Darren,
I got that TEB had to co-ordinate with Newark in the past but couldn't issue the clearance itself, they could only hand the aircraft off to Newark.
A lot of the fixed wing folks seemed to be upset with the small area that transit traffic was given, but like the panel said, it comes down to numbers. When 60% or more of the traffic is operating into or out of the 3 heliports or 23rd, the proposed system does make sense. As for the definition of local traffic, I agree that the panel didn't have a firm handle on it, but that definition is quite likely to change to some degree.
I do not believe that they were pushed into doing the meeting. They had just gotten back from Washington and they really needed to present this information to the local aviation community so that we could be prepared for the notice of proposed rulemaking. So we could comment and make our views heard. I got the feeling that if we don't, the politicians, like what's his name? will force the issue to their point of view. Speaking of the NPRM, it was suppose to be issued Wednesday, but has not been issued as of close of business today.
I was discomforted by some peoples' idea to make changes to the south shore routing. Considering where it is, raise the ceiling would cause that exclusion to go totally away. However, I would like to see a CTAF freq in place for that airspace.