Rock n Roll Circus Fracas About the Noise or About the Money?

By on October 12, 2008 12:18 pm in Brooklyn Heights, News

During last night’s concert at Pier 3, BHA Executive Director Judy Stanton sent the following dispatch to members. While its main purpose was to inform members on how to specifically identify the location of Pier 3 to 311 operators, it also included a mention (which the Brooklyn Paper reported on earlier this week, but heck they called it a “rap party“… talk about subliminal messaging eh?) about the $200K site fee paid to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation. One thing we’ve learned – to the BHA, Diesel is no Coen Brothers.

The email and a our BHB poll on the noise after the jump:

Dear Members: Sorry to be sending you another email on this topic but 311 may give you trouble if you are calling about the noise. When asked for the “nearest intersection” , tell the operator that it is Pier 3 in Brooklyn, on Furman Street with Montague Street being the nearest intersection. (Pier 3 is actually below Clark and Pierrepont Streets but this won’t register with 311.)

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp approved the event because it will collect a $200,000 site fee for use of the pier, to put towards maintenance and operation of the future park.

Please be sure to email the BHA office, indicating the hour at which you are disturbed by the noise. I’ll forward the complaints to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp. Judy

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  • Nigel

    It may be about the $200k, but Judy Stanton and her fellows — walking corpses that they are — would rather the Heights be a graveyard than a circus.

  • Jim

    Because of this I will not be renewing my BHA membership.

  • Archduke

    Did Franz Ferdinand play “Eleanor Put Your Boots On?” If so, it’d be worth it. (Technically, the pier is NOT “brooklyn dirt,” but whatever.) Couldn’t make the show, sadl.y

    I’d like to see a bandshell in the BB Park. Is that currently being contemplated?

  • Nelson

    Geez….it’s obvious that none of the above live anywhere close to the noise source last night. Unfortunately I’m paying major bucks to be near the Promenade. Last night my windows were coming undone, as was I……could we just maybe reduce the volume a bit…..it was like standing next to a “pimp” car with it’s base wofers doing double time.
    Get it?

  • me

    I love Franz Ferdinand (saw them in Williamsburg on Wednesday night – awesome) but Im also a Mom w/2 small kids and it was just too loud to be going on until 2am. I had to put the white noise machine on in kids room and couldnt sleep with the windows open on such a beautiful night; even with windows closed I could hear tons of base and Im far from Promenade. I’m fine with it being a once in a while venue but 2am is just too late. I dont understand the hatred of BHA on this issue, seems like exactely the kind of thing they should be concerned about.

  • bornhere

    Hmm … Slammin’ bass until 2 AM or today’s 11 AM to 6 PM, nonstop, Joralemon and Henry traffic mess because of a Young Republicans Alumni (who knew?) event that shut down Court Street.
    I’ll take the music.

  • stan

    barking dog in front of tazza on clark at 12:30pm today…just as annoying

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    I think the “fracas” (if that’s what you call the BHA’s alerting residents to the proper procedure for calling in noise complaints) was indeed about noise, or, more properly, the prospect of noise, not any spurned desire for baksheesh. It was very good of the Coens to contribute to BHA after filming here, and it would have been nice for Diesel to do likewise, but it isn’t BHA’s modus operandi to do shakedowns.

    Concerning the actual noise, my wife, who is more sensitive to such things than I am (possibly because she never had the benefit of field artillery training), called in a complaint during sound checks. She later allowed, however, that noise levels during the actual concert weren’t so bad. (We live at the foot of Montague.) Later, my daughter (almost 15) and I divided our attention between the interminable Rays/Red Sox game and watching the Circus (especially Chaka Khan, MIA, and Franz Ferdinand) on the live webcast.

    Bottom line: I wouldn’t want this sort of thing more than every once in a while, and with an earlier curfew.

  • anon

    the bha consists of wall streeters.. they are shakedown experts. only they do the shakedown in pinstrip suits and at the casino.. and to be polite you thank them for it

  • MIAFan

    oh please … comin …. for god sake its the weekend … get out and have some fun…what’s wrong with some free music in the city … again if you want peace and quite why don’t you move to the suburb … its funny you have people who say ” oh we enjoy the city and its diversity and culture but they cant stand the noise” I was at the event it was great for a change to attend such amazing, fun concert in Brooklyn and ride home on my bike ( we were the only people with bikes which showed we were one of the few people from Brooklyn who attended the concert, by the way it came handy because cars were not allowed and it was a long walk to the nearest train, hay that’s how we do it in Brooklyn . The event ended around 130pm and i think in a reasonable hour …. comin this is the city and we need to learn to tolerate each other. Its funny how people call the show was a Rap show ( with its underlying connotations , 99.9% of the crowd were upper urban white… with their urban fashionable outfits and attitude) its sad but some people are out of touch and make such an ignorant comment …..again go out there and enjoy your city and stop whinnying …

  • ABC

    I’m with Claude. I don’t get why you’re linking this with the Coen brothers and suggesting that this was about money. People wanted to complain and BHA helped (I’m sure after getting a zillion calls). And hey, I WENT to the show and I think that 2AM is too late. And a lot of calls about this show probably highlighted that 2AM is too late for this site.

    And MIA fan, I was there without a car and without a bike, and I’m from Brooklyn. I walked.

