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Left, NYPD lights outside The Production Lounge Saturday night; right, a bullet hole in the brim of a hat that was in a neighbor's closet during a recent shooting outside the club.
After a bullet grazed a young woman's head near Greenpoint club The Production Lounge early in the morning of February 14th, there's been considerable outcry from local residents who say the gunfire was just the climax of months of cacophony erupting from the bar since it opened. At a community meeting with the 94th Precinct last week, neighbors gave police an earful, and this past weekend there was a giant police spotlight parked outside. Owner Joe Ariola spoke with us at length today; he explained that the lights are NYPD "protocol after a shooting," and told us that "based on the description police have of the shooter, this individual was not in our establishment the night of this incident." He continued:
Just to clarify, we have never had a fight in this place. We've never had to throw anyone out. We don't even have bouncers!... Police have told me that the girl left our place and was walking down the street when she was shot. It did not happen directly outside our place. But because we had an African-American social event that night and the shooter description is African-American, people have tied this to us. We probably do one or two events a week that have a very mixed culture crowd, mainly because we do a lot of events for up-and-coming artists, and a lot of those people happen to be either black or Spanish.
When asked if he thought the community backlash against The Production Lounge had a racist element to it, Ariola said, "Absolutely... We had a fundraiser here recently and someone called the police because there were people outside the place. When the police arrived, there was nobody outside our place, but down the block in front of two other bars there was a combination of probably 15 people. So why are the police being bothered to target our place? Because the person doing the fundraiser that night was African-American and the clientele was mostly black."
Below, Ariola concedes The Production Lounge needs to make some changes when it comes to noise.
I will say that when we do have music on certain nights, it does probably get loud in here, and we are working on that. Our place is already soundproofed, but we are getting a sound blanket to block the sound from going out the door. The biggest problem is that people have to go outside to smoke... We were issued a summons for a disorderly thing on the particular night [of the shooting]. It's protocol to give it to us and we are going to go and defend it because there is no connection between what happened that night and our place.What I don't understand is that on any given day any one of these bars could have a fight. Say you own a place and I go in and get in a fight, is it right for you to be blamed because there was a fight?
Believe me, I'm not taking anything away from the shooting because that scared the hell out of me, too. But I think people are painting a drastically bad picture of us for some reason. I'm 47 years old with two girls. My daughters work here on any given day. There are a lot of nights where there's everything from comedy to film screenings to karaoke to musicians to belly dancing. It's not a club every night. And I don't understand why we're being picked on for that shooting just because we had an African-American crowd that night. Like I said, even if the shooter did come from here, is that a direct reflection on us?
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this is a big counterpoint to the last article on this subject. SOunds like the neighbors (and from reading about the community board meeeting man do they sound like cranky assholes with nothing better to do) are trying to use the shooting it for thier own benefit.
IMO that's a lot more disgusting than anything this bar is guilty of. If you don't want people making noise outside while they smoke then unban smoking in bars. Can't have cake and eat it too.
This is most definitely not racially motivated. When you have an establishment that fails to consider the neighborhood, then you have bad business. I have worked for bars that bent over backwards trying to accomodate their neighbors by reducing noise and hiring someone like a bouncer, so things never escalate to a shooting.
Accusing the neighborhood of racism is beyond un-professional and un business-like.
Production Lounge owner, please take a look at yourself and see what you could do to try and create a safer haven in a neighborhood that is relatively quiet and at least felt safe before you got there.
Crying racism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Yes, it certainly does reflect on you if you have people being shot outside of your venue.
I hope you go out of business... soon.
I would take what this guy says with a grain of salt.
Here's a link for his movie:
http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/knock-knock-dvd
don't cry racism, fix it.
I remember when the Sporting Club down in tribeca had problems. and don't advertise your event will Shut down the city or words to that effect.
