New Law Would Crack Down on Rowdy Nightspots

Who cares about passing a boring old budget, when the wild NYC nightlife desperately needs policing? A recently-passed bill en route to Governor Paterson's desk would enable the State Liquor Authority to shut down nightspots if police are called six times within 60 days for excessive noise and disorderly conduct. The Villager reports that the bill's main sponsor is Democratic Senator Daniel Squadron, who represents Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, and who used to own a bar himself, called What Bar on the Upper West Side. But now this self-hating ex-bar owner is working overtime for the Shush Police, just as Steve Lewis predicted.

On the other hand, if you live above a bar that's been depriving you of sleep, you're probably looking forward to making six simple phone calls and shutting the place down for good. However, Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3 (which covers the East Village and Lower East Side) insists that the complaints would have to be determined legitimate by the NYPD. "There are some bars [in the Lower East Side] that have constant problems, but I think it would be extremely unusual [to have six incidents in 60 days]," she tells the Villager. "There are very few bars that would reach this level."

Try telling that to cocktail lounge/restaurant Death & Co. on East 5th Street, which was very nearly shut down because of one determined, complaining neighbor—despite the fact that it's one of the quietest bars in the neighborhood by far. Still, some scolds think the new law wouldn't go far enough. "I would have preferred 90 days instead of two months," says Karen Stamm, a member of the Tribeca Committee of Community Board 1. "I hope it’s not just being done for appearance’s sake. The SLA doesn’t really react with a stiffened spine." Well, yeah, you have to pay extra for spine!

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By John Del Signore in News on July 7, 2010 5:18 PM

Comments [rss]

thefacts

No one gives a shit where your ancestors arrived. All our ancestors arrived here, duh-oh!

Lots of verbosity and lots of skirting around my points.

Please answer:

- How many trees in Riverside Park?

- How many trees in your current neighborhood?

- How many bars on the block of your home and family currently?

- How many times in the past 60 days have B&T drunks and NYU frat boys kept your family awake?

- If 6 police complaints in 60 days equates with a suburban lifestyle, then how many police complaints in 60 days does it take in your opinion for a bar to be a problem? 12? 24? 60?

If you cannot answer these questions, I figured you right.

""NYC, if you don't like it, LEAVE!" = Pussy talk

""NYC, if you don't like it, CHANGE IT!" = NY talk.

Anyway, enjoy your suburban bourgeois lifestyle over in Fort Greene, and let us city boys on the LES fix our own problems. Manhattan is a lot better since witless wimps like you have abandoned it.

Kevin Bracken

People like to point to all kinds of things that are the problem with NYC.

I am convinced this is it.

This is what's wrong with New York City.

HBHB

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can't move here and complain of noise. Now if a bar opens up underneath you after you've already moved in I have a little bit of sympathy for you. However, the majority of the cases are noise complaints on already existing bars.

John Jones

I totally agree, you can't move to NYC and then complain about noise or crowds. It comes with the territory and is part of living there. I sincerely hope this didn't pass. If you don't like noise, don't live near a spot with a loud nightlife. It makes so much sense.

Knickerbocker

The real problem is that all you tourists who moved here in the last 20 years just don't know how to party.

Move home to your well-manicured subdivision if you want to sleep on weekends!

mistermarkdavis

take that bridge and tunnel folks. Knickerbocker's calling you out.

thefacts

Knickerbocker has lived a very privileged life and has a very parochial attitude, while residing in a quiet tree-lined neighborhod far from the plexus of rowdy bars in the LES and the East Village.

I wonder if Knockerbocker would be so cavalier and petulant if it were his family who were kept awake at 3 am by B&T drunks exiting some rowdy bar?

The only bridge and tunnel person so far who seems to agree with his provincialism is the writer of this Gothamist piece, JDS, an import from the green pastures of upstate NY and who really hasn't a clue to what NY was like at all before he came here.

Meanwhile, we natives will endure the presence of the newbies who try to transform our city, before they follow the example of their parents and move back to the burbs.

Anyway, thanks Senator Squadron! Keep busting their balls.

Knickerbocker

For someone called "thefacts" you really make a lot of assumptions.

The "Knickerbocker" moniker I have chosen is because I am the 3rd generation in my family to be born in Manhattan (my kids are the 4th gen), and I'm also a 5th generation Manhattan resident (my G-G-GPa went through Ellis Is). Broadway was the only tree lined street near me when I was growing up (and Broadway was very different in 1975).

I have also lived over bars, and at other times, made plenty of noise in them myself. The apartments over bars are generally cheaper for a reason, because they are over a frikin bar. If you over-paid for your railroad 1BR apt over a bar, that is because you are a sucker. If you can only afford that type of apt, there is nothing making you move there. You can take it, look somewhere else, or leave town for cheaper pastures.

Not every section of the city is supposed to be a model of suburban tranquility. If the real spirit of NYC is going to survive (and not just end up as some bloggers fascination over old signage, etc. ) people like Mr. "thefacts" need to stop acting like they have some right to control activity on every street corner.

Admittedly, there is good and bad to allowing people to congregate on corners and party late into the night with impunity. However, having partied here in the 'good ole days' I can tell you the NYC has completely lost the greatness that made its nightlife so very special. For better or worse, now its worse.

It's not the Giuliani crack-down, or the death of the rock and roll clubs that ended it all, its the boring, white-bread, trust-funded, no-talent losers who sucked all the air out of the room and jacked up the cheap rents via Mommy-Daddy money. This left the quirky, talented artist types with no cheap area to live in.

So, please, Mr. "thefacts" take some knowledge from this old saying which people used to say around town,

"NYC, if you don't like it, LEAVE!"