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MTV VMAs Disrupt Neighborhood Surrounding Barclays

08/27/2013
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(Radio.com) While Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift and Macklemore left the Barclays Center Sunday night with MTV Video Music Awards in hand, some Brooklyn residents living near the arena feel as though they came out on the losing side of the event, which aimed to co-opt a touch of that Brooklyn cool factor.

Though many living in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn have long opposed the Barclays Center's presence near their residential streets, the first national event of its kind marked a particularly troublesome moment outside of the general gripes.

Locals cited vague communication with event coordinators, relentless noise disturbances, a lack of civic interaction on behalf of MTV and public agencies, and clear violations of the code of conduct for such events as set forth by the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment for Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.

Some had trouble understanding whether or not they'd have limited access to their streets, how amplified noise would affect them, and whether or not there would be crowd control measures.

Residents near the south side of the arena�where, for example, 2 Chainz and Grimes strutted the red carpet in the same pair of Versace pants, under a faux-Brooklyn Bridge�were particularly soured to the experience and worried it would set an ugly precedent for future events of this scale.

"It was a huge interruption to the community for what was essentially a 90-minute segment that they did," Taniya Gunasekara, who lives on 6th Avenue between Dean and Bergen Streets with her 18-month-old son Walter, told Radio.com. "I had to call in late to work today (August 26) because it was not a good night for trying to get him to sleep."

Gunasekara said that, while fans thronged and music pumped through the street, she had to remove the air conditioner in her toddler's room and move a piece of furniture in front of the window there in order to block the noise. He usually falls asleep around 7 p.m. "We had to stop everything that we needed to do for our lives." more on this story

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Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

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