Over the last few weeks, those little multi-colored notices on trees and street signs have flourished almost as efflorescently as the white blossoms that are harbingers of spring in our neighborhood. Locals, though, don’t welcome the signs with quite as much enthusiasm as they do the blossoms.
The Brooklyn Eagle reports what we always know to be true: that film crews are taking over the streets, and merchants are none too happy about it.
“First of all, they bring their own foods. The guys working here, they’re not eating on Montague Street, that’s number one,” said George Chamoun, owner of Monty Q’s pizza at 158 Montague St. “Plus, the customers pull up, there’s no place to park.”
Chamoun added that deliveries take far longer because his drivers “have to park down by Smith Street.”
The Eagle’s Mary Frost reports that so far this year 157 daily shooting permits have been issued for our zip code–more than were issued when their ubiquity caused a moratorium a couple of years ago.
Add the increase in foot and vehicle traffic resulting from exploding development in the area, and you’ve got a recipe for short tempers, frustration, and a lot time circling the block looking for parking…not to mention a financial hit for local businesses.
Janet Allon, the spokeswoman for the city’s media office, noted that a tiny percentage of complaints to 311 involve film shoots, which she attributes to her office’s responsiveness to communities’ wanting a break from filming.
Your humble correspondent proffers an alternative view: that we’ve stopped making those calls to the city’s permit office and 311 precisely because so little is ever done and few calls are returned.
The glimmer of hope here is the implication that if we do start making the calls, perhaps those shoots will be diverted to other neighborhoods, spreading the misery more equally in the borough.
Read the Eagle for the full story…
