West Indian-American Day Parade

Brooklyn Dan wrote: Hipsters, squares, triangles. We're all in this thing together. Let's find a way to live together. To celebrate and not to aggravate. . To find ways to express, without causing any stress. To inspire, not to flame the fires.

Mmmm. Lots of good food today!

I guess the only reason I don't complain about the noise from this parade is that it's only one day a year (and see above re: food.) But on a more serious note, I don't know how those people on the parade trucks don't come away with damaged hearing. Maybe they do, and maybe they just don't care!

Love this day, love this parade, LOVE the food. What blows my mind though is the near total lack of places to throw away your trash. Garbage cans are actually removed from the parade route to make space for food stands and viewers, which is why so much trash ends up on the ground. I went this morning and grabbed some doubles and mauby and had to carry my trash nearly half a mile and several blocks off the parade route to find a place to toss it.

this ^^^.

The Department of Sanitation comes by with huge vacuum trucks and teams of sweepers, because it knows it could never provide enough trash cans and bags for the day.

In these special circumstances, the etiquette seems to be throw it on a mound, or next to a tree.

...they usually get it all by midnight.

Bkchickie, some of us view our places on EP as being the best seats in the house.

....but I will admit that I close the windows.

However, it is not because the noise bothers me.
It is because my apt would smell like jerk chicken for weeks.

...and I love jerk chicken.

But I can't eat it for the next several weeks, just because the smell would give me the craving. I have to watch my waistline.

Update: A dozen women with Parks Department shirts have attacked the median.

Several men with lawnmower style leaf blowers are blowing everything into the middle of the street.

Soon, the vacuum trucks will arrive. ...and the Service road and Parkway will be cleaner than it is after even the hardest rain storm.

I love the parade. But it's insulting to suggest that "hundreds of families" in Prospect Heights (as well as the subsidiary neighborhoods situated near the Brooklyn Museum) have embraced the Festival. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Festival isn't about culture or ethinic celebration. It's simply an organization charging $40 and making money.

To achieve their goal, the Festival totally hijacks and exploits a highly-populated Brooklyn neighborhood. As a result, working families from a variety of ethnic, economic and religious backgrounds have to flee their homes and apartments for several consecutive nights.

The Festival has gotten away with this because of politics and shameless expoitation.

Would residents of Park Slope, Cobble Hill or Brooklyn Heights (or the Upper East Side) accept this invasion of their quality of life?

Would they embrace Haitian drummers waking them up in the middle of the night (as described in the NY Times) ?

It's time for residents of Prospsect Heights to fight back. We love our neighborhood and the diversity of our neighborhood and its beautiful ethnic mix.

But no organization or group has the right to sell our peace and quiet to make a
buck.

No way.

Never!

The police pedestrian barriers are now being removed.

The trash trucks are being filled.

The street cleaners have done their magic.

.....I love Eastern Parkway.

It is far more sober than my holiday, the St. Patrick's Day Parade. .... which takes place in Manhattan. ....in some very rich neighborhoods, and seems to consist a lot of vomiting people from Suffolk.

These folks can cook! Mine can only boil things

See you next year.

40 plus years and counting!

What's next?

Stop the Festival from abusing our neighborhood in 2011.

Every outdoor concert, as is the rule with most NYC events, should stop at 11 PM. No discussion but a simple end to the festivities, enforced by the police.

This should be written into the Festival's contract with the city and the Brooklyn Museum. The peace and quality of life of our neighborhood must be guaranteed to insure that that the Festival is a good neighbor.

As a result, the Haitian midnight drum festival should move to the interior of the Brooklyn Museum where it will not disturb the thousands of neighbors currently affected by the event.

The Museum can proudly proclaim the Haitian drum event as a cultural work of art. The Museum can schedule programs and events which celebrate this Haitian event. Many Haitians (and non-Haitians) will gladly pay an entrance fee to participate.

Bottom line: when the concerts end at 11 PM and the Haitian drum festival shifts inside the Museum, we will have peace and quiet in Prospect Heights,.

Alleluia!

Cue "move back to the suburbs!" comments in 3... 2... 1...

Irritated that this thread is on PH board.

As someone who's lived right on the Parkway since '99 (one block away from the museum, I might add) I find the comments interesting. This is my life every year:

Yes, I've often left for the weekend and returned on Monday morning to celebrate the day with a house party.

I've also stayed and suffered through the museum concerts (windows closed, AC on usually does the trick) and j'ouvet. It IS loud and it IS annoying. I went to it once, but I was working at the museum so I got in for free. $40= too much.

The garbage situation IS truly disgusting. Chicken bones on sidewalks DON'T get cleaned up so dog owners in the area suffer for weeks.

