B’klyn ‘Ridge’ brawl
Brooklyn has a message for all the guidos out there: stay in Jersey where you belong!
Politicians and other borough leaders declared their hatred for anything having to with gorillas, meatballs, tanning or hair spray yesterday, as they demanded that a television network pull the plug on a “Jersey Shore”-style reality show set in Bay Ridge.
“They’re crass, crude and cartoonish about Bay Ridge, and they couldn’t be more wrong about Bay Ridge women,” said City Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn). “It shows women who act and speak as if they were in the era of ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ ”
Gentile is so worried that the new Oxygen network series — called “Brooklyn 11223” — will spawn a new Brooklyn version of Snooki that he led a rally against the program yesterday.
“This is not what Bay Ridge is about and this not what Bay Ridge wants or needs,” he said. “We refuse to stand by and let Hollywood portray . . . Bay Ridge in this disparaging light.”
Gentile was not the only borough pol who was definitely not DTF — down to film, that is. State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Brooklyn) called on local restaurants and nightclubs to snub the show, which she fears will feature the kind of drunken guido foolishness featured on MTV’s low-class hit “Jersey Shore,” which popularized terms like gorillas and meatballs for the big-haired “guidos” and “guidettes” on 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!”
About 30 local women, mostly in their 30s, joined the pols to voice concern over the show — which particularly rankled residents because the name of the program gets Bay Ridge’s ZIP code wrong. Gravesend is 11223, while Bay Ridge is 11209.
“I feel that this show misrepresents Bay Ridge,” said Bina Valenzano, co-owner of BookMark Shoppe. “They’re representing the bars and the clubs, but I guess the community groups and the bookstore wouldn’t hold enough drama for them.”
Responding to the criticism, Oxygen in a statement said, “Viewers can decide for themselves” when the show premieres on March 26. “We meet this authentic group of friends set against the vibrant backdrop of the great and diverse borough of Brooklyn,” the network added.
Kristen Pettit, 38, co-owner of a social-media consulting business, said she has no desire to watch the show.
“My fear is that people outside of New York and this neighborhood will watch this show, and it only portrays us as stereotypes,” Pettit said.

