Councilman Michael Nelson has strongly protested the decision of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting to close streets and restrict parking in the Avenue M commercial district on the last shopping day before Yom Kippur- Monday September 24th from 9AM until 7PM. Nelson said that this decision imposes an unreasonable burden and shows disrespect for the entire community as they are busily involved in last minute shopping and other preparations for the major High Holyday on the Jewish calendar. This action will not only severely impact commercial activity but will also cause unprecedented gridlock and disruption of traffic as this neighborhood in recent years has become a magnet attracting shoppers from throughout the tri-state area especially at holiday time.
In addition to the lack of sensitivity in scheduling a major “film shoot” on this day Nelson stated that the Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting has blatantly disregarded the Memo of Understanding which that was agreed upon. After the community became aware that the use of the former NBC Studio was to change; such that activity at the building would no longer be SELF CONTAINED and would need the surrounding perimeters to continue their business, which would seriously impact the surrounding areas. A Memorandum of Understanding was reached with the Mayor’s Office of Film and it was agreed upon that streets would not be closed and parking would only be restricted to the border immediately adjacent to the studio building. In violation of this understanding, the directive for September 24th provides for closing East 13th Street from Locust Street to Avenue M, East 14th Street from Avenue L to Locust Avenue and restricting parking on both sides of those blocks as well as on Locust Street from East 13th Street to East 14th Street and Chestnut Street from East 14th Street to East 17th Street.
Councilman Nelson insists that it is essential that the date for this filming be postponed, that a new date be chosen which is sensitive to the community and that there is full compliance with the Memorandum of Understanding with regard to all traffic and parking issues.
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11 Responses
Good morning Mr. Nelson it took you a good few years to learn how much the mayor respects the citizens of NY, especially those that don’t riot even if you spit them in the face.
seems to me that the mayor does not like Jews.
glad I don’t live there
Thank you Councilman Nelson.
The studio acts like bullies. They have goons sitting all night before a shooting day not letting anyone park to take care of errands at night.
Maybe someone will tell the good councilman that Tuesday is eruv yom kippur and that most of us will be working at our regular jobs on Monday and will not be out shopping. Given that we have to take off much of the next two weeks for yom tov, no one is going to take off an additional day for shopping on Monday, especially since the meal on Tuesday night before the fast is a lighter meal anyway.
Can our Politicians do more to help this situation?
It is almost impossible to find parking on a normal Friday, when it is a impt holiday it is even harder. Why should a business be given carte blanche to use the streets as if it is their office space?
Has the Councilman contacted NBC? Has he contacted the Mayors office? What has been their response? We dont really need press releases we need action. Has he spoken to other members of the Council to garner support? This seems to be so obvious that I would expect that all memebrs would jump on this band wagon and that NBC would actually reconsider.
Nu! besides being Furious, is anything he’s going to do?
sound like Dov, OUTRAGED!
Well Councilman Mike Nelson should have thought of this before he voted to extend term limits about four years ago so he could have another four years in office when the NYC voters not once but twice defeated in when it was on the ballot. If Council Members like Nelson would have voted against term limits Bloomberg would know longer be Mayor.
#4 Huh ?!? Not everybody works……..
Yitzchokm, is there anything he CAN do? Mad Mayor Mike is a self-hating Jew, we’d get more consideration from a non-Jewish mayor. I voted against him so I’m not surprised or disappointed. You get what you pay for.