Miami is a film veteran, whether in commercials, reality television shows, music videos or movies. While it puts the 305 on the map, it can be a huge hassle and headache for residents.
Irwin Friedman, 79, has had enough. A neighbor of New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez in Miami Beach, Friedman says he's endured too many days and nights of loud noise, an onslaught of vehicles, and crowds for commercial shoots at the slugger's house, as first reported by the Miami New Times.
"They didn't ask me," Friedman said of the filming. "They just clogged up the road with their trucks and put a notice in my mailbox advising me that they were shooting next door... This was not a one-time-a-year thing. This was a business."
See photos of Rodriguez's home below.
In fact, filming is so prevalent in Miami-Dade that Miami Today releases a weekly list of film permits that have been filed and approved.
Rodriguez's palatial home has been the set for multiple shoots, according to the Miami Herald, including a Victoria's Secret commercial, an episode of the X Factor, and a photo shoot for Kourtney and Kim Kardashian. Friedman has reached out to the City of Miami Beach, asking for officials to put more restrictions on filmmakers and suggesting a list for homeowners to join that would limit five days of filming each month in their neighborhood.
Miami-Dade County law does not require a permit when filming is being done at a private residence. However, if the filming spills over into using swales or impacting traffic in the neighborhood, residents need to be notified and the film crew must apply for a permit, according to the county.
Long-term filming requires approval from a percentage of neighbors, as the Kardashian family learned when angry potential neighbors on the Venetian Islands and North Bay Road got up in arms as the sisters looked for a home base for "Kourtney and Kim Take Miami."
(The sisters were banished to North Miami, where neighbors there aren't too happy, either.)
Currently, dozens of commercials, television shows and movies are being filmed in Miami-Dade, including Mob Wives 3, South Beach Tow, and Magic City. And still more industry business may come Miami's way from the California porn industry, which is threatening to head for the hills in the wake of new state legislation requiring condoms.
However, some believe that by it could actually hurt Miami should filmmakers have a more difficult time filming in the area.
"It's become a huge industry here," Miami Beach City Commissioner Jerry Libbin, also the president of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, told MIami New Times. "And we would not want to do anything to damage it."
