B’Paper: Coens Gave BHA $10Gs

State Street Block Associtaion? Jeez, if I could have gotten my neighbors on Middagh Street to speak up, we would have held out for $2G minimum!

Maybe the BHA can donate some of that money to the reward for finding the hate crime culprits?…would love to hear what they will earmark the money for..

I guess its just frustrating to think that charities and schools get a fraction of the amount of what an upper middle class/rich neighborhood’s association gets (especially after all the complaining they did-calling government agencies in protest of the parking and telling residents “dont let the movie people into your homes” -etc) I have a friend that works at P.S.8, they could really use the scratch, as in many public schools, teachers there are using their own money to buy supplies. I’m one person with one opinion.Its the movie company’s dough, they can do with it what they will.whaddayagonnado?

I think if it were payola it would have paid out before, not after.

And I agree with lifer’s last thought: They gave money to a lot of groups. It’s their money to give and I think it’s great. To quibble about who get what seems ungrateful. Wish the TV production cos. would do the same.

Oh, stop bitching already. They didn’t have to give $ to anyone!

I think one of the things that irritate some people about the BHA is that they are snooty and elitist. They are about as white-bread as you can get outside Montana.
And not only are they snooty, but they are proud of it.
Hidebound dinosaurs. Other than that, they’re perfect.

My point was, the BHA was publicly against the filming from the beginning to the point of trying to impede the production… P.S.8 welcomed the film crew,allowed them to use their facilities, made them feel welcome without thought of recompense. BHA are largely rich/uppper middle class people who dont really need money, the school is an underfunded public educcational institution teaching the BHA members of the future how to read and write… who deserves more money?…if anything they should have evenly distributed the dough, there would be no “bitching”…and by the way, thats what these blogs facilitate, you guys bitch about things like restaurants and George Clooneys ass all day long, why cant the above be a valid topic of consternation?

lifer, the BHA gave PS8 50k not too many years ago and is partyly credited with jump-starting it. PS8 has been a BHA priority for years.

It may be “rich/upper middle class” but that’s because it’s a neighborhood assoc, made up of people who pay $40 a year in a rich/upper middle class neighborhood. See how that works?

Now, everyone can lay out where/how much they gave to charities this year and we’ll all take turns talking about how well you allocated it or how we think you should give next time.

As far as Robert Moses goes, as stated on this fine site itself “To some Robert Moses was the most brilliant urban planner who ever lived. Others will argue that Moses’ cold and wreckless vision stymied beauty and fostered the urban blight of the mid-twentieth century.
Among his accomplishments, Moses built the Belt Parkway and replaced Brooklyn’s shorefront towns with horrific high-rise apartments worthy of the Eastern Bloc.
His 1947 master plan for the BQE would have cut through Brooklyn in a manner similar to his borough hacking construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway proposed at about the same time.
Moses succeeded in destroying a portion of Hicks Street by laying down his 6 lane highway through Red Hook. He met with little opposition from the poor, immigrant Italian community there who feared retaliation — or worse, deportation — from City Hall if they protested. “And you say the BHA helped in this..
He tore apart Hicks streeet, a main thoruoghfare in the 50’s, a poor working class neighborhood, to accomodate the rich… some fella, but of course you will come to his defense, because, it accomodates you.I’m not here to battle the heights resdients, and I wasnt the one saying you guys are “snooty, elitist, whitebread,hidebound dinosaurs”, but thats the image you are apparently giving off. Wether you care about that or not ,doesnt really bug me. I was born and raised in Cobble Hill, and all through the 60’s,70’s and 80’s the heights was uptight, we were a broke, slowly becoming liberal neighborhood, and now, Montague street is a ghostown,upper Henry street cant get themselves going (both discussed on this board), while heights residents come to eat and shop and find nitelife on Smith, Atlantic and Court street. No one wants to hang out up there anymore, and I can hear you now “so be it”.. and thats fine, you guys dont care what people think, and dont care about outside commerce, but dont get uptight when you are perceived as “snooty”…I have plenty of friends in the heights, and thanks to transplants like Homer here, you guys still have hope. there is no honor in the rich defending the rich.
I just dont think the BHA deserves the money, thats my opinion, i am free to verballize it. I am not going to challenge the Coen brothers with my “concerns”, this is a discussion board, I am discussing.I am much more into healthy debates like this than talking about what celebrities put on their bagels and failed restaurants on Henry street. For chrissakes, the anniversary of the promenade came and went, and nobody blinked an eye (at least on this board) but there are pages and pages of George Clooney sightings.. and on that note, I am done.

As Billy points out, the BHA was insturmental in the It’s Our Park Day celebration, which benefitted not only the park but the efforts of the PS 8 fifth grade to raise money for a school trip. The BHA was actively soliciting for new members and specifically targeted young parents. Were any of you naysayer’s there? As CJP says, if you want to change something, it might help to learn about it from the inside. And I would hardly call $25 for an individual membership an elitist burden.