What a racist this guy is for using race to try to save his ass. No one at the community precinct meeting had been given a description of the shooter, so what the heck is he talking about. He's lying about it not starting inside his place too. Interview the cops in charge of the investigation and they will tell you what's up. Anyone notice the bullet holes in the club's rear exit door on Kent street? The came from inside shooting out.
The only person the neighborhood does not like in this scenario is this owner, Joe, because he has basically done nothing since he moved in but tell people in the hood to go F themselves. (really, he says stuff like this)
Too bad he didn't spend a few bucks on a bouncer to pat people down as they came in to his establishment - maybe he wouldn't have this problem.
It's really a classist assault on that nightclub. It has no class and just needs to die a death.
Awww, whats a matter white people? Real New York showing its ugly face again?
This shit didn't even go down in front of the bar. Stop being such a bunch of pussies and suck it up.
the owner says there aren't bouncers but they do have bouncers once in a while.
ever since the production lounge and another bar called the red star (some meat-head sports bar) there has been nothing but drunken goons staggering around the neighborhood early in the morning on their way back home. they fight, yell, scream, knock over garbage cans, break things, smash windows, etc etc ... and they come in all sorts of colors and ethnicities. every ethnic group has it's sports-bar goons and meat-headed assholes in their fold.
Pal:
LOL@"Sports Bar Goons."
Did you know that the majority of the "Sports Bar Goons" you decry are people who are actually indigenous? I mean truly indigenous, as opposed to transplanted hicks who pretentiously throw up their little "Brooklyn" flags and feign more than passing familiarity with the neighborhood.
Since we are discussing "Sports Bar Goons", let's discuss "Dive Bar Fags", who frequently try to mingle amongst the "Sports Bar Goons" but leave when they find out that a beer costs more than $1.50 and that tipping is customary.
These are presumably YOUR people: the spoiled, shiftless, gentrifying trustafarian skateboard DOUCHEBAGS who stink up my beloved "L" train and refuse to get a fucking a job until they're 30. I don't like the townies too much either, but, at least they're genuine and usually bathed/groomed like humans. I wish we could run you all out of W-Burg, G'Point, B'Wick and R'Wood like the Faggotstein monster.
He's wrong for crying racism. That's true.
However, I can't name one venue with an African-American crowd that hasn't had problems with the community boards in Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Every club that throws events which cater to people of color is a "nuisance" in these areas: Triple Crown; Studio B; this-annoying-tacky-joint that is complaining now.
If you guys can think of one, please let me know.
i agree with you rbeshenk. anything with a 'mixed' crowd definitely gets backlash. while i think its wrong for him to cry racism and parade his 'african american' crowd out there like that (especially if he has over-arching community issues which appears that he does), there's definitely an issue with places in greenpoint and w-burg that manage to have a diverse crowd on a regular basis. never been to production lounge but triple crown was a great space with great music and great management. there really wasn't and isn't another place like it in w-burg and things got pretty ugly between the owners and community board when it really didn't have to go that far.
however, safe and chill atmosphere aside, dude should have security appropriate to the amount of people he expects on certain nights, but at the very least one imposing security person at all times.
This guy is so full of shit. Get out of the neighborhood.
This man is an attention hungry blowhard. He had to raise the race flag, didn't he? Absolutely repulsive - if you treat EACH and EVERY one of your neighbours with obvious disrespect, can't bother yourself to turn up at a community meeting and instead send a PROMOTER, someone hired for the EVENING to attempt (I say attempt) to speak on your behalf, and then claim to be taking "steps" to deal with the sound that "might" be leaking out on the streets due to intentional lack of soundproofing, something tells me that you are somewhat disingenuous. I can't be certain, but is the same man that comes up in Google as a screenwriter of REALLY bad films? It seems that his claims that "we have never had a fight in this place. We've never had to throw anyone out. We don't even have bouncers!" are far more convincing works of fiction - not only have I witnessed fights happening on Franklin, but I know a bouncer who has worked there.
