A Note on Film Permits in Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill & Boerum Hill

A reader recently wrote in to Carroll Gardens Patch asking if we could alert the neighborhood in advance of street closures and parking changes due to film shoots. We inquired with Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman about how the lines of communication between The Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting and city community boards work. Here is what he told us:

The Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting discontinued the practice of proactively providing notices to Community Boards in April 2012. The City has been consolidating permits for street activities into one central permitting system so we now have access to the film shoot permit information via the same permitting system we log onto to provide recommendations on street activity permits (i.e., street fairs, block parties, etc.). So when we log onto the system to enter a recommendation for a block party, we will usually also note any upcoming filming activity as well.

The best way for residents to learn about such activity themselves is to follow Community Board 6 on Twitter, as they have been tweeting the information as soon as the receive it. (You can sign up to follow the Community Board 6 Twitter feeds at http://twitter.com/BrooklynCB6.)

This new system does not guarantee that we will always know about film shoots in advance since there's usually a very tight turnaround from the time a permit is issued to the time of the shoot itself. But if there were a crisis we would be able to determine who to contact to resolve any film-related activities occurring in the district. It's not the most ideal solution but we're optimistic that with further refinement we'll have the City's brain-trust figure out a way to electronically notify us automatically about film permits in the future, as they do now for pending block party applications.  I think it's just a matter of time.