Community Board 2 and local civic organizations have been flooded with complaints regarding the repaving of roads coupled with film shoots in Brooklyn Heights.
“We need better coordination. A year or so ago the city created a new office – the office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management (CECM),” recalled CB 2 District Manager Robert Perris.
“They’re not doing as comprehensive a job as the name applies,” he added.
Perris said summer coordination between movie street shoots, the city Department of Transportation’s (DOT) summer paving and milling programs and block parties needs to improve.
For example, film crews recently did a film shoot around St. Charles Borromeo Church at 21 Sydney Place, near where the DOT was doing paving on State Street, said Perris.
This resulted in a lack of parking in the area leading to complaints, he said.
Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA), said her office has also been besieged with complaints.
Stanton said the roadways in Brooklyn Heights being paved this summer include the one-block strip of Monroe Place; Willow Street from the BQE to Pierrepont Street; Poplar Street from Middagh Street to the BQE; State Street from Columbia Place to Flatbush Avenue; Columbia Place from Joralemon Street to State Street; and Willow Place from Joralemon Street to State Street.
At the same time there have been film shoots near these locations, she said.
Stanton said DOT subcontractors who do the milling and paving only give 24 hours notice that cars have to be moved while the work is being done.
Tow trucks then come in and move any parked cars to nearby streets so the work can be done and then the auto owners can’t find their cars, she said.
Stanton said the issuance of film crew permits compounds the situation as the crews sometimes take up several blocks of valuable parking.
“So it’s a double whammy,” said Stanton. “The mayor’s office says they do due diligence and try to avoid issuing movie permits within three blocks of street work, but that’s not enough.”
Stanton said the red line distance of where film crews can set up near road work should be extended. Additionally, the DOT should give a week – and not 24 hours notice – when doing road work, she said.
Bloomberg spokesperson Evelyn Erskine said the CECM was created in March 2007, but does not nor will it ever have a press spokesperson.
Erskine said she will check with the office to find out about the situation in Community Board 2, but did not get back to this paper at press time.
Mark Daly, a spokesperson for the city’s department of Citywide Administrative Services, said the CECM can be reached by logging onto www.nyc.gov and then finding the link for city events on the left hand side of the homepage.
