Bird Rock Residents Voice Complaints Over ‘Real World’

On July 5, Bird Rock residents held a special meeting to voice their concerns over the filming of MTV’s reality series “The Real World.” The show is being filmed over at a house located on Chelsea Street, in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

The resident’s concerns are over the ongoing production that leads to constant traffic on the streets and trespassing of property from fans of the show. According to the La Jolla Village News, there has been an increase in the traffic flow through the neighborhood due to throngs of onlookers that crowd the residential streets in hopes for a “glimpse of the cast and crew of the popular reality show’s 26^th season.”  This increased traffic and noise is frustrating for residents who are used to living in a relatively quiet neighborhood. It has been affecting their everyday sense of life.

Sherri Lightner, the District 1 Councilwoman has spoken up about her concerns and her disappointment over the production leader’s lack of response to the residents’ voiced concerns. She has been on the scene with Rob Dunson, President of the San Diego Film Commission (SDFC) and Ed Quinn, an SDFC Board Member. At the site, they were receiving complaints from the residents on the ongoing production.

One resident voiced their concern about their neighborhood’s level of safety from the amount of “surly people” coming through. According to one of the residents, there have been frequent incidents of people sneaking through his backyard to throw eggs at the “Real World’ house. The vandals were never caught in time for both the vandalism and trespassing.

If the neighborhood is such a small quiet community, one wonders how filming was allowed to take place there. Dunson explained that the spot was not chosen by the producers until after they received the issued permit. The county and city commission the SDFC to issue permits for individual film projects. However, the project had many factors it did not include in its request for a permit. The SDFC would of denied the permit based on these factors. Once the permit was issued, the owner of the house was given a deal by the producers to allow them to rent the house for filming.

During their meeting, the residents voted to send SDFC representatives to request funding from the producers for a full time police officer be to placed on the street of the house. Another request they will have SDFC make is for the producers to reduce the rooftop lighting, due to the residents’ complaints of the lighting being on at “all hours of the night.” It is not known yet what answers the residents have received on their request and complaints.

Photos courtesy of Alberto Garcia, Tim Wilson, and Nehrams2020 via Flickr and WikiCommons.