  • http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/ Peter

    A few thoughts:

    — I think Fink connected it with the Coen brothers because they too inconvenienced the neighborhood and paid the neighborhood as an apology. To me, the difference is that the Coen brothers bent over backwards to mitigate as best they could AND they brought a little fame and fun to the neighborhood. The same is not true of the event this weekend.

    — I live on the water side of Hicks, between Pierrepont and Clark, and I very clearly heard the loud, thumping music through my closed, double paned windows. I even heard through the ear plugs I wore. That is borderline acceptable until maybe 10pm, but until 2am? Dear god, I can only imagine what it was like for those directly on the promenade.

    — I think Judy mentioned the $200k as a way of saying “hey, it’s annoying but at least the park is $200k closer to reality.”

    — As far as bringing an event to the “neighborhood”, I wish. It was an exclusive event that locals were only able to enjoy via a webcast. If I can only watch it on the web then go hold it in an Iowa cornfield — it’s all the same to me.

    Peter
    http://www.FlashlightWorthyBooks.com
    Recommending books so good, they’ll take your mind off that really loud and annoying music.

  • nazimova

    one nite whats the big deal??..Bah BHA (shakedown artists is RIGHT)..Look I am over 60 and you don’t hear me cryin..Lets liven up the joint!! regular concerts sound good to me ..Chaka Khan was there? Sorry I missed her.. I live two blocks from the Prom and didn’t hear a thing( I must have had my Motown pumpin).

  • yo

    We need more events like this in the hood…and an 11PM curfew seems reasonable…

  • yo

    oh yeah, and the street fair on court street yesterday made an absolute mess of traffic all day long….if you’re gonna shut down court and a number of side streets, forcing traffic up Joralemon (which isn’t meant for court st level traffic), you gotta have at least 1 cop directing traffic. I mean, c’mon. Every time I walked through the intersection at clinton and joralemon, it was a complete mess, with gridlock and lots of angry, honking drivers. Cabs and other inconsiderate drivers tried to turn Joralemon into a 2 lane road, which just exacerbated the issue…throw in the sunday bike crowd coming up the bike lane on clinton, and it was a disaster….

  • Homer Fink

    This was a world wide event that included our neighborhood. Perhaps if the BHA was more focused on welcoming events like this, Diesel may have offered up access and tickets to residents. The press and attention it could have generated would have been very useful in moving the park forward in the right way. Instead it chose to focus on the mechanics of calling 311 and complaining about noise.
    Yes, 2AM is a ridiculously late curfew for REGULAR events.
    However, from where I sit the group’s emphasis is on the wrong SYllable – as my high school English teacher, the great Mr. Spilotro, used to say.

    Attracting events like Rock n Roll Circus could have been (and hopefully will be) the first step in rejuvenating everything in Brooklyn Heights – from businesses on Montague and Henry Streets to getting a world-class park built on our waterfront. Isn’t one night of “window rattling” and loud base [sic] a fair price to pay?

  • ABC

    I think if the BHS would have been included in this at all along the way, and if the BBPC/concert organizers had been receptive to their concerns, you might have seen a different take.

    It’s my understanding that the Brooklyn Bridge Park folks (who seem to change frequently) haven’t been overly friendly to area neighborhood associations. They think they’re their own little world down there. It’s too bad.

  • http://www.newyorkguidebook.com/images/newyorkinfo/geo/flag/flag_brooklyn.gif MadeInBrooklyn

    What exactly are “base wofers”? Perhaps you mean bass woofers? … Regardless, while I think all can agree that 2AM is two hours too late for an end-time, this seems to have been a good thing for the neighborhood: the bar I was in had a nice bump in business for the night due to the concert goers.

  • luvtheheights

    Why does it have to be all or none? Go ahead – have a concert. Just don’t make it so late. I went to see Madonna last night. My choice! Did I want to be kept up till 2 am on Saturday (as I was since I live 1 blk from the Promenade)? Hell no! Not my choice. We need some balance and standards established.

  • MIAFan

    Okay i agree it was little late …. but c’mon once in while event is not the end of the world …. I think its great that brooklyn was the last stop for a world wide event …. and 200,00 dollars in exchange for few hours i think that is a good deal…

  • anon

    now lets see what they do with the money.. hopefully make a real public park… not one contolled by the BhA and the million dollar condo owners

  • nicky

    I bet if the BHA got a cut of the money they would have been more friendly to the event

  • http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/ Peter

    Someone up above mentioned the “BBPC” (The Park CONSERVANCY) and how they did not include the BHA.

    In asking around, my understanding is that the conservancy (Marianna Koval and crew) had nothing to do with the event and the $200k. That was the BBPDC — the Park Development CORPORATION, the people in charge of managing the $150MM budget and actually building the park.

    Also

    Peter
    http://www.FlashlightWorthyBooks.com
    Recommending books so good, they’ll be perfect for reading in the someday hopefully soon completed Brooklyn Bridge Park. :)

  • http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/ Peter

    Someone up above mentioned the “BBPC” (The Park CONSERVANCY) and how they did not include the BHA.

    In asking around, my understanding is that the conservancy (Marianna Koval and crew) had nothing to do with the event and the $200k. That was the BBPDC — the Park Development CORPORATION, the people in charge of managing the $150MM budget and actually building the park.

    Peter
    http://www.FlashlightWorthyBooks.com
    Recommending books so good, they’ll be perfect for reading in the someday hopefully soon completed Brooklyn Bridge Park. :)