UA Theater: Nightmare on Court Street

By on January 22, 2008 3:29 pm in Brooklyn Heights

From the BHB Inbox comes this dispatch from a reader:

My family of 4 have lived in Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill for 6 years now.  We’ve noticed a deterioration in quality of service and cleanliness at the UA Court Street Stadium 12 over the years (not that it was that nice to begin with).  My wife has come to a point where she wants to boycott the theatre as she thinks its “nasty”.  I’ve written Regal Cinemas customer care, have inquired whether the Brooklyn Heights Association has any type of agenda around the theatre and wanted to inquire via your blog whether anyone else has any ideas.  My theory around the theatre is as follows: from what I can observe, this theatre is likely incredibly profitable and conducting a renovation or even increasing the staff resources to keep it cleaner probably wouldn’t change much in terms of the attendance.  That being said, if other people agree with my sentiments, I’d suggest some type of collective efforts via Regal Cinemas corporate to address these issues. I’ll leave it at that.

Do you agree? Is the UA Court Street a lousy place to see a movie? Regal Cinemas has a nifty feedback form on its website if you’d like to give them your opinion.

Flickr photo by bettyblade

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  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    I love it… “GFY”… the last refuge of the idiot, the bigot, the troll… when the truth is exposed, curse loud and walk away.

  • hoppy

    This is beginning to sound like Brownstoner! Love it.

  • statestreeter

    The difference is on brownstoner, everything is in code (“Park Slope” is better than “Clinton Hill”) whereas here, apparently, all the dirty laundry is out in the open.

  • Teddy

    I went to a few movie theaters in New Jersey last year and there were loud people in those theaters as well…white male teenagers. Maybe a bunch of white guys making noise is more acceptable to some people. I grew up in the Heights, so maybe I’m more tolerant of the diverse population in my hometown than some people who just arrived here in recent years from a more sheltered, mostly white community. I went to Court St. a couple of times last year and it wasn’t that bad. Of course I went to movies which were already playing for about a week or two on a weekday afternoon.

    Anyway, let’s keep the comments flying.

  • snootie patootie

    To those making disparaging comments about the general Court Street area: I believe you may be lost. Greenwich, CT is a little bit further north.

  • Alexandre

    I’m a resident of Brooklyn Heights for 6 years now and I can’t stand that place. First let me mention that I’m black (of Brazilian descent) and I will tell you as it is. The African Americans that go there are extremely rude and rude and obnoxious, both male and female, young and old. People screaming, playing with cell phones and etc. This shouldn’t have to turn into black and white argument, but untill AA people learn how to behave and understand that when you share your space with others you must keep a certain level of respect that’s not going to change. I’m sure they are aware of the fact that the behaviour they display is lame and unclassy, but some people can help it. You might be able to take some people out of the ghetto but you won’t be able to take the ghetto out of some people. I guess you can call me uncle tom now, but yes I’d rather turn my cell phone off and keep my conversation for later when I go to the movies. Do what I do, leave the blockbusters for cable, if I go to the movies now is only at BAM, Angelica and IMAX (once in a blue moon).

  • Alexandre

    Hi there Teddy,

    I’m sure you can find white male teenagers that are just as loud as their AA counterparts. They dressed the same way, listen to the same music and they even have a name for them. You know the deal, it’s all the same.

  • http://www.susanodohertyauthor.com/ Susan O’Doherty

    Before we moved into a doorman building, white students from Packer used to congregate on our stoop, smoking, listening to radios, and making out. They would leave lunch trash and cigarette butts. It was a nuisance, definitely, but I’m not clear on how different this is from the “ghetto” behavior described above, other than that these were entitled white kids. It certainly didn’t occur to us to brand all white kids, or even all Packer students, with a disparaging label.

  • Eric

    Susan, there are certainly many posts on this blog complaining about those white college kids you mention (or, at least, the ones outside St. George.) Plenty. They go at least as far back as that kid throwing that brick off the roof.

  • anon

    “but untill AA people learn how to behave and understand that when you share your space with others you must keep a certain level of respect”-hmmm “AA people”? …I’m not sure if this is racist or just broken English…

  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    “I am not a racist. I pretty much dislike everybody…”

    Huh. My mistake.

    “You want to save humanity, but it’s people that you just can’t stand…” John Lennon

  • http://www.susanodohertyauthor.com/ Susan O’Doherty

    Well, Eric, that was my point–the behavior at the UA has been labeled “ghetto” or “AA,” whereas when young people who are white and apparently more affluent engage in similar behavior the objection is to the behavior itself, or to the individual–not to white or upper-middle-class people generally.

  • Jonas Von Groucheau

    All teenagers are punks. The only thing that differentiates them is their choice of weapons.

  • Eric

    Don’t really agree with you, Susan. The complaints here are (mostly) about black people outside and inside UA and not black people in general, just like the complaints about the white kids outside St George, not white people in general.

  • LTindaBH

    Aside from T.K. Small’s experience from a wheel-chair bound perspective, nobody seems to be concentrating on the serious design issues in the theater. The only real means of egress are the single-file escalators, which are scary. Sad to say, this theater was destined to polarize the neighborhood (remember the brouhaha before it was built, and similar over the Pool Lady at the foot of Joralemon). The physical building and its upkeep is what the original letter-writer was concentrating on, and the only issue I would cite in a complaint to the Regal management.

  • nabeguy

    To all you folks lamenting the “getthoization” of Court Street, please take heart in the fact that the Busy Chef is opening right across the street from the UA. That’s sure to bring back some class to the block!

