For those of you who have come down to Red Hook Flicks, you know we have one major issue… bathrooms.
That’s right. Valentino Pier does not have public bathrooms. Instead, visitors must go to Fairway or another local business and use their facilities.
We would like to provide our attendees with bathrooms. But there are a few reasons why we can’t make this happen.
- This is volunteer-run series. This is just something we do to bring some summer fun to our Red Hook neighborhood – in addition to our day jobs. Of course, as the series grows, we understand that people start to expect a greater scale of amenities. But for now, this really is a by-Red-Hook-for-Red-Hook series, so we work with what we have. We are so glad people from other neighborhoods come to join us, however.
- We grow and upgrade every year, but bathrooms aren’t within our budget. Since the beginning of the series three years ago, we’ve upgraded the projector (remember trying to see Jaws with the original weak projector?!); we’ve upgraded the sound system; we’ve even upgraded the food selection. However, having port-o-potties brought in is very expensive and hasn’t been within our budget.
- Again, bathrooms are very expensive. We run this series on a shoestring with sponsorship from local businesses and donations from the Red Hook community. As we all know, the economy has yet to recover and our sponsors are reaching deep into their pockets to make Red Hook Flicks happen. We are grateful and appreciative of every dollar they give us. We don’t feel right, in these tough economic times, asking them for several thousand more dollars per season.
- There are liability issues. It is actually cheaper to have port-o-potties brought in and left on site for the entire 8-week season than it is to have them delivered and removed each week. That means, those port-o-potties are sitting there open for the other 6 days a week we’re not on site. And if tragedy strikes in one of those johns, well, the volunteer group could be held personally liable. It’s just too much risk for any one of us to take on.
We hope you understand and continue to come out and have fun with us. Just remember to plan your bathroom breaks accordingly.
Thank you!
Red Hook Flicks committee
Image by Sarah Pants on Flickr
Red Hook Flicks 
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