping to cops about the intrusion, threatening to post pictures of the mayoral interruption on social media, a source said.

The extended seventh-inning stretch got underway at Harlem River Park during an Aug. 9 Little League game when the NYPD cleared the diamond of two under-14 teams, one dad told The Post.

The cops “basically told everybody to get off the field,” the dad said.

“The mayor wants to land his helicopter here,” he recalled police telling him.

And when he griped to the officers they sympathized. “They said it’s absolutely ridiculous and that I should file a complaint,” said the dad, who didn’t want his name printed for fear of retribution.

Another angry dad confirmed the story.

De Blasio was slated to deliver remarks at Gracie Mansion at 7 pm that evening and visited an injured firefighter at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx earlier that day. He had nothing else on his public schedule.

Still no explanation for Bill's magical helicopter ride

From the Daily News:

Ten days after Mayor de Blasio took a helicopter ride from Brooklyn to Queens, his office still refuses to explain what he was doing on that fateful Friday and why he needed to fly between boroughs.

The Daily News is calling on our readers to help solve the case of the airbound mayor. We're asking anyone who has any information to please email the News at nydntips@nydailynews.com.

His schedule isn’t much of a help.

Hizzoner had an 8:30 a.m. appearance at the Association for a Better New York breakfast in Midtown Manhattan, and called into a radio show at 10:30 a.m.

There’s nothing else on the schedule to explain why he was in Brooklyn and needed to take a chopper to his 6:30 p.m. speech at the opening of the New Electrical Industry Training Center in Long Island City.

His office won’t say what he was doing, except that he wasn’t at the Prospect Park YMCA, his favorite hangout, and that he was at a series of meetings in Brooklyn.

Why did he take a helicopter? Because he could.

De Blasio goes full Bloomberg for a day

From Patch:

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, who billed himself during the election as a champion for the poor and an absolute anti-Bloomberg, was escorted either to or from Prospect Park early Friday evening by a helicopter belonging to the New York City Police Department, the department confirmed to Patch.

Witnesses were confused to see a police helicopter landing in a baseball field near the southwest end of the park, just after 5 p.m.:

Nypd helicopter in prospect park 🤔 pic.twitter.com/aQFQb08lBy

— Alexandra DiPalma (@LSDiPalma) October 14, 2016

An NYPD spokeswoman said she didn't know why de Blasio was traveling in an NYPD helicopter Friday. The mayor's press office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Seeking peace and quiet in Whitestone

From WPIX:

Neighbors in Whitestone, Queens enjoy the peace of their community. But they’ve been tracking the flight path of helicopters and sea planes. They are asking the government to review their data.

Their civic group, We Love Whitestone, is working to gather helicopter noise complaints. Dan Aronoff created airnoisereport.com and it has logged more than 2100 incidents in 2 months.

Senator Charles Schumer, State Senator Tony Avella and Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz are requesting the Federal Aviation Administration consider moving the flights closer to the water’s edge.

Regulations on drones and helicopters proposed

NYC Council/William Alatriste

From Gotham Gazette:

Pointing to insufficient efforts on the part of the Federal Aviation Administration, New York City Council members are taking regulation of the city’s skies into their own hands.

In asserting their authority with respect to helicopters and drones on a turf traditionally maintained by the federal government, council members may find themselves in ambiguous legal territory. But they tell Gotham Gazette that they are acting in the interest of public safety and in part to push other levels of government to act.

Council Members Carlos Menchaca, Helen Rosenthal, and Margaret Chin introduced a legislative package of two bills last month that would prohibit the operation of sightseeing helicopters, citing concerns about noise pollution. The council members are supported by “Stop the Chop NYNJ,” a group of community members who complain the noise from sightseeing helicopters are diminishing quality of life.

“What we’ve tried to do is approach this issue from the perspective of the FAA, from the federal body that’s required to regulate this industry. And we’ve tried so hard to regulate this industry to some avail, but not totally dealing with the problems,” Rosenthal said a press conference in July. “What we’ve done at the City Council is identify a different way to deal with the problem, and that is through the issue of noise. And in fact what the city can do is to ban tourist helicopters...they are responsible for this incessant noise.”

The City Council does not have the authority to regulate airspace over the city in terms of flight patterns— that’s under the purview of the FAA. But the council does have some regulatory power, as Rosenthal referenced.

City Council members have introduced two bills looking to curb the use of drones. One, introduced by Council Member Dan Garodnick would ban drones from the city’s airspace with the exception of NYPD drones that had obtained a warrant. In an interview with Gotham Gazette, Garodnick acknowledged that his bill starts from the “strictest possible place.”

Garodnick said that he believes there is reasonable place and time for drone enthusiasts to operate their unmanned aerial systems, but doesn’t want to “open the floodgates” before tools to enforce regulations exist.

The second bill, introduced by Council Member Paul Vallone, would seek to impose a series of regulations on drone usage.

Vallone’s bill would prohibit using UAVs for surveillance purposes, at night or operating them within five miles of any airport and within a quarter mile of schools, houses of worship, hospitals and “open-air assemblies.” Importantly, it also would require users to operate their drones within their line of sight, a requirement also suggested by the FAA.

Bill drafted to stop the chop

From the Daily News:

The City Council is preparing a bill to ban helicopter tourism from the five boroughs, saying the flights are so noisy their wings should be permanently clipped.

Councilman Carlos Menchaca (D-Brooklyn) is drafting the bill to nix the business, which employs around 200 people and operates out of the lower Manhattan heliport, his chief of staff confirmed.

The bill has not been introduced, but Council lawyers have already reached out to the industry — which some studies have shown adds about $33 million a year to the city’s economy — to say the ban bill is imminent, tour group representatives say.

And several Council members — including Corey Johnson, Helen Rosenthal and Mark Levine — have said they support a ban on the tourist flights, citing noise concerns from constituents.

Vallone vs. drones

From the Observer:

Queens Councilman Paul Vallone said yesterday he is drafting legislation that will seek to regulate the number of illegal drones flying around New York City. The Queens district attorney’s office approached Mr. Vallone about clamping down on the unmanned aircraft, which Mr. Vallone said fly dangerously close NYPD helicopters, LaGuardia Airport and Citi Field.

“The first thing is to give the police department and fire department the ability to make a decision about drones without restriction. They should be allowed to take whatever measure necessary to regulate them,” Mr. Vallone told The Observer.

The goal of the legislation would be to empower authorities to better enforce Federal Aviation Authority Law regarding drones. The FAA bans drones for commercial use, though hobbyists are allowed to fly them in parks no higher than 400 feet. Mr. Vallone said city authorities currently have little guidance about enforcing these regulations.

Mr. Vallone also wants to introduce more local regulations to mirror federal law that would ensure the city is protected from any potential terrorist threats. The United States and other countries now use drones to carry out attacks on enemies.

Spraying scheduled for this week

From NY1:

The city's Health Department has said it will begin spraying for West Nile virus next week in parts of Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx.

Officials say the disease has NOT been detected in the city yet this year, but they're working to reduce the number of mosquitoes and minimize the risk.

Crews will spray non-chemical larvacide on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. weather permitting.

In bad weather it will be delayed to Thursday, Friday and next Monday.

In Queens, larvacide will be spread in Linden Hill, College Point and Edgemere.

Suffering for the sake of Long Islanders

From the Daily News:

The skies above northeast Queens have become deafening as helicopters comply with new routes designed to decrease the ear-splitting noise — for residents of Long Island.

Local leaders are calling on city and federal agencies to give residents a bit of peace and quiet and suspend the loudest routes.

“The noise and the vibration are unbearable,” said Alfredo Centola, president of the Malba Gardens Civic Association, which represents the wealthy, Queens community.

“It starts between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. and continues well past midnight,” Centola said of the noise, which is worst on weekends. “The houses shake. Things are falling off your shelves.”

The roar got louder last year after the Federal Aviation Administration mandated that choppers traveling between middle of Long Island and the Hamptons fly over water instead long-suffering dry-land residents.

As a result, many Hamptons-bound pilots fly over northeast Queens to reach the new Long Island route, a faster, cheaper and, for Queens residents, more annoying, way to go.

Now there are helicopters also making noise

From WPIX:

The FAA changed the flight path around LaGuardia last summer.

Neighbors have been trying to get the agency to reconsider the decision.

Now, they are noticing increased helicopter traffic.

Skeeter spraying to commence Tuesday

From the Daily News:

The city is getting a jump on skeeter season by spraying larvicide in several Queens, Bronx and Staten Island neighborhoods next week to stave off the West Nile virus.

Helicopters will spray larvicide on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to reduce the mosquito population in marshy and non-residential areas between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Specific locations include: Pelham Bay in the Bronx, Alley Creek, the abandoned Flushing Airport, Dubos Point, Edgemere Park in Queens and several areas of Staten Island.

Bloomberg a little testy after being caught breaking rule

From Eyewitness News:

No amount of City Hall spin could change what the video reveals: A Mayor repeatedly violating a city-imposed noise curfew at an East side heliport.

So after two Eyewitness News reports documenting Mayor Bloomberg's noisy weekend intrusions, 8 in just one weekend, he announced he would use another heliport.

Dr. Ron Sticco, a fed up resident who recorded the scofflaw Mayor's helicopter movements, says he's pleased with Bloomberg's decision:

"This is about respecting the community and abiding by the rules. I'm happy but I really wish it had never come to anything like this," Sticco said.
The Mayor could now end up using the city-owned Wall Street heliport, which is open during weekends. An obviously miffed Mayor brushed off the entire curfew controversy:

"Don't know why it's such a big deal. If that's the news that's fit to print in this day in age, it's a sad day," he said.

But the Sticcos and others say when the Mayor, a man of great wealth and power, behaves as though rules don't apply to him and then gets caught - that they say is newsworthy.

Residents say for an urgent matter or an emergency, no one would blame the mayor for using the heliport, but 8 times in one weekend, they say shows blind arrogance.

Bloomberg to follow rules for once

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is rich, and New Yorkers often forgive him for it. His rarefied life of weekend homes in Bermuda and private jet flights to Paris has not stopped him from earning the votes of constituents who give him credit for competence and leadership.

But being a billionaire is one thing, and breaking the rules another. So it was on Wednesday that Mr. Bloomberg, an experienced pilot, found himself under fire after he was discovered flying his private helicopter where he was not supposed to.

An amateur video, filmed by an annoyed Manhattanite and broadcast Tuesday on WABC-TV, showed the mayor landing and taking off several times over the weekend from the East 34th Street helipad, where trips on Saturday and Sunday have been expressly banned for more than a decade.

On Wednesday, a City Hall spokesman said Mr. Bloomberg would not be flying from the helipad on weekends any longer.

Cuomo uses public aircraft for private trips

From the Huffington Post:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used state aircraft for 16 flights to or from his home following statewide tours in which he called for belt-tightening and budget cuts for schools and other services, records show.

Cuomo used state aircraft far less than his predecessors and there is no record of any politicking or fundraising in the trips, according to records obtained by The Associated Press under the state Freedom of Information Law.

The records show Cuomo used a state plane or helicopter to return to suburban Westchester County at the end of statewide tours 16 times from when he took office in January through June, the end of his first legislative session. He used aircraft 23 times during the period.

The state aircraft were then flown from Westchester, where Cuomo lives with his girlfriend and Food Network star Sandra Lee, to the capital of Albany to return the aircraft to their hangar as required.

The governor uses the aircraft only for "official events" and that includes Cuomo's trips to his suburban Westchester home, which the Democrat lists as his official address, Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said Saturday. Lee owns the home, and Cuomo's daughters live there much of the time. For travel purposes, however, the executive mansion in Albany is considered a governor's home.

State ethics officials have made it clear in past advisory opinions that state aircraft should not be used essentially for commuting.

Graffiti vandals tracked down by helicopter

From the Sunnyside Post:

Many Sunnyside residents were awoken in the early hours of Monday morning by a low-flying police helicopter.

The helicopter was flying over 42nd and Queens Blvd at 2:00am as police were pursuing three teenagers who were tagging the building above Dunkin’ Donuts.

The police tracked them down and arrested them at 41stand Queens Blvd at 2:30 am. The three—Jeffery Sanchez, Jonathan Aramis and Aileen Mahmoodi- were all charged with criminal mischief; making graffiti; and possession of a graffiti instrument, police said.

Our "great green mayor" takes helicopter to NJ concert

From CBS2:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has found himself thrust into a "chopper-gate" controversy Friday after the avowed environmentalist avoided the traffic congestion at last night's U2 concert by taking to the air.

What's more, the mayor's pilot used the gas guzzler to go there twice – once for a test run.

CBS 2 caught Bloomberg's chopper buzzing the Meadowlands as he searched in vain for the right place to land the chopper so the mayor could go to the U2 concert. It was a test run, and the pilot botched it, so when he came back with the mayor, he had to land farther away.

But it left the oh-so-green mayor's face oh-so-red on Friday. CBS 2's Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reminded Bloomberg that it takes a lot more energy to fly a chopper than a car, wasting a lot of energy.

"I suppose you could say that, but there's other ways to get around," he said. "Some are more energy efficient, I could have walked or swam across the river as well, that would have used less."

It was a "gotcha" moment for an avowed environmentalist.

"Helicopter rides to concerts, celebrity endorsements, a $200 million campaign – maybe Mike Bloomberg would be better suited to running for mayor of Hollywood," said Anne Fenton, a spokeswoman for Thompson.

The mayor is so green that five different environmental groups refused to comment about the story.

Yeah, "green" in a different sense...

NYPD chopper lands on Maspeth soccer field

From the Daily News:

An NYPD chopper made an emergency landing early Saturday, flying low over some homes in Queens before safely setting down in a soccer field, a witness said.

The helicopter landed on the Metropolitan Oval Soccer Field in Maspeth just before 3 a.m., police said.

No one was injured.

It's unclear why the helicopter pilot felt the need to make an emergency landing. The aircraft had no mechanical problems, police said.

Interesting that the field's lights just happened to be on at that hour.

In other news, the film "Couple of Cops" starring Bruce Willis and "The Bounty" starring Jennifer Aniston have been taking turns filming in that very area all night just about every night (including last night) for a few weeks now causing major driving, parking and bus riding problems for area residents.

But I'm sure it's just a coincidence.