  • Joe

    The sad thing is people don’t even know they are being racist. You might not be a cross burning, bed sheet wearing klansman but there are gradations of racism. The simple fact you would use the word “ghetto” to describe the theater is racist. You could have just said it was dirty with unruly patrons which would have been fine but by attaching race into the discussion and describing the theater as ghetto makes it racist. In the St George situation I’ve never read anyone on these boards about the student’s skin color. They are more angry about the “dumb loud kids” not those “white kids”.

    People can continue denying it but living in Brooklyn and being a liberal doesn’t keep you from being a racist–it just means you do a better job hiding it. So good in fact you don’t even realize it yourself.

  • Jonas Von Groucheau
  • Eric

    Joe, although its possible some of the posts here are indeed racist, meaning, they pre-judge a person based on his race, I do not believe your arguement proves the point.
    The St Georgie kids are in a predominantly white, 30-something area. Therefore, what makes them stand out is not their color, but their age (as you state, “dumb loud *kids*.)
    If those same kids were in a young korean neighborhood, the locals would associate their delinquent behavior with their race, not their age.
    Noting that the majority of the people in a set of people engaging in delinquent (read: outside one’s own norm) behavior are of a certain race, height, weight, age, IQ level, or number of limbs is not racist, heightist, weightist, ageist, intelligencist, or (cant come up wth a word.) Rather, its pattern recognition.
    If one were to say ALL black people are loud and obnoxious in movie theaters, its racist. Saying that there are an abnormally large number of people in the UA Court theater who are loud and obnoxious, AND an abnormally large percentage of those people are black, is not. Its simply an observation fo a fact.

  • Loving Brooklyn

    Susan, I think your point is very valid. Teenagers and adults that are Caucasian are never labeled ghetto even if their behavior is similar to an African American doing the same thing. I have never read people calling the mainly Caucasian students that hang out around the St. George a ghetto. I’m sorry, but smoking cigarettes and constantly vomiting on the sidewalk is despicable behavior. Racist people, or those who assimilate to our culture’s undercurrent of racism, use the term ghetto. As AliG, even in her faulty wisdom points out, ghettos are about a place minorities are forced to be because of social or economic factors. In fact, the word ghetto was originated in to describe the conditions Jewish people were forced inhabit in the early twentieth century. So, please stop using the word ghetto only to describe black people. Please use the words, “I don’t like to be in a theatre with rude people.” You can also say, “The street is dirty.” This has no racist connotations, but can get to the point and then maybe you can do something about your feelings. Just call Regal’s headquarters. Complaining does nothing but show your biases.

  • AliG

    Dear Loving Brooklyn, please keep on truckin’ down that “dirty street” on which the “theatre with rude people” can be found.

  • RJ

    Very touchy subject. If you don’t like UA and you are an avid movie watcher, I recommend joining the BAM Cinema Club. Not only will you get to see free screenings with filmmakers in attendance (i just saw one this week), the selection of films are fantastic, albeit smaller. Ticks are only $7 too.

    That aside, I do have to say I believe this to be the most shameful post of all:

    “To all you folks lamenting the “getthoization” of Court Street, please take heart in the fact that the Busy Chef is opening right across the street from the UA. That’s sure to bring back some class to the block!”

    I sincerely hope that was a sarcastic post…ya (pondering) it’s got to be.

  • Maharajah

    Brooklyn Heights is full of hypocritcial, white liberals. Similiar to the ones in NH that told pollsters they would vote for Obama and then pulled the lever for Hillary on voting day. You guys ‘value diversity’, as long as it is not in your own backyard. Maybe you wankers should move to Chappaqua and live next to the King and Queen of hypocrisy.

  • cobblegal

    That theater is notoriously terrible because of the management AND some – not all- of the patrons. Also, there have been numerous crimes committed in that movie theater including theft and assult (which I heard about in detail during grand jury duty a few years ago). The assault, btw, was committed by a theater EMPLOYEE who attacked a customer over a perceived insult to someone’s cousin. A gun and a knife were involved.

  • BarackRocks

    You can be white and be ghetto:See Bill Clinton
    and
    You can be black and classy: See Barack Obama

    Ghetto refers to the way you conduct yourself and has nothing to do with color

  • Alexandre

    First of all, BO is not black, he’s mixed or other. You can’t simply deny 50% and the fact that they are white. Not to mention that this white portion is the dominant on BO’s case since he was raised
    on that side of his family. BO is not black and he doesn’t know the first thing about being black. Give us a real example will you?

  • Alexandre

    Not to mention that I’m sure Obama turns off his cellphone when he walks into a movie theater and you certainly won’t hear him talking to anybody.

  • Santo Fasil

    How long does it take the average person to get to the top of that theater? It’s like going all the way into another neighborhood… with the travel time.

  • nabeguy

    Yes, RJ that was an attempt (somewhat feeble) at levity, a quality that this particular thread is short on. I’m not trying to belittle the issue of racism, but I don’t think it should be the entire focus either. The fact is, as long a movies remain a (relatively) inexpensive form of mass entertainment, you’re going to encounter knuckleheads of all stripes at whatever theater you frequent, especially one that’s showing 12 new release movies at the same time. The fact that the romantic comedy you paid $12 to see happens to be playing right next to the theater showing SAW IV is a by-product of commerce, not bad management.

  • Bart

    Nabeguy,

    I agree with your point entirely, by showing a horror film next to a family film there will certainly be an overlap of diverson patrons that will rub someone the wrong way.

    However I disagree with your claim that a movie ticket is “(relatively) inexpensive. With mortgage payments for our four bedroom Brooklyn Heights apartment, two kids going to St. Ann’s at $25,000 a year each, a nanny for our toddler, and a dog walker, we could never afford the price of a movie. Compared to the masses who can afford to go to a movie every weekend, we are poor. You have to be rich to go to the movies today!

    Bart

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