BREWER TAKES ON HELICOPTERS

after complaints about helicopters flying over apartment buildings in the west 70s and 80s, council member gale brewer held a jan. 2 press conference calling for the airborne tourist trips to stop. joined by around a dozen constituents at the west side heliport at west 30th street and 12th avenue, brewer said the helicopters must cease disrupting residents with aerial tours of the borough. "all i want now is to stop the flying over manhattan," brewer said. brewer said that over the holiday break, her office received more than 35 calls and emails from residents who said helicopters were flying over their apartment buildings every few minutes, with up to 25 helicopters in a half hour. "they're making people very angry," brewer said. "we like tourists, but they can fly over the hudson river. they don't have to fly over central park." in response to the complaints about non-emergency commercial helicopter flights over the upper west side, the city's economic development corporation (edc) is forming a helicopter tourism roundtable. the event is slated to bring together the various stakeholders in helicopter tourism, including heliport operators, tour companies and the federal aviation administration. at press time, a date for the roundtable was under discussion. "the edc and the city is aware and sensitive of the problem of helicopter noise. we reached out to operators to address it," said janel patterson, spokesperson for the economic development corporation. "we're forming the roundtable of various stakeholders to address the problem." west side spirit first reported on the helicopter complaints in its dec. 18 issue.