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Welcome to RCRPQ

            a community organization.

The Riverside Coalition for Residential Peace and Quiet (“RCRPQ”) initially began as a neighborhood association established by concerned residents of 107th and 108th streets[1] between Broadway and Riverside Drive and soon included their neighbors. RCRPQ represents New York City residents and was organized to address the consequences of the excessive permitting of long-term film projects on residents’ daily life, particularly in light of film projects at the mansion located at the corner of 107th street and Riverside Drive. 

[1] Maybe more blocks, depending on outreach effort

The following activities have adversely impacted life in the neighborhood in the last few months (spring 2010):

1. Noise Pollution: unnecessary large vehicle idling throughout the day and night, even in favorable weather conditions, frequently past [11] pm. This is compounded by noise resulting from the setting-up or dismantling of heavy filming equipment well into the late evening hours.
2. Air Pollution: trucks and generator vehicles park on our streets and idle constantly under apartment windows in complete disregard for residents’ health and well being.  As a result, many residents report not being able to open their windows during the day or at night. Again, this activity has occurred on repeated occasions late in the evening.
3. Material Damage: Heavy-duty trucks have caused material damage to City infrastructure: on one occasion, the weight of the truck caused the collapse of a water main pipe to a residential building on 107^th street. When a local resident sought to have the operator of the truck pay for the cost of repair, the operator threatened lengthy legal proceedings and argued that the collapse was due to the age of the pipe and not the truck.
4. Street Parking:  local streets and Riverside Drive have been cleared days’ ahead of filming schedule, occasionally prior to and beyond the permitted timeframe, and are treated as the private parking lot for filming crews, who may or may not be City or State taxpayers. Residents are required to make alternative parking arrangements for increasingly longer periods at significant expense.  Limiting parking to Riverside Drive would alleviate this problem.  

We are mindful of the positive economic impact film projects have in New York City.  However, we believe that our neighborhood has seen significantly more than its fair share of these projects, such as Boardwalk Empire, Royal Pains, Damages, CSI, Law and Order and White Collar, to name a few.  Further, we would like to see better monitoring of the film projects that are permitted.

We would like to see these actions in place by the City of New York:

1. curtail the number of permits for this neighborhood,
2. clearly spell out in permits the time and activity restrictions imposed on film crews in residential neighborhoods,
3. more effectively enforce the restrictions already in place,
4. require that film projects in our neighborhood park their trucks on Riverside Drive and not directly under the windows of neighborhood apartments,
5. consult with our association prior to permits being issued, and
6. support RCRPQ’s ongoing efforts to balance the economic rewards to the community with taxpayers’ rights to maintain a quality of life standard for their neighborhood.
7. require producers to give back to neighborhoods some form of fee or tangible service.