San Genaro, Houston Construction, Movie Crews

UPDATE: Sept 22, 2007
We're still reaching out....so it comes as no surprise that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's appointment of Nazli Parvizi, as Commissioner of the Community Assistance Unit, (formerly Executive Director of the Mayor's Volunteer Center) wasn't quite the right answer. In March, by Executive Order, the Mayor added another layer in the Street Permitting and Oversight arena -- the Office of Citywide Events Coordination and Management, appointing as Executive Director, Evan M. Korn.

After more than an hour's testimony at last weeks Goverment Operations Committee Hearing, Chaired by Councilman Simcha Felder where both Councilman Felder and Councilman Gerson tried their very best to find out how, exactly, Mr. Korn is to improve things, we are all still in the dark. So, today, we tried to find out how to actually contact the new CECM office. Guess what, there is no listing anywhere on the nyc.gov site and their own search engine doesn't recognize the name. Oh, well!

Sept 17, 2007
So, here we are, three days into the San Genaro Feast, two years into Houston St. reconstruction and regularly bombarded by film production and nobody outside of NoHo seems to grasp how much disruption this creates.

Repeated outreach to the Ninth Precinct for additional enforcement on the Bowery/Houston corridors has met deaf ears. Horn honking began at 4:00 pm on Saturday (though NoHo is plastered with No Honking signs), and kept a steady pace till 2:30 a.m. Sunday. By 6:00 a.m. the jack hammers began on Houston St.

Two weeks ago two different film crews demolished trees, left oil slicks and continuously ran diesel engines -- not the low sulfer type with filters, as the new law requires -- for two days.

Tell the City what needs to be done. On Tuesday, September 18th at 1PM in council chambers at City Hall, there will be an oversight of CAU (Community Assistance Unit) regarding their very liberal issuance of permits for street fairs. Street fairs can create traffic snarls, noise late into the evening, crime, trash, public drunkenness, and other things that detract from a community’s quality of life. Please come and lend your support – let CAU know that these permits should not be issued without the approval of local community boards. Show CAU that there needs to be oversight of their permitting procedures so that the local community can establishment parameters for location, dates, and duration of street fairs, as well making sure that there are adequate measures taken to abate noise and provide sanitary facilities.