This guys is full of shit. He tries to act like he and his bar are the victims here. His patrons ARE loud and obnoxious and the police said that the incident stemmed from an altercation INSIDE the bar. As a resident of Greenpoint who lives right around the corner from this eyesore, I witnessed a group of three guys who had come out of the bar, harass my neighbor when she was smoking outside of her building. Then one of them immediately urinated on the building next door.I don't care who you are, that behavior is completely inappropriate and disgusting. Also, the night before the shooting, I was walking by as someone was walking out and a cloud of pot smoke wafted onto the sidewalk. So I'm not going to trust any bar owner that lets people smoke in his bar and claims that nothing ever happens in there and it's the residents who are racist. It's not the race of the patrons that bothers people - it's their behavior. And for the record, the shooting did happen outside of the bar - there was a car 15 feet from the door riddled with bullet holes.
shit!!!
I'm not parking my car outside that bar.
I agree that this place is a detriment to this wonderful neighborhood that I've spent my whole life in. The owner Joe defends himself by saying that "we don't even have bouncers" LOL That is foolish and irresponsible. Why would any place that serves liquor and attracts a crowd of more then 20 or 30 people not have a bouncer?
As this neighborhood changes (mostly for the better) new bars, restaurants and stores are inevitably going to pop up and with those bars and restaurants are going to come drunken patrons wandering the streets in the wee hours of the morning. There is nothing that any bar is going to be able to do to stop this no matter how tight the security is. However, what they can do is market themselves to the "right" type of clientel, who are less likely to carry out acts of violence and vandalism.
I will use Red Star as an exmple since a previous poster had mentioned them. Red Star is one of the larger establishments in the neighborhood and they can attract large crowds, especially on the weekends. (I am an occassional customer here, so I can attest to this.) This particular place always has SEVERAL bouncers and I've actually seen them turn away individuals, who most would consider undesirable. I've also seen the bouncers ask patrons to move their vehichles from no parking zones, turn down car radios that are blaring, and ask noisey patrons congregating on the corner to either take it inside or leave. Don't get me wrong, I'v also seen and HEARD people stumbling home at 4am. But at least I feel good about the fact that they actually seem to care about their neighbors quality of life and the type of crowd they are catering to.
If bar and club owners would at least make an effort to consider the residents of this neighborhood and their quality of life we wouldn't be having this discussion. Many of these proprietors are only focused on making money and don't care about anything but their wallets.
I own a small business in Greenpoint myself, so I don't necessarily object to "outsiders" coming to Greenpoint to patronize our businesses so long as they are courteous and respectful of the place we call home.
I feel that the owner of the Production Lounge is attracting the wrong type of "outsider". This is not a race issue, as he claims. It's a quality of life issue! If you're attracting a crowd that carries guns, then we don't want you here! No matter what color you are!
I live across the street and its laughable what Joe has said. No bouncers. Right. I was witness to a fight right outside a few weeks before the shooting. 2 women were yelling at each other at the top of their lungs at 2:45 am. The one woman was saying to the other one, "The bitch spit in my face! That white bitch spit in my fucking face!" One bouncer each holding the women trying to separate them and to keep them apart.
I call the cops and tell them that there is violence and they should probably come and take a look. 3:15 am I hear more yelling and now I see that the women are fist fighting! The bouncers are holding them apart but one of them has the other by the hair and the bouncers can't keep them apart. I call the police again and am asked, "Are there any weapons?" I say no. "Is there blood?" I say no. "Well if you see either you need to call 911." What? Are you kidding me? The police station is 3 blocks away.
I am telling you just a fraction of what has been happening since the place has opened up. Yes there are some quiet nights. Yes on those nights there are no bouncers. And there are other bars in the area that have been there for some time. But no other establishment has had so many incidents, created so much noise, brought such a gang element to Greenpoint in the 10 years I have been here. This is not a race issue but a quality of life issue. We want to feel safe in the neighborhood and if the club cannot control its patrons...then they need to get out and relocate.