Earlier this week, we heard about new Oxygen reality show Brooklyn 11223, the latest attempt to bottle up that indelible Jersey Shore magic and transport it to a NYC-based location. While the comings-and-goings of a group of feisty Bay Ridge ladies doesn't really seem that controversy-worthy (nor very interesting) to us, Brooklyn politicians are frothing at the mouth for a chance to castigate the network and lambast the show: “They’re crass, crude and cartoonish about Bay Ridge, and they couldn’t be more hopelessly wrong about Bay Ridge women,” said City Councilman Vincent Gentile. “It shows women who act and speak as if they were in the era of Saturday Night Fever.”
“This is not what Bay Ridge is about and this not what Bay Ridge wants or needs,” Gentile added. “We refuse to stand by and let Hollywood portray...Bay Ridge in this disparaging light.” Brooklyn pols and community members were in such a fury, they organized a rally yesterday for the express purpose of denouncing the reality show together—you can watch most of the rally in the video above.
Carlo Scissura, representing Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, focused his rage on the Oxygen network for hosting the show:
What amazes me is the hypocrisy of this network. This is a network that brands itself as looking out for the interests of women, and yet they do something that completely disparages women, particularly Italian-American women...If the show’s filming in one of the restaurants, stop going there, period. If the show’s coming out here and they’re wrecking the streets or taking up parking spots, call the police.
State Sen. Diane Savino called on local restaurants and bars to ban the show: “People in Nebraska and Indiana will watch this, and the image across the country will be that Italian-American women fight over men and desecrate themselves,” she said. “This is not the Jersey Shore, this is Brooklyn; we fight back!”
The pols were joined by about 30 local women, many of whom were particularly annoyed that the show’s prominently placed zip code is not even close to the Bay Ridge neighborhood it claims to represent (Gravesend is 11223, while Bay Ridge is 11209). Oxygen released a statement on the controversy that amounted to Deal With It: “Viewers can decide for themselves on March 26 when the story of Brooklyn 11223 begins to unfold and we meet this authentic group of friends set against the vibrant backdrop of the great and diverse Borough of Brooklyn,” they wrote.