My apartment faces the parkway and I live on the 2nd floor. There is NOTHING I can do but celebrate the parade in my home on Monday. The speakers are full force into my home. If I was sick and had the flu, I'd be fucked. There is no escape unless I leave.

When I do come home Monday mornings, I can't even get CLOSE to my home. Well, it's all relative, right? Yesterday, we had to show the cops our license to prove that we lived there- and that was all the way down at ATLANTIC and WASHINGTON!

All that said- it IS fun! I've had some amazing parties here and all I had to do was open my door and windows. Want music? Want food? I never did a thing except clean up...

Pros and cons, always.

whynot_31 wrote: Bkchickie, some of us view our places on EP as being the best seats in the house.

Mmm, jerk chicken!

I'm glad that you enjoy the front-row along EP, and there are certainly some completely amazing buildings on the Parkway that make me envious 364 days out of the year. All I'm saying is that if *I* lived on there, I would make sure that I was away Carnival weekend. That's all.

Can I ask a more positive question? Is there any Caribbean cultural orgs offering cooking classes? I would love to know how to create some of those flavors in my own kitchen.

Glad to hear other voices from neighbors near the Brooklyn Museum express concerns about the 4 nights of intrusive sleep depriving amplified sounds we've had to deal with. I've been called a hipster and a totally square on the same forum for voicing my concerns.
There has to be a balance between a celebration of culture and the rights of neighborhood folks to get some sleep at a reasonable hour, if that's what they choose to do (or have to do).
I can't say whether or not the concerts are exploitative. I imagine they tap into the desire of folks who want to somehow extend the celebrations beyond just J'Ouvert and the parade, and charges them $40.00 per night to do it.
As said before here, no other set of concerts would ever get away with the open air amplified concerts which boom through the neighborhood, get louder past midnight, and keep every single living thing within range awake for four nights.
On Sunday night, just as I was drifting off to sleep after the last amplified concert, came the J'Ouvert. I had expected it, knew about it, but mistakenly thought that unamplified steel drums would not affect my sleep. Man, was I wrong. Loud percussion, horns, shouting, and the flash of the police escort vehicles which guided each group.
I understand that in previous years, the J'Ouvert did not extend as far as Grand Army Plaza and disturb the rest of the denizens of Eastern Parkway. I do not fathom how this loud 3am into the morning procession is allowed, following the four nights of loud concerts. Had it just been J'Ouvert keeping me awake for one night, I might have been able to "suck it up" but it's the cumulative effect of sleep deprivation of all the concerts followed by the J'Ouvert that really irks me.
Perhaps politicians would be loathe to listen to noise concerns -it's more expedient to support the concert series and the J'Ouvert as is - they wouldn't want to lose votes. Nonetheless, Prospect Heights neighbors will be voicing their concerns, be at community meetings,petition campaigns, and at the ballot box.
If these concerts have a following, and need to go on until all hours, then they should be regulated for sound in the proximity of residencies, and also conducted at reasonable hours. I believe that is how every other concert series in NYC works. Same applies for J'Ouvert.
All this said, had a good time watching the parade. Would have appreciated it more, had I not been so tired...

Brooklyn Dan wrote:
Perhaps politicians would be loathe to listen to noise concerns -it's more expedient to support the concert series and the J'Ouvert as is - they wouldn't want to lose votes. Nonetheless, Prospect Heights neighbors will be voicing their concerns, be at community meetings,petition campaigns, and at the ballot box.

Considering how the concert, parade, and j'ouvert all take place in CH, it's highly doubtful that any PH residents can even try to complain. It's also a very gentrified (read- high-brow) attitude to even imply that an abutting neighborhood would complain.
If PH as a whole wanted to complain, they already would have.

My apartment is near the Brooklyn Museum, and windows face Eastern Parkway. That is PH, believe it or not, and residents, like myself, who are right on top of the music pounding in the wee hours of the morning each night have every right to complain that we cannot get any rest for 4 nights because of it. I wouldn't care if it was like normal concerts, even if they were for 4 nights, that stop at 11pm or so, and are sound regulated. But this was way out of hand - noise increased and built up past midnight until these concerts stopped. And then the pounding drums, horns, shouting and police lights for J'Ouvert.
Of course there are many issues in PH that need to be worked on, but this one should be in the mix, especially since it either serves to drive a lot of people in the direct vicinity away every year, or else if they can't go, and remain, drives them insane with delirium from lack of sleep. Have all these things, by all means, but conduct them with respect for the people who's residences are around the area. That's all.

BKDan-

I suffer from insomnia, so I feel your pain for not being able to sleep. I take an Rx pill that helps me in times of need. For next year, maybe you should think about taking some over-the-counter sleep med to help get you through those few days of concerts.