GARDEN PEOPLE TURN 30
The Garden People Garden, also known as the 91st Street Garden, on the promenade level of Riverside Park, celebrates its 30th birthday on Saturday, June 24 from 2 p.m.–4 p.m., with their “Keep It Growing” event featuring music, testimonials, children’s activities and an art exhibition. The group will celebrate the community by inviting all the many strollers, bikers, skaters and dog walkers that regularly pass by, especially inviting the many photographers and artists that use the Garden for inspiration for their work.
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Saluting Park Leaders
To The Editor:
Growing up on the Upper East Side, my siblings and I were so lucky to have had the time of our lives at John Jay Park (“Park for Seniors Faces Cuts or Delays,” April 28) and swimming pool. As a senior, now living in Peter Cooper Village and still a member of the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association, who frequents the neighborhood and park, I salute all the years of commitment to our beloved park, by the collaborative effort of our community, especially Betty Cooper Wallerstein, president of the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association, Terry Grace, chair of the Friends of John Jay Park Association, and Upper East Side City Council Member Jessica Lappin, chairperson of the Council’s aging committee, who allocated $250,000 to the Parks Department for the upcoming project for seniors. Go Team!
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Marie Beirne
Upper East Side
HELICOPTER RULES DISAPPOINT
When the city’s Economic Development Corporation announced new regulations for sight-seeing helicopter tours, president Seth Pinsky said the rules balance “both quality of life needs and our important tourist industry.” Short tour flights that last several minutes have been eliminated and there is a ban on sightseeing helicopter tours over Central Park.
But while the entire borough of Brooklyn was graced with a full ban on sightseeing tours, Upper West Side residents are still subject to helicopter noise.
Operators can fly over the center of the Hudson River to West 79th Street, then turn to fly south, center-west of the river. The flights will be at 1,500 feet or above to mitigate noise.
“[People] picnicking, strolling, walking dogs—they’re being impacted by helicopter flights that are doing nothing more than generating money for helicopter tours,” said John Jeannopoulos, an Upper West Sider who became concerned with the increase of these flights.
But forcing the helicopter operators to fly higher should ease noise problems, according to Robert Grotell, special advisor to trade organization Eastern Region Helicopter Council.
“Altitude is by far the best noise mitigation,” Grotell said. “We’re flying twice as high.”
If pilots are flying too low or breaking the regulations, West Side residents are encouraged to call the Helicopter Council’s toll-free complaint number at 1-800-319-7410 in addition to 311.
Correction added. It is the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
VALDES SCULPTURES MOVE FORWARD
A proposed installation of bronze sculptures along the Broadway Malls got one step closer to final approval after Community Board 7’s Parks and Preservation Committee voted 7-0 in favor of approving the project at its March 11 meeting. The full board is now scheduled to consider the proposal at its April 6 meeting.
If approved, 16 sculptures by Spanish artist Manolo Valdes would be installed at various points along the malls, between Columbus Circle and West 166th Street. The sculptures would officially be unveiled May 20 and remain on display until January 2011. Eleven of the 16 sculptures would be installed within the boundaries of Community Board 7: five in Columbus Circle, one at West 63rd Street, three at West 72nd Street, one at West 96th Street and another at West 103rd Street.
The Valdes exhibition would be presented in conjunction with the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Broadway Malls Association and the Marlborough Galleries.
