Senator Joseph Addabbo answering questions from Jeffrey Starin, President of Prospect Park Quiet Skies, who gave a presentation at last Thursday’s Juniper Park Civic Association meeting. Starin and others questioned Addabbo about his efforts in reaching out to the FAA about the problems surrounding airplane noise in Middle Village. Forum Newsgroup photo by Ryan Lavis.
It’s a familiar scene for residents throughout parts of Queens – a quiet afternoon at home or in a park, maybe reading a book or taking a nap, only to have that silence shattered as an airplane flies overhead with its jets blasting noise to the houses below.
And at last Thursday’s Juniper Park Civic Association meeting, residents of Middle Village were fed up with these aircraft’s constant clamor, which many community members said disturbed them every 60 seconds on some days.
“I’m absolutely outraged at the way the airplane noise pollution has increased,” Bill Powers said at the meeting, who is a member of the newly formed Clean and Quiet Skies subcommittee of the Juniper Park Civic Association. “To have to listen every 60 seconds to planes going over our head isn’t right.”
According to Jeffrey Starin, President of Prospect Park Quiet Skies, the increase in airplane noise is due largely to the FAA’s trial of a new navigation system, known as NextGen GPS technology. This GPS signal allows the aircraft to fly lower while maintaing a more precise flight track. Towns such as Maspeth, Middle Village and many other neighborhoods throughout Queens and Brooklyn rest beneath these flight tracks.
Starin, who gave a detailed presentation on flight noise at the JPCA’s Thursday meeting, started his advocacy group to enact changes in FAA policy, and to have flight paths changed to better meet the needs of residents on the ground.
He said that the FAA has refused to change its flight path because they “simply just don’t want to.”
According to Starin, the FAA created this problem because they did not conduct any environmental studies when they redesigned airspace over New York to accommodate more incoming and outgoing plane traffic from La Guardia Airport – known as the “New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign Initiative.” He also said that despite several independent noise and pollution studies showing an increase in decibel levels from the aircraft, the FAA still does not acknowledge the problem.
Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr., Councilmember Eric Ulrich and Anthony Nunziato all attended the meeting to give brief speeches on their candidacy for their upcoming November elections. But as those in attendance grew angrier over the issue of airplane noise, residents called on Senator Addabbo to address the needs of his constituents.
One woman who attended asked Addabbo to explain why she had to listen to airplane noise every 60 seconds, while others in Middle Village hardly received any noise.
“I understand I live in a city and I have to deal with this…but why is there zero noise on the other side of Middle Village and not mine? It’s like a cemetery over there. It’s not fair,” she said, demanding that Addabbo address the issue.
Powers also spoke again, asking Addabbo and his fellow Democrats to do anything they could to help. Both Powers and Starin said they have reached out to Senator Schumer’s office, but were largely ignored.
“You’re here and you’re taking some of the heat for a federal issue,” Powers said to Addabbo. “But we’d like you to talk to him on our behalf.”
Starin then interrupted, saying, “I just want to say you can do that by voting. You vote people into office and you can vote them out of office. It’s not complicated.”
Addabbo said that he has talked with officials from the FAA who told him that that they are constantly changing their flight paths for security and safety reasons.
“There are those who have the noise, and those who don’t,” he said. “It shifts. It’s going to keep changing because that’s what the FAA does. It changes its flight paths.”
Starin said that there are several reasons people can’t always hear aircraft noise. Some of these include the direction the wind is blowing, other external noises such as an air conditioner, or just being engrossed in everyday distractions.
“Spend some time walking around Juniper Valley Park, and actually listen to what is going on around you. You would be amazed at how sometimes you can hear the birds and how at other times their song is completely blotted out by aircraft engines,” Starin said in a written statement on the topic published in the Juniper Berry Magazine.
Another resident who spoke at the meeting, said she recently married into a third generation Middle Village family, and is worried about remaining there because of the noise problem.
“I would really like to help raise a fourth generation here, but I have to tell you, this is an issue that really, really concerns me,” she said. “Lets talk about this and try to bring the next generation to Middle Village, because we can not have this level of noise in our community.”
By Ryan Lavis
