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Wrigleyville residents take aircraft noise complaints to City Hall, Washington DC

October 19, 2017
In the News

This article was published on October 19, 2017. A link to the article can be found here.

By Julian Crews

While there's plenty of excitement with the Cubs in Wrigleyville, not everyone is all that thrilled. There are some residents in the neighborhood who cringe, waiting for the playoffs to be over, because of what they see as nuisances.

For the record, the vast majority of Wrigleyville residents and workers we talked to -- true-to-form -- were more than willing to take the good with the bad.

"It definitely gets congested here, but the noise, it's just part of the atmosphere -- it's the playoffs -- it doesn't bother me too much," a Lakeview resident said.

But the noise -- the buses, the boisterous crowds and the parking problems in and around Wrigley Field are starting to wear people down.

"It's definitely been loud living right here -- you can hear cheering if you leave your windows open. Nothing's as bad as the traffic though," another area resident said.

"People don't pay attention when they're driving -- there's like road rage," said a student who attends school near Wrigley.

Then there's the noise of news helicopters hovering over Wrigley and other aircraft towing advertisements.

"I see helicopters at school all the time. I can hear them through the windows and it disturbs class," the student said.

The aircraft noise is so bad that Wrigleyville and Lakeview residents are complaining to City Hall and even Washington DC.

Fifth District Congressman Mike Quigley brought those complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration. An FAA spokesman issued this statement to WGN:

"We have contacted helicopter operators regarding operations in the vicinity of Wrigley Field. We advised them to vary their altitudes and flight paths in order to operate in a more neighborly fashion."

Lakeview residents say overly inebriated fans could be a little more neighborly, too.

Issues:Transportation