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Film Set's No Parking Signs Anger UWS Drivers

UPPER WEST SIDE — Another film set, another set of irate drivers on the Upper West Side.

Less than a month after the shoot for the Tom Hanks movie "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" scared West 94th Street drivers into thinking they had just hours to move their cars, motorists on West 85th Street felt the same parking panic.

Residents on West 85th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West were shocked Friday morning when pink "No Parking" signs appeared on their block some time before 11 a.m.., said resident Mishara Camino.

The signs warned that drivers had until 12 p.m. Friday to move their cars.

Camino and her husband had parked their truck on the block and assumed the signs meant their vehicle would be towed if they didn't move it in time.

"I was so livid," Camino said. "There was no heads up."

To make matters worse, the signs were posted less than an hour after drivers had waited for a street sweeper to clear the block so they could park in unmetered spots where they wouldn't have to move their vehicles again until Tuesday.

"The problem is that they did it right after alternate side parking," Camino said. "The people who don't live on the block probably won't check their cars again until Tuesday. They're going to find their cars not there. It's outrageous."

But Jose Gutierrez of Extreme Parking, the company helping the film shoot manage parking, said drivers had no reason to panic — the signs weren't threatening to tow cars. Drivers, he said, needed to read the signs more closely.

"We're not telling them we're going to tow you," said Gutierrez, who was putting out orange cones on the block. "We're not going to tow anybody unless [we have] the signs for it 24 hours in advance. We do everything by the book."

The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment confirmed that the production was using the appropriate signs.

The signs, which didn't list the title of the production, were put up by Act Zero Films, a Brooklyn-based production company shooting a "short student film," said Act Zero's Raff Ambron.

He said drivers shouldn't worry, because towing cars is a rare event.

"If we were doing a $50 million "Men In Black" feature, we would tow," Ambron said. "But this is a small job, so it shouldn't be a problem."

That didn't satisfy Camino and her husband, Bill Hussung, who are both documentary filmmakers.

"It still feels threatening," Hussung said. "It really feels like harrassment. As a documentary filmmaker, I understand, but to do these short notice notifications, it feels like